hi everyone my name is Ken welcome to this house today we are in the mckinley heights
historic district of st louis missouri exploring a victorian era row home that was built in 1889.
now this house has some amazing details even from the curb there are some things to talk
about so of course right now i am standing on the sidewinder porch
and it has a lot of its original wooden details and the original gingerbreading and fretwork
now as we look across the facade there's some beautiful terracotta
pieces up along the top of the cornice with a fleur-de-lis motif imprinted on these bricks so
let's just take a moment to appreciate this and then we're going to go inside and start exploring
and before we go inside i want to take a moment to give a huge shout out to jamie
winner of re max gold for allowing us to film here let's go check it out walking inside of
this house it is just absolutely amazing so one of the first things that we really notice
is all of the wood and the mill work so of course this front door here it's unstained it's very raw
it has a lot of natural texture to it of course there's a giant window pane right here in the
center and a letter box down below now if we look above the door it has the original transom window
and we can see the original hardware that's been painted over underneath this very ornate woodwork
now something that's very curious is it does have a newer latch so it does not have the
original latch right here in the center that's been replaced now as we start to glance around
one of the other things that really starts to catch our attention are these floors
so let's take a moment to really appreciate these these are your original pine floors that were put
into the house whenever it was constructed so we can see the wood grain from these old growth trees
really stretching across the floors and bringing in a lot of warmth into the space
now as we start to travel around the pool table here we come to the double hung windows now there
is an amazing detail here in the center this hand carved fluting that comes down between the windows
and below this is wayne scotting decoratively done and we'll see this again mimicked in the owner's
suite directly above this as we continue to travel around this room we notice how the ceiling is
wrapped with ornate crown molding of course once again original to the house as well as oversized
baseboards that run around and this would have all been very true for this period and this location
back when this house was originally built this was known as the mckinley fox district now of
course it's called mckinley heights today and this would have been for upper middle class residents
in this neighborhood it was walking distance to lafayette square to the shops and restaurants
that were in benton park in benton park west in soulard and of course today it is still in one
of those super prime locations where you're still walking distance to all of those neighborhoods and
their amenities so over the last 130 years or so not much has changed as far as the quality of life
in this neighborhood now continuing around this room we come to the fireplace now this house was
remodeled a little over 10 years ago and this cast iron inset was brought back in by previous owners
and it is an antique it is period accurate but it is not actually original to this house
now before we move on to the dining room i want us all to look up at the ceiling
we can see the original plaster medallion that's in the center and this one is fairly
ornate it has kind of a baroque look to it from which a newer chandelier has been suspended
now we'll go ahead and pass into what would have been the dining room and of course this is set up
as a living room so come on in here and one of the first things that really catches our
eye is a matching plaster medallion and once again this would have been very common for
homes of this era to have the same plaster work throughout the house to create a sense
of flow now as we cross over here we see a spot where there used to be a fireplace
and of course back in this time there was no such thing as central heating
radiator heating was just being brought into homes but for the most part every room would
have had a fireplace so we can see the proof of that in this outcropping here now on either
side of this are what could potentially be the original windows so let's get a closer look at
this wood here that's been painted over as well as these ornate trim pieces around the windows
now passing through the space it is going to bring us to the newer kitchen
so we'll take a moment to see this real fast so come on through here
of course this kitchen is newer it has modern cabinets it has all granite countertops
right here in the middle is a really massive island so of course there's a seating area for
two and if we look below and this just adds so much to the charm of the house they're built in
wine racks down below here so come on over here and there's a corner window i want to point out
now we can notice that it is asymmetrically framed as a dead ends into the wall which
once again would have been a period detail to just help to dress up an otherwise plain spot that was
pretty much just for utilitarian purpose to allow more light and a breeze to come into the kitchen
so come on through here and there's another one of these original windows and we can see the
original paneling as well this one does not have any hardware on the bottom but it does have what
looks to be the original millwork that surrounds it and then of course as we're noticing in this
kitchen there are modern appliances and it's all been very tastefully blended into the house
there is another detail in this kitchen that has been paid the most exquisite amount of attention
let's look at this over here the side splash runs underneath the sill of the window so we saw this
recently in the grease egg family house where the window was actually cut off to accommodate
the countertop but in this case it was carefully planned to run underneath the sill so that's just
something that we can really appreciate from a preservationist's perspective circulating now
around the kitchen we are going to come through a pass and let's notice how much shorter this is
than the other boxed archways that are here so once again i'm six two this is probably
seven feet tall now so come on through here off to this side is a washer and dryer inside of a closet
and off to this side is a powder room now the powder room has bead boards surrounding it it
has a modern light fixture it has a pedestal sink and it has a toilet now of course
all of these elements are new from the restoration work that went into this house and we can really
appreciate that this bathroom wasn't just updated and modernized but that attention was put into it
to kind of bring this kind of charm back into the house so that it has some sort of a semblance of
what would have originally been here now making our way through here we're going to go all the
way to the back of the house and there's a double set of doors over here now this is very curious
maybe at one time it was a flat or as so many of these other houses perhaps it was turned into a
boarding house or some sort of apartments i'm not really sure but there are two separate doors here
and what looks like there could have been space for a wall so if anyone at home has any idea why
there could be these two sets of doors here please let me know down in the comments i'm very curious
now before we go to the backyard we're going to go finish exploring the rest of the house so
come on up here as we make our way up the stairs we notice that the ceiling above us
starts to slope with the pitch of the steps and then a handrail emerges on the side of the wall
now this is really gorgeous of course the pine is catching all the natural light coming in
from the windows both behind me and ahead of me and this mill work that runs down the
stairs is just gorgeous now it meets up a little differently than some of the millwork that we've
been seeing from this period if you come look at this detail here it wraps around on three
sides and it comes to a very natural stop and sits on top of the rise of the steps here as we arrive
up here at the top of the stairs this landing is now l-shaped it's going to shoot off that
way and then it's going to continue forward first we're going to go this way so come follow me here
we come to bedroom number one and this room is really spacious once again we can see the original
windows with the fluting on the millwork and let's just take a moment to hand around the space
making our way out of this bedroom we're now going to pass by the bathroom which is recessed
into this nook of the house so come on through here now something really interesting before we
even get to the bathroom is the storage so we can notice how wide and how deep this little
entrance area is between the walls now there's a built-in cabinet here so come take a look at this
now in this bathroom of course it has been updated a little bit there's a newer pedestal sink toilet
and there's this vintage clawfoot tub shower combo and we can actually see the shower curtain rack
that goes above the bead board now on the floors are these beautiful hexagon tiles
and over in the corner of the bathroom is another one of these windows and this
lines up with the thin window that we saw down in the kitchen below
before we leave this bathroom there's another detail up above here and this does appear to have
its original hardware on this cabinet above the door and that's just something that we can really
appreciate as still existing in this bathroom now passing out of the bathroom we're coming back
into the stair hall and we're going to around this corner and this is going to take us to bedroom
number two now we passed through these double french doors under this flat archway and this room
probably would have originally been a nursery or a library or had some sort of a purpose like that
and the reason that we can guess at this is because of the double doors here in this wider
arch that this most likely was not a bedroom we also don't really see anywhere that there
could have been a fireplace originally now there are some really interesting features
so there's a double closet right here and it has the original mill work around it
now we're going to see the final bedroom and let's go to the end of this hallway
where we're now going to terminate in the owner's suite so off to this side is the
closet and there is a pocket door here and that's just amazing of course this is newer
but it still blends in with the original mill work and we can just take a peek in
here because this is actually pretty large for a house of this period
moving on we now are released into a much larger space so we can see immediately these double hung
windows are directly lined up with the windows that we first saw in the parlor whenever we
entered the house once again they have the fluting details that run down the middle to break up the
two windows and then the wainscoting below with the ornate and decorative wood trim and off to
this side is an old mantel and i'm not sure if this is original or if it was brought back into
the house but either way it just adds so much charm to the space as we can see that there used
to be a fireplace in the spot at one point as we pass across the room over in this corner is the
owner's bathroom so let's go ahead and peek on in here now immediately facing us as we enter this
room is this double vanity with these beautiful new countertops new cabinets a large mirror that
extends the width of this niche and we also have a giant shower over in this corner of the bathroom
and now that we've seen the entire house let's go check out the backyard
now as we pass out the back door and this is the door that we saw just on the other side of the
stairs before we went up we now come to a deck area and this takes us down some steps into the
yard so first off to this side is a pergola and it has old grapevines that are going over the entire
thing and underneath it is a jacuzzi hot tub so you can imagine just sitting out here and
enjoying the best of city life now as we continue down this brick path this will eventually take us
to the detached garage but there's also a brick paved area with a bistro table and chiminea set up
and now if we turn around and look at the rest of the yard this is actually really expansive this
is a giant double lot and this is kind of rare to find in this area to have so much green space
and we've seen other homes from this general area within about a half mile of here
and none of their yards have been this massive before we leave the backyard
if we look up at the back of the house it has both the cast iron stars and the
cast iron diamonds and this really tells us how this house was built so this would have
been built with three layers of brick that were all tied together by long iron rods
as was the fire code around the 1890 time period so it's just really interesting that this
still has those features and that they're still intact and still holding the structure together
130 years later i really hope that you all enjoyed this tour please let me know which part of this
house was your favorite down in the comments below i'll see you next time on this house