hello my name is nathan jackson and this is nathan's neighborhood history today we'll be
featuring the lafayette square neighborhood along the eastern side of lafayette park be
sure to comment your favorite house on the tour below as you watch through the video also be sure
to subscribe to this house in 1866 the first 2nd empire house in st louis was built right
at mississippi avenue and kenneth's place this house was originally owned by a guy named george f
hume who was a lawyer he only lived here for a short period of time and in 1870 approximately
he sold it to william tausig and william taussig is a fairly significant figure in st louis history
he immigrated from bohemia and he was a captain during the civil war and after the civil war he
was an engineer and he helped james buchanan eads design the aids bridge and was very very
involved in the construction of eads bridge taussig lived here until about 1880 or so
in 1885 this house which originally was the first second empire style house to be built in the city
of st louis was modified to be a three-story italian style home and since that time it has
remained as an italian style home today this house is the model example for many of the
modern infill houses around the lafayette square neighborhood so this row of five houses here on
mississippi avenue were all built between 1877 and 1878 in the second empire style the four houses on
the right were all built together in 1878 but the house on the far left was built in 1877 for horace
bixby horace bixby was a steamboat captain and in 1857 he was taught how to be a steamboat pilot by
none other than samuel clemens better known as mark twain so they both came to an agreement that
mark twain would be teaching bixby how to pilot a steamboat but then the civil war broke out in 1861
and due to the civil war both parties mutually agreed to avoid the contract because the civil war
didn't allow for them to go out on the river and pilot the steamboats they remained good friends
after the civil war and in 1868 bixby actually moved up to the corner of lafayette in mississippi
into the dual mansion owned by him and another guy named shovel and he lived in this jewel mansion
for almost a decade before later building this second empire house here in 1877. it's very very
likely that mark twain would have visited this house on numerous occasions when he came through
st louis in 1896 the house was heavily damaged by the tornado and the tornado actually ripped
off the manstar roof it wasn't until 1976 that the mansard roof was rebuilt on this house the
rest of these houses were all built later in 1878 and some of these houses feature cast iron filling
along their roof lines although this is likely not original the house on the far right had the cast
iron drilling added in a restoration just this past year this flounder house is the only one of
its kind to be facing lafayette park it was built in 1878 in the italian style typically flounder
houses would have been built for poorer or middle class residents of the city and they would have
been built on very small lots this particular house is the only one which was built in what
was an extremely wealthy neighborhood at the time the guy who had the house built was lauren's
lamppo who was a brewer associated with the wainwright brewery he had the house
built for his daughter and his son-in-law and his son-in-law was zachariah wainwright
tinker and zachariah wainwright tinker was part of the wainwright family and he lived in this
house from about 1878 to 1890 at which point he moved into compton heights the wainwright family
opened the st louis brewing association which was a conglomerate of the many small breweries in town
and it was started in 1889 in order to compete against the ever-growing anheuser-busch and lymph
breweries at the time so these two houses were built in 1874 by james b eads the same person
who designed the eads bridge they were built as investment properties for his daughter elizabeth
jane eads how elizabeth jane eads how was actually married to the son of st louis mayor john howe who
was mayor back in the 1850s these two houses are excellent examples of the second empire style in
the mid 1870s and also are very typical of what upper middle class and wealthy families would have
lived in on the front of the house you have a limestone fronted facade which back in the 19th
century was used as a sign of status and wealth so if you look at the lafayette square neighborhood
back on the 1875 compton and dry map you'll notice that on the southeast corner of park avenue
and mississippi there's a large second empire structure this was the lafayette park hotel and
it was opened in about 1875 and at the time of the compton and dry map it would have been a brand new
hotel this was one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in st louis back in 1875 and this would have been
a place for high society to board and stay when they visited the neighborhood
it remained popular through the 1880s and 1890s but in 1896 when the tornado came through it
destroyed the lafayette park hotel since that time this area has been redeveloped with a pocket park
and two infill homes which are designed to look like the george hume house and william towson
house up the street this building on the northeast corner of park and mississippi was built in
1884 by jacob stock and it is one of the nicest examples of a second empire commercial
building that still stands in the city of st louis in its early years this building
was used as a medical building and featured several doctors offices as well as a pharmacy
right on the corner one of the original owners of the pharmacy was ghj andreas and andreas had
opened this pharmacy by the mid-1880s and he lived upstairs above said pharmacy andreas remained in
the building even after the 1896 tornado and when the corner of the building was damaged
he just moved into a unit off to the side while they repaired the corner of the building in 1902
this building was home to a conference for eli lilly and it still remained with lots of doctors
offices and a pharmacy for many years after that a 1926 photo shows that even in that year
it was still being used as a pharmacy and medical building however by the 1970s this building was
being used as law offices and today it's home to a laundromat and multiple different restaurants
and other businesses so lafayette square back in the 19th century was one of st
louis's wealthiest neighborhoods one of the reasons for that is that in 1863 the missouri
congress passed an ordinance that banned certain types of businesses and industries for being
located within 800 feet of the park as a result there were none of these types of businesses
such as a brewery or a soap factory or various other things that would have caused pollution
in the neighborhood and so it was thought to be a very desirable area for wealthy st louisians
if you enjoyed this video be sure to follow me at st louis history and architecture on facebook
and instagram and book with one of my tours of lafayette square or any of the other neighborhoods
that i feature also be sure to tune into part three where we feature the north eastern part
of the neighborhood including harris row be sure to like comment and subscribe see you next time