hello my name is Nathan Jackson and this is nathan's neighborhood history today we're going
to be featuring part three of the lafayette square neighborhood the section to the north and east
of the neighborhood this particular row of houses is known as harris row harris rowe is
named after one of the significant residents who lived here william tory harris who was
a prominent figure with the st louis public school system and helped to get a lot of
the schools and different public school system features in the city of st louis off the ground
back in the mid 19th century the row was actually built in 1870 by a lawyer named william s pope
he had about 16 or 18 row houses built in the italian style at that time of which about
14 of them remained today all of these houses face second corondelet avenue which was one of
the main thoroughfares leading out of downtown st louis going all the way down to today's south
broadway or what was then known as carondelet avenue at around the point of the lent brewery
making it one of the main connectors from st louis to carondelet today this row of houses
is one of the longest roads in the entire city of st louis with 14 houses all still standing during
the 1970s there was a plan to raise much of the eastern part of the lafayette square neighborhood
for something known as highway 755. highway 755 was planned to connect the intersection at
highway 44 and highway 55 with the 20th and 22nd street exits in downtown st louis it would have
cleared a lot of lafayette square but thanks to the national register historic district nomination
with harris rowe being named as one of the st louis city landmarks they were able to save
this part of lafayette square and the highway was downgraded to the truman parkway and this area of
lafayette square was spared because of this today 50 years later we still have one of the longest
rows in the whole city of st louis with their beautiful limestone fronts and italian styling
so this house on the northwest corner of hickory street and south 18th street originally second
corondo at avenue was built in 1881 in the second empire style this is one of the largest
second empire style homes that is tucked away in the neighborhood as opposed to facing the park
it was built for a guy named edward schuster and father maurice schuster and edward was the owner
of a printing press in downtown st louis in its later years in the 1970s this became the home of
bob cassily the renowned proprietor of the city museum and local artists who had a fairly large
impact in the preservation and restoration of lafayette square as well as his development of
the city museum so originally this church on the northeast corner of dolmen and hickory street was
known as saint john's episcopal church at the time many of the residents in lafayette square
or anglo-saxon protestants and so lafayette square had a number of protestant churches
whereas most st louis neighborhoods started off with catholic churches the
saint john's episcopal church suffered heavy damage during the 1896 tornado ultimately
ripping off the steeple which can be seen on the 1875 compton dry map afterwards only the base of
the church can be seen in about 1910 or so the episcopal church closed and it became the saint
mary's assumption catholic church and it still remains as such to this day so this set of row
houses on dolman street was built in around 1870 in the italian style these were built directly
across the street from the episcopal church and can be seen on the 1875 competent dry map although
they're interrupted by the steeple in 1877 one of the residents who lived there was a guy named ff
flesh with his wife laura and both of them were members of an elite club called the st louis club
later on in about 1889 another guy named aj lyman was listed as living in the house and he
was a member of the merchant's exchange which was sort of like the business and stock exchange for
all the major manufacturers in the city of st louis at the time this road survived the 1896
tornado despite heavy damage occurring all throughout the lafayette square neighborhood this
second empire style townhouse on hickory street was built in 1878 one of the first residents was
rufus s carnes although he only lived in the house for about a year a later resident of
the house in the 1880s was george dana who was a secretary for the excelsior manufacturing company
after the 1896 tornado when the aforementioned saint john's episcopal church was damaged the
reverend took residence in this particular house as the church was being repaired this house which
was built in the italian style around 1870 was home to george mcguire who in the 1840s had
previously been st louis's sixth mayor and the first mayor in st louis born of irish descent
during mcguire's term as mayor he retrofitted the city's government to transition it from being a
small territorial town into being the major metropolis that it would be known as in the middle
and late 19th century by creating offices like the treasurer and comptroller and also creating the
city's workhouse where prisoners were required to quarry limestone as part of their sentence
only recently did the city workhouse close so this house was built in 1872 in the mid 19th century
vernacular style as you can see it has brick corbel's roof line and it also has the slightly
arched brick windows it was built in about 1872 for a guy named joseph busher and joseph busher
actually had a limestone quarry about a few blocks away down at missouri and hickory avenue and
while he had his limestone quarry down there he lived in this house right here so this house
on mississippi avenue to the north of park avenue was built in about 1860 in the federal style
it's a later example of the federal style as it features both the flat limestone lentils as
well as two curved limestone pieces over the two front entryways on the 1875 compton dry map there
were two of these residences and one was listed as the residence of a local dentist named dr deinst
also in the 1880s and 1890s there was another doctor who lived in this particular house as well
today this is one of the older houses that survives in lafayette square thank you for
watching this house be sure to like comment and subscribe also be sure to tune in to part four
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