I love the architecture of the Benton Park West neighborhood. That said, I will not live there any time soon. Crime rates are dropping in most areas of South St. Louis, with a very notable exception. Wonder what happened to those shady looking people down your street who moved a while back--making your life much more peaceful? Many of those people causing trouble in another neighborhood are now living in the irregular trapezoid piece of land bordered by Chippewa, Jefferson, Gravois and Grand. There is a somewhat lively discussion going on at
Urban STL right now with both sides of the reality of crime in Benton Park West weighing in.
But like I said, the architecture, originally built for what I would call, upper blue collar German-Americans in the late Nineteenth Century, is really fantastic in its uniqueness.
As seen above and below, two story houses with Mansard roods camouflaging the second floor abound in this area, and these are two relatively normal examples of this style of house, dubbed "
Micro-Mansions" by Built St. Louis.
The bungalows such as this one below represent good, solid housing stock that St. Louis needs to preserve. Each house may not be the most amazing house you've ever seen, but combined with thousands of other houses that exude their own quiet confidence, and you have an outstanding neighborhood of houses working in architectural symphony together.
Likewise, these four houses, once built speculatively at the same time, illustrate how each house can slowly become unique, even after starting out identical to its neighbors. These houses also, unfortunately, represent houses that are probably owned by an absentee landlord: unkempt lawns, long dead shade trees that were never replaced, and just the general feeling that the inhabitants of the houses don't care. These little bungalows, in my opinion, would make the perfect just-out-of-college first home for young home-buyers. Big enough to make the recent college grad feel like an adult, but small enough to be priced reasonably.
In the future, I will bring many more pictures of Benton Park West when I get the chance to do more photography of this intriguing area.
But like I said, the architecture, originally built for what I would call, upper blue collar German-Americans in the late Nineteenth Century, is really fantastic in its uniqueness.
As seen above and below, two story houses with Mansard roods camouflaging the second floor abound in this area, and these are two relatively normal examples of this style of house, dubbed "Micro-Mansions" by Built St. Louis.
The bungalows such as this one below represent good, solid housing stock that St. Louis needs to preserve. Each house may not be the most amazing house you've ever seen, but combined with thousands of other houses that exude their own quiet confidence, and you have an outstanding neighborhood of houses working in architectural symphony together.
Likewise, these four houses, once built speculatively at the same time, illustrate how each house can slowly become unique, even after starting out identical to its neighbors. These houses also, unfortunately, represent houses that are probably owned by an absentee landlord: unkempt lawns, long dead shade trees that were never replaced, and just the general feeling that the inhabitants of the houses don't care. These little bungalows, in my opinion, would make the perfect just-out-of-college first home for young home-buyers. Big enough to make the recent college grad feel like an adult, but small enough to be priced reasonably.
In the future, I will bring many more pictures of Benton Park West when I get the chance to do more photography of this intriguing area.
Chris.
ReplyDeleteThanks for showcasing the diversity of housing stock in Benton Park West.
You mentioned crime and the movement, yes...crime does move. As and visual..think of a ketchup packet on the ground. If you step on it, ketchup goes everywhere...just as does crime.
However, he good thing to remember is that research and statistics repeatedly show that each time crime is moved, that crime is reduced by 25%. While it would be great to think that if crime is moved four times, then it should be totally gone...the thought is that the 25% is of the crime from that one situation.
What is important is for residents to be out and visible. Reporting issues and crime on a consistent basis. The "bad activity" doesn't like to have eyes. But, residents are the ears/eyes of the police.
Thanks again for your post and showing the what Benton Park West has to offer.
For anyone who would care, the website is: www.bentonparkwest.org.
Or any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact the BPWNA office at 314-776-4447.