Vandeventer Place, Revisited

Four years after I first covered Vandeventer Place, there still is a paucity of information and photographs of what was once the grandest private street in St. Louis. I only could find a couple of grainy postcards that preserve the appearance of the once august street.

I often tell people that if even Vandeventer Place (or Gaslight Square, for that matter) isn't safe from decline and the wrecking ball, then none of our built environment should be taken for granted.

I drove up Spring Avenue recently, and when I passed through the block where Vandeventer Place once stood, I took a photo to the right and to the left. It is hard to believe that even just sixty years ago Richardsonian Romanesque mansions and Gothic Revival castles once stood. Instead, I saw a chain-link fence blocking one of the ugliest buildings in St. Louis, the Veterans' Hospital...

...and on the other side, a forlorn and rapidly deteriorating "youth services facility," or as one of my students who works there calls it, the teen jail.

Below, I made an attempt to stitch together the Sanborn Maps for Vandeventer Place, hoping to give you an idea of its former glory. Coming later today.

Washington Terrace Gate

I recently had my picture taken in front of the gates of Washington Terrace. The houses are just as architecturally significant and beautiful as any mansion on the more famous Portland or Westmoreland Places. The color of the brick, combined with the rich black stone creates a harmonious composition just south of the intersection of Union and Delmar.

Gates of these type are spread throughout the city, from Compton Heights to the old Vandeventer Place, to Washington Terrace.

Built right around the World's Fair, when the city was just starting to creep out to where the fair was located in western Forest Park, these houses supposedly housed visiting dignitaries to the fair. I don't know if that's necessarily true, but it makes for a good story, perhaps.

The combination of old world elements, like the rampant lion and the stark, "Norman Revival" architecture of the gatehouse itself, makes a stern message: the titans of St. Louis industry and politics live here, and you're not welcome.

Below is an historic photograph, showing the guardhouse before any of the houses have been built. It's so strange to see nothing but wide open spaces in one of the most intact portions of the city.

The two architects for the gate, Harvey Ellis, designed City Hall, Compton Hill Watertower and other notable buildings, and George Mann designed the recently featured St. Vincent's Hospital off of the Rock Road.

Lewis Place Gates

Westmoreland Place Gates

I'll never forget that wonderful day on my birthday when I was showing my friend Ruth from Baltimore around the city. She is a fellow art historian, so we were enjoying our sojourn around the city. Driving down Lindell Boulevard, I decided to hang a right on Lake Street and show her Westmoreland Place, one of the toniest private streets in the city. Hey, I'd done it a million times with my parents in their Mercedes Benz.To put it bluntly, trying to drive a Chevy Cavalier with Maryland tags down Westmoreland Place is not a good idea. A rent-a-cop appeared out of nowhere and angrily demanded the reason behind our presence in such august surroundings. I stammered that I was taking my friend home, at which he requested the address. My BS skills were lacking that day, so I was bereft of my usual quick lies that I am so good at in difficult situations. He told us to turn around and leave, which I did.The gates to Westmoreland Place are always locked now, and you can see them along Kingshighway. Quite frankly, the private streets in this area are hardly a quiet enclave anymore, beset at one time by housing projects to the north and the loud, thumping stereos of locals--not to mention that constant roar of traffic from the busiest north-south thoroughfare in the city.It's fascinating to see how the stone has slowly deteriorated over the years.