Barr Branch Library Historic District - St. Louis, MO - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

County of site: St. Louis Independent City
Location of site: 2500--2630 Lafayette Ave., St. Louis

"The Barr Branch Library Historic District consists of Barr's Block a distinctive red brick row of seven houses built in 1875--and the Barr Branch Library designed by Theodore C. Link and built in 1905-06. (See Site Plan.) The row is a fine example of restrained, mid-Victorian domestic architecture; the Library, as a reserved, small essay on Renaissance Revival. The front elevation of the seven, two and one-half story, three bay townhouses in Barr's Block is distinguished by brickwork panels which frame the recessed entrance and outline the bays of the central and end houses. Mortar of varying shades used for replacement tuck pointing now mars the unity of the overall design. Raised basements are of rusticated stone and stone is used for front steps and window sills. Above a patchwork of replacement cornice and fascia, the fashionable mansard silhouette is punctuated by remodelled dormers. Patterned slates have survived on the mansards of four of the houses; the remainder have been treated to green asphalt. All houses have two story, three-sided bay windows on the east elevation of their flat-roofed rear extensions. Most of the townhouses have been vacant for some time and water after a fire has undermined the structural sup port of the westernmost unit. Fortunately, the Block has recently been acquired by developers who plan to renovate the remaining townhouses.
The builder of Barr's Block may have been the Irish-born William Keane mentioned in an 1877 article in the St. Louis Republican as the builder for an 1877 (demolished) row for William Barr" ~ Nomination form Department of the Interior