County of district: Independent City of St. Louis
Location of district: Bounded by -Gravois Ave. and S. Jefferson Ave., S. Jefferson Ave. and S. Broadway, Meramac St., S. Grand Ave. and Gravois Ave., St. Louis, Missouri
Created: 1887
There are no major drawing points (i.e. Court House, city hall etc) to choose as the location of the district, so I arbitrarily chose the central intersection of Pennsylvania Ave & Miami St. as Landmark Hunter did.
"The Gravois-Jefferson Streetcar Suburb Historic District is located within the boundaries of the City of St. Louis, Missouri. The -715-acre District is a triangular area generally bounded by the intersection of Gravois and South Jefferson Avenues at the north, South Jefferson Avenue and South Broadway Street
(south of Chippewa Street) on the east, Meramec Street on the south, South Grand Boulevard on the west,and Gravois Avenue on the northwest. Gravois Avenue is a major arterial street and historically served as a wagon, streetcar, and vehicular transit corridor. South Jefferson Avenue also was and is a major
transportation corridor. Meramec Street is a major collector street. Mixed commercial, institutional, and residential use along these major city thoroughfares visually and historically defines the survey area.
"Within the triangle formed by the District's arterial street boundaries, the setting retains its overwhelming
residential land use and its buildings and streetscapes retain a high degree of historic architectural integrity. The building stock contains similar functional and architectural property types associated with the evolution of early working-class housing and related commercial and institutional property types typically found in early working- and middle-class streetcar suburbs in St. Louis. The vast majority of these buildings are one- and two-story brick buildings sited on narrow urban lots arranged in a cohesive
grid system platted in blocks bisected by brick alleys. The uniformity of lot size, sidewalks, alleys, and building set-backs as development evolved southward and the continuous rows of one- and two-story residences that share the same scale, massing, and repetition of architectural styles and ornamentation provide a cohesive character to the District. The retention of the granite curbs and the original brick paving in alleys and on many interior streets further reinforces the District's visual unity. The dense
assembly of red brick buildings with raised limestone foundations, the majority of which were built in a thirty-year time span, further contributes to the integrated nature of the -early streetcar neighborhoods that compose the District.
"Every three to four blocks there are east-west commercial streets, such as Cherokee, Chippewa, and Meramec Streets, lined with pedestrian-scale buildings that form neighborhood commercial enclaves. Scattered throughout the District, neighborhood commercial nodes are at most residential street intersections. Most comer commercial buildings rise to two or three stories. All of the commercial two and three-story buildings have retail space on the ground floor and residential or office spaces above. The
style and materials of the commercial buildings in these neighborhood shopping areas reflect that of the surrounding residential neighborhood, contributing to the uniform appearance of the District. Located along the arterial and collector streets and on prominent comers within the District are a number of
churches and large school complexes. Large parks composed of one to four rectangular blocks provide landscaped recreational venues for these early working-class suburban neighborhoods in the western and southern parts of the District.
"There are 4,642 contributing resources in the District dating from circa 1880 to circa 1940. Of these, 629 are contributing ancillary buildings. There are 1,679 non-contributing resources, of which 1,055 are ancillary buildings. There are also 251 vacant lots that are not counted as being contributing or noncontributing. Of the contributing primary resources, over 90 percent are residential buildings, of which 4 percent are single-family residential properties and 96 percent are multi-family residential housing types. Of the contributing resources; more than 7 percent are commercial buildings and 1 percent are cultural and recreation resources. As a group, these contributing resources retain an exceptionally high degree of integrity. The greatest loss of integrity is along the arterial streets of South Jefferson Avenue/South Broadway Street on the east and along Gravois Avenue/South Grand Boulevard on the west" ~ NRHP Nomination Form
The all important District Map
"As the country industrialized after the end of the Civil War, American cities grew rapidly. In response to the crowded and polluted conditions of the older city core, a growing middle class demanding affordable housing in a healthy environment and advances in transportation set the stage for suburban development.
In particular, the introduction of the electric streetcar in 1887 and the mass production of gasoline powered automobiles after 1908 allowed an increasingly broad spectrum of households to establish
residences on the fringes of an outwardly expanding city. These growth patterns continued in the twentieth century. In 1910, the United States Census identified forty-four metropolitan areas where the population of the central city and that of an area within a ten-mile radius exceeded 100,000. By the 1920s, suburban areas grew at a faster rate than central cities.
"TRENDS IN URBAN AND METROPOLITAN TRANSPORTATION
The National Park Services divides the evolution of American suburbs in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries into four stages, each corresponding with a particular chronological period and named for the mode of transportation development of residential neighborhoods.
• The Railroad and Horsecar Suburbs, 1840 to 1890
• Streetcar Suburbs, 1888 to 1928
• Early Automobile Suburbs, 1908 to 1945
• Post-World War II and Early Freeway Suburbs, 1945 to 1960
"As new circulation patterns formed the skeleton around which new land uses and suburbs became organized, new transportation routes using new technologies spurred the outward movement of suburban
development. The historic South St. Louis area reflects two of these eras "The Railroad and Horsecar Suburbs, 1840 to 1890" and "Streetcar Suburbs, 1888 to 1928."
"The Railroad and Horsecar Suburb
The first suburbs were railroad communities clustered around passenger stations along railroad routes that initially connected cities with outlying rural villages. Land development companies platted attractive designed landscapes combining open space and greenery with an efficient arrangement of residences and
modern amenities. Railroad suburbs offered the upper and upper-middle classes an escape from the congestion and pollution of the city and isolation from the urban lower classes (who could not afford the high cost of commuting) as well as convenient access to the city center. By the end of the Civil War, the suburban railroad community was a well-established development pattern in many of the nation's largest cities.
"The Electric Streetcar and Suburban Development
The introduction of the first electric-powered streetcar system in 1887 ushered in a new period of suburbanization. At this time, the electric streetcar allowed people to travel in ten minutes the same distance it would take them thirty minutes to walk. From 1890 to 1907, the distance covered by streetcar tracks increased from 5,783 miles to 34,404 miles. In cities in the Midwest and West, electric streetcar lines formed the physical framework of the emerging metropolis and influenced initial patterns of
suburban development.' As the streetcar systems developed, the network of cross-town lines made it possible to travel from one suburban center to another, as well as to and from the historic city center. Moreover, the streetcar network connected with interurban lines linking outlying towns to the central city
and to each other." ~ NRHP Multiple Properties Submission