County of building: Independent City of St. Louis
Location of building: 3028 S. Jefferson Ave., Benton Park Neighborhood, St. Louis
Built: 1895
Ownership of property at time of nomination was unknown
"This category includes one prime example of Creek Revival exhibited in an 1861 addition to a circa 1848 house - Photo #6, and other houses illustrating various elements of Greek Revival such as white stone lintels, brick dentilling and pedimented dormers (Photos #7, 8, 9). A larger number of buildings illustrate a vernacular classical tradition, modestly expressed with simple brick dentilling at the cornice (or occasionally a simple wood cornice) and pedimented dormers. These houses are one or two stories high, usually two to four bays wide and feature segmentally arched openings; a few employ jack arches. Side-gabled roofs are most common, but low hipped roofs also occur. In two-story examples, access to second story units is gained by rear wood exterior stairs. Sometimes interiors feature simple pedimented window and door enframements (Photos #10 through 14).
A second group nf early houses in either frame or brick are without exterior stylistic detailing and arc identified principally by distinctive roof profiles represented in two
basic types. The first exhibits a single-slope roof, known locally as a "flounder house" (Photos #9, center; 15); usually they are one story high and feature segmental arches. The second type, a variant of the Creole Cottage, employs a side-gabled roof extended over the house front to form a porch roof which is supported by slender wood columns; the house usually rests on a high stone foundation (Photos #17, 18). A sub-type combining features
of both the flounder and Creole Cottage is illustrated in Photo #7, right and #16. Simple one story frame houses, both front and side-gabled:, are also found (Photo #19)." ~ NRHP Nomination Form
"Located on St. Louis' south side, the Benton Park District is a 19th and early 20th century immigrant neighborhood comprising approximately 1668 contributing buildings and 186 non-contributing ones. The majority of structures are residential; in addition,
there are three public schools, four churches and two parochial schools, two brewery complexes and three smaller industrial buildings. The contributing buildings were constructed
between circa 1848 and 1935; except for a small number of early frame one story houses, the buildings are brick, the traditional St. Louis building material. Residential examples predominately are multi-family, constructed as two- to six-bay, one and two
story detached houses and as two- and three-bay, two story attached rows. Two primary commercial strips on Cherokee Street and Jefferson Avenue have concentrations of buildings combining first story storefronts and second story flats; numerous other mixed-use buildings appear on corners throughout the District. While ornamental detailing and roof forms provide stylistic variations, District buildings are unified by their overall planar
facades, similar cornice lines, materials, color and scale. The District's street plan follows grids laid out at the time the subdivisions were originally platted. Three public parks, Cherokee Park, Carnegie Place and Benton Park (Photo #1) were set aside as open spaces in the 19th century.
"Compared with similar inner city neighborhoods, the Benton Park District has survived with unusually high structural density and little loss of integrity. The vast majority of streetscapes are intact with little demolition, few intrusions and minor alterations to buildings. Where alterations have occurred, they most frequently are replacements to deteriorated elements on rear elevations (Photo #31), cornices (Photos #54, 59, 83), porch
supports (Photos #17, 21), and mansard roofs (Photos ,142, 43). Some storefronts are boarded but the cast iron framing is undisturbed (Photos #63, 54, 88). The houses have been well-maintained and have a high rate of owner-occupancy.
"All non-contributing buildings are designated with an asterisk on the Architectural Survey Map; they include buildings which are less than fifty years old such as numerous one story brick in-fill houses (Photo #2) as well as various other commercial and industrial buildings (Photos #80, right; 103, right. Examples of non-contributing historic buildings which have lost integrity through radical facade alteration are illustrated in Photos ,13, 4, 5.
"All contributing buildings are coded by letter on the Architectural Survey Map under eight classifications (often overlapping) based on style and use. Dates assigned to
various style groups below often overlap as styles changed at different rates. ~ NRHP Nomination Form
Map - Northern Half Map - Southern Half