TOWN HOUSES IN LAFAYETTE SQUARE

 

Five of the elegant townhouses along Lafayette Square. They are architecturally identical with different decorative details. You might be able to see it if you enlarge the image, but all but the left building have unusual scroll decor on the top floor dormer windows. Two of the five have identical filigree fencing on the top. The one on the left appears to be for sale if you are interested.

By the time this post goes up, we expect to be in a big snow and ice storm. I’ll get out with a camera but probably not further than our door.                   

A POND IN THE SQUARE

 

A charming landscaped pond in Lafayette Square, containing the park's two resident swans. There are lots more geese and ducks in a bigger pond. The square’s elegant row houses are in the background.

We expect to get bombed by a snow and ice storm tonight and tomorrow, followed by frigid cold. What can I see from our front porch?                               

NOT THE PAINTER

 

Back into the Lafayette Square images. We are expecting a significant ice and snow storm from tonight into Monday morning, followed by bitter cold (by our standards). Won’t be on the street for a bit.

When you walk into the park from one of the corners you are confronted with this imposing, pompous statue. A few people walked up to the base and I asked them about the small black plaque on the base. They said it referred to Thomas Hart Benton. "Oh,”I said. “The famous painter of the Midwest and the Mississippi River.” But what about the inscription on the pedestal? Turns out this THB is a Missouri politician, one of our original senators when we entered the union in 1820. The painter is his great great grand nephew.

The inscription on the pedestal is still very strange.     

ANOTHER ELEGANT TOWNHOUSE

 

Imagine the life of a prosperous family at the end of the 19th Century. It looks so proper, so elegant. Roll forward a few years and you could hear a couple of cheerful young women singing Meet Me In St. Louis in the parlor. (Nobody ever wanted to meet you in Milwaukee.) Lafayette Square is surrounded by homes like this.                

INSIDE LAFAYETTE SQUARE

 

Lafayette Square is a couple of blocks on a side. It contains what may or may not be the first official city park in the U.S. west of the Mississippi, established in 1836. I don’t think I've been there in decades, despite having worked my whole career less than 10 minutes drive away, so I took a walk through yesterday. To say that it is charming is an understatement. More to come.              

LAFAYETTE SQUARE

Lafayette Square, not far from downtown, contained the homes of some of St. Louis’ wealthiest residents in the 19th Century. The grand homes are a mix of French and German styles. They are all built with brick to prevent spreading fire, easily done with the large supply of good clay in the area. All of them facing the park and for a couple of blocks around have been lovingly restored.                    

DECK THE HALLS

Lafayette Square is one of the oldest neighborhoods in STL with its original housing stock. Almost all of the 19th Century residences have been lovingly restored. Most of them have beautiful holiday decorations. Note the trees in the center windows of the upper floors. We are invited to a New Year's Eve party at one around the corner and I hope we can make it.               

Variations On The Theme

A little more of Lafayette Square architecture with moonrise. The City of St. Louis web site says the style is French Second Empire but there's lots of variety around. Contemporary rehab makes them a lot less dowdy.           

Lafayette, We Are Here

I really should shoot more around Lafayette Square, the gorgeous neighborhood of old townhomes a bit southwest of downtown. When I'm out of ideas I just cruise around the city, waiting for something to catch my eye.  Wandered by the square last weekend (that's when I shot yesterday's food trucks) and found a gorgeous moonrise.

(By the way, as to today's caption...)                     

Red Baron

It's snowing again. We're tired of it. Sure, people from Maine and Minnesota will think we're weenies but this has been the worst winter we've had in a long time. Same for most of the eastern two-thirds of the country.

So, to pass the time, some architecture shots. These large, old homes are on Lafayette Square, an historic district near the city center. Many of the beautifully restored homes are French in design, as discussed in the link. These however, are in what's called German Baronial style. Germany was the most important source of immigrants here in the 19th Century. Some of them hit it big (think Adolphus Busch). They built homes designed to impress, usually of red brick, based on patterns familiar to them. Sort an equivalent of today's McMansions way out in nether Chesterfield.