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St. Louis History and Architecture, St. Louis, MO (2026)

09/02/2026

William Buehler House
2610 Tennessee Ave
Built in 1894 by Herman Lemm

This house was built in 1894 for William Buehler, who was a cooper in the Kosciusko neighborhood prior to moving to this house near Tower Grove Park. William was born to Henry Buehler, who was a cooper, and moved to St. Louis in about 1849 from Bavaria. William was one of eight siblings, and was born in 1860. He followed his father’s footsteps, and went into the cooperage industry, making kegs for the various breweries around the area. In 1894, William decided to move to the country, and had a large home built at the crest of the hill overlooking Tower Grove Park. The house was completed in 1895, and William was first listed at the residence in 1896. Buehler and his family lived at the house until 1907, at which point, it was turned into a multi family residence. It became the home of Dr. Paul and Dr. Emma Howe, two physicians, and Frederick Geisler, a pattern maker, each of whom owned a half lot acquired from the Buehler family.

This house was built on November 23, 1894, for 6900 by Herman Lemm. Lemm was also a resident of the Soulard area, and lived at 917 Lynch, in the heart of the brewery district. The house is heavily influenced by the Romanesque Revival and Rundbogenstil styles of architecture, and is heavily influenced by German Baroque architecture. The home stands out on a block mostly filled with early 20th century flats and townhouses.

08/31/2026

Marley/Rozier house
4216 Cook
Built in 1886

Thomas F. Marley is one of the lesser known architects of Victorian St. Louis. Marley started off as a sawyer in the early 1880s, and went to work for Joseph G. Truitt as a superintendent for building in Elleardsville in 1884. Later that year, Marley went out on his own as an architect and began building homes around different St. Louis neighborhoods. In 1886, he built a variety of different homes around Benton Park, Fox Park, along with this house, and another in Compton Heights. He designed his own home on Shenandoah Avenue, but continued doing work on the city’s north side. On July 30th, 1886, he built this house, and another similar one at 2218 Oregon Avenue. Many of his homes were speculative, and this house became the home of Adolph Rozier, who was a traveling agent with Orr and Lindsley Boot and Shoe Company. He lived at the house from 1887-1889, after which point, a variety of different residents called it home. Thomas F. Marley went on to design a group of homes on Whittemore Place in 1890, where he subsequently moved.

A Thomas F. Marley design is a unique mixture of Queen Anne and Italianate style features, with a hipped roof and wooden cornice like Italianate homes, while the protruding window bay and recessed front doorway is more typical of Queen Anne style architecture. This home was built on July 30, 1886 for 3000, and features the same basic layout and floor plan as other Marley designs. Each home is essentially a copy of the standard design, with each one featuring sliding different window layouts and brickwork.

08/30/2026

William A. Zukoski House
3262 Hawthorne
Built in 1893 by Alfred F. Rosenheim

This house on Hawthorne Boulevard in Compton Heights was built in 1893 for William A. Zukoski. Zukoski was the secretary of the Rosenheim-Levi’s -Zukoski wholesale millinery company, which was located in the garment district on Washington Avenue in downtown St. Louis. Zukoski acquired the lot for the home from the Compton Heights Improvement Company on February 19, 1893, for 6850. Building commenced in April, and he had moved in by 1894. Around the same time, Morris Rosenheim retired from the millinery business, and the company became Levi’s-Zukoski Mercatile Company, with Zukoski as the Vice President. Zukoski was originally from Bohemia, and immigrated to the United States with his mother and brother in 1849, and they settled in Carondelet in 1850 after a year in what is now West Virginia. His mother had moved into the home in Compton Heights, and she lived there until her passing in 1910 at age 96. Zukoski himself lived at the house until 1916, when he passed at age 81.

This house was built by Alfred F. Rosenheim on April 3, 1893 for 12,000. Alfred was the son of Morris Rosenheim, the elder partner in the millinery company, and he designed the house in the Richardsonian Romanesque style. He also built a similar home in Fullerton’s Westminster Place for Albert Arnstein around the same time as this one. In recent years, this house has undergone an extensive restoration.

08/28/2026

Samuel S. Havens House
6568 Southwest Avenue
Built c. 1887

This house is one of the oldest surviving frame houses on the Old Manchester Road. On June 26, 1886, Samuel S. Havens acquired a tract of land along the Old Manchester Road from William D. Bennett. Havens was not listed in city directories in 1887 or earlier, though other family members were listed earlier in the directories. Havens was a carpenter, and likely built the home himself. The home was built in the Second Empire style with neoclassical elements in the dormers. It also was laid out with an L shaped floor plan and a tower in the center. Havens lived at the house until 1899. Eventually, in 1915, Old Manchester Road was renamed to Vandeventer between Market Street (which used to be Manchester Road west of Leffingwell), and Kingshighway, and Southwest between Kingshighway and its intersection with New Manchester in Maplewood. Concurrently, Vandeventer was renamed 39th Street to the south of Market.

08/26/2026

The Freund Brothers bakery is typically associated with rye bread in 19th century St. Louis, but many don’t realize that Leopold Freund had several buildings constructed in Benton Park neighborhood during the 1880s and 1890s. This ornate corner building was one of them, and it was constructed in 1887. While many of the early buildings did not have architects listed, buildings constructed after 1890 have Klutho and Boeke as the listed architects. Learn more about the history and architecture of the Benton Park neighborhood on September 19th, and learn about many of the neighborhood’s architects, including the firm which built the Lemp Mansion. More information available below.

08/25/2026

Compton Heights is one of the most prestigious neighborhoods in south St. Louis, and has a great variety of late 19th century and early 20th century architecture. The neighborhood was home to many wealthy Germans, and many of the residents of Compton Heights were involved in the wholesale grocery industry. This home was built in December 1896 for Charles B. Dieckriede, who was part of a family of wholesale grocers who lived in Compton Heights and had their business on the St. Louis riverfront. The French Renaissance Revival style home was built by architect Ernst C. Janssen, who constructed many homes in the area, throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Learn more about Ernst C. Janssen and the wholesale grocers in Compton Heights on August 29th with architectural historian Nathan Jackson on a walk through the neighborhood, starting at the Compton Hill Water Tower. More information below.

08/19/2026

Wynn row houses
2745-2749 Russell
Built in 1887 by Ernst C. Janssen

This row of houses on Russell was built in 1887 for John Wynn. Wynn was a yard master at the Terminal Railroad Association, and lived at 1915 Randolph, a short distance from the future site of Union Station. Wynn never lived in the row, and by 1892, he moved to Lafayette Square, at 1626 Second Carondelet Ave.

Early residents of the row included Joseph Starr, who moved to 2745 in 1888 from a house in Lafayette Square with relatives Edward and Frank. Starr was the owner of a lock and safe company. In 1891, he and his family moved to 5554 Chamberlain in the West End.

William C. Bonsack had moved to 2747 by 1889 from his row house on South Compton. William was the son of Frederick C. Bonsack Sr, and took over his lumber company after Frederick Sr. passed in 1883. His brother, Frederick Jr. started his career as an architect the same year that William moved here. However, William only lived here until 1891, at which point, he moved to 8 Shaw Place.

The first resident of 2749 was Charles Cady, who was a judge for the police court for the city of St. Louis. The Cady family lived at 2722 Russell before moving here, and lived here from 1889 until 1892.

The row house was built by architect Ernst C. Janssen on May 28, 1887 for 10,000 for John Wynn. The row was built in the Second Empire style, but incorporated elements of German Renaissance architecture into the design. Janssen had studied architecture in Germany in the late 1870s, before moving to St. Louis, and his time overseas influenced his architectural works. Along with the stone front Second Empire influence, the building also has elements of German Rundbogenstil, or round arch style, a renaissance revival style popular in the 19th century. Janssen had deigned a neighboring building for Alphonso Rambach in the same style.

08/17/2026

It’s hard to imagine that the southern edge of Soulard was in the country at one time, but in 1858, that was the case. Only a few years before that, John B. LeBeau moved to the area with other members of his family, and they built four houses within two blocks in Thomas Allen’s addition. Unlike the majority of Soulard residents at the time, LeBeau was of French descent. Le Beau was listed in 1857 as the proprietor of a steam keg brewery, and his relative Andrew was a painter. On August 23, join architectural historian Nathan Jackson for a walk through the southern half of Soulard, and learn about how a large number of the residents helped to build the brewing industry in the city. More information below.

08/16/2026

Laclede’s Landing is a neighborhood that gets the unfortunate designation of having the greatest amount of misinformation told about its buildings. Reading the historiography of the neighborhood is almost like reading works of historical fiction. The “Traders’ Building” is a prime example of this. When the National Register of historic places covered the neighborhood in 1976, the nomination claimed that this structure was from 1842 or earlier, based on the way the building was built along the street grade, and based on similarities in the design to Lohman’s Landing in Jefferson City. As it turns out, the Lohman building is actually a stone structure built in the Federal style in the 1830s. It has little in common with the building at second and Morgan, other than a pitched roof and symmetrical facade. Furthermore, the entire city block 68 was owned by the school board, who started having tenants there in 1845.

The worst offender, however, is the website run by Laclede’s Landing. Almost every building they have a history on is either partially or fully incorrect. They list this building as being constructed “before 1868”. While technically correct, it’s about as useful as saying that the Old Cathedral was built before 1850. Possibly the most egregious thing is associating the building with two different scandals under the Grant administration. The name given to the building comes from the Traders Post Scandal, which occurred in the Dakotas, as part of the conflicts with Native American tribes. The reason it’s somehow associated with this building is because Montgomery Blair, the lawyer in the case, also owned part of the building.

The Whiskey Ring scandal, which happened in St. Louis from 1871 through 1875, at which point it went to trial, is often incorrectly associated with the building. The building did have distillers and liquor dealers in it at various points, but all except for Kittredge and Archer were either before or after the incidents. Kittredge and Archer moved out in February 1877, and neither were associated with the trials. The following tenants ran another distillery, which lasted for nearly four decades.

Ironically, the most accurate thing written about the building is a portion in the city of St. Louis website that lists them as a commercial building from the mid 1850s, under a section called “the walking city”. However, little else is written about its early tenants, probably because there aren’t many people who understand the pre-1867 address numbering system in the city.

These buildings are over 170 years old, and the real history behind them is actually more interesting than the fabrications that about them. Sometimes the most frustrating part of doing research is having to put time and energy towards debunking poorly researched history. Laclede’s Landing is not the only neighborhood where this happens, but it’s probably the area where the fewest buildings have an accurate history.

08/14/2026

Loewenstein House
1838 Kennett Place
Built in 1870

This house was built in 1870 for Leopold Loewenstein. Leopold Loewenstein was born in Tachau, Bohemia in 1836, and was of Jewish ancestry. He came to the United States in 1851, and began working for William Taussig in Carondelet. In 1862, he married his wife Ernestina Bloch, and joined the millinery company of Simon Strauss in the same year. On June 18, 1870, Strauss and Loewenstein acquired neighboring lots in Kennett Place from Stephen Douglas Barlow, and the houses were started on August 1st. In 1877, Loewenstein took over the millinery works, and continued in this business until his untimely passing in 1880. On July 15, 1880, he felt dizzy after returning home from an evening in Lafayette Park talking with friends. After arriving home, he cleaned up and went to bed. Shortly after, he passed from a stroke at age 44. His neighbor Jacob Wertheimer was one of the pallbearers at the funeral. Ernestina and their three children continued to live at the house until moving to 3436 Laclede in 1884.

On June 17, 1884, Ernestina transferred the home to Matthias Spoerl, who never lived at the home. Instead, it became the residence of Philip Carl, who worked for Charles Ehlerman’s Malt Company in 1885. He lived at the house for three years before acquiring it from Spoerl for 11,500 on March 27, 1888. Carl eventually became the secretary of the Joseph Schnaider Brewery, and lived at the house until 1892.

On October 15th, 1892, August A. Busch made plans to live in the home while his mansion at 2 Busch Place was under construction. Adolphus Busch acquired the house for 13,000 on January 11, 1893, and August A. Busch and his wife lived at the house until early 1894. At this point, Ernst Muehlmann, secretary of Anheuser Busch, moved into the house. He stayed until 1896, after the house suffered damage in the tornado. On April 24, 1900, Adolphus Busch transferred the home to the Freund Bros, for 7000, and soon after, it became a rooming house. Despite suffering from a fire in 1906, the house was repaired, and survived another 120 years.

This house was built on August 1, 1870, along with an identical house next door for Simon Strauss for 23,000. This house is an excellent example of a high style Second Empire style home, and features a stone front and a large side porch. At the time of the home’s construction, it was one of the first in the city to be furnished with modern amenities like indoor plumbing and gas fixtures. Many historic features remain intact or have been restored to their original appearance, such as the ornate rope molding around the door, iron balconies, side porch, and the details in the dormer windows on the mansard roof.

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