Lafayette Square is a south St. Louis neighborhood located north of I-44, south of Chouteau, east of Jefferson and west of Dolman:
The 2000 counted 1,761 residents, down 2% from 1990's count. 68% white, 28% black, 1% Asian, 1% Latino/Hispanic occupying 1007 housing units, of which 88% were occupied, 65% owner, 35% rental. The 2010 Census revealed a 15% gain in residents. 80% white, 14% black, 3% Asian and 3% Hispanic/Latino. The increase in population is likely due to the addition of 312 housing units.
Undoubtedly, one of St. Louis' premier neighborhoods. This is a destination place as well as a nice, dense neighborhood. If you are taking someone on a tour of St. Louis, you'd be crazy to pass this neighborhood up. Lafayette Square is St. Louis' oldest national historic district. I will try to shut my mouth and just let the pictures do the talking.
The Victorian mansions surrounding the park are what make this place famous.
But, it's the innards of the neighborhood that really stand out to me. The row houses and townhouses add to the charm.
Some nice apartments:
Another positive is the sensitive infill construction that has occurred in the neighborhood. This has to be one of, if not the best examples of modern infill. With a few exceptions, most of the neighborhood has a good flow. There are still some empty lots and spaces awaiting more infill. But, in my time living in St. Louis, the neighborhood has seen some amazing progress.
The Lafayette Walk:
An exception:
This is almost a full service neighborhood. It's got independent retail, coffee shops, cafes, several restaurants, Square One micro brewery, community gardens, highway access, churches, racial/lifestyle diversity, proximity to major employment areas and the central business district. There is now a pharmacy in the adjacent vicinity; the Barr branch of the library is right across Jefferson in the Gate District neighborhood. You are a short bike ride from City Garden, Busch Stadium, Scottrade Center, Soulard, McKinley Heights, Randall's Liquor Store, Schnucks Culinaria, the Union Station Metrolink stop, etc.
Shopping, entertainment and relaxation along Park:
Rue Lafayette Cafe:
Community gardening:
Neighbors looking out for each other and not backing down to the idiots:
A former shoe factory converted to condos, and the tasty Eleven Eleven Mississippi restaurant:
Oh yeah, and I almost forgot.....the park. Today I saw a group of people playing old school baseball complete with bare hand defense, wooden bats and period costumes.
There are some sites along Jefferson and Chouteau that are less than attractive including the former Praxair site, which had a tragic explosion back in 2005.
But there are many other signs of positivity that outweigh the negatives along Chouteau and Jefferson:
Eden Lofts:
There are still some opportunities for further re-use and density:
Cheers to all the people who have invested their time, money and creativity over the years, toward making this a premier St. Louis place. Keep up the good work.
***In August, 2020 I revisited the neighborhood and the following includes updated commentary and photos.***
Misses On Original Tour
Lafayette Square is small and easy to cover, so I feel like it’s all there. I will add some new photos since I have a better camera now and you can see how sustainable landscaping is being taken serious. Less grass and yews, more diverse perennials and porous spaces.
I guess another miss would be that there really has been a lot of infill over the years. This is something you have to look really hard for. Sometimes it jumps right out at you, but in most cases, the modern infill seeks to blend with the historic homes and they do it extremely well.
More on this phenomena in Noticeable Changes, but here are a few quick examples of the modern infill spectrum.
I’ll break the new photos into two groups, the stereotypical Lafayette Square homes, including the “painted beauties”. The second group will include some of the diversity the neighborhood brings, with flounders, alley houses, apartment buildings and much, much more.
When people mention Lafayette Square the following are images that come to my mind.
But, there is so much more to appreciate and the diversity in styles is apparent all over Lafayette Square.
So if I missed anything, it’d be the diversity that can be lost in the uniform, contiguous row houses. The variation in styles and setbacks can be quite striking.
Also, the section of the neighborhood that mixes uses from former factories to homes looks so big city.
Noticeable Changes
Dolman Street is the star of the last ten years. I’ve documented this street below in the Additional Reading section if you’d like to see it through the years. A transformation has occurred, where this used to be a series of vacant lots, end-capped with a long-vacant former mop factory.
The high-end architecture seeks to repeat the neighborhood styles with modern materials. While there is a spectrum of success, you can see some of the best examples of historic infill in all of St. Louis.
New construction on Dolman continues as of publishing, where the narrow cul-de-sac lots are seeing new homes. Couple this with the Bordeaux, a much welcomed 51-unit apartment building that was rehabbed recently. Per apartments.com, there are no units available showing the demand for apartments in stable neighborhoods.
A massive hardscape project dating back several years and documented in the Additional Reading section has taken shape and started to blend well with plantings. While I’m no fan of dead ends and cul-de-sacs, the hardscape the doubles as traffic calming, especially on Lafayette Avenue have been quite welcoming.
Lafayette Preparatory Academy, a K-8th grade charter school has invested heavily in the neighborhood with new construction and rehabbed spaces.
What Are The Future Needs?
There are very few vacant and boarded up properties in the neighborhood, but they do exist, so I’ll say get folks in those remaining spaces.
But the biggest attention zones are the Jefferson and Chouteau sections of the neighborhood. While plans have come and gone for the four story 1928 Das Deutsche Haus, the building is stunning and quite huge. A renovation of this space as well as an urban use for the former gas station/surface lot at Jefferson and Lafayette would do wonders for the neighborhood.
Then, the northwest section of the neighborhood is ripe for rehab and rebuilding. This section has been underutilized and non-contributing to the city as a whole for many years. That could all change in the near future.
One of the last remaining post-industrial uses is ready for the next generation
The former Praxair site and truck repair/sales operation that recently was purchased and shuttered at Jefferson and Chouteau will be the future of the neighborhood during the next decade. There is hope a return of the street grid vs. the mega-blocks that these sprawling operations brought.
The Lafayette Reserve, a recently announced project that will bring 14 new single family homes to an abandoned section of the neighborhood that currently looks like this:
Future site of Lafayette Reserve
This project alone will return homes and 20’ alleys to these homes, recreating some semblance of a street grid.
The massive mixed use project proposed for the Jefferson/Chouteau expanses of vacant space could bring Lafayette Square much closer to a complete urban neighborhood including a more intact street grid. I’m sure the plans will evolve many times over the course of this project, but you can read all about the Chouteau Avenue Corridor Redevelopment on the Lafayette Square website.
As of publishing, public notifications are going up to communicate the coming changes to this part of the neighborhood. So, keep your eye on this part of St. Louis, it will be unrecognizable to those who’ve been paying attention for the last couple of decades.
Now, the cul-de-sacs the neighborhood put in to make Lafayette Square “exclusive” and cut it off from Jefferson are not going anywhere. I’m not so naive to think this the case, the neighbors like it this way. They like it quite and shut off from the Gate District and Peabody Darst Webbe. However, what they built is a freeway on Jefferson. People blow by at Interstate speeds because there are superblocks shut off from anything but driving fast. This is NOT how future neighborhood rebuilding needs to occur, especially north of Delmar. Truman, I-44, South Jefferson and Chouteau are barriers to the neighborhood. Massive traffic calming would have to occur to convince neighbors to open it up again. If this happens in my lifetime, I’ll be shocked and will be the first to taut the positive changes. But…I’m a realist.
Additional St. Louis City Talk Reading
Lafayette Park - February, 2014
New Medians, Curb Appeal and Other Updates in Lafayette Square - January, 2016
Former Praxair Site - 2016 St. Louis City Talk Favorite - December, 2016
Charleville Brewing Company Opens First St. Louis Location - May, 2017
Dolman Street Returning to Residential vs. Vacant Lots - August, 2017
Former Mop Factory Sees New Ownership, Potential Residential Redevelopment - December, 2017
Lafayette Preparatory Academy Expansion - December, 2018
Infill Continues in Peabody Darste Webbe and Lafayette Square Neighborhoods - April, 2019
