I've been looking at apartments in Soulard and if all goes well, I should be moving to the neighborhood soon. Here is my question, I've noticed alot of cast iron stars on the buildings in the neighborhood. I've also seen them dipicted in literature about Soulard. Are these stars particularly unique to Soulard? Do they have a function? Does anybody know what I'm talking about?
I know what you're talking about. They're not just confined to Soulard, either, although I suppose there could be a a high concentration of them there. I'm not entirely certain, but I think they're simply decorative.
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It's a decorative thing for houses of the era, they have the stars in Old North St. Louis too. I imagine the houses were built in 1850s to 1870s. Another thing I heard is the stars were functional in that they anchored the brick to wooden supports in the house.
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The design of the star was purely functional. They anchored the wooden beams of the house to the outside wall. They are now used more decoratively which is great becuase they really are unique to St. Louis. They can be found occationally in other old, brick cities. But very rarely. Almost any building built in the St. Louis area before 1910 or so will have the stars, not just soulard.
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ToastedRavioli wrote:The design of the star was purely functional.
Yes, they are functional as others had mentioned. They anchored the brick walls of buildings 100 years ago. They would be attached to the outside with a rod running through the building to the other side. This would hold the building in place by keeping the walls from bowing outward. They are ususally in the shape of stars, but can be found in various other shapes.
You'll also find those stars here, in Brooklyn, on the sides of many buildings bordering the Gowanus Canal. Those houses were built on fill in the mid-19th century; their foundations are notoriously unstable.
I was just in Dallas and noticed some iron stars down there too.
The hardware store (Edele and Mertz ACE) on Geyer and S. Broadway sells them. Sometimes you'll also see the Fleur de Lis as a wall anchor in St. Louis.
The hardware store (Edele and Mertz ACE) on Geyer and S. Broadway sells them. Sometimes you'll also see the Fleur de Lis as a wall anchor in St. Louis.
The old neighborhood between Soulard and the rive is Kosciusko (I've never been able to pronounced it either).
http://stlouis.missouri.org/neighborhoods/20/index.html
Evidently, it used to be all residential and was torn down and replaced with industrial. It's still very much occupied by business and industry.
There have been quite a few former rentals units in Soulard that have been converted to owner-occupied in the past year. Still, the renter to owner ratio is very high, probably too high in my opinion.
http://stlouis.missouri.org/neighborhoods/20/index.html
Evidently, it used to be all residential and was torn down and replaced with industrial. It's still very much occupied by business and industry.
There have been quite a few former rentals units in Soulard that have been converted to owner-occupied in the past year. Still, the renter to owner ratio is very high, probably too high in my opinion.