I've been exploring St. Louis Hills on my bicycle a lot lately, and I've just gotta say: What a beautiful neighborhood!



The homes are all-brick construction, with lots of stone detailing, stained glass, etc. The residential architecture varies from classic tudor/gothic to beautiful, smartly-detailed prairy/ranch syle. There's a handful of very handsome, modernist churches (often overlooked by local architecture buffs). And of course, the large art-deco apartment buildings are fantastic. The streets are lined with large, mature trees, and there are two beautiful parks. There always seems to be lots of young families out strolling and visiting neighbors. Block parties are still common. And I noticed that the larger homes are now approaching the half-million dollar mark.



Does anyone have any info or links where I could learn more about the history of St. Louis Hills; when it was developed, etc? Clearly, this was a well-planned, quality development.



Anyone up to posting a photo-tour?

The Hill is indeed beautiful. I do not have any personal refrence points, but I did google it and found the following link :

http://stlouis.missouri.org/neighborhoo ... text13.htm

Thanks for the reply, but I'm talking about St. Louis Hills, in the far Southwest corner of the city. It's roughly bounded by River de Peres, Hampton, and Chippewa.

#-o .....sorry......

The HISTORY of St. Louis Hills, developed from 1930-1950's, is relatively short by the city's beginnings in 1763. The land which became St. Louis Hills dates back to deeds granted to pioneer French colonists Madame Ann Camp and Anton Reihle in 1768 by one founder of the Village of St. Louis, Pierre Laclede. At the time, the land included 2,471 acres. Camp and Reihl's heirs sold the land to George C. Clarke, who gave it to two sons. When the Village was chartered as the City of St. Louis in 1836, St. Louis Hills was still remote, open and forested land, and essentially remained so until the early 1930's. In 1876, when the county and city of St. Louis divided responsibilities, the western boundary of St. Louis City was set just west of the River des Peres (River of the Fathers). Even then, what is now St. Louis Hills, was still open land.

http://stlouis.missouri.org/stlouishills/hist.htm

^Thanks for the link. Some good info there. Seems like the neighborhood was developed earlier than I thought.