What is the official name for the story-book houses one finds in St. Louis Hills and other parts of St. Louis. A friend calls them Heidi houses. What was the inspiration for these houses? Are they unique to St. Louis or found commonly elsewhere? I haven't seen them in other cities, but I haven't traveled to every city.
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I have heard many Southsiders refer to them as gingerbread houses.
That makes sense. The white stone around the doors & windows look like marshmellows on gingerbread houses one sees during the holidays. I wonder what the influence is? During this period in a lot of cities, houses are obviously Tudor, Colonial, Spanish, etc. But, these houses seem different. Is it German?
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You can find the exact same style in outer urban neighborhoods of Chicago, Detroit, Cincinnati and Baltimore.
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southcitygent wrote:I have heard many Southsiders refer to them as gingerbread houses.
I have heard them called that also, however my wife calls those type of bungalows the "Hansel and Gretel" houses. I don't know the influence either... but they remind me of miniature castles...
JivecitySTL wrote:You can find the exact same style in outer urban neighborhoods of Chicago, Detroit, Cincinnati and Baltimore.
I spend a lot of time in Baltimore. I have seen a few houses in Baltimore that remind me of the gingerbread houses, but they are not exactly the same. Baltimore has a lot more mid-atlantic colonial influence, which keeps them a little less ornate. The St. Louis houses tend to be much more ornate with fancier brickwork. I am not disagreeing with you, because I know what you mean.
Urbanstlouis, Hansel & Gretel is an excellent name for them. I can see that.
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My favorite St. Louis brick houses are the row of miniature Bavarian castles that are along the east side of Benton Park. They are worth the look if you have not noticed them before.
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Sounds cool, I may have to take some pictures of those...
I live in a house like the one Expat described, and we've always called it a gingerbread house too.
Sounds cool, I may have to take some pictures of those...
I live in a house like the one Expat described, and we've always called it a gingerbread house too.
I would guess the influence is German, it looks sort of old world german to me.
southcitygent wrote:My favorite St. Louis brick houses are the row of miniature Bavarian castles that are along the east side of Benton Park. They are worth the look if you have not noticed them before.
I can't place these houses?? I looked on the Benton Park photo thread and so no "castles". Would love to see pics, but will check them out the next time I am in St. Louis. The photos on the Benton Park photo thread are fantastic.
I found plenty of examples of the gingerbread houses on the Holly Hills and St. Louis Hills photo threads.
I've heard them referred to as "gingerbread houses" too. That's almost always what I hear them referred to as.
I supposed they could be considered German, or possibly Dutch. In any event, those two descriptors are a bit vague. They have a certain element of German romanticism/fairy tale to them, possibly inspired by the Neuschwanstein--clearly not as fanciful, to be sure, but I'm getting at the romantic part. "Hansel and Gretel" houses would be very apropos in this case.
I supposed they could be considered German, or possibly Dutch. In any event, those two descriptors are a bit vague. They have a certain element of German romanticism/fairy tale to them, possibly inspired by the Neuschwanstein--clearly not as fanciful, to be sure, but I'm getting at the romantic part. "Hansel and Gretel" houses would be very apropos in this case.
I would say German Tudor (as opposed to English Tudor, which you see in the Morelands in Clayton) Want to see some real good German "new world" style? Compton Heights, you could pull it out of St. Louis and drop it in the upscale 19th century suburbs of Frankfurt and it would look right at home.
Notice many of the so-called gingerbread houses also have the terra-cotta (?) trim along the roofline that looks suspiciously like icing!
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When looking at maps of STL it seems the gingerbread homes appeared in the 1920s and 1930s, and are most found in the Hampton neighborhoods, Penrose and other northwest neigborhoods.
They are locally refered to as "gingerbread," but best described architecturally as neo-tudor. But they seem a cross between German fairytale castle and English Tudor.
They are locally refered to as "gingerbread," but best described architecturally as neo-tudor. But they seem a cross between German fairytale castle and English Tudor.
Can someone post a picture as an example of what we're talkin about here, I think I know, but I have no idea. Thanks.
^Those are good examples. Also, go to the St. Louis Hills photo thread. St. Louis Hills has plenty of them as well as other styles. You can also find Colonial, English Tudor, and others in St. Louis Hills - but they all seem a little whimsical and over the top. Whoever built St. Louis Hills had some fun with it. Fairy tale is a good description. You almost expect a stork to land on one of the chimneys.
^Jive, thanks for posting these pics. I stand corrected--when I look at these pics I realize they wouldn't look totally out of place in sections of Baltimore. However, you are more likely to see them in St. Louis than Baltimore. Also, I was thinking about the fancier versions one can find in St. Louis Hills -- You won't find those in Baltimore.
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These appear to pretty much be gothic revival homes w/o all the extra details one usually sees in gothic revival architecture.
Expat wrote: Also, I was thinking about the fancier versions one can find in St. Louis Hills -- You won't find those in Baltimore.
St. Louis Hills may have bigger versions of these houses, but by no means do they have the monopoly on very detailed gingerbread homes.
A walk down the streets of my neighborhood, mostly the southern half, will reveal intricately detailed homes, all of them structurally similar, but each with something different, whether it's different bricks, more or less stained glass, or some other architectual detail
It's really amazing to think all of these houses really are different in some way. In researching for the 100th anniversary of my neighborhood, I read in the old advertisments that these houses took a year to construct, i don't know if that's fast or what...
I love when you pull the pics of the houses across the street from my house Jive. It makes me feel at home. My parents house is of this style too, except there is a vinyll addition plopped on top.
