Welcome to the Lafayette Square Historical Archives. Our charter is to collect, curate, and share our history in electronic form. If you’ve got a photo or document you’d like added, please contact archives@lafayettesquare.org. The map pictured above is eastern Lafayette Square, from Compton & Dry’s 1875 Pictorial St. Louis. You can read more about this map’s invaluable view of our past here.

1951: An Anchor On A Corner Of Lafayette Square October 18, 2020 - What’s in a building? It’s entire history, for one; and in Lafayette Square, that can be considerable.  2001 Park Avenue has been holding down the Northeast corner of Mississippi and Park Avenue for a long time. It appears in the Compton and Dry map of 1876, looking much like itself, but for today’s first floor Continue Reading

1858: The Palmatary Map of Lafayette Square September 27, 2020 - Richard Compton and Camile Dry rightly deserve credit for their amazingly comprehensive 1875  pictorial map of St Louis. It is the standard by which others are judged, and certainly worth your study if new to the subject. I highly recommend the expandable version on the Library of Congress site: https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4164sm.gpm00001/?st=gallery There have been other pictorial Continue Reading

1901: CF Blanke – Coffee, Cabins And The Aerial Globe September 13, 2020 - Ever noticed the 5 story, vaguely moorish looking building pictured above?  The CF Blanke Building on Papin Street near the corner of 14th and Chouteau is a 156,000 square foot behemoth, Parts of it date back to 1888, when it was home to the Haydock Brothers Carriage Works. When completed, it was the largest carriage Continue Reading

1919: The Most Distinguished Woman In Lafayette Square August 31, 2020 - 1919: The Most Distinguished Woman in Lafayette Square   While paging through John Albury Bryan’s book about Lafayette Square, I noted a line in which he wrote that the most distinguished couple to have ever lived  in Lafayette Square may have been Phillip North Moore and his wife Eva Perry Moore. This would come as Continue Reading

1975: A Felonious Building Inspector And Lafayette Square August 23, 2020 -   The photo above is of 1926 Hickory Street in April, 1970. It's a "before" example of the properties recognized for their potential and restored in Lafayette Square back in the brave days. This story is about that, and a cautionary tale about what we risk by trusting   government to always work in the Continue Reading

1955: Why Lafayette Square Should Be Restored August 9, 2020 - The first essay in this long series covered a man who argued long ago for the restoration of Lafayette Square. In 1969 the creation of the Lafayette Square Restoration Committee was a pivot point for active change here, in terms of stemming demolition, stabilizing properties and enticing others to share the vision of rebirth in Continue Reading

1970 – The No Tell Hotel Of Lafayette Square July 26, 2020 -   The corner of Lafayette and Missouri Avenues shares the same multi-address feature of the Sheble-Bixby house at Mississippi and Lafayette. It contains 2166 Lafayette Avenue, and 1700  and 1706 Missouri Avenue. While a single mansion, it was once part of the residential estate of local physician Dr Joseph Spiegelhalter and his six children.   Continue Reading

Lafayette Park Gardens Report June 4, 2018 - On April 21, St. Louis University provided volunteers to Lafayette Park as part of their “Showers of Service” program. Two groups of students worked in the park. Matt Negri’s LSRC group worked in the Park House gardens and removed stumps near the mid-Lafayette gate. The Lafayette Park Conservancy’s group of 15 students divided their time Continue Reading

Beautification News: The Season Begins! May 31, 2018 - Linda Weiner When I moved to Lafayette Square in 1990, the neighborhood was covered with weeds, “stink” (Tree of Life) trees, broken glass bottles, abandoned tires and car batteries. Two-thirds of the homes were in some stage of rehab. The rest might consist of only a shell with no roof and no back wall. The Continue Reading

Park Projects Nearing Completion May 31, 2018 - Several years ago the voters approved a sale of bonds to improve St. Louis’ park system. The larger parks in the system got large sums (Forest Park got about half), and the rest of the parks split the remainder based on their acreage. At just under 30 acres, Lafayette Park received a significant allotment for Continue Reading