History of the Tiffany Neighborhood 1885-Present

Residential development of land west of Grand Avenue was dependent on factors which stimulated the growth of hundreds of suburban tracts in American cities across the country in the nineteenth century. Aversion to crowded, smoke-polluted conditions in the inner cities made semi-rural peripheral lands appealing to increasing numbers of the working and middle classes. Preliminary to settlement, however, the appearance of experienced speculative developers was necessary to provide initial capital for the purchase, subdivision and promotion of large farm estates such as the McRee and Tyler land. Also essential to development was the construction of networks of utilities and public transit--prerequisites for attracting prospective builders and residents. The houses and flats which built up the new suburban subdivisions also offered improvements over older inner-city neighborhoods. In addition to important sewer and water lines, they provided front yards, separate street-front entrances and porches, and frequently more fashion-conscious architectural detailing. The history of the Tiffany District in many ways follows a typical development pattern of nineteenth century American suburbs and marks the appearance of one of south St. Louis' first streetcar suburbs which allowed the diffusion of population from the inner city. St. Louis' population swell between 1880 and 1890 (a hefty 29 percent) presented a bonanza for out-of-state capitalists and promoters. Among those attacted to the City was Thomas A. Scott, a young Canadian (born 1854) with experience in Chicago and Kansas City realty markets in partnership with his brother Samuel. Described as "one of the most daring real estate operators St. Louis has every known," Scott opened a St. Louis office for the partnership in 1888 and immediately embarked upon a $25,000 advertising campaign to tout St. Louis real estate in the eastern press. Within the year Scott had raised sufficient eastern capital to incorporate two companies whose purposes included investment in promising "western" real estate, transportation, utilities, and mining. The St. Louis real estate targeted for development comprised unsubdivided lands west of Grand held by Tyler and McRee estates. In 1887, Thomas Scott obtained an option on the McRee tract with a proviso that he was to improve the tract by subdividing the property and creating streets. Scott expended some $35,000 on these improvements. In September of 1888, the Dundee Land and Investment, through shareholder Thomas Scott, purchased acreage equivalent to twenty-two city blocks from a McRee heir for $450,352. Platted as Dundee Place in June 1889, the land sloped west from Grand Avenue to Manchester Road (now Vandeventer Avenue) and was bounded on the north by Park Avenue and the tracks of several railroads, and on the south by McRee Avenue.

The first auction of Dundee Place lots was delayed two years until June 1891, by which time critical transit lines had reached the District from downtown and nearby railroad tracks to the north were bridged across Grand Avenue. Beginning in May 1891, the Scotts invested $10,000 in a massive siege of newspaper promotion which featured views of the property and extensive copy.

Enthusiastic newspaper coverage in advance of the sale noted that the property compared favorable with popular areas developing along Lindell Boulevard, one of the City's most prestigious areas. It was predicted that a tract such as this, the largest one in the City, would never again be offered at public auction.

Capitalizing on Grand Avenue's well-established residential prestige and its importance as a north/south corridor (linking the City by the new suspension bridge), the Dundee Place sale was advertised as the "Grand Avenue Auction." Trolley, cable car lines, and suburban railroad tracks made possible the boast that "no subdivision in the City has so many lines running into the business center." Improvements included the grading of streets and some lots, a few sewer and water lines and granitoid sidewalks at the eastern and western edges of Dundee Place. Akin to present-day subdivision developments, eighteen, for sale, two-story brick model homes were constructed in advance of the auction to demonstrate the possibilities of the sites to those attending.

Although the only deed restriction controlling Dundee Place lots was a setback of 15 feet, restrictions on Tyler and Shaw lands to the south were used as selling points offering protection to the "whole section from the inroads of smoke, furnaces...and unhealthy factory fumes." While marketing Dundee Place, the Scotts were simultaneously initiating promotion of Shaw and Tyler Places, in which tracts the brothers also held interests. The Scotts discreetly neglected to mention that Dundee Place contained no protective restrictions similar to those in Tyler and Shaw Places, nor did theadvertising disclose that Dundee Place's northern sector had been quietly reserved for industrial development.

The promoters were cagily bi-partisan in the naming of the new east/west streets laid out between Park and McRee Avenues. Folsom was the maiden name of President Grover Cleveland's wife; Blaine was named for James G. Blaine, Republican Presidential nominee defeated by Cleveland in 1884. The north/south streets, Vandeventer (now 39th) and Cabanne (now Spring) were extensions of existing streets.

The sales pitch was directed to both real estate speculators and home builders ("mechanics and businessmen")--a broad section of the middle class which in fact eventually settled the District. Spin-off from the Chicago World's Fair (1893), predicted to bring "Millions of people into the Mississippi Valley", thousands of whom might settle in St. Louis, was assurance to speculators of a safe investment. Land was expected to "go cheap" with easy terms of one-third cash and the balance in one and two years at six percent interest. According to the St. Louis Globe Democrat, the promotion and auction were not disappointing for "fully 5,000 people inspected the property." Hundreds attended the auction and nearly half of the lots were sold including virtually all of the area between 39th Street and Grand Avenue. Considered one-half to one-third below expectation, lot prices averaged $21.32 per front foot ranging from high of $81.00 along the choice Grand Avenue frontage and descending with the land grade to the teens.

According to a report of the auction printed int the St. Louis Globe Democrat, the sale had actually been "forced" by a pressing need to pay off the mortgage indebtedness. One that object was accomplished, the remaining portions of the tract were withdrawn and the sale closed. Quite possibly, as suggested by the broad purposes listed in the Dundee Land and Investment Co. corporate charter, the Scotts had plans for the unsold, northern portions of the tract. Whatever dreams there may have been, however, were never realized. In the spring of 1895, shortly after the Liggett and Myer Tobacco Co. announced plans to build the "world's largest" tobacco factory in the undeveloped northern portion, the Dundee Land and Investment Company went into bankruptcy and the company's remaining assets were put up for auction. These events proved to be of major significance in the future of Dundee Place.

The selection of Dundee Place as the site of the Liggett and Myer factory coupled with the sudden and inexpensive availability of the remaining Dundee Place lots prompted renewed interest in the area. The prospect of the convenient factory sites attracted a variety of industries to the northern sector and adjacent areas. In turn, there was great demand for housing for the construction workers and, subsequently, for factory employees.

Work on the tobacco factory will provide employment for an immense number of people in all lines. The prospect of the building, and of the large number of hands who will be employed regularly, has caused an increase demand for property... A great deal of exceptionally cheap property as desirable and as well located sells at so low a price. Factory sites, business lots, and residential lots are to be offered at the Receiver's peremptory auction sale of Dundee Place realty next Saturday afternoon. The property is therefore subdivided for more diversified uses than that ordinarily offered at auction sales and as a consequence it will attract all classes of buyers... dealers in all kinds of heavy merchandise who desire to find new quarters will be attracted by the factory site section of the property which has first class switch facilities. Builders and speculators realize the advantage of investing in property that is rapidly growing into prominence as a residence locality, and landlords who cater to the working class will find this is an excellent field for investment as well... Led by the mammoth Liggett & Myer Tobacco Company complex, the northern sector of Dundee Place quickly assumed an exclusively industrial aspect. In addition to Liggett & Myer, the smaller Wellman-Twire Tobacco Company built in Dundee Place in 1897, and close by were the Huttig Sash and Door Co., the Koken Iron Co., the yards and shops of the Missouri Pacific Railroad, and after 1899, the new headquarters of the United Railway Co.

At the turn of the century, stimulated by the rapid increase in population, Grand Avenue, Tower Grove Avenue, and 39th Street began to develop as commercial strips, Thirty-ninth Street, which was served by a branch of the Tiffany Trolley Line, added nine store/flat combinations between 1901 and 1909. Eventually, both Tower Grove Avenue and 39th Street spawned small shops selling shoes, hardware, cigars and groceries, and offered services such as hair-cuts and tailoring. Taverns, a pool room and restaurant provided entertainment.

This, by the turn of the century, less than ten years after the opening of Dundee Place, the major forces that were to shape the District's growth had been set in motion. For the next 30 years, Dundee Place/Tiffany neighborhood continued to grow along the patterns already established.

History of the Tiffany Neighborhood - Housing

Although the first two houses in Tiffany, 4311 and 4319 McRee predated the Dundee Place subdivision, they foreshadowed the largely middle-class, single-family character projected by the subdivision's promoters. Between 1885 and 1899, approximately 107 buildings were constructed. Single-family homes outnumbered muli-family dwellings by well over two to one. Originally platted with fifty-foot fronts, by the time construction began, many of the District's lots had been reduced to a denser urban pattern of twenty-five or thirty-three front feet. With one or two exceptions, the 1890's houses were one to two and one half stories, brick and ranged in cost from $1,500 to $7,000. Although more than half of the houses were speculatively built and few were designed by architects, the early established practice of speculatively built contractor housing generally reflected high art fashions in home building, often with interesting effects.

The two homes constructed in 1885 (one of which is 4307-11 McRee) are good Representative examples of the District's Italianate buildings with their two over two segmentally arched windows, first story three-sided bays and wood cornices.

Among the most interesting of the 1890's homes are those built as "model homes" prior to the first Dundee Place auction in 1891. The People's Investment and Building Company, a real estate and construction company which the Scotts may have known about from their Kansas City experiences built all eighteen. Erected in groups of threes on Blaine, McRee, and Folsom in the blocks adjacent to Tower Grove Avenue, the homes were all two-story, two or three bay brick. Exterior styling varied from group to group and demonstrated such features as gabled and hipped roofs, ornamental brick and terra cotta work, enriched wood cornices and decorative millwork, multi-planar facades and bay windows.

The flat-roofed, multi-family building which makes up the largest percentage of the District's housing after 1900 first appeared in Dundee Place in 1893 at 4117-21 Blaine. Terra cotta, traditionally employed for ornament on St. Louis' late-nineteenth and early twentieth Century buildings, forms a band at the cornice. (Terra cotta insets also appear on the building immediately to the west, partially visible in the photo.) Similar buildings were constructed in 1895 at 4111-15 Blaine. These flats all have separate front entrances for each unit.

The massive Liggett & Myer tobacco factory complex in the northern sector was designed by the locally distinguished architect Isaac Taylor in 1895; construction continued on the first group of buildings through 1897. Taylor, architect for such well known St. Louis buildings as the Planters' Hotel, the Rialto Building, Peters Shoe Company and the Silk Exchange (listed in the National Register) enhanced the dignified red brick facades of the buildings with corbeling at the roof line. The only applied ornament was the large terra cotta star - in honor of the company's star-plug brand. The complex was considered the largest in the world and is a good example of St. Louis' late nineteenth century light manufacturing structures.

The number of multi-family units built between 1900 and 1909 outnumbered single-family houses from two to twelve families; four and six family buildings predominated. During this decade almost 200 buildings were constructed, a phenomenon attributed by the Globe Democrat to a post-World's Fair boom, but which seems more directly related to industrial growth and demands for workers housing. The 1904 World's Fair buildings however, did leave an architectural legacy which is visible in many of the post-Fair flats which display varying degrees of classical detailing and ornament. A common practice was disguising the ubiquitous flat roofs with such devices s attick windows, pediments, heavy cornices and psuedo-hipped roofs. Single-family houses such as 4240 Blaine also have abandoned picturesque profiles for more restrained forms with "colonial" porches.

The opening of new subdivisions between 1910 and 1914 along the southern boundary of the District rapidly filled up the blocks between McRee and Lafayette Avenues. (These blocks were part of the land sold by the McRees to Shaw in 1848 and later bequeathed by Henry Shaw to the Missouri Botanical Garden.) The Additions extended south beyond the Tiffany District blocks and are now severed by the path of Interstate 44. Despite the construction of a number of single family homes in the new subdivisions, construction of multi-family dwellings surpassed that of single-family homes by a ratio of almost four to one.

During this period, builders and architects working in the District kept abreast of changing architectural styles and responded to influences of the Arts and Crafts and Bungalow movements gaining popularity across the nation. Although many of the houses rise a full two stories they adopt generic bungaloid traits such as broad half-timbered gables, large scale brackets, porches extending across the facades, exposed rafters, and Prairie/Craftsman multi-light windows. The work of contractor Sam Koplar, who built extensively along Lafayette Avenue, prompted the Globe-Democrat to observe that "this neighborhood is taking on quite a bungalow city aspect since the bungalows on Lafayette have been put up." The rejection of historical detail and exploiting of surface texture for aesthetic effect also spread into other areas of the District where new construction arose.

In 1912, a new building type was added to the District when the first three-story apartment house, the Marquette, was constructed on the northwest corner of Lafayette and Spring. Heralded by the Globe-Democrat as the only fourth three-story apartment to appear on the City's south side, the Marquette offered more amenities and services than the conventional flat. Planned with suites of varying sizes for twelve families, all the Marquette apartments were designed with sun porches, adapted for conversion to conservatories." A rarity on the south side, the "modern" apartment building was gaining fast acceptance in the fashionable Central West End as an attractive alternative to the burdens of single-family ownership.

In the final decade of building (1920-32), construction dropped from a high of 271 buildings in the previous decade to 141 structures. In 1922-23, the bungalow tradition of the Lafayette Additions closed with construction of eight, two-family flats at 3616-40 McRee. The District's one religious institution appeared in the 1920's. The Blaine Avenue Tabernacle was built at 4200 Blaine in 1927.

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