finding us in fox park
about the building & neighborhood
Originally built in 1889, this house on Magnolia Avenue has seen it's share of history. Lately, it has witnessed a flurry of activity, as three new houses have been built across the street and multiple other buildings on the block undergo renovation.
Other parts of the neighborhood have seen renewal too: new water features were installed at the park playground, a dog park was built, and new restaurants have popped up. As reported by the Riverfront Times in January, Redfin named Fox Park the hottest neighborhood in the St. Louis metropolitan area in 2017.
For more information about these developments, check in with the Fox Park Neighborhood Association, which meets on the last Thursday of each month. All residents are invited and encouraged to attend association meetings.
You can find out more information about Fox Park Neighborhood at www.foxparkstl.org. Get the latest updates on Twitter by following @FPNA or joining the Facebook group
As detailed on the National Register of Historic Places for the St. Francis de Sales Historic District, this brick building stands two and one-half stories tall and three bays wide on a basement. It has a hipped roof with a patterned brick cornice, and the center bay projects from the wall plane to terminate in a large stepped-parapet cross gable. A raised, integral porch with a wide Romanesque arch occupies the first story center bay over two entrances with a central sidelight; it is framed by low solid brick balustrade decorate by green glazed brick inlays. The second story center bay has four round-arched windows with limestone lug sills. The first and second story outer bays each have ribbons of three windows with limestone lug sills, and there are two narrow third story windows with limestone lug sills and a shared sandstone lintel on the parapet.
The apartments have housed Washington University students, railroad company workers, editors, printers, merchants, and a few men who enlisted in WWI. Check out the list of residents in the area from a 1900 federal census page.
The 1909 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map for the area shows that there was cobbler's shop & house where the neighboring corner garage now stands. To the block south, in between Nebraska & California off Pestalozzi, there was a dairy, a primary feature of the neighborhood. At the Pestalozzi / Gravois / California triangle, there was a bowling alley, and the saloons were off Gravois Av