St. Louis is a city of neighborhoods. Each of its 79 neighborhoods has a distinct personality, landmarks, architecture and favorite foods. And in this Midwest city, sometimes called the Gateway to the West, one neighborhood holds a unique distinction.
“Welcome to Soulard, the oldest surviving neighborhood in St. Louis, built on immigrant grit, beer and the legacy of Julia Soulard—one of America’s first female developers,” says Jenifer Garcia, broker/owner with Garcia Properties.
South of downtown and near the Mississippi River, Soulard stands out for its narrow lots and abundance of brick houses with ornamental brick and mousehole passageways.
In the late 1700s, Antoine Soulard, exiled from France, settled in the area, then part of Spain’s Louisiana territory. As a surveyor for the King of Spain, Soulard received a large tract of land, says Maureen McMillan, a historic preservationist, member of the Landmarks Association of St. Louis and board member of the Missouri Alliance for Historic Preservation.
Woman of Vision
Upon Soulard’s marriage to Marie Julia Cérre, her family bestowed additional land holdings, and the couple owned significant acreage. Then, in 1803, President Thomas Jefferson signed the Louisiana Purchase Treaty, transferring 530 million acres to the U.S.
Problems ensued. “After the Louisiana Purchase, the Soulards were engaged in a dispute with the federal government over the ownership of the land,” McMillan says.“When Antoine died in the middle of that lawsuit, Julia Soulard continued the legal battle.”
The case went to the Supreme Court of Missouri, then to the U.S. Supreme Court. “And in 1836, the Supreme Court ruled in her favor. At that point, she immediately began to subdivide and plat out parcels of the 124 acres.”
Soulard was considered the first female real estate developer west of the Mississippi.
She continued to demonstrate foresight by bequeathing land to the city—with one stipulation according to the 1841 deed: “I give this land … provided that it shall be used for a market house and for no other purpose.”
In many ways, she was an urban planner before we called urban planning what it now is, McMillan says.
“Because of her, the Soulard Farmers Market still stands today and is the heartbeat of our neighborhood,” Garcia says. It’s also the city’s oldest operating public market. Other neighborhood links to the family remain with Julia’s Market Café and streets named Julia, Cérre and Soulard.
Brick by Brick, Soulard Takes Shape
Immigrants from other countries found their way to Soulard. “About that time, we had large waves of immigrant populations into St. Louis. Germans, other Eastern and Central Europeans, began coming over in large numbers in the late 1840s and the 1850s,” McMillan says.
St. Louis was still small, and land was at a premium, but many were able to build homes. “A lot of them were craftsmen,” McMillan says. “Every brick tells a story of an immigrant family making it in America.”
Brick became the favored material due to easy access to rich local red clay deposits and a city law that required brick buildings after a catastrophic 1849 fire destroyed much of the downtown and many frame homes. Early bricks were hand formed until the Hydraulic-Press Brick Company developed a manufacturing process in the 1860s that produced them faster, harder and more consistent in size. Many were shipped around the country, McMillan says.
The dimensions of the plats and placement of houses on them became a distinguishing characteristic of the area. “Homes were often built on very narrow lots, usually near the very edge, and a lot of times they had a bonus house in the back accessed by a narrow corridor called a mousehole,” Garcia says.
“Julia, I think, had the foresight to realize that housing was at a premium and [created] narrow parcels that were deep enough to allow for multiple units,” McMillan says. “The homeowner lived in the front; the alley house became a rental property.” The result permitted the maximum number of housing units on a property to accommodate as many immigrants as possible.
“Every brick tells a story of an immigrant family making it in America.”
– Maureen McMillan
Yet, despite this similarity, a wide variety of styles emerged: for workers, small flats, row houses and flounder or half-flounder houses with only one slope for the roof; for prosperous homeowners, large houses in the Italianate and Second Empire style, and a smattering of Greek Revival, McMillan says.
“Back in the day, real estate agents were helping immigrants, who oftentimes came to this country with nothing but the clothes on their back, [to] take their wages and build generational wealth through real estate,” Garcia says.
A Brewer’s Dream
Soulard’s location helped spur other industries. “St. Louis was very well situated near those two major waterways [Missouri and Mississippi], [which] made it kind of an ideal location for early industries, most of which were focused on natural resources, timber, agricultural products,” McMillan says.
Beer making became popular. “Beneath these streets lies a massive network of limestone caves, providing the perfect conditions to naturally store and age beer,” Garcia says.
“The German immigrants who came in brought the beer-making tradition with them, and then many of them became very successful,” McMillan says. Eberhard Anheuser and son-in-law Adolphus Busch co-founded what became Anheuser-Busch Beer around 1864. Production halted during Prohibition, then resumed, and in 2008 InBev, a Dutch company, bought it. Iconic brands are still made at the 142-acre Soulard site where some original buildings stand.
Familiar Story: Urban Decay and Renewal
Economic ups and downs and political upheavals changed the neighborhood. “In the aftermath of World War II, by the middle of the ‘40s, ‘50s, Soulard had definitely taken a downward turn,” McMillan says.
The area began to experience the familiar exodus to the suburbs as automobiles became more prevalent. “We started seeing urban flight and an eminent domain came through and took a lot of land for the interstate,” Garcia says.
In the late ‘60s and ‘70s, so-called urban pioneers returned to develop properties in Soulard and neighboring communities of Benton Park and Lafayette Square and prevent demolition of buildings. “Many were looking for a more authentic way to live with a sense of place and history,” says McMillan, who has lived in Soulard for most of her life, now in a circa 1870 vernacular townhouse.
“The plan among local civic leaders was to demolish the entire neighborhood and build kind of modern townhomes, suburban style,” McMillan says.
“It wasn’t until 1972 that Soulard gained its local district designation, created by city ordinance,” Garcia says. It was also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The Certified Local District designation happened later in 1982. Soulard is one of only a few historic districts with both the National Register and Certified Local District designation, McMillan says.
Garcia says having an expert like McMillan as an independent resource aids the work selling Soulard properties: “Having a historic preservationist like Maureen … helps open up the field for all those people wanting to buy a home that needs work and make it their own.”
Soulard’s authenticity and walkability to the market, cafes, bars, shops and churches have made it a desirable place to live, not just for natives but those relocating.
Case in point: Linda and Wayne Arndt. The couple relocated a year ago from suburban New Jersey. “When we first moved here, Wayne used to say, ‘Do we really own this or are we on vacation?’” says Linda.
“When we retired, we wanted to be mortgage free,” Wayne says. “We also wanted to move to be near family.” They now live a six-minute walk from son Joseph and enjoy their neighborhood’s small-town feel with a panoply of services and proximity to cultural offerings.
“We found we could afford here and be part of a historic community that we felt like we would appreciate,” Linda says. They purchased a fully renovated 1880 historic home with French mansard roof for $325,000. They view ownership as temporary. “I feel like a steward of it. It’s a piece of history, and we want to take care of it and pass it on,” Wayne says.
Soulard’s historic guidelines have guided its preservation. “The designation as a Certified Local District gave us the opportunity to create design guidelines that restrict demolition, set standards for rehabilitation and so create a layer of protection for the fabric that’s left in the neighborhood,” McMillan says.
State tax credit programs also have helped underwrite the cost of a historically appropriate residential rehab, McMillan says. “My job is to keep that momentum going and make the daunting task of restoring a 150-year-old home financially possible.”
Over time, Soulard’s borders have expanded beyond its initial 124 acres and its reputation has spread. “There is no better-conserved collection of 18th-centry vernacular architecture built for common people in the city,” says Michael R. Allen, Ph.D., research fellow for the National Building Arts Center.
Garcia agrees, “From Julia Soulard’s historic lawsuit to today’s thriving community, Soulard proves that when you protect your architectural past, you build a bright future.”
