1700s House at 4th and Poplar, 1899

From the Catalogue of the Annual Exhibition of the Saint Louis Architectural Club (1899). The architectural club not only provided images of late 19th century architecture, but also an absolutely marvelous retrospective on St. Louis architecture of the previous century. In one photograph, the club shows the oldest extant structure in St. Louis in 1899 -- what they described as a frame house, built in the late 1700s, located on 4th Street north of Poplar. Imagine, for a moment, what St. Louis might look like with historic structures from the 1700s tucked within an awe-inspiring downtown of terracotta and steel and glass skyscrapers.

The location of the house is now the intersection of I-64 and the Poplar Street Bridge.

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