2009 Old North St. Louis House & Community Tour
14th Street and St. Louis Ave.
Date: May 9, 2009
Time: 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Tickets: $10 in advance ($12 day of tour), available online at our shop or by calling the Restoration Group office at 314-241-5031
If you've been to Crown Candy Kitchen in the past year or so, you've seen a lot of construction across the street at the former 14th Street Mall. On May 9, see what's been going on behind all that chain link and strandboard during the Old North St. Louis Home and Community Tour, when that two-block stretch of rehabbed buildings now rechristened Crown Square is opened to the public. In fact, you'll want to pick up your tour map and program at Old North St. Louis Restoration Group's new office space at 2700 N. 14th Street (which was a Kroger, a furniture store and Worth's Department Store in its former lifetimes) right in the heart of the refurbished strip.
Though Crown Square shows off some of the more dramatic changes in the neighborhood, this annual spring tour has built up a fanbase of repeat visitors because it showcases such a huge range of historic architecture -- some of it dating back 150 years and offers the rare chance to see buildings in various states of rehab, from gutted-and-framed to finished gem. This year's tour features 10 historic homes, as well as a number of gardens; tour-goers can amble through the neighborhood at their leisure, or take advantage of the free shuttle service. Old North St. Louis, which has been dubbed an urban village on the edge of downtown, was recently praised by Kaid Benfield, director of the Smart Growth Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, as the very antithesis of sprawl; St. Louis Magazine proclaimed it "a bankable bet, with a mix of old-timers and energetic newcomers making the nabe click."
Proceeds from tour ticket sales go to support ongoing neighborhood improvement efforts (including more cool projects you may see on the tour next year, or in years to come). And don't forget that the price of your ticket includes a free ice cream cone from Crown Candy Kitchen, which means it all comes full circle you can stand on the corner and look across the street, this time without the mystery, or the chain link fence, obstructing your view.
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