Tower Grove South Neighborhood

The Tower Grove South Neighborhood is positioned directly south of Tower Grove Park and is located in South St Louis City. The borders of the neighborhood are Arsenal Street to the north, Grand Blvd to the east, Chippewa to the south and Kingshighway to the west. The surrounding neighborhoods are North Hampton to the west, the Bevo Mill and Dutchtown neighborhoods to the south, the Gravois Park and Tower Grove East neighborhoods to the east. Tower Grove Park lies to the north.

Education in Tower Grove South Neighborhood

Educational choices for the residents of the Tower Grove South Neighborhood include two schools of the St. Louis Public School District. Fanning Middle School is found on Grace Avenue and Mann Elementary School is found on Juniata Street. Another school, Marion Middle School, is found in the neighborhood as well. It a private all girls Catholic school and a Nativity Miguel school. St. Louis Public Library serves the community, as well, with its Carpenter Branch Library located on South Grand Blvd. It is convenient to the Tower Grove South Neighborhood, as well as the other surrounding neighborhoods.

Shopping and Dining

The area known as "South Grand" is home to an eclectic mix of cultures that has created one of St. Louis' most unique mix of ethnic restaurants, retail shops and businesses. It has shopping and dining options and other businesses located within a 6 block area along South Grand Blvd, all are within easy walking distance from Tower Grove South. South Grand is home to many "fun and funky", one-of-a-kind shops. Unique jewelry boutiques, amazing bakeries, ethnic grocery stores, rare book stores, international gift shops, natural food stores and more. The many fabulous restaurants representing that mix of cultures draw visitors from around the Metro Area. Restaurant choices include Vietnamese, Thai, Ethiopian, Italian, Chinese, Middle Eastern, Japanese, American, Mexican, Lebanese and Mediterranean. Another area that has recently become a shopping, dining and business district in the Tower Grove South Neighborhood is the Morgan Ford Strip. It is located on Morganford starting from Arsenal and going south.

Tower Grove Park

For the residents that live in the Tower Grove South Neighborhood, leisure and recreation is only a short walk away and is provided by one of St. Louis' most beautiful parks, Tower Grove Park! Tower Grove Park was donated by Henry Shaw in 1868 as a gift to the citizens of St. Louis and features 13 restored early 20th century picnic pavilions, as well as athletic fields for soccer, baseball/softball and football, playground, tennis courts and much more.

Residents of Tower Grove South have another benefit that Tower Grove Park provides. Tower Grove Park has been home to the Tower Grove Farmers' Market since 2009. Vendors bring a wide range of goods to be sold, such as in season fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh baked goods, honey, jams, meat, poultry, eggs and dairy products. The Market is held each Saturday, from 8am to noon, beginning early May and running through early November. The Tower Grove Farmers' Market is located at the Pool Pavilion, west of Whitaker Theater.

Houses of Worship in Tower Grove South

Several churches call the Tower Grove South Neighborhood home. Some of them include St. Johns Lutheran Church on Morganford Road, St. John's Episcopal on Arsenal Street, St. Paul United Church of Christ on Giles Avenue and Oak Hill Presbyterian Church on Connecticut Street.

History

Tower Grove South Neighborhood was originally part of the historic St. Louis neighborhood of Oak Hill. Like the surrounding neighborhoods, Tower Grove South also had valuable clay deposits and coal mines and mining operations were established in the mid 1800s. Those mining operations and fire brick plants brought workers and their families who then settled in the area. Gravois Road, that runs through the southeast corner of the neighborhood, has an interesting history. It began in 1804 as a trail to a salt spring. It was then a road to a ferry that crossed the Meramec River. Gravois offically became the public road to Fenton in 1832 and then a State Road in 1839. It also has the distinction as being the first road in Missouri to be paved with concrete which occured in 1914.

Several historic landmarks can be found in the neighborhood. The Mann Elementary School was built in 1901 and designed by William B. Ittner The school was named after Horace Mann, a reformer and advocate of public school education in the late 1830s and is on the National Register of Historic Places. Another landmark, which is also on the National Register, is the South Side National Bank. It was designed by the important national bank design firm, the St. Louis Bank Building & Equipment Company, and built in 1928. The bank occupied the building up until it merged with Allegiant Bank in 2001. The South Side Bank building is located in the "Grand and Gravois Commercial District" along with the other commercial buildings located at the intersection of the two city streets. Another historic landmark on the National Register is the Dickmann Building on South Grand. The Dickmann Building is a tall building for the area, being 6 stories, and was built in 1926 by a realtor, Bernard Dickmann, who later became the mayor of St. Louis in 1932. Tower Grove Heights is a National Register of Historic Places designated "Historic District" that is bounded by South Grand Blvd on the east, Arsenal on the north, Gustine on the west and McDonald on the south. This tract of land was platted and began to be developed in 1881 by the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company which had acquired it due to a client who was in debt. They were not very successful and sold it in 1905 to the Connecticut Realty Company, a company pecifically created to develop it. Most of the 770 homes of the district were then built in a short period of time, between 1905 and 1909, and along with the covenant restrictions, created a uniquely uniform neighborhood. The homes are all two stories high with a protuding front porch and are two bays wide. The variety of each home comes in the many shades of brick used and the different rooflines. The insurance company named some of Tower Grove Heights streets: Hartford and Connecticut for the location of the home office, and Humphreys for the company's president, Humphry Green.

Tower Grove South Neighborhood Related Links:

City of St Louis Website, The Tower Grove South Neighborhood Website