Hortense Place Apartments
Hortense Place Apartment Listings
Hortense Place is one of the City’s finest existing examples of the private street concept. These streets, including Portland and Westmoreland Places, Compton Heights, and Lenox and Pershing Places, were created in the second half of the 19th century to provide wealthy St. Louisans with islands of calm in a flood of commercial development.
As the name implies, private streets are owned and maintained by the property owners, not the City. They typically are closed to through traffic. Elegant, imposing gates often mark their entrance. Deed restrictions dictate such matters as setback, size, minimum building costs and building materials.
While many of the early private streets, such as Lucas and Vandeventer Places, are gone, Hortense Place remains as one of the few private places with all of its original homes intact. Except for the addition of modern street lights (1955), Hortense Place remains a time capsule of early 20th century building styles.
