Featured Apartment:
St. Louis-Hortense Place-We've got a newly-renovated one bedroom unit in University City that has a great layout for roommates who need their privacy but also need a one-bedroom sized rent. In this apartment, we've put a door on the living room, so it can be used as a second bedroom. Studio apartments, lofts, and efficiency apartments also available. View More Listings -->
Hortense Place Information
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.