Grand South Grand House Tour

Tell us the story of how you chose your house. What makes your house your "home"?
I had been looking at house with my great realtor, Sal Dinolfo, for about 6 months. He had patiently shown me house after house in neighborhoods all over South City. One night, after looking a t a house I was about to decide to buy, we swung by a new listing. I noticed that while there was a condemned house next door, the rest of the street looked very quiet and well-kept. One of the neighbors even had a great deal of very pretty statuary in the yard! If they could keep that statuary in good shape then there couldn't me too much vandalism in the area. Otherwise the yard art would have been damaged. A friend who was helping me look at houses and I went in. We saw the big, open Arts & Crafts style with built-in stained glass and I was sold. Even though the the house is a modest 2-bedroom, 1 bath home, the classic layout gives it a much bigger feel. The house is not what makes this home to me. Its the small town feel of living in the neighborhoods around Tower Grove Park that ties it all up in a nice package. St. Louis is big enough to feel like the other cities I've lived in (San Francisco, Los Angeles among others) but the closeness and comradery yet diverse kinds of people of the Tower grove neighborhoods makes it feel like Cicely, Alaska without the snow. The upshot is if you always wanted to live a version of "Northern Exposure" Tower Grove East is the closest thing to it!

What does your neighborhood mean to you? Why do you stay?
My neighborhood is a great example of how people with different backgrounds can live together peacefully and even happily. My neighbors run the gamut from white, middle-class to New Americans from China, Bosnia, Africa and Vietnam. We look different and we may even decorate the outsides of homes differently but we share one thing -- we all want a good, peaceful life. Also, I love living near Grand and the Park! I can walk to restaurants and I can take my dogs walking as well. I stay because the combination of good people, gracious bricks and commitment to making this a better part of the world are an unbeatable combination. Where else could I find all that? The suburbs? I don't think so.

How do you describe the neighborhood to your family? your friends? Are the two descriptions different?
I tell people I live in a vibrant, artistic, grand old part of town that feels like a cross between Cicely, Alaska, San Francisco and a touch of Dublin, Ireland with the architectural styles. It is defined by a Victorian park rivaled by few in the States.

Tell us the ideal snapshot of the neighborhood in 5 years. In 10 years.
In 5 years -- no board-ups and all those buildings will have been rehabbed or, if past rehabilitation, then they have been torn down. On South Grand, how about a great pet store and a bakery to go with the nice selection of stores already on South grand? Also, I would like to see the Grand South Grand business district positively infect Grand south of the district so that the area around Gravois and Grand takes on more of the elan of the stores already on South Grand near Arsenal. 10 years --I would love to see more of the unused corner businesses in the neighborhoods filled in away from Grand (much like the fun new Shenandoah Crossings). That would extend the activity throughout the neighborhoods.

Tell us the story of how you chose your house. What makes your house your "home"?
I came to St. Louis to visit a friend who had moved into the area, and fell in love, not with a person-that came later) but with the architecture and history that surrounded me. I loved it so much that I decided to leave my hometown of Memphis TN and move here. I rented the downstairs unit of a two-family, with wonderful plasterwork, an oldfashioned telephone nook in the hallway, and lots of "issues" :-). The house next door to the two-family I rented was vacant, and looked like it would fall down in a strong wind. Everytime I walked outside that house called to me! It had such beautiful lines and I could tell that at one time it was a home to be proud of. After about a year and a half, I contacted the owner and talked him into selling it to me and my new husband (I married during the time I was living in the two-family). Everyone thought we were nuts for buying a house where the top floor had been abandoned for 40 years and buckets were placed every two or three feet to catch the water where the roof had collapsed, and the bottom floor had been used as rental property and badly maintained. But we did it, and we've never regretted it for a minute. It has taken several years and lots of hard work, but "this old money-pit" as we affectionately call it, is now becoming a home to be proud of once more. We still have a ways to go, but every day brings us a little closer.

What does your neighborhood mean to you? Why do you stay?
Shaw Neighborhood's proximity to downtown, Tower Grove Park, Forest Park, the Science Center, the Botanical Gardens, and so many other sites and places that are fun to visit, make it the ideal place for us. Combine that with the friendliness of the people here and the true feeling of "neighborliness" that exists on our street, and you have the perfect situation, all the conveniences of a city but with a small town attitude. An added attraction is that we both work in the county, and we can hop on I44 and be at work in 15 minutes with little or no traffic to deal with.

How do you describe the neighborhood to your family? your friends? Are the two descriptions different?
Not at all. I tell my friends and my family exactly the same thing. Its an urban area where there is lots of diversity and lots of interesting things to do, and we couldn't imagine being as happy anywhere else.

Tell us about the ideal snapshot of the neighborhood in 5 years. In 10 years.
In five to ten years I can't see the neighborhood changing to any large degree other than getting even better than it is now. There are still a few "rough" pockets here and there that will hopefully be gone in that time frame, but other than that I can see the neighborhood just continuing to be a place where people are accepted and welcomed without reservation.