Givens Row

Givens Row in the Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood is one of the few surviving structures from the Gilded Age in the greater midtown area. Designed in the Italianate style in 1884 by Joseph Givens, this Row was built along Delmar Boulevard at a time when Midtown was one of the wealthiest areas to live in St. Louis. One of the indicators of the wealth in the area was the presence of stone fronted facades on many of the buildings, including Givens Row. Joseph Givens had joined his father’s architectural firm, which had designed many of the buildings for the downtown campus of Washington University, which was located on Washington Ave near 18th Street at the time. The Givens family, who had an architectural firm, rented out the row from the time they were built until about 1922. In 1930, Joseph Givens left an endowment with Washington University that would fund the creation of the School of Architecture. By the 1940s, the area was not considered a wealthy neighborhood anymore and the area was considered dangerous by many people at the time. The 1960s saw the demolition of many of the historic houses in the area between Delmar and Easton (now MLK), and many were replaced with affordable housing units that were built to resemble the 19th century row houses that they replaced. However, Givens Row was spared because the owners of the westernmost building refused to sell their building to the developers, and fought for preservation of the historic buildings in the area. As a result of these preservation efforts, several building buildings along Delmar were able to survive. However, by 2006, only the western building was occupied, and the eastern building had been purchased by Paul McKee, who owned many abandoned properties in North St. Louis at the time. Months after his purchase, the building was set on fire by arsonists, most likely because McKee left many of his properties including this one unsecured, allowing the arsonists easy access. As a result, two of the buildings had to be demolished in 2007, leaving the western building as the lone survivor today. Despite the losses of two of the buildings, Givens Row survives as a reminder of the wealthy residents that lived in this neighborhood during the 1880s.

2005 photo before the fire