The Silas H.H Clark mansion at 3501 Pine was built in 1880 for Clark by Frank Bradford in 1879. Clark was a President of the Union Pacific Railroad, and used his fortunes to build this Italianate mansion on Pine in Midtown, which was one of the city’s most exclusive neighborhoods at the time. In 1902, the mansion was sold to a horseshoes named Ed Butler, who lived in the mansion until 1911, and his widow Ellen continued to live here until 1922. By the 1920s and into the Great Depression, this area had become more industrial, and was no longer an ideal place for wealthy families to live, and they ended up moving to the Central West End. By 1940, the mansion was owned by Nick Uvizel, an auto repair mechanic, which in itself showed how the area had changed in demographics from a wealthy area to a more working class neighborhood. To the east of the mansion was the historic African American neighborhood of Mill Creek Valley, which had been one of the original areas that African American families were allowed to live and own businesses. By the 1940s and 1950s, the area was considered “blighted” and was labeled as a “slum”, along with many of the city’s older neighborhoods. However, unlike many other historic neighborhoods that were saved, such as Soulard and Lafayette Square, the Mill Creek Valley was almost entirely demolished in 1960. Today the site is used as the St. Louis University athletic fields, and as apartments.
