Glasgow Ave and Gamble Street Row Houses

This large row house on Gamble Street in the Jeff Vanderlou neighborhood is one of the largest surviving rows in the city, and survives in a well preserved state despite being in a neighborhood that has faced significant decline. The row dates to around the late 1860s or early 1870s, and was built when the neighborhood was relatively wealthy, and had a mixture of wealthy and middle class residences, as can be seen with the number of stone fronted facades in the area. The structure is present on the Compton and Dry map in 1875, and was part of what was then known as Yeatman Square. The neighborhood became the home of several industrial facilities in the early 20th century, including a Coca Cola plant on Garrison Ave, which employed many of the people living in the Row houses. By the 1940s, the area began to decline, and this was accelerated and this was accelerated with the process of redlining, the completion of Pruitt Igoe and the clearance of Mill Creek Valley, when the poorer residents moved into the neighborhood and the property values were subsequently reduced. The neighborhood has continued to see disinvestment ever since, although many of the historic buildings have survived in spite of the decline. This row is still occupied today, although the first floor windows are boarded up to prevent break ins. Only a handful of other Row houses in the city have as many surviving houses as this one, particularly in North St. Louis.