The Beauvais Manor in the Shaw neighborhood is the oldest structure in the neighborhood that exists outside the Botanical Gardens, even dating to before Tower Grove Park. The house was originally built as a Greek Revival mansion for Rene Beauvais in 1867, as one of the later examples of the style. Beauvais had made his fortune as a silversmith and as a watchmaker, and used his money to build a mansion at the city limits (From 1855-1876, the city limits were just west of Grand), in what was a rural area at the time, as shown on the 1875 Compton and Dry map. In 1882, the mansion was converted into a retirement home, and in 1898, wings and a tower were added to the building. The structure remained in use for a century before it was threatened with demolition, after the complex built new buildings behind it. While the wings were ultimately lost, the original part of the building survived, as did the tower. The building remains in use by the retirement home today, and it survives as one of only a handful of remaining Greek Revival mansions in the city. The wings were also rebuilt in 1998, and fit well with the original building.
The Beauvais Manor in the 1875 Compton and Dry map