This Greek Revival house on South Twelfth Street in Soulard was built in the 1850s or early 1860s on the hills of Soulard that overlook the Mississippi River. As the original plots on the land developed by Julia Soulard began to fill up in the northern part of Soulard, many of the wealthy residents began to look to the hills further south, starting in the mid 1850s. The section of street on which the house was built was originally known as Rosatti, and it was still listed under that name on the 1875 Compton and Dry map of St. Louis, but by the early 1890s, the street had been renamed to South Twelfth. At this time, the house was owned by Oscar and Rosalind Bleeck. Oscar was a clerk for the 41st precinct in the Ninth Ward, and Rosalind was on the Board of Education. Soulard had become a fully urban neighborhood by the 1880s, and the area was filled with a mix of German and Eastern European immigrants from mixed income levels. Soulard continued to thrive into the early 20th century, but it began to decline in the 1940s as the wealthy residents moved out and were replaced by poor rural people who had moved to St. Louis to find work after the Great Depression. The neighborhood was listed as a slum in the 1947 comprehensive plan of the city, and it was planned for an eventual urban renewal project. In 1952, land was cleared for highway 55, which exacerbated the problem of decline, along with suburban flight. In the 1970s, preservationists had Soulard listed as both a National Register Historic District, as well as a local historic district, and the restoration of Soulard began. Today, Soulard is one of the best known historic neighborhoods in St. Louis, and has the highest number of pre Civil War era buildings of any neighborhood in the city. This building on South Twelfth is a well preserved example of one, likely due to its modest size, which set it apart from many of its larger neighbors built during the Gilded Age.
The house on the 1875 Compton and Dry map