Location
Pershing Place is included in the Central West End Local Historic District, which St. Louis established by Ordinance 56768 (approved June 19, 1974) and which the National Park Service certified and deemed eligible for inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places on November 15, 1979. The District includes neighbors Lenox, Hortense, Portland and Westmoreland streets.
Historical Context
Many visitors to the neighborhood frequently ask when most of the street’s houses were built. The answer is during the time of the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair (formally known as the Louisiana Purchase Exposition) and a touchstone in the city’s history. Pershing Place has a few direct links to the Fair. Some houses were built to accommodate their owners’ Fair visitors. The Russian delegation leased No. 4946 Berlin Avenue in August 1903 to serve as the Russian headquarters during the Fair (detailed in an April 1975 Missouri Historical Society Bulletin). In addition, the Hotel Berlin was built on the south side of the street at Taylor to accommodate Fair visitors. The hotel was torn down in 1979 and replaced with common-wall townhouses with its fashionable-in-1904 buff brick reused on the rear exterior of the townhouses.
Notable merchant, Peter Lindell, for whom Lindell Boulevard is named, originally purchased extensive real estate that eventually formed what is known today as the Central West End. St. Louis County (before the city and county separated) Surveyor William H. Cozens surveyed his property, including Peter Lindell’s Second Addition in 1862. A map of the area on file at the Missouri History Museum provides the first image that the residents have found showing Berlin Avenue, located between Taylor and Kingshighway. (Later, the street name was extended both east and west of this initial designation.) The map also shows present-day Euclid as Lake Avenue, with long-gone Cabanne Lake located south of today’s Lindell Boulevard.
Pershing Place has been home to numerous notable residents over the years, including directors for some of St. Louis’ most prominent institutions, such as the Art Museum, the History Museum, the Science Center, the Symphony, the Public Library, and several Euclid restauranteurs, etc. Beat Generation author William S. Burroughs, whose bust is among those at the four corners of the Euclid and McPherson intersection, was born and spent his early childhood at 4664 Pershing Pl and noted sex researchers Masters and Johnson lived at 4529 Pershing Pl for a time. An episode of the old Route 66 TV show (1960-1964) was even filmed at a house in the 4600 block, according to local lore.
The Founding of Pershing Place
Near the end of World War I, the city of St. Louis passed Ordinance 30207 on October 25, 1918, renaming Berlin Avenue to Pershing Avenue after General John J. Pershing of WWI. Unlike most private streets in the Central West End that were established as private streets, Pershing was originally a public street open to through traffic. After World War II, the street’s residents signed an agreement on October 31, 1953 to take responsibility for the 'right-of-way' of the street, which was filed December 8, 1953 in the Recorder of Deeds Book 7347, page 576. In addition to regular city taxes, and with aid from taxes which we contribute as part of the North Central West End, the PPIA and private residents maintain the gates, tree canopy, landscaping, electrical, and street surfacing of Pershing Place.
Two years after accepting responsibility for the 'right-of-way', on December 5, 1955, the city passed Ordinance 47652, which vacated the street right-of-way turning it over to the residents on completion of certain conditions within 120 days, which the residents accomplished with a February 2, 1956 Recorder of Deeds filing in Book 7597 page 143. Key residents at the time signing the agreement were Norris H. Allen (attorney); Lindell Gordon, Jr.; Sam M. Kennard III; J. B. McDonald; and Edward F. Schlafly. However, it was not until more than a decade and a half later, on July 2, 1972 that the city passed Ordinance 56250 officially naming Pershing Avenue as Pershing Place. The large gates at Walton Row were installed in the late 1950s and are storied to be an Anheuser-Busch contribution.
Community Living
The Central West End, nestled between Washington University and Saint Louis University is host to several landmarks. The historical Chase Hotel, The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis, and many restaurants and shops and the Schlafly branch of the St. Louis Public Library are just a few. Within walking distance of Pershing Place lies Forest Park. Larger than New York City's Central Park, it boasts the world-renowned Saint Louis Zoo, the History Museum, the Science Center and Planetarium, the Saint Louis Art Museum, the MUNY opera house, the Jewel Box and World's Fair Pavilion, as well as lakes, a boathouse, fountains and natural landscaping, a public golf course, stables, multiple playgrounds, a recreational sports center and facilities in addition to miles of walking and riding trails. In the winter, the Steinberg Rink and Art Hill are host to ice skating and sledding. World class Barnes Jewish Hospital and Washington University Medical Campus and Facilities border the neighborhood's south end.
