The Vandeventer Place Gates in Infrared - No. 2

Infrared photo.

These gates, now located in Forest Park, once graced the entrance of one of the most luxurious neighborhood in St. Louis, Missouri. Vandeventer Place was a luxury development located in the Vandeventer neighborhood bounded by what is now Dr. Martin Luther King Drive on the North, Delmar Boulevard on the South, Vandeventer Avenue on the East, and Newstead Avenue on the West.

Vandeventer Place was founded by Peter Lewis Vandeventer, who came to St. Louis in the 1860s with brothers William and Henry Barnum Vandeventer. Peter Lewis Vandeventer and Henry Barnum Vandeventer were Wall Street stockbrokers with a firm located at 6 Wall St., New York City. They made their money from selling stocks and took the train west to St. Louis to invest it in land.

Peter Lewis Vandeventer died in 1879, during the development of Vandeventer Place, a gated, luxurious private place with stately mansions and a beautiful fountain as its centerpiece. His Missouri estate was managed by several corrupt lawyers, who stole much of the money from the sale of the lots at Vandeventer Place. His family remained in St. Louis for some time after his death, living in Vandeventer Place in a large mansion. Like many private streets in St. Louis, Vandeventer Place was a closed street, and consequently needed elaborate gates to keep out “undesirables.”

Vandeventer Place reached the pinnacle of its glory in the 1890's, when it contained the luxurious mansions of the City's wealthiest citizens. Among these were David R. Franci former mayor, governor, and later president of the World's Fair, and H. Clay Pierce, an oil magnate whose home was-said to have cost $800,000 in the days of low construction costs.

By 1910, the noise, smoke and dirt of the City had surrounded Vandeventer Place, which began a valiant effort to maintain its high standards. However, it proved to be a losing battle. Vandeventer Place met with its demise in 1947, when the eastern half was demolished for a Veterans' Administration hospital. The western portion was demolished about ten years later, when the City acquired it as the site for a children's detention home. The fountain and the east gates shown here were moved to Forest Park by the Jewel Box in 1950.

The neighborhood currently holds one of the highest crime rates in the St. Louis area

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Taken in: United States / Missouri / St. Louis (show map)

Taken on: October 9, 2016

Tags:

Vandeventer Place Gates

Infrared

St. Louis

Missouri

Nikon

D800

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Sets appears in: • Explored • Architecture more » • Monochrome « less

Groups appears in: • St. Louis • Missouri more » • St Louis • StL Architecture • missouriphoto.net • Forest Park • Missouri Photographers • Saint Louis, Missouri • Missouri in Photographs • St. Louis Photographers • MISSOURI ARCHITECTURE • Riverfront Times • Geotagged: Missouri • in explore « less

Camera: Nikon D800, f/4.0, 3 sec, 24mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D800
Lens:	24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8
Aperture:	f/4.0
Exposure Time:	3
Focal Length:	24mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Sharpness:	Hard
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CC 2015.5 (Windows)
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