By the mid-1860s, the St. Louis neighborhood of Benton Park West was already self-sufficient, boasting its own carpenters and dairymen, blacksmith and midwife. While it was a working-class community, many residents owned their own businesses and built beautiful homes that still stand today. Author Edna Campos Gravenhorst takes readers on four separate walking tours of the historic district, highlighting such buildings as the 1860s Eyermann home, the stately Herold mansion, the 1893 Gravois Planing Mill, and the Cherokee Brewery.
A member of the Missouri Valley Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians, Ms. Gravenhorst is the author of Historical Home Research in the City of St. Louis and T© de Canela. She owns a historic home research business, Three Nosey Broads, and enjoys preserving local Blues and Jazz history.