The Benton Park area underwent a radical change in the late 19th century, transitioning from a sparsely populated landscape of isolated homesteads and Civil War defenses into a fully realized residential district. It was during this time that the Sidney Street house was born.

In the 1860s, the landscape was defined by the sprawling earthworks and tactical embankments of Fort Number 3, a Union stronghold that once guarded the city’s southern approaches. At the time, the area was largely undeveloped, marked by wide gaps between the few existing structures and the looming presence of the fort. According to the 1875 Compton and Dry map of St. Louis, this fort occupied the land enclosed by McNair, Sidney, Salena, and Lynch streets from 1861-1865.1 The lumber used to construct the fort was sold at auction on August 17, 1865, yet its footprint remains visible on the 1875 map.2

The Compton and Dry map not only pinpoints the location of this defining neighborhood structure, but also uncovers a compelling historical surprise—evidence that the property was home to an earlier residence long before the current house was built.

We know that the house now numbered 1924–1926 Sidney Street was under construction in 1890, as a newspaper article reported that a laborer working on a “new building at 1924 Sidney Street” became overheated and was taken to City Hospital. However, the 1875 Compton and Dry map clearly depicts a dwelling in nearly the same location. Census records from 1870 and 1880 also list residents at 1924 Sidney, further reinforcing the conclusion that an earlier structure occupied the site before the present building was constructed.

One solid piece of evidence for this earlier building comes from the papers of the Feldwisch family, who owned several lots on City Block 1798—the site of our present-day house. As early as 1866, John H. Feldwisch, a brickmaker, was residing at a property near Sidney and Liberty (present day Salena Ave). When he died in 1873, his estate inventory listed lots 20, 21, 22, and 23 along the south side of Sidney Street among his holdings. Notably, one of these lots contained “a two-story brick dwelling house, containing eight rooms, a garret and a cellar underneath,” as well as “a two-story brick smokehouse, a wood shed, and a cistern.”3

Finally, an 1883 map provides conclusive evidence of an earlier house on the site. The map depicts a dwelling on Sidney Street near Union (yet another name for Salena), positioned at the boundary between the Fairmount Addition and the Shirley Place Addition. In the fine print, the building is labeled with the address 1922–1924, further confirming its presence at that location.4

  1. Compton & Dry, Pictorial St. Louis, 1875, plates 27 and 37, Library of Congress. ↩︎
  2. St. Louis Globe-Democrat, 15 Aug. 1865, p. 1. ↩︎
  3. Probate Case Files, 1802–1876. Missouri Probate Court (St. Louis County), St. Louis, Missouri. Missouri, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1766–1988. Ancestry.com, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. ↩︎
  4. Griffith Morgan Hopkins, Atlas of the City of St. Louis, Missouri (Philadelphia: G. M. Hopkins, 1883). ↩︎