United States · Missouri · St. Louis
Compton Heights, St. Louis — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Compton Heights holds high ground east of South Grand Boulevard in St. Louis, its curving streets laid out in 1889 below the Compton Hill Water Tower.
About Compton Heights
Where to stay in Compton Heights
The right area depends on your trip — here's what each neighbourhood is best for.
Compton Heights is residential to the property line, so a bed here means the boundary streets rather than the private blocks inside. South Grand Boulevard closes the west and carries the bus line, with Saint Louis University to the north and Tower Grove Park a short way south along the same boulevard. Interstate 44 runs along the top of the quarter and heads east toward downtown St.
Louis. Shenandoah Avenue draws the southern line, and Tower Grove East starts on the far side of it. Nebraska Avenue shuts the east.
If you want a quiet street with a main road at the door, book this edge.
About Compton Heights
What are the main landmarks in Compton Heights?
Compton Hill Reservoir Park takes the north-west corner of Compton Heights, a public park on one of the highest points in St. Louis. The Compton Hill Water Tower stands inside it, a standpipe tower of 1898 by the architect Harvey Ellis, retired from water service in 1929 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. A bronze figure stands south of it.
The Naked Truth went up in 1914 in honour of three editors of the German-language Westliche Post. The Magic Chef Mansion sits east of the park at 3400 Russell Boulevard, a French Renaissance Revival house of 1908 built for the stove manufacturer Charles Stockstrom.
What is the history of Compton Heights?
Compton Heights was platted in 1889 by the surveyor Julius Pitzman, who had already laid out Benton Place and Vandeventer Place elsewhere in St. Louis. He drew serpentine streets in place of a grid. The two main ones he named Hawthorne Boulevard and Longfellow Boulevard.
Every lot went out under deed restrictions: one private residence to a lot, a fixed building line, and no flats or trade. The first permit came in 1890. Heavy building followed in the years around the 1904 World's Fair, when merchants and manufacturers of German descent put up the turreted brick houses that still stand along the two boulevards.
Where is Compton Heights?
Four edges hold Compton Heights: Interstate 44 north, Nebraska Avenue east, Shenandoah Avenue south, and South Grand Boulevard west.
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Updated September 2026