Gravois Park, St. Louis — Area Guide & Where to Stay

What are the main landmarks in Gravois Park?

Holy Cross Lutheran Church stands on Miami Street, blocks in from the Jefferson Avenue bound. The Froebel Literacy Academy building holds most of a block on Nebraska Avenue. What Gravois Park has is its grid, state-named avenues running north to south, Ohio Avenue and Pennsylvania Avenue among them, crossed by Winnebago Street and Potomac Street, with the namesake park in the middle.

Cherokee Street carries the storefronts. The famous names sit elsewhere: St. Francis de Sales Church beyond Cherokee Street in Fox Park, the Chatillon-DeMenil House over in Benton Park, and Sugarloaf Mound south of Chippewa Street in Mount Pleasant.

What is the history of Gravois Park?

A park carrying the name dates from 1812, long before the surrounding streets were cut, and nineteenth-century writers praised its beauty while the ground beyond it was still open. Gravois Park filled in around it. Its architecture reflects a settlement at the turn of the 20th century, block by block, inside the bounds of Jefferson Avenue, Chippewa Street, Grand Boulevard, and Cherokee Street.

In 1914 the namesake park was written into a walking tour of St. Louis, staged to show off the City Plan Commission's idealized view of the shape of the city.

Where is Gravois Park?

The grid of Gravois Park is drawn by four streets: Jefferson Avenue, Chippewa Street, Grand Boulevard, and Cherokee Street, with the namesake park inside them.