St. Louis, MO – As the clean-up continues from the May 16th tornado that devastated large swaths of North St. Louis city, a south city neighborhood that recovered from a massive twister in 1896 knows the recovery could be a long one.
Vince Volpe, president of the Lafayette Square Restoration Committee, says the May 1896 tornado took out every tree in Lafayette Park and most of the homes in the neighborhood.
"It [the neighborhood] went into a 70-year decline," Volpe says. "It wasn't until the late 1960s that homeowners began to come in and buy up these dilapidated homes. It was a very wealthy neighborhood in 1896, but maybe that's even more to the point."
Referring to the damage in neighborhoods like Fairground Park and the Ville, Volpe says, "Even the wealthy people [of Lafayette Square] weren't able to rebuild very quickly and moved to other parts of the city. So you need to pull together as a neighborhood and a community, which is I think what's been happening right now in St. Louis."
Hear KMOX interview with Vince Volpe of Lafayette Square Restoration Committee here:
The neighborhood became the city's first National Historic District and homes purchased in the 1960s for $15,000 are now million dollar mansions. Volpe says it took a lot of grit and determination, but it's proof it can be done.
This weekend, June 7 & 8, is the 56th annual Lafayette Square Spring Home & Garden Show, back for the first time since 2019, before the pandemic. Eleven homes and two gardens are on the tour. There will also be a spring market, trolley rides, horse-drawn carriage, a vintage 19th century baseball game and more.
Advance tickets are $40, day of it's $50. Get tickets here.
