Lafayette Square Parlor Tour 2024

12 | Lafayette Square Parlor Tour | 2024 This stately 19 room Italianate mansion was designed by George Barnett to be a summer home for John and SophiaVogel at a cost of $15,000.Vogel was the president of St. Louis Mutual Fire Insurance Company. His home was designed by famous architect George I. Barnett, who also designed the Grand Avenue water tower, the Missouri Governor’s mansion,Tower Grove House and other famous buildings.The building combines Italianate and classical designs featuring stone columns and reliefs above some windows.Above the first-floor windows on either side of the front door you will see two sculptured heads which are stylized likenesses of SophiaVogel in her youth.The deep red ionic columns of Missouri granite flanking the doors were mined from local quarries. The home features the hipped roof and transom windows seen in many early Italianate buildings despite this being a later example of the architecture.This house stands today as one of the finest examples of Italianate residential architecture. The home was built in stages from the back to the front, from the 1840s to the 1890s. In the later additions the ceilings are an impressive 14 feet tall.The entry foyer features a stunning walnut staircase that continues to the third floor.The spindles are original including the tiles inlaid in the newel posts.When they were refinished a few years ago, the refinisher replicated the missing tiles along the sides with faux paintings.The walnut, mahogany and cherry woodwork throughout the house is original, although some of it has been refinished.That in the dining room, however, retains its original faux graining done by an early master as it is difficult to distinguish from real wood grain.The original hand painted ceiling in the foyer is not to be missed. During the early 1920s the house was converted into a rooming house and had deteriorated as a result.At one point there were 13 2-room apartments in use. Luckily, in 1973 it was sold and the owners invested years of painstaking effort restoring the damage and returning the home to its original beauty and grace.When they sold the house in 1999 the kitchen was renovated, the third floor was finished, and a pool was installed in the backyard. In 2014 the previous owners renovated the kitchen to a state of the art cooking palace! They installed a bath on the third floor, put in a new pool deck, and a patio connecting the house with the carriage house and pool...a perfect center for entertaining and family gatherings. 3 1515 Missouri