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Profile of The Central West End Neighborhood

by Sid Cameron, (Data by: U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000)

Perhaps the grandest of Saint Louis neighborhoods is the Central West End. Stretching from the Midtown business district to Forest Park, The Central West End has long played home to some of St. Louis' wealthiest families and finest homes.

Following the Civil War, Saint Louis grew rapidly. By 1870 it was the 4th largest city in the U.S. and one of the wealthiest. But increased industrialization brought pollution to older parts of the city, so as the city grew and expanded the well-to-do began to look westward to develop new neighborhoods of grand homes and elegant living.

In 1870 a real estate developer name Hiram Leffingwell decided a major urban park, like New York's Central Park, would be the ideal draw to attract affluent home buyer's to the subdivisions of homes he wished to build. After several years of political wrangling, Leffingwell got the St. Louis County government (the city was still a part of the county at that time) to buy 1,372 acres of remote forest land more than a mile west of the city's established borders to serve as this modern urban park. Named Forest Park, it's opening in 1876 is what spurred the development of The Central West End.

By the late 1880's construction of the eastern half of the Central West End was well under way when city leaders decided to showcase the city of Saint Louis to the world by hosting the 1904 World's Fair and Olympic Games. Since the mostly undeveloped Forest Park was a natural place to hold the fair, it became imperative that the homes on the western side of the Central West End be built as some of the largest and grandest homes in the city to showcase the city's wealth and power to the 20 million visitors that attended the fair.

Today Forest Park continues to be a major influence on why people choose to live in the Central West End. The park offers a wide variety of outdoor activity such as biking, hiking and running trails, a 9 hole public golf course, tennis and handball courts, as well as the Steinberg Ice Skating Rink, History, Science and Art Museums, the St. Louis Zoo and Muny Outdoor Theatre.

The largest employer in the Central West End is the Barnes-Jewish Hospital, the largest hospital in Missouri and the largest private employer in the St. Louis region. A teaching hospital associated with the Washington University School of Medicine, Barnes-Jewish has over 1,800 member medical staff and has been recognized by U.S. News and World Reports as one of the best hospitals in the U.S. for 16 consecutive years.

The Central West End also benefits from close proximity to major employers such as St. Louis University and downtown Saint Louis to the east and Washington University and downtown Clayton to the west which can all be accessed quite quickly by the east-west running Interstate 64 (also known locally as Highway 40), a four-lane divided highway named Forest Park Parkway as well as the region's MetroLink subway system and Metro bus system.

The Central West End's has a thriving business district filled with some of the region's trendiest restaurants, bars and boutique shops. In recent years, neighborhood redevelopment has been boosted by the reopening of the Chase Park Plaza, perhaps one of the grandest hotels in the St. Louis area and other redevelopment along Maryland Avenue.

The Central West End is also known for it's many street fairs and festivals like the Art Fair every June, Balloon Race (in Forest Park) in September and the annual Halloween Party every October.

Highlights from the U.S. Census taken in 2000 includes:

Saint Louis, Missouri Demographic for zip code 63108 (includes most of the Central West End Neighborhood) Profile Highlights:

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