Charles G. Stifel House

A two-story house set back on a raised lawn behind a low granite wall, with carved posts topped by balls flanking the front steps. The five-bay front is cream-painted stone, framed by paneled corner pilasters and divided by belt courses. Each tall window has a projecting molded cap. At the center, polished granite columns with carved stone capitals carry a small porch over double entry doors, with an iron-railed balcony above. A plain brick parapet with a single diamond inset crowns the front. The side walls are red brick, with a two-story bay on the east side. A large two-story brick wing extends to the rear, lettered Polish Falcons of America, with its own side entrance under a small gabled hood.

Built in 1880–81 for Col. Charles G. Stifel, owner of the north side’s City Brewery, at a cost of $20,000. The builders were C. Linnenkahl and A. H. Haesler. Stifel was born in Neuffen, Württemberg, in 1819, came to St. Louis in 1849 and built his own brewery. In 1861 he commanded the 5th Regiment, U.S. Reserve Corps, for six months before returning to brewing. The Second Empire house had a limestone front and a steep slate mansard roof crowned by a central tower. It was the earliest surviving home built by a German-American in St. Louis Place. A brick carriage house and stable followed in 1890 and 1891. In 1898 Stifel paid for a statue of Friedrich Schiller in St. Louis Place Park, diagonally across the street. He died in 1900, and his son Otto, a prominent businessman, lived on in the house. In 1931 the house became the home of Polish Falcons of America Nest 45, a Polish gymnastic and fraternal society founded in St. Louis in 1905. In 1940 the mansard and tower were removed and replaced with a flat roof behind brick parapets. On the east side the two-story bay lost its gabled dormer, and the ornate arched side porch behind it is gone. The Falcons held gymnastics, baseball and an annual Polish festival here, and sold the building in 2019 to the Roberts Brothers.