Brick vs. Frame in St. Louis
St. Louis is a brick city. Every block in every neighborhood you see brick. I love St. Louis’ heritage of brick. But I love wood framed structures too.
“Frame” is a reference not just to the exterior material but to the structural construction method. St. Louis’ brick structures are made of structural brick walls.
Newer brick structures are wood framed with a veneer of brick applied. Most framed structures have siding covering the framework.
The above house is a beautiful wood-framed example from my home town of Oklahoma City. Similar homes can be seen in the St. Louis region. This house was never modest, originally built for a growing middle class. In the City of St. Louis frame homes are typically modest:
I love the simplicity of these homes on the Hill North of I-44.
In places you will see frame homes next to the more standard brick, such as above. To my eye the contrast is quite pleasing. With so many stunning brick buildings in the City of St. Louis I think we unfairly dismiss our more humble frame structures.
Both construction methods have their own pros and cons. Both are stable if they have a good foundation and water is kept out. Renovation of each has issues. Frame structures can be insulated easier than brick structures. Ditto for running wiring & plumbing. Wood siding & trim needs paint.  Weatherproof (vinyl) siding & trim ruins the look of these structures. Brick must stay pointed.
– Steve Patterson
I think it’s the modesty of our frame structures that makes me look down on them somewhat–as opposed to, say, my husband’s southern illinois small town childhood home, where everything is frame and stucco and seems perfectly normal. The frame houses here, except perhaps in neighborhoods like the hill and dogtown, always look out of place, like an afterthought.
I love our brick. I love that in the tower grove neighborhoods (and probably others), colored bricks like beige, and white stone, are used on the front of the houses and the humble red brick wraps around the sides and back. Mine is red brick all around, and I love the solid feel and look to it.
I have no love for vinyl siding, and, unfortunately, that seems to be the de facto exterior finish material of choice for 90%+ of all the frame structures around here (that aren’t blessed with a brick-veneer exterior finish). Fiber cement siding is a much better alternative, but hasn’t gained much traction in the local market – I’m not sure if it’s a cost-premium issue, an availability issue or a labor (lack of familiarity) issue. And while I like “real” stucco, when it’s properly used and installed correctly, I have the same antipathy to synthetic stucco/EIFS as I do to vinyl siding.
I agree, every solution has trade-offs. I live in one of those older brick-bearing-wall homes, and struggle with its lack of insulation, but am willing to make that trade off for the apparent solidity, the low maintenance and its wonderful texture. I still have that small, nagging fear of the next “big” earthquake, should one ever happen here again, since these older homes rely on gravity to hold everything in place – shake things up enough and the frame structures should come out much better.
And, for better or worse, these old brick homes seem to be able to absorb a lot more deferred maintenance and unintentional and intentional abuse than wood-clad frame houses can. Imagine what the declining parts of our city would look like if the boarded-up buildings had deteriorating wood or vinyl siding, instead of brick – between avoiding water-caused decay and termites, brick bearing walls simply last longer before they become unsalavagable.
I once had a discussion with my father when I was 13 about ‘real’ vs ‘fake’ brick. He asked, “What if they could make bricks from plastic, which you could not tell the difference. I said, “I still want the real bricks.”
I guess I am just a brick kind of person, because I really hate siding. I have always grown up in real brick homes so I guess it reminds me of security. And who can forget the three little piggies. Brick all the way!
I prefer brick, but that is just me. I think part of the problem with our brick structures is that they don’t have enough classical elements. With more cornice and triming they could be beautiful structures that would remain more appealing to the eye. Otherwise, yes, brick has a tendency to get cold and dreary with age.
The frame buildings in Old North are some of the oldest buildings… they housed the clay farmers who built with wood and then started making the bricks from the river clay to build everything else in the city. There are two frame buildings on Knapp that date to the 1850’s. On a very, very old map at the MO historical society, you can see downtown, then a cluster of church and houses around the North Village circle parks, then the “lands of the widow Hebert”, then very far north, up where the natural bridge crossed Branch creek, there are the two little frame houses marked as a farm. They are still standing! Very close to the intersection of present day Branch St and Natural Bridge, still with the original frame siding and intact roofs keeping them dry inside. Unfortunately owned by Paul McKee so likely not here for much longer. Our bricks are already being shipped downriver. Funny if the little frame houses were the last to go.
Our abundance of brick is what reminds us that St. Louis is truly the last Eastern city. For some reason, I associate frame houses with rural areas and small towns. Our countless blocks of dense red brick neighborhoods would not be out of place snugly between Philly and Baltimore. Our brick is what distinguishes St. Louis from other large Midwestern cities, where Great Lakes-style frame housing predominates. No matter how charming frame housing can be, it can’t touch the “BAM, WOW” factor of our solid brick rows. St. Louis is settled, mature and sophisticated– a sharp contrast from the ramshackle frame structures that define the hinterlands…
I prefer brick all the way. Unfortunately, when I was finally able to buy a house last summer, I couldn’t afford a brick house big enough (I have three kids) in a neighborhood I felt safe sending my kids outside in. So I had to say goodbye to my beloved brick-built Tower Grove South and move into a frame house in Holly Hills/Bevo.
Yes, it’s entombed in hideous vinyl siding which we hope to replace one day. But that aside, I’ve actually made peace with the house and the block. It’s definitely a different feel, and a less urban form. But it has its own charm. Since almost every house on the block is a frame house built in the 20s, like ours, and since everybody takes care to keep their houses and yards tidy, they all cohere into a pleasant whole. I still hope to one day return to TGS, but I’ll never be so quick to dismiss frame houses again.
Oh, and people actually hang out outside and talk here. In TGS most of our neighbors just went back and forth between their front doors and their cars.
Southsidered makes TGS sound suburban compared to most city neighborhoods. Not socializing with neighbors, going straight from the front door to the parked car. Sounds more like life on a cul-de-sac than St. Louis city. Strange, because TGS has such a hip, urban image. Maybe it’s not all that?
No, it’s not like that, really…how do I put this? It just happened that a lot of our neighbors in TGS were professionals from out of town who seemed to put in a lot of hours at work, and who didn’t have kids, and who didn’t necessarily expect to sink roots into the neighborhood for very long. They tended to leave town on holidays. Not as many of them mowed their own lawns. Not much of a trick-or-treating scene on Halloween. That sort of thing.
Not all, of course; we made several close friends there and it is a great place to live. Friends of mine in other parts of the neighborhood had pretty different experiences with their neighbors, so I think this situation was pretty localized to my block. I’m sorry I gave you the wrong impression.
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I agree to you that brick homes gives very authentic & solid feel but now in this modern era vinyl siding has taken the power. As many new homemakers love tho use vinyl siding on the exterior of their home due the reasons it comes along with tons of advantages which other doesn’t have..