Cyber Tour of a Mid-Century Modern Ridgewood Home

Ridgewood Subdivision
Crestwood, MO

As described in the (might as well be official) blog of this renowned subdivision, “The Ridgewood subdivision, located in Crestwood, Missouri, is a neighborhood of 258 modern ranch homes built in the early 1950’s. To meet the public’s growing demand for modern homes, successful St. Louis Developer Burton Duenke, in collaboration with architect Ralph Fournier, conceived Rigewood as a modern alternative to the traditional style homes Duenke had been building since 1946.”

After all these years, the homes vary in their states, ranging from immaculately original to slightly remuddled to needs some TLC. The house shown above, on Liggett Drive, is one I enjoyed watching come back to life.

I was recently part of an exploratory meeting to see if we could establish some type of group that celebrates and catalogs St. Louis’ modern architecture, and one of the authors of the Ridgewood blog volunteered his house for the meeting. When we pulled up to the address given, I cried out, “It’s THAT house? Excellent!”

I had longed to see the inside of the home that was so carefully rehabbed over the past several years, and it did not disappoint. Oh, it was gorgeous and immaculate, and I was wishing I’d brought my camera with me!

Less than a week later, Apartment Therapy provided the photos of this magnificent Ridgewood home. Read about Nathan & Hannah’s home here.

And here’s a shortcut to the full photo tour.

Thanks to Nathan & Hannah for sharing their inspiring home with cyber space, and thanks to Apartment Therapy for having such good taste!

The Fall of Modernism

As in the autumn season… or much of St. Louis mid-century modern residential architecture is in the autumn of its years.

Above is a post-Halloween autumnal tableau of a wonderful home at the corner of Berry Road and Big Bend, in Webster Groves, MO.

The rest of these low-slung beauties that seem to have been designed with this time of year in mind are in the Ridgewood subdivision in Crestwood, MO.

Learn more about Ridgewood at this marvelous site.

These technicolor marvels of Mother Nature and Modern Man were all photographed within 5 minutes time within a 2-mile span.  No need to drool over MCM living in coffee table books and TV shows, just get in the car and drive around St. Louis.  And soon the leaves will be gone, which will make it even easier to spot the ones usually hidden under lush mounds of forestry, so keep an eye out.

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