Walk around Kirkwood long enough and you will see the yard signs: “Protect Historic Kirkwood.”
I understand the sentiment. Part of what makes Kirkwood look and feel like Kirkwood is its collection of older homes. But preserving those homes gets more complicated when the way people live changes, the cost of renovation climbs, and the land underneath a smaller older house becomes increasingly valuable.
Earlier this year, that tension played out very publicly over the 1858 house on N. Taylor Avenue. After a legal fight over its demolition, the house came down in May. City records show a proposal for a new single-family home on the property. I walk past it regularly, and for now, it remains an empty lot. Seeing it is a reminder that once an old house is gone, that particular decision can’t be undone.
Which is part of the reason another Kirkwood house caught my attention. 653 Evans Avenue was built in 1890. The house has many of the things people say they want preserved in older Kirkwood homes: high ceilings, historic millwork, hardwood floors, exposed beams and architectural details that would be difficult to reproduce today. It also has a custom kitchen, updated bathrooms, newer windows, a newer roof, main-floor laundry and a primary suite with a walk-in closet and renovated bath.
It isn’t an old house that survived by staying exactly as it was. It evolved, and in August it sold for $910,000.
That sale gets more interesting in the context of Avondale, where small frame houses, older brick ranches, substantial older homes and large newer homes share the same streets. You don’t even have to look across the entire neighborhood to see what that can mean in dollars. Look at Evans Avenue.
A 1935 home at 718 Evans sold for $444,000. A 1926 home at 638 Evans sold for $450,000. The 1890 home at 653 Evans sold for $910,000. A 2018 home at 920 Evans sold for $1.025 million, while a 2005 home at 736 Evans sold for $1.65 million. Those price points aren’t neatly separated into different sections of the neighborhood. The houses are interspersed, and that can make some Avondale properties particularly interesting to price.
653 Evans is a good example. At 2,755 square feet, it doesn’t compare particularly well with Avondale’s smaller older homes, and its .34-acre lot is also larger than many in the neighborhood. But comparing it with newer homes isn’t straightforward either. Those houses represent a very different type of housing.
The house was listed for $825,000. Seven days later, it sold for $910,000, $85,000 over asking. That doesn’t mean it was priced incorrectly. A listing price is part valuation and part marketing strategy, and we can’t know from the sale price alone what caused buyers to push the price that high. What the result does illustrate is the challenge of pricing a property that doesn’t fit neatly into the more obvious categories around it.
It also raises an interesting question in a community where historic preservation generates strong opinions: What makes an older house valuable enough that buyers still want the house, rather than simply the property underneath it?
653 Evans seems to offer at least part of an answer. It had enough space to work with, distinctive architectural features and updates that allowed a house built for life in 1890 to function for someone buying a home in 2026. That doesn’t mean every old Kirkwood house can or should be preserved. Structure, size, condition, renovation costs, lot constraints and what an owner actually needs from a house can lead to very different decisions.
But old and obsolete aren’t the same thing.
Kirkwood will continue to change. Some older houses will be renovated, some will be expanded and others will be replaced. 653 Evans doesn’t tell us where that line should be drawn. What it gives us is an example of an old house that was allowed to change without having to disappear. When it reached the market, its age was part of a house someone was willing to pay $910,000 to own.
Karen Moeller
STLKaren.com
Karen.McNeill@STLRE.com
314.678.7866
About the Author:
Karen Moeller is a St. Louis area REALTOR® with MORE, REALTORS® and a regular contributor to St. Louis Real Estate News, helping clients make informed, data-driven decisions.
