Frostwood Subdivision
Berkeley, Missouri
Even with 20-odd years of living in North County, I never knew about this little gem of a subdivision, so thank you to Jeff and Randy Vines for running across it during a casual drive around our Greater St. Louis, which continually reveals delightful secrets like this.
The inner-ring suburb of Berkeley was incorporated in 1937, and most of the municipality’s western border is occupied by the Lambert Field airport, which built its first terminal in 1933. Around 1954, as architect Minoru Yamasaki’s main airport terminal was being built, so too was Frostwood.
The land Frostwood Subdivision is built on was originally part of Hazelwood Farm, an estate that had been passed from John Mullanphy to his daughter Catherine Graham to son-in-law General Daniel Frost to granddaughter Hattie Fordyce. Fordyce bequeathed it to St. Louis University who then sold it to new home developers Fischer & Frichtel, who platted and built homes on the land from June 1952 to January 1956.
When entering the subdivision from Frost Avenue via Adler Avenue, you see this bizarre scene of mid-century suburban living dwarfed by the mid-century power grid needed to keep Lambert running. Space-age living did require a few sacrifices now and again. But once you get deeper into the winding streets of Frostwood, the scene becomes more sylvan and less ominous.
There are roughly 600 homes in the subdivision, ranging from 1,288 – 1,500 square feet, and most are 3-bedroom and 2 bath that originally sold brand new for $16,000 – $19,000. The area has an informal and casual feel, which is partially due to the way the houses are sited on their lots, as seen in the bird’s eye map below.
The homes do not follow a uniform setback, and by placing each home at a different angle, each one gets a slightly different view, and different opportunities for private vs. public spaces.
A family friend from decades ago bought one of these houses on Red Fir Drive in 1955, and lived happily until about 1970, when he moved his family “because of the blacks,” which was then an all-too- common reason for white people to keep moving further north and west into new homes built by developers who knew how to capitalize on this St. Louis cultural weakness.
So on the day I was taking these photographs, it was karmic relief to be stopped by a 43-year old black woman who moved into this neighborhood in 1968, and whose mother still lives in the very same house to this day. She said Frostwood was a great place to grow up, with lots of friends across the entire subdivision and lots of activities. She also pointed out that the southern half of the subdivision houses have basements, while the northern half are built on concrete slabs with no basements.
Many of the homes, like the yellow version shown above, have a delicate way of handling car parking, running the carport parallel to the house so that the walls – rather than the entry – face the street.
This system worked well for the versions that have a garage, too. With both models, it creates the opportunity for a curving driveway that adds whimsy and informality to the site.
Since these houses are all now over 50 years old, there has, of course, been many alterations made to them. A common remodel, as shown above, is converting the garage into a room, which adds square footage to the living area, and when done correctly is actually very cool.
On this different model above, that has a formal, front-facing garage, I’m not sure if that end cap fascia is original or a modification, but either way, it’s a nice stylistic touch to an other-wise ordinary ranch design. A small handful of homeowners have opted to turn their mid-century ranch into Colonial knocks-offs that sit uncomfortably in context with their neighbors. But the vast majority of the neighborhood has – blessedly – retained the original exterior aesthetic.
Midwood Avenue is the only straight-forward thoroughfare in the Frostwood Subdivision, and it has a curious concrete ditch (above) running down the middle, taking up a lot of room. I assumed it was once a creek surrounded by grass, making for a nice place to walk and play. But turns out it has always been like this, a drainage ditch (so a “sometimes creek” during heavy rains, I suppose). It looks awful, but luckily the people who live along it have not transferred this dire scene to their homes.
Even the city of Berkeley has admitted how ugly this is, acknowledging in a September 2008 Planning Consideration that it “presents poor visual image,” and are proposing “common-themed residential streetscape design” along Frostwood and Midwood Avenues. If the money ever materializes for this project, I hope it remains true to the original design aesthetic.
The foreclosure tidal wave has hit Frostwood, with some houses now available for under $20,000, but this does not reflect the quality and beauty of this neighborhood, only the condoned irresponsibility of the American financial system. Rather, it’s a chance to get some nicely preserved mid-century modern at a great price.
My parents bought and built in 1955 on St. Olaf Dr. Loved the house with the radiant heat in the floors! Instead of a carport, my dad had the builders enclose the space and make it a family room. We had 5 kids and certainly needed the space. Eventually my dad built an additional bedroom, making the house a 4 bedroom. I could not have asked for a better place to grow up. We could walk to school, shopping, the swim pool, etc. Summers spent riding our bikes and swimming on the Frostwood Swim Team were ideal. I have often wished I could buy back my parents’ home. But, the family that bought our house in 1972 still lives there. I’m sure they love it also.
My grand father Henry Williams was the original owner of 6452 Evergreen Blvd purchased in the early sixties. This property is still in our family as our grandfather wanted it to be. I Veda Ross moved in the residence after my grandfather passed in 1989. My two children and I lived there from 1989 until my job relocated us to Chicago then to Virginia. My mother and father moved in to the residence in 1991 until 2020. I’m very proud to have kept this property in our family for sixty plus years. This property will stay in our family as our grandfather wanted.
We moved to Frostwood on St Olaf Drive about 1955. My dad was the first principal of Frostfield Elementary School. Eventually, we moved to a house on Pepperidge.
It was really a great community, and I have many fond memories
I spent quite a bit of time at my grandparents house on Midwood (8326), which was north of Frost Ave., only a block or two from the Frostwood IGA and the Helpee Selfee laundromat. That home was a slab, and did not have forced-air heat, but rather radiant heat from the floors. It was a great place to grow up….had many friends in the area. Our house was on Berkridge Ct and Steve Ave., near St. Barts.
I grew up on Pepperidge Dr. in Frostwood 1954-1966. I was in St. Louis Nov 2019 and drove through the old neighborhood! What a treat. Saw my old house and those of friends. Spent many happy hours at the Frostwood swimming pool and was on the swim team. I live in NY now, but this brought back many memories.
Well, I was just watching a special on PBS (Channel 9) about MCM architecture and realized that they were describing the type of home I lived in from 5th grade at Caroline Elementary to 1963 at Berkeley Sr. High. I remember that little school cul-de-sac to this day with the elementary school, junior high and senior high grouped together. The yellow house above is exactly the same style we lived in across the street from my grandparents and uncles on January Ave.My father’s brother and wife lived on Midwood. My sister and I spent many summers at the Frostwood Pool on the swim team and as lifeguards and swim coaches. Yes, the sonic booms sent us scrambling to adjust all the book cases weekly. Those kinds of summers and friends I have never been able to replicate.
Wow, I just came across this blog about Frostwood. In 1955 I was five years old when my family built our first home on Bitterroot Lane. We lived on Bitterroot until my senior year at Berkeley Senior High School in 1968. We lived a block from Frostfield Elementary school and I have so many wonderful memories about growing up with my friends in this wonderful safe little neighborhood. In the summertime all we did was play outside we never locked our doors except at bedtime. I rode my bicycle to the Frostwood swimming pool every day. By the time I was 12 or 13 years old I joined the swim team and practiced every morning at 7 AM. I loved spending time at the pool and visiting with all my friends. When I was old enough to work I got my Red Cross senior lifesaving training and got a job at the pool as a lifeguard. This part of my life led to decades of enjoying the water water sports water skiing, jet skiing and passing that love of the water to my now 40-year-old daughter. Thank God I grew up in Frostwood!
I read this piece recently, and took a drive through Frostwood today. I too moved here from Southern California, and these homes reminded me of the MCM housing stock I grew up around in the San Fernando valley. Like the author, I had a great experience with some residents. As I made my third pass by one house on January street, I pulled to the curb to inquire about available properties and to reassure the folks I wasn’t “casing the neighborhood”. A middle aged couple were out gardening in the yard. The lady I spoke with was so friendly and forthcoming with helpful information – I was touched.
The whole tract is a local treasure, and should be on the national registry. I noticed there were several properties that were vacant and boarded up. Once the boomers go – it could go either way.
A timepiece that appears to be (at this time) immune to gentrification. Just needs a few visionaries to join the local populous and help preserve this gem.
Came to St Louis from Southern California and discovered the neighborhood today by driving to look at a repossession on January Street. I’m a MCM fan and found your page as well. I can imagine all of the aerospace workers St McDonnell snapping those up with their $10,000/year salaries fresh out of Caltech. They are very similar to the Palmer & Kriesel houses built in Palm Springs during the same era. I’m very tempted to buy one. If the residents only knew what they’re sitting on…
I just happen to come across this site and wanted to add my memories. I lived on Redfir Dr just by Frostfield School. I was in 4th grade when we moved there from NJ. It certainly was a great place to grow up. In the summer we went to the pool everyday, swim practice in the morning and swim team once a week. We had so many kids to place with. I am still good friends with them to this day. We lived there from 57-68. Great memories ,great friends. Jamie Messersmith
I just happen to come across this site and wanted to add my memories. I lived on Redfir Dr just by Frostfield School. I was in 4th grade when we moved there from NJ. It certainly was a great place to grow up. In the summer we went to the pool everyday, swim practice in the morning and swim team once a week. We had so many kids to place with. I am still good friends with them to this day. We lived there from 57-68. Great memories ,great friends. Jamie Messersmith
My parents built in Frostwood around 1956 and only remember a great neighborhood to grow up in! Being close to the airport I remember sonicbooms and having a few things fall off the walls ,watching small planes writing 7up etc.in the air, laying down on the heated flooring while watching snow coming down outside ,and always finding kids outside to play with while parents sat on the patios with great neighbors! Thanks mom and dad for the great place to grow up at!!
My parents built in Frostwood around 1956 and only remember a great neighborhood to grow up in! Being close to the airport I remember sonicbooms and having a few things fall off the walls ,watching small planes writing 7up etc.in the air, laying down on the heated flooring while watching snow coming down outside ,and always finding kids outside to play with while parents sat on the patios with great neighbors! Thanks mom and dad for the great place to grow up at!!
We were one of the first black families to move into Frostwood. I have great memories from those times. We lived on St. Olaf and I went to Frostfield Elementary and Berekeley Jr. and Sr. High. I remember during one rainstorm that a Volkswagen Beetle was sent floating down Midwood because of the heavy rain and runoff. My best friend’s mother still lives there. Thanks for sharing!
We were one of the first black families to move to Berkeley in the early 1960s. It was a great place to grow up. I remember during one rainstorm that a Volkswagen Beetle floated down the middle of Midwood Avenue because of all the rain and runoff. We always enjoyed the thunderstorms! Everyone got along well and it was a nice place to live. My best friend’s mother still lives there today!
My parents and I moved into Frostfield on Pepperidge Dr. in 1954 when I was 1. What a wonderful place. Lots of playmates and we wandered everywhere from the IGA to the community pool to nearby Wabash Park. We left in 1966, but I have many fond memories.
My parents bought their new home on Redfir Dr. in Frostwood around 1954. I remember the radiant heated floor of the house. THey were so nice you could got barefoot in winter. The house had a whole back wall of angled windows , floor to ceiling, in the living room with a big fireplace, that faced the backyard. The living room was separated from the eat in kitchen by a tall wood bar. There was a utility room off the kitchen and no basement.
I think we lived there until 1962 when we out grew the house with the fifth child.
I grew up near Frostwood. My father worked for the firm that put all the plumbing in the homes. Had many friends that lived in the sub-division. I had a paper route for the Globe-Democrat, a morning paper, two St.Louis Cardinal ball players, Ken Boyer and Wally Moon, lived there and were on my paper route. Many other memories of that area and era, but to many to go into at this time.
I grew up near Frostwood. My father worked for the firm that put all the plumbing in the homes.
We grew up at 8304 Graybirch Drive. We lived across the IGA when I was born, then to Graybirch after it was built. It was what They now call a Master Planned Community. We had the local schools, the IGS grocer, the pharmacist in the same center, a hardware stoe and Ben Franklin there too. The gas station was across that parking lot and we rode our bikes to fill the gas can for Dad at .10 per gallon. We played with the same kids all of our grade school years, people moved when their dad’s got the out of state promotion. You could ride to January Wabash Park and feed the ducks, or I’ve skate when it froze over. Playing out under the street lights was a summer nightly ritual.
There were black families who lived there with us, before subsidized housing. then the kids I met who moved here from Pruet Igo (sp) came and told me they hated being there. All their friends were I the city and they resented being shipped so far away. We moved in 1971 to Florissant. Another great place to live, and another place of transitions. My folks just moved in 2011. And I want to tell everybody, that nothing bad ever happened to them in all those years. have a sis who lived there still, and I enjoy my drives and shopping when I’m up there.
The style of life and the feel of the subdivision has always influenced my choice of homes but in different states. Thanks for noticing the area. It was areal treat to read, and Midland never bothered me. Walked past it many years and figured it was there to divert our big storms. That is a good thing.
Frostwood was the catalyst for becoming an architect? That warms the heart Thanks for sharing.
I remember one of my classmates at Caroline Elementary School (now demolished) lived there and I went to visit. I was only maybe eleven or twelve, but I remember the ceiling in the living room. I loved that house more than mine, a tract house in Doddlesdale. I decided that I wanted to be an Architect and started sketching my own designs for a house. I won’t soon forget that place.
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Wow, it brings back such fond memories. We moved to Frostwood in ’68 and it was the first integrated school I had ever attended. I did all of my growing up there in Frostwood. It was a great neighborhood.
What a great story!
I can’t find any info about it, so hearing from those who lived there is the only way to get good information. I would love to see the inside of your folks’ home and talk to them about living in the neighborhood.
I was browsing the web for street names and happened upon this site. To my amazement this is the neighborhood I grew up in and to this day my parents still live in their home. We moved to Frostwood in 1966 and the year now is 1 day shy of 2011. I read the article and agree with some of the things posted, but some I don’t. like the ditch on midwood, which use to be a creek filled with water which caused a lot of flooding problems in bad weather. I have enjoyed growing up in this subdivison over the years but I too have seen many changes. A neighborhood filled with careing and loving people to empty homes and not knowing any of the other people that live on the street. Times have changed and I’m sure this takes place everywhere, but the best thing was to experience viewing the pictures of the different homes and to my suprise the last home in the pictures was my parents!
Damn! I was going to blog about this subject. What caused you to come up with this post?
Coool tour Toby!
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Hey that looks like my old subdivision: Carollton which was knocked down by the airport. The architecture us mostly the same and even the street designs and sidewalks and that darn drainage think in the street. At least Carollton got one more aesthetically pleasing but still concrete monstrosity.
People I graduated with, their parents lived in Berkley in sections like these back when it was white and middle class and what say Francis Howell or Fort Zummwalt is now. The same company, Fischer and Fichel is responsible for developing large subdivisions in St. Charles County. F&F and others build similarly designed houses in Florissant, check out around McCluer North High School. My grandparents live a few blocks away and have been in one of these space age houses for nearly 50 years since it was built.
It would be nice to have a book made of Mid-Century architecture in STL with picture and descriptions of the neighborhoods, especially what society was like when they were built.
that curious concrete ditch would be awesome for skateboarding.
Wow! This is great! I lived in one of the cookie-cutter houses in Berkley for a while, but I don’t think I ever saw this neighborhood.
Wow, truly a blast from the past! I’m glad to see all the homes so well-preserved.
Wow, great tour! No one can capture the essence of these gems like you can, Toby!