The Shaw neighborhood was named after Henry Shaw, the founder of Missouri Botanical Garden and major landowner in the area. Most of the homes in Shaw were built in the late 19th century and early 20th century as Saint Louis expanded westward. Shaw remained a stable middle-upper middle class neighborhood until the 70s when the overall decline of Saint Louis lead to disinvestment. Shaw, however, never saw widespread decline and managed to retain most of its built environment thanks to the tireless effort of grass roots efforts lead by the Shaw Neighborhood Housing Corporation (SNHC), an outgrowth of the St. Louis Catholic Diocese. Shaw further stabilized with its designation as a Historic District in 1985.
From an urban perspective Shaw is a pleasant, relatively walkable neighborhood with a tidy urban grid lined with a nice mix of brick single family homes, duplexes, triplexes, and smaller apartment buildings. Shaw is surrounded by 3 large parks (Tower Grove, Missouri Botanical Garden, and Compton Hill Reservoir), and has a nice array of corner restaurants, bars, and cafe’s mixed throughout the district. Shaw’s biggest missing piece is retail amenities, as there is no concentrated business district here. Shaw also has mediocre public transit access, limited walkable schools, and a lack of a dedicated bike share system like the rest of Saint Louis. For Shaw to really thrive it needs more mixed-use apartment buildings. Permitting more apartment buildings along Grand Avenue, Shaw Blvd, and Tower Grove Avenue would go a long way towards increasing the neighborhood’s density and adding much needed retail amenities.
Click here to view my Flickr Album of Shaw
URBAN STRENGTHS:
* Decent density at Shaw.
* Two dedicated bike lanes run through the neighborhood and mixed-use streets along Grand Ave and Shaw Blvd. So a pretty walkable neighborhood.
* Solid diversity indicators with decent racial diversity, better economic diversity, and excellent generational diversity. Good mix of families and young professionals here.
* Good side walk infrastructure but ADA curbs are generally concentrated only along arterials and mixed-use streets.
* Lots of commercial on the corner of residential streets creating a solid mixed use neighborhood.
* Excellent park amenities with the expansive Tower Grove Park to the south, Missouri Botanical Garden to the west, and Compton Hill Reservoir Park to the east. Just limited smaller parks within the Shaw neighborhood.
* Solid tree canopy.
* Some petty crime in the neighborhood but overall pretty safe.
* Attractive historic architecture especially along the boulevard streets.
* Good # of rentals with 1-bed range btwn 8000-1.3K, 2-bed btwn in the 1Ks, 3-bed btwn 1.5-2.5K. Also a decent # of subsidized rentals.
* For sale homes are higher than most St. Louis neighborhoods with 2-bed selling in the 200Ks & 300Ks, and a good variety of 3 & 4 bed options selling anywhere from btwn 275K-725K. Limited 1-bed options.
* Decent cultural amenities including a good # of food & beverage businesses well spread out, a couple art galleries, the Missouri Cultural gardens, and the historic Tower Grove Park.
* In fill is limited to a mix of auto centric and quality urban uses along Grand Ave. Pretty solid urban massing through Shaw.
URBAN WEAKNESSES:
* Public transit is not great for an urban district.
* Some walkable schools within Shaw or nearby. Schools ratings is mixed.
* Retail amenities within Shaw are pretty lacking as there is no dedicated business district. Retail amenities include a supermarket, a couple salons, a couple dessert joints including Damn Fine Hand Pies, a couple medical offices, and several churches. Still walking distance the Grand Avenue biz district to the southeast and smaller biz node in Botanical heights on Tower Grove.
Evaluating our Urban Communities [with a focus on America] 