Carondelet is the southern-most neighborhood of St. Louis. It was once its own town, a competitor with St. Louis decades before its neighbor to the north absorbed it, and its history extends back nearly as far.

Today, Carondelet retains the sleepy feeling of a rural town. The coming of Interstate 55 created a state of physical isolation, keeping this little gem of a neighborhood quiet and a bit detached from the busy city around it. It never attained the high density that marks much of the city; the bulk of its housing stock consists of small single-family detached cottages.

Architecturally, however, Carondelet offers many surprises and delights. It contains some of the oldest buildings in the city, with structures dating back to the 1840s and 1850s, and lingering traces of Creole, French and Spanish influences can be found. Wealth did accumulate here, and produced a number of impressive houses. The intermingling of industry east of Broadway with the remnants of residential neighborhoods results in some odd and startling juxtapositions. Handsome churches and fine commercial buildings dot the area.

This tour begins at the neighborhood's northern tip and moves south.

Note: The map above does not follow the official boundaries of Carondelet, but rather combines the core areas of the neighborhood with the urban areas that are physically congrunent with them, with boundaries set at real barriers that physically disconnect these areas from their neighbors.