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Description

The four-family flat is a multi-family housing type that consists of four residential units in a double-stacked arrangement. These buildings are one of the most common multi-family housing types in the United States. While the four-family building type is present in multiple cities, these buildings are uniquely characteristic of the St. Louis region. In a 1920 report on housing, the St. Louis City Plan Commission wrote that “slightly less than 50 per cent of the housing” in the city consisted of two- and four-family buildings by the late 1910s, building types that were “popularly known in other cities as ‘The St. Louis Flat.’”1 In St. Louis, four-family buildings are an integral part of nearly all urban residential areas developed between the 1890s and World War II. Following the war, many modern interpretations of the four-family flat were built in southwest St. Louis City and St. Louis County, and local development of suburban apartment projects using the four-family building type continued well into the 1970s.

Language

English (en)

Publication Date

5-2026

Publisher

Washington University in St. Louis

Disciplines

Architecture | Urban, Community and Regional Planning

Comments

Advisor: Eric Mumford, PhD

“The St. Louis Flat:” A Typological Study of the Characteristics and Distribution of Four-Family Flats in Greater St. Louis

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