Tower Grove South

Tower Grove South, St. Louis: A Diverse Neighborhood Built Around a 289-Acre Park

You could eat your way through fourteen countries of cuisine without leaving South Grand. Tower Grove South is 1.49 square miles in south St. Louis city, wrapped around the Victorian-era park it's named for, bordered by Arsenal, Chippewa, Kingshighway, and Grand.

Quick facts:

• 1.49 square miles, 12,719 residents
• Bordered by Arsenal, Chippewa, Kingshighway, and Grand Boulevard
• Two business districts: South Grand and Morgan Ford
• Originally called Oak Hill; annexed into the city in 1876

The Park

Tower Grove Park anchors the neighborhood's north edge: 289 acres Henry Shaw gave to the city in 1868, still run today by its own independent Board of Commissioners exactly as his will required. A National Historic Landmark, the park holds 32 Victorian-era pavilions, from the Piper Palm House to a bandstand ringed with marble busts of Mozart, Beethoven, and Verdi. On weekends it's Food Truck Friday, a farmers market, outdoor yoga, and picnics that run well past sundown.

South Grand and Morgan Ford

The neighborhood runs two distinct business strips. South Grand, on the eastern border, is one of the city's most international stretches of restaurants, representing food from 14 countries alongside pubs, boutiques, a library, and a bookstore. Morgan Ford, on the west, is smaller and quieter: a specialty grocery, a coffee house, a tea room, more taverns, and a handful of independent shops with no real equivalent elsewhere in the city.

The Vibe

Walkability is the whole point, and everything circles back to the park, whether that's a Saturday farmers market or a Sunday barbecue that turns into half the block showing up. The neighborhood is proudly, deliberately independent: locally owned businesses, a level of housing and demographic diversity few St. Louis neighborhoods can claim, and neighbors who actually treat it that way.

A Little History

Tower Grove South was originally called Oak Hill, annexed into the city of St. Louis in 1876 and built out fast once the streetcar lines reached it in the early 1900s. German immigrants settled the area first, building the churches and corner storefronts still standing today. Starting in the 1970s, Vietnamese immigrants revitalized South Grand into the international dining destination it is now, and the neighborhood has kept adding to that mix ever since.

The Houses

Housing here runs the full range: elegant single-family homes, classic St. Louis row houses, modest bungalows, and four-family flats, most built during the streetcar boom and many mid-renovation as the neighborhood keeps rebuilding from a rougher stretch in the late 20th century. The Tower Grove Heights pocket, between Grand, Arsenal, Spring, and McDonald, is known for foursquare homes with dramatic waterfall staircases in the entryway.

Who Tower Grove South Is For

• Buyers who want walkability without Central West End prices
• Foodies who want a dozen cuisines within a five-minute walk
• Renovators drawn to century-old housing stock with real bones
• Anyone who wants lived-in diversity, not a marketing version of it

Why Work with the Dawn Griffin Group in Tower Grove South

Partner with a team that's earned it: three-time A-List winner for Best Real Estate Agent in St. Louis (2024, 2025, and 2026), with decades of experience and over 1,000 successful transactions. Dawn has lived and worked in Tower Grove South herself, with real, hands-on experience buying and selling the neighborhood's historic homes, so she knows exactly what a century-old foursquare or a Tower Grove Heights row house actually needs.