555 Stratford Avenue

A house with real character, without the mortgage.

555 Stratford is a well-kept 1930 brick home available for lease at $4,500 a month. It sits inside University Hills, a private, gated subdivision of century-old homes on tree-lined streets, and it lives the way an older house should: hardwood floors, arched doorways, stained glass, and rooms that are actually separate rooms.

There is more space here than the bedroom count suggests. Three bedrooms upstairs, a dedicated office, a flexible bonus room, a sitting room off the primary suite with its own rooftop deck, and a full basement for storage and laundry. The kitchen has been updated with marble counters and a gas range, so nothing needs work before you move in.

It suits a family that wants Flynn Park Elementary and a fenced yard, a visiting professor or physician on a one-to-two-year appointment, or anyone relocating to St. Louis who would rather learn the neighborhoods before buying into one.

A planned, gated community with a century of history.

555 Stratford sits within University Hills, one of the St. Louis area's most distinctive planned neighborhoods. Developer Cyrus Willmore — known for the quality of his work — began the subdivision in 1923, and more than a century later it remains a private, gated community of beautifully kept early-twentieth-century homes.

The architecture here is notable enough that the Missouri Office of Historic Preservation completed a historic inventory of every home. Governed by resident trustees under its original indenture, University Hills pairs a close-knit community and mature, tree-lined streets with gated privacy — all just minutes from Washington University, Clayton, and the Delmar Loop.