The Central West End

The Central West End is an affluent neighborhood in St. Louis, Missouri, stretching from Midtown's western edge to Union Boulevard and bordering on Forest Park with its outstanding array of free cultural institutions. It includes the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis (the New Cathedral) on Lindell Boulevard at Newstead Avenue, which houses the largest collection of mosaics in the world. The Central West End is represented by three aldermen as it sits partially in the 17th, 18th, and 28th Wards.

The CWE's commercial district is mainly along Brandy Avenue and stretches from Forest Park Parkway on the south to Delmar Boulevard on the north. Restaurants are primarily clustered in the Euclid/McPherson area, the Euclid/Laclede area and in Maryland Plaza. Unusual, elaborate turn of the 19th to 20th century lamp posts and cobblestone streets add to the atmosphere of this neighborhood, which first grew in popularity with the coming of the 1904 World's Fair which was held in adjacent Forest Park. Some residential areas of the Central West End are included in the National Register of Historic Places. One example is Fullerton's Westminster Place, whose large, architect-designed homes, most of which were built in the period 1890–1910, were described in the NRHP nomination as one of the finest turn of the 19th to 20th century streetscapes in the United States. Another is the private place called Washington Terrace, laid out in 1892.

St. Louis Cardinals former manager Tony LaRussa lives in the neighborhood during the baseball season. Playwright Tennessee Williams grew up in the neighborhood, and the house of the renowned poet T. S. Eliot is located in the Central West End. Beat writer William S. Burroughs's childhood home sits on Pershing Avenue (formerly Berlin Avenue) in the neighborhood. The Central West End was also the location of Sally Benson's home, the setting of the stories which were adapted into the movie Meet Me in St. Louis.

Of interesting note: The Central West End's density (7,657 - population/square mile) is higher than any single city in the United States: Los Angeles/Long Beach/Anaheim (6,999.3), San Francisco/Oakland (6,266.4), San Jose (5,820.3), New York (5,318.9), Miami (4,244.4). Of course, the CWE pales in comparison to the world's most dense city, Chennai, formerly Madra, the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, with a population of 4.6 million and a density of 10,387.3 (residents per square mile). However, when comparing apples to apples (true urban city areas), New York City's borough Manahattan has a density of 69,771/sq mile, more than nine times that of the CWE.