Julius Pitzman (1837–1923) was a

Prussian Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an e ...

-born American surveyor and

city planner An urban planner (also known as town planner) is a professional who practices in the field of town planning, urban planning or city planning. An urban planner may focus on a specific area of practice and have a title such as city planner, town ...

best known for his development of the private, gated neighborhoods in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Porter, E. F. "Historic: Preservationists Move Toward Quiet Victory", ''

St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the ''Belleville News-De ...

'', 1992-06-07, p. C3. from 1867 through about 1914. Originally from

Halberstadt Halberstadt ( Eastphalian: ''Halverstidde'') is a town in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt, the capital of Harz district. Located north of the Harz mountain range, it is known for its old town center that was greatly destroyed by Allied bomb ...

, Pitzman came to the U.S. and was educated as a

Topographical Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps. Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary sc ...

and Civil Engineer under the tutelage of his

brother-in-law A sibling-in-law is the spouse of one's sibling, or the sibling of one's spouse, or the person who is married to the sibling of one's spouse.Cambridge Dictionaries Online.Family: non-blood relations. More commonly, a sibling-in-law is referre ...

, St. Louis City Engineer Charles E. Solomon, and held several posts within the Engineer and Survey offices before lending his services as a

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often ...

of Topographical Engineers in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

. Badly injured in the war, afterward Pitzman served as St. Louis County Surveyor. During his tenure he helped design Forest Park, along with Maximillian G. Kern. In addition, he worked closely with many notable architects including Theodore C. Link. Like Link, Pitzman is buried at

Bellefontaine Cemetery Bellefontaine Cemetery is a nonprofit, non-denominational cemetery and arboretum in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1849 as a rural cemetery, Bellefontaine is home to a number of architecturally significant monuments and mausoleums such as t ...

, and Pitzman Avenue stands between the cemetery and the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...

toward the northeast. Pitzman's son Frederick Pitzman joined his father's firm in 1912, and the Pitzman Company was still in business in the 1990s.

Private Places

Julius Pitzman was directly responsible for the development of the

private place A private place is a self-governing enclave whose common areas (e.g. streets) are owned by the residents, and whose services are provided by the private sector. The history of St. Louis, Missouri, and its near suburbs is significant in the deve ...

in St. Louis, a pioneering land-use concept both legally and in urban form, a direct precursor to the gated community. The idea allowed residential landowners to control real estate speculation and maintain property standards, in an era before the protections of

zoning Zoning is a method of urban planning in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into areas called zones, each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a si ...

. Pitzman's use of curvilinear streets to maximize privacy and vary views was a novelty in that era. The

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

nomination for the Parkview Historic District in

University City, Missouri University City (colloquially, U. City) is an inner-ring suburb of the city of St. Louis in St. Louis County, in the U.S. state of Missouri. The population was measured at 35,065 by the 2020 census. The city is one of the older suburbs in the ...

states that Pitzman "designed over 47 private streets in the St. Louis area in the fifty years following 1867 and (his) work was an important influence on other city planners and developers." Pitzman himself planned some of the most affluent neighborhoods in the city, including Portland Place and Westmoreland Place. The Pitzman Company was responsible for the planning of Vandeventer Place, Compton Heights, Benton Place, Washington Terrace, Clifton Heights, and Parkview Place. Many of these developments are well-preserved and still gated, patrolled, and functioning as private enclaves. Pitzman also designed a portion of the New Mount Sinai Cemetery in

Affton, Missouri Affton is a census-designated place (CDP) in south St. Louis County, Missouri, United States, near St. Louis. The population was 20,417 at the 2020 United States Census. Geography Affton is located at 38°33'4" North, 90°19'25" West (38.5510 ...

. He brought curving roads and luxuriant landscaping.Rice, Patricia. "Reform Jews will pray at old but little-known cemetery", 2005-10-06, p. B4.

References

External links

Pitzman cited in Parkview Historic District page

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pitzman, Julius 1837 births 1923 deaths American surveyors American urban planners People from St. Louis German-American culture in St. Louis German emigrants to the United States