Where the ordinance decides what your window is made of
In parts of this city, vinyl replacement windows on a street-facing wall are not a preference. They are prohibited by ordinance.
Across this one metro, the same vinyl re-side is flatly prohibited by ordinance, requires a certificate with manufacturer cut sheets attached, gets a non-binding advisory opinion, or is completely unregulated and needs no permit at all. Which of those four situations you are in depends on your address, and almost nothing published nationally will tell you.
The City of St. Louis has the strictest window regime in the metro
The trigger is unusually broad, and it is published in the Cultural Resources Office's own words:
“If your property is located in a City Historic District, you will need a permit for ALL exterior work, except painting wood trim.”
Read that again, because the important part is what it overrides. The Building Division separately exempts window replacement and vinyl re-siding from permitting across the whole city. Inside a City Historic District, that exemption does not help you — the Cultural Resources Office requires a permit for work the building code itself does not. The Cultural Resources Office reviews roughly 2,000 permits a year for exterior alterations in City Historic Districts.
The eighteen districts
4100-4300 Lindell, Benton Park, Central West End, Cherokee-Lemp Brewery, Compton Hill, Fox Park, Hyde Park, Kingsbury-Washington Terrace, Lafayette Square, McKinley Heights, North I-44, Shaw Neighborhood, Skinker-DeBaliviere-Catlin Tract-Parkview, Soulard Neighborhood, The Ville, Tower Grove East, Union Station, Visitation Park.
Each has its own standards, adopted by its own ordinance, and they genuinely differ. Two examples:
- Shaw. Shaw's standards, by ordinance, limit new or replacement window and door frames to wood or colour-finished aluminium, prohibit glass block, and say of exterior materials that aluminium, steel, any type of siding, and artificial masonry are not allowed.
- Lafayette Square. Lafayette Square's standards require public-facing windows to be wood rather than vinyl or aluminium, and structures visible from the street to be brick.
Both of those come from the neighbourhood organisations' own reproductions of the ordinances rather than from the ordinance documents themselves, which are not machine-readable. Get the ordinance from the preservation office before you rely on the exact wording.
So in parts of the city, a vinyl replacement window on a street-facing elevation is not a preference question. It is prohibited.
There is an approved window list
The Cultural Resources Office maintains a list of replacement windows it has approved for use in local historic districts, and it is updated. If your property is in one of these districts, that document decides what you can buy, and it is the first thing to get hold of — before you take a quote from anyone. Contractors who work in these districts regularly will know it. Contractors who do not will sell you something that gets rejected.
The distinction almost every website gets wrong
Three different designations, three completely different consequences:
| Designation | What it means for siding and windows |
|---|---|
| City / local historic district | Windows and siding regulated. Permit required for all exterior work except painting wood trim. This is the one with teeth. |
| Preservation Review District | Demolition only. Siding replacement, including vinyl over original wood, is not restricted by this designation. Neither is window replacement. |
| National Register listing alone | Does not reach private-money siding or window work. It matters for tax credits and for federally funded projects, not for what you may fit. |
People conflate those three constantly, and the difference is the whole job.
The suburbs are a spectrum, not a rule
| Where | How much force it has |
|---|---|
| St. Louis City | Strongest in the metro. A permit is required for all exterior work in a City Historic District except painting wood trim, window and door replacement is expressly regulated, and the Cultural Resources Office keeps a list of replacement windows it has approved. |
| Edwardsville, Illinois | Binding, and explicit about both trades. A Certificate of Appropriateness is required for any work on a landmark or in a historic district, and the application has a dedicated window and door worksheet and a siding worksheet, with manufacturer cut sheets required for both. |
| St. Charles, Missouri | Binding. A Certificate of Appropriateness is needed for any exterior alteration requiring a permit, and also for any exterior alteration not requiring a permit that affects a significant architectural feature. The standard applied is that deteriorated features be repaired rather than replaced. |
| Kirkwood, Missouri | Binding but landmark-focused. No building permit for alteration to the exterior of a landmark issues until the Landmarks Commission has reviewed and approved the plans; the commission has 60 days to act. Inside historic districts the requirement attaches to new construction rather than alterations. |
| Ferguson, Missouri | Advisory only. The Landmarks Commission has advisory, not statutory, jurisdiction; it reviews plans that alter the exterior of designated landmarks but nothing turns on its opinion. |
If you are in a district, do this in this order
- Confirm the designation type before anything else. Local district, preservation review district or National Register — they are not the same and people conflate them constantly.
- Get the standards for your specific district. Not a general guide. Yours.
- Get the approved product list if there is one.
- Then get quotes, having told each contractor what the constraint is. A quote priced on vinyl in a district that requires wood is not a cheaper quote, it is a wrong one.
- Consider repair and a storm window seriously. In the strictest districts it is frequently the only path that gets approved, and on the published numbers it has the better payback anyway.
Sources: stlouis-mo.gov · stlouis-mo.gov · stlouis-mo.gov · stlouis-mo.gov · shawstlouis.org · lafayettesquare.org
Common questions
How do I find out if my house is in a historic district?
Ask the city's planning or preservation office directly, and ask specifically which kind of designation it is. Do not rely on a real estate listing or a neighbourhood name — the boundaries are drawn by ordinance and they do not follow the streets people think they do.
Can I put vinyl windows in a St. Louis historic district?
Depends on the district and often on the elevation. Shaw's standards limit replacement window and door frames to wood or colour-finished aluminium. Lafayette Square requires wood on public-facing elevations. Other districts differ. Get your district's standards, and check the approved product list.
What happens if I do the work without approval?
We could not find published enforcement policy for any of these bodies, so ask the preservation office directly what it does — before you take the risk rather than after. The reason to ask is that the downside case is a whole-house window order that has to come back out, and that is an expensive way to learn about an ordinance.
Is a historic district always more expensive?
Usually somewhat, because the approved products cost more and the review takes time. It is also frequently the case that repairing and adding a storm costs less than the replacement you were planning, so it does not always land where people expect.
In a district?
Tell us the address and we will tell you which designation you are actually under.
Tell us about the house
We answer the phone. If we miss you, we call back.