The 1909 Edward A. Faust house, seen behind the gates of Portland Place in St. Louis?s Central West End neighborhood. | Google Street View

A Black Lives Matter march through a gated community highlighted the decisions that divide the city. If you were in St. Louis and wanted ? hypothetically ? to eat the rich, 1 Portland Place would be a good place to start.
The limestone-and-marble palazzo found at that address looms high above the hedge-fringed retaining walls lining Kingshighway, a major north-south thoroughfare where cars stream by at all hours of the day. But between the busy road and this street punctuated with opulent homes is an imposing stone entranceway with wrought-iron gates ? one of many such structures St. Louis has built throughout its history to divide its communities. Designed in 1909, the 18,000-square-foot mansion was a wedding present for Anna Busch, the daughter of beer magnate Adolphus Busch, whose name adorns the city?s ballpark. The mansion was purchased in 1988 by its current residents, Mark and Patricia McCloskey, personal-injury attorneys whose office is located in another mansion they own a 15-minute walk away. In a splashy St. Louis Magazine feature, the McCloskeys detail their ?difficult? two-decade journey to restore 1 Portland Place?s marble staircases and damask silk walls ? some of which required traveling to Italy to see the original Renaissance-era palaces that the home was modeled after.
The surrounding Central West End neighborh...