Zanola Company could use your assistance in searching for historical information about housing that may be unique to the St. Louis region. Around 15 to 20 years ago, someone had the idea to stop building rental duplexes and instead make duplexes become for sale homes. The biggest genius factor was to cast away the “duplex” name and reintroduce them as the “villa” home.

Until this moment in housing history, the traditional definition of a villa had been more about the European version of the term - large and usually luxurious country residences - and not about two-family housing units.

Today, we can drive around subdivisions and see how significant villa homes have become in the St. Louis market. Villas are a huge chunk of the new homes market, appealing to empty nesters, retirees, singles, divorced households, and many more home buying segments.

CONTEST: Please help Zanola Company dig deeper into this historical housing shift! Do you know who started the duplex-to-villa movement in St. Louis? Do you know who first said something like, “I’ve got an idea about renaming duplexes as ‘villas’ that will revolutionize the St. Louis homes market!” Let us know who you think is the founder of St. Louis’ modern-day villa. After verification, we’ll thank you with a secret prize! Emailor call us at 314.918.7200 today.