Antique shops, record stores and dive bars give Cherokee Street its gritty, creative energy, one of the most layered commercial corridors in St. Louis. The street stretches through a predominantly Latino neighborhood — home to a large Mexican-American community that has been established in this part of South St. Louis since the mid-20th century — and its commercial strip is a mix of taqueries, panaderías, antique shops, vintage clothing stores, art galleries, record shops, and dive bars. The antique shops are the source of the street's nickname: for decades, Cherokee has been the destination for St. Louis treasure hunters seeking Victorian furniture, Depression-era glassware, vintage signage, and architectural salvage from the city's vast stock of 19th and early 20th-century buildings.
When St. Louis demolishes an old building — and it has demolished many — the salvage often ends up on Cherokee Street. The street has a gritty, creative energy that resists easy gentrification. It feels like the city at its most authentic: working-class, multilingual, creative, and unselfconscious.
The annual Cherokee Street Cinco de Mayo celebration is among the largest in the Midwest. On any given Saturday, you might find a vintage record fair, an art opening, a quinceañera in progress, and a blues band playing on a bar patio — all within a block of each other.