Residential architecture The suburb is dominated by 1960s flats. There are, however, some pockets of preserved heritage streetscapes. Godfrey Avenue has well-preserved rows of
Edwardian cottages on either side of the street and is protected by council heritage controls. Camden Street has several rows of
Victorian semi-detached timber workers cottages. Some large Victorian buildings remain along Inkerman Street and Alma Road, but have been since subdivided into flats. The streets in between have a mix of housing from different periods. Image:Clement_house.jpg|Clement House, Inkerman Street (built 1888). One of the suburb's grander surviving polychrome Victorian era terraces Image:Glenfern east st kilda.jpg|Built in 1857, Glenfern Mansion on the corner of Inkerman and Hotham Streets was home to the
Boyd family and is now a writers' colony
Non-residential architecture Image:Top_shop_east_st_kilsa.jpg|The Top Shop on the corner of Glen Eira Road and Hotham Street is an unusual Edwardian
Arts and Crafts design
Places of worship There are several churches in St Kilda East, and multiple
synagogues, reflecting the area's extensive history of both
Christian and
Jewish migration. Many of these buildings have historic significance with heritage registration, and often form various religious precincts.
Judaism Yeshiva Centre is the headquarters and main synagogue of Chabad in Melbourne. Chabad House of Caulfield is a replica of the New York headquarters of the Chabad movement at
770 Eastern Parkway.
Anglican The bluestone
All Saints' Anglican Church on Chapel Street was built in 1861, and is reputed to have the largest seating capacity of any Anglican parish church in the Southern hemisphere, with a capacity of 1500 in the pews. The neighbouring Parish Hall was built as an extension to the church in 1909 and was restored in 2005 during a conversion into a boutique
gymnasium. Image:All saints anglican church east st kilda.jpg|All Saints Anglican Church Image:All saints parish hall east st kilda.jpg|All Saints Parish Hall Another Anglican Parish Church is
St James the Great, established in 1914 and located at 435 Inkerman Street. St James was founded in close association with the former Church of England
St John's Theological College, which was located in nearby Alma Road,
Public spaces The suburb's main park is
Alma Park, a large park designed by
Clement Hodgkinson in 1867, which was split into two linear parks by the Sandringham railway line in 1858. The park has recreational facilities, including a heritage rotunda, a
cricket and
football (soccer) oval and bike paths, as well as large stands of
elm trees,
Moreton Bay figs and native vegetation areas. Image:Rotunda_alma_park.jpg|Hexagonal rotunda in Alma Park, probably built between 1910 and 1915
St Kilda General Cemetery St Kilda Cemetery covers a large block bordered by Dandenong Road, Hotham Street, Alma Road and Alexandra Street. It is bounded by a historic wall and contains many Victorian era graves. The cemetery is the resting place of
Alfred Deakin, the second
Prime Minister of Australia, and
Albert Jacka VC, MC, barrister and Mayor of St Kilda (1930).
East St Kilda Heritage Study In 2004 the City of Port Phillip commissioned a heritage study that recommended the following areas as heritage precincts and places. The Council adopted most of the recommendations in 2004 and the controls which apply to each of the areas so listed.
Heritage Precincts • Chusan Street (from 1886 onwards) • Godfrey Avenue / Raglan Street (settled early 1910s) • Hammerdale Avenue (Former grounds of "
Hammerdale House" from 1868, demolished and subdivided 1925) • Holroyd Court (former grounds of "Fernacre" from c. 1867, demolished and subdivided 1936) • Kalymna Grove / Inkerman Street (Market gardens until 1914, subdivided and housing erected between 1914 and 1924) • Mooltan Avenue (Former grounds of "
Mooltan Estate" subdivided 1922) • Murchison Street /Alma Road (Former site of ''St John's College Anglican Seminary'' closed 1919, subdivision and building continuing until the late 1930s) • Orange Grove (from the 1890s)
Individual Heritage Places • 31-35 Alexandra Street (Houses c. 1887–88) • 5 -7 Balstan Street (Former
Kynoch & Co. Factory c. 1922, 1940) • 16 Balstan Street (Cottage - oldest surviving dwelling Pre 1863, extended 1869) • 52 Balstan Street (Electrical Substation, c. 1929) • 316- 320 Inkerman Street (Houses c. 1888) • 20 Shirley Grove • 22 Shirley Grove (House - "
Pine Nook" c. 1920) For some reason, the following properties, although included in the heritage study recommendations, were not included in the overlay. • 42 Hotham Street (House c. 1927) • 34 Young Street (House - "
Warby Cottage" c. 1870) ==Heritage sites==