Manchester Road and Its Diverse History
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Manchester Road and its Diverse History
Driving down Manchester road was a trip down memory lane. I am currently familiar with much of Manchester road and it booming activity. So much has been built and added in the past twenty years. I did not realize how far into the city Manchester went and so it was a new experience for me. Much of Manchester Rd. in the city is very industrial with the train tracks running parallel to the road much of the time. There were trains present. As we approached Maplewood, the tracks disappeared, leaving behind the barred windows and dilapidated buildings, giving way to a cute little town and the sidewalk shops. Suddenly you saw lots of people walking around. Prior to this I had seen a couple of rough looking people sitting at bus stops but that was all. It only got better. As I drove along I realized how old the places like Glendale and Rock Hill and Kirkwood are. Whereas toward the end in Ballwin and especially Wildwood everything was so new still and in some instances still under construction. Instead of building new homes like these places Kirkwood and some areas closer to the city are in the process of tearing down old homes and building new ones in their place.
Manchester road itself has a very long and interesting history. It first was called Rue Bonhomme during French control of the area. At that time, it was an extension of Market Street, which farmers used to carry produce to market on the St. Louis riverfront. In 1826, the Missouri State Legislature moved to Jefferson City, making it the new state capital. One of the first orders of business after the move was to supplement the Missouri River access to the capital with an overland route. Soon an overland mail route between St. Louis and Jefferson City was established. In 1835, the St. Louis County Court approved an act to plan out Manchester Rd. The General Assembly made Manchester Road the first official State road in St. Louis County in order to provide an overland route between Jefferson City, the new capital, and St. Louis. “After World War I, the Federal Government donated military road building and paving equipment to individual states, including the State of Missouri. The St. Louis County portion of Manchester Road, still the major thoroughfare from St. Louis to Springfield, was first paved in the late 1920s. (stloius.mo.org)” “Manchester Roads expansion to four lanes in 1963 was marked by a mammoth ribbon cutting at the eastern city limits of Manchester.(www.ballwin.mo.us)” Now Manchester has anywhere from two, up to six lanes in some places.
Starting in the city, Manchester traverses through Compton Heights and Oakland before reaching the county. Industrial activity began in the Oakland area due to the construction of the Pacific Railroad in the mid 1850s. “Excellent clay deposits in the vicinity brought the establishment of several fire-brick works before 1875.(stlouis.mo.org)” “At that time, the larger plants were those of James Greens Laclede Works at about the present Wilson and Sulphur Avenues and Evens and Howards Cheltenham Fire Brick Works on Manchester east of Macklind. A neighbor of the latter firm was the St. Louis Smelting and Refining Company, while across Manchester, near Sublette, was S. Mitchells brick works, which dated from 1857. Coal was also discovered in the area in the late 1850s, supplementing the clay sources, which dated from twenty years before that. (stlouis.mo.org)” Several public schools are located in the Compton area, the earliest being the Hodgen School at 2748 Henrietta Street which was built in 1884. The Grant School at 3009 Pennsylvania Avenue was opened in 1893 and was one of the first public schools here. Ittner who was the Wyman School built in 1901 at 1547 South Theresa Avenue also built the adjacent building for Harris Teachers College at 1517 South Theresa, which was finished in 1905. “The teachers college remained there until 1950 and the building is now used as the Board of Education Curriculum Service Center.( stlouis.mo.org)” Another school in this area is the Gallaudet School for the Deaf at 1616 South Grand. South of this area are smaller one and two family homes. These homes are in relatively good condition and are owned and not rented. Large houses may be found on a few streets but not many. East is an area of single family houses with a scattering of a few flats that were built between 1890 and 1910. Most of these homes are rented and are in poor condition. In this area most of the housing was built before 1900. Most of them are two and four family flats. They are generally of poor quality and maintenance, many lacking inside plumbing.
Maplewood is the first county district you come to from the city named for the Maplewood trees planted along the main street. This town was established in 1826 by James C. Sutton. Maplewood was along the railroad and did not become a city until 1908. Glendale was named after a small train station between Webster Groves & Kirkwood on the Missouri Pacific Railroad. During the civil war this area was very sparsely settled. Glendale became a city in 1912. This city is largely residential and has elegant homes. “In 1850 a group of 40 investors, bought several hundred acres along the proposed railroad route for the line that would link the eastern part of the country with the Pacific coast. The selection of a Missouri River route for the trans-continental railroad put St. Louis at the terminus of the railroad .(www.explorestlouis.com)” The city was formally established in 1853 and was named for James Pugh Kirkwood, the engineer who platted the city and surveyed the Pacific railroad route which passed through the area. The streets of the original town were rectangular blocks with one acre sections designated for building single family homes. Families could purchase an entire block creating a five-acre estate. When trains first rolled into Kirkwood in 1853, they stopped at a building at the site of the present station. A stagecoach would then take passengers from the train station to Manchester, Missouri. From the beginning, the train was an integral part of life in Kirkwood. “Early promoters hawked the city as a healthy place to live. With the cholera epidemic that killed a fifth of St. Louis population a recent memory, they pitched the new communitys fresh air and open spaces. Many early Kirkwood residents were wealthy businessmen eager to safeguard their families from the dangers of life in the city by moving them from the crowded urban area to the new suburb. (www.explorestlouis.com)” Some kept town homes in the city where they stayed during the workweek returning to their homes in suburbia on the weekends. Kirkwoods streets leading from the train depot are named for presidents–Washington,