St. Louis Hills Directory 2024

24 2024 | St. Louis Hills Community Directory History of St. Louis Hills OVERVIEW On Sunday, July 20, 1930, the very first home built in St. Louis Hills was opened to the public. Those present included Cyrus Crane Willmore, the visionary developer of St. Louis Hills, and Harry S Truman, who would soon become first a U.S. Senator, and then President of the United States. More than 10,000 people visited that first home. St. Louis Hills is rich in architecture, strategic location, and history. “Country living in the City” was the phrase used to market St. Louis Hills in the 1930s, since the neighborhood was so far west of any other residential or commercial buildings located within the city limits. HISTORY The history of St. Louis Hills, developed from 1930 through the 1950s, is relatively short compared to the city’s beginnings in 1763. St. Louis Hills dates back to deeds granted to pioneer French colonists Madame Ann Camp and Anton Reihle in 1768 by one of the founders of the village of St. Louis, Pierre Laclede. At the time, the land included 2,471 acres. Camp and Reihl’s heirs sold the land to George C. Clarke, who gave it to his two sons. When the village was chartered as the city of St. Louis in 1836, St. Louis Hills was still remote, with open and forested land, and essentially remained so until the early 1930s. In 1876, when the city of St. Louis and St. Louis County separated, the western boundary of the city was set just west of the River des Peres (River of the Fathers). Even then, what is now St. Louis Hills was still open land. David Rowland Francis, governor of Missouri from 1889-1893, became owner of part of the property on which he established his vast farm in 1884. Francis was president of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition from 1898-1899 until its opening in 1904. Francis originally offered his farmland as the site for the World’s Fair (also considering five other places), but the logistics of transportation and construction persuaded the committee to select Forest Park as the venue for the now-famous fair. In 1916, Francis was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Russia. On Christmas Eve of that year, Francis made a gift of the land to the city for a park, thus the name Francis Park. David Rowland Francis died January 15, 1927. To learn more about David R. Francis and the Louisiana Purchase Exposition-The St. Louis 1904 World’s Fair, contact the 1904 World’s Fair Society through their website (1904worldsfairsociety.org) and the Missouri Historical Library (MHS) and Research Center (mohistory.org) . Cyrus Crane Willmore, for whom the neighborhood’s second park is named, began developing St. Louis Hills’ 700 acres in the late 1920s. Willmore came to St. Louis in 1912 after graduating from the University of Illinois law school, and worked for a realty firm until 1922 when he formed his own company. Willmore’s intentions for the area were clear from the beginning: tree-lined residential streets for families, churches and schools throughout, bordered on three sides by developing businesses, and parks with open green spaces. Names of streets within the neighborhood, as well as early architecture, reflect Willmore’s English heritage: Nottingham , Devonshire, and Tamm avenues, to name a few. Eichelberger Street, a main east-west road through the center of St. Louis Hills, was originally named Clarke Road for George C. Clarke. Today, mature oak, maple, poplar, and birch trees line streets filled with historic homes; young families play in the parks; churches and schools are found on nearly every corner, and thriving and iconic businesses surround the neighborhood. The history and vision of the founders of St. Louis Hills is still evident today.