Mid County Directory 2025

18 2025 | Maplewood & Richmond Heights Community Directory A Brief History of Richmond Heights What is now Richmond Heights was once heavily forested and inhabited by native peoples. In the mid-1800s large landowners such as McCausland, McCutcheon, Rannells and Rankin settled here to farm. By the late 1800s people began to purchase smaller tracts, built homes, schools and churches, creating a town. The 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair showcased not only the fair but the surrounding area, so that by 1913 Richmond Heights was large enough to incorporate as a city. The historic African American neighborhood founded by Evens and Howard Brickworks in the early 1900s brought in a much-needed labor force along with their families. By the 1920s, the “city of homes” began to issue business licenses so that residents could buy locally what they needed, and the Franciscan Sisters of Mary built St. Mary’s Hospital. The advent of major highway systems post-World War II had a direct impact when the Daniel Boone Expressway (Highway 40, now 64) literally cut through Richmond Heights resulting in the relocation of hundreds of families and some businesses. It did bring in new business. This same process occurred in the 1970s when I-170 sliced through the midsection of the city. However, people using these highways were discovering Richmond Heights. The result created a thriving commercial sector with The Galleria, The Boulevard, and other businesses along Brentwood Boulevard, with more recent developments along the east side of Hanley Road, and the older business districts along Big Bend Boulevard and Clayton Road. Commercial successes enable the city to provide an array of services to its residents and businesses: police and fire protection, maintenance of facilities and streets, a building department, and recycling and waste removal. Certainly, another highlight is THE HEIGHTS Community Center offering recreational and fitness opportunities and meeting spaces as well as housing the Richmond Heights Memorial Library. In 2013, Richmond Heights spent an entire year celebrating 100 years of history and the generations of people who contributed to its growth as a community. Today Richmond Heights is a city of residents and businesses working together to preserve what has been so carefully built over more than 100 years and preparing to meet the future. For more information, contact the Richmond Heights Historical Society at 314-645-5129. The book Richmond Heights 1868-1940 is available at the library, or for purchase through the historical society and other bookstores.