Doug Houser

Retired autoworker. Maplewood resident since 1975. Advocate of the Arts and Historic Preservation.

Maplewood History: Now You Can Own A Reproduction Of A Stan Masters Watercolor!

Dear Readers, Most of you are probably unaware of the value of an original watercolor by Stan Masters. For about the past 16 years Stan’s...

Maplewood History: Stan Masters – A World Class Watercolorist…From Maplewood

Over the twelve or thirteen years since I began this adventure, this site has gained many new readers as one might expect. While most...

Maplewood History: The Bruno Farm

John Baptiste Bruno once had a farm adjacent to and just north of James Sutton’s. Lucky for us area historian, Esley Hamilton had done...

Maplewood History For Sale

In 2008, I produced a book for the 100th anniversary of the founding of our town called The First 100 Years, Maplewood, MO. It...

Maplewood History: For Sale – A Painted Photograph of Gertrude Harper

Now for something completely different. Recently a man contacted me who has a portrait of Gertrude Harper for sale. He bought it at a thrift...

Maplewood History: Previous Unseen Images of Maplewood’s Second High School

More stunning photos from the collection of Laura Varilek Maplewood has had three high school buildings. Some of the images that Ms. Varilek was kind...

Maplewood History: Exceedingly Rare Images Discovered in the Varilek Collection

We’ve struck another vein of gold in the mountain of historic Maplewood photographs. My last post covered my recent meeting with two descendants of Sarah...

Maplewood History: Being Made Or At Least Re-Lived

Sarah Harrison’s Family Came to Town Recently, I was pleased to entertain the first, as far as I know, out-of-town, Maplewood History-inspired tourists to this...

Maplewood History: 7309 Maple Avenue

Let's try this again. The first post has evaporated somehow. I'm thankful that it was just this one. Most of my posts I have...

Maplewood History: Happy Halloween

In my neighborhood, the Shields subdivision in south Maplewood, a couple of 12 foot tall skeletons have been up for quite awhile now. They...

Maplewood History: The Rise and Fall of the Maplewood K-Mart

The Rise The Fall From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 7, 1997 Shortest post I've ever made. Doug Houser October 16, 2022

Maplewood History: Built Plain or Became Plain Over Time? The Maplewood Bank

In my last post, I reprinted an email from reader Melissa in which she posed the question: Were our buildings “built plain or became...

Maplewood History: Built Plain or Became Plain Over Time?

Recently I received the following email from a reader that started me thinking about the disappeared and still disappearing architectural details that have occupied...

Maplewood History: CORO Fellows and Femmes Study Maplewood

This past September the 7th, I had the great pleasure to meet the wonderful folks that make up the St. Louis contingent of the...

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Doug Houser

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