What follows was my fourteenth post on the website, 40 South News. It first appeared on January 6, 2014. In the first few lines, I was worrying about running out of material. I shouldn’t have. This is post number 386 and I’m not done yet. DH
For a bit longer than 4 ½ years, I have posted articles and photos about the history of Maplewood on three different websites. Posting once or twice a month, more here lately, I usually include anywhere from 3 to 10 photos. I’ve not repeated myself much but I’m getting ready to.
It’s not that I’m running out of material on what might seem to some a narrow subject. Far from it. It’s just that there are folks asking me about subjects I’ve already posted. This is the easiest way to answer them. Some of the photos in this post were originally shown on the Facebook page of the City of Maplewood.
According to the research of St. Louis County historian, Esley Hamilton, County directories show that Albert Schwartzman and his wife Rosie lived and worked in one of Maplewood’s finest commercial buildings at 3101 Sutton at least as early as 1909. They operated a grocery and a meat market there.
In 1917, on a corner lot directly across the street from their location on the SW corner of Sutton and Elm, they were granted a permit for a building 51 by 80 feet long. It probably cost them in excess of $8,000 to construct. The address of the new building was, and still is, 3100 Sutton.
Early in their occupancy at 3100 Sutton, the industrious couple operated a variety store and had as tenants, a shoe store, a tailor, and a store selling gentleman’s furnishings.
Sometime between 1917 and 1925, the Schwartzman’s added a second floor to their building to be used as a dance hall which was called fittingly, if not creatively, Schwartzman’s Dance Hall.
If the concept of the Schwartzman’s Dance Hall doesn’t make you want to move your bones, apparently it didn’t make many others want to either. On Oct. 1, 1925, the building was sold to Oscar Kasday who turned around and sold it to the Loyal Order of Moose #1086, Maplewood Lodge in July of 1927.
Over time, the Moose shared their space with the Carpenters and Joiners Local 1739, the Frisco Shop Craft No. 5 and the Women of the Moose #713.
So what did it mean to be a Moose? Read this and you’ll know as much as I do.
And what has been happening at 3101 Sutton for the last 113 years? Here is what showed up in Newspapers.com.
There you have it. A couple of buildings but hundreds of stories connected with them. I hope you all have enjoyed this blast from the past.
Pray for a safe ending to the war in the Ukraine. Ban assault weapons and wear your damn mask. Don’t you read the paper?
If you’d like to discuss any of these things, I’ll be at the pool.
Doug Houser June 7, 2022
Doug, it’s amazing what your longtime efforts have dredged back from the past. In this post you mentioned that the Carpenters and Joiners Union shared the building. They were a strong union and because of your interest in tools and carving I will share a recent acquisition in a separate email of a pocket knife they issued. Their motto was “labor omnia vincit”, which translates, “work conquers all”. AND ——-Are you nuts, enjoying this steam bath, jungle weather!?!?!?!?
Gary, Thanks for the very nice images of the pocket knife and, yes, I do like this weather. I’m a heatophile. I’m happiest once that annoying coolness is gone.
As a fan of architecture and history I find this interesting. Thanks for the good work.
Thx, Doug!! I grew up on this block of Elm (East) and I bought the house after years away when my mother passed away in 2000. She sold Christmas trees out of one of the empty store fronts when I was about 10. They were all still visible in about 1958. SO, I’m thinking the stores were covered over in maybe the very early 60s. No matter, but I do remember the area streets all parked up with cars on Saturday nights for the Moose Hall dances very much in the mid to late 50s. We moved five houses down on Elm in 1953 when I was 5. Visited here for years and now the caretaker of the home. GREAT to see this history! Again, thank you!!
You are very welcome, Pickett. Thank you very much for sharing your personal details of our story.
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