Just when you think you know everything, one like this comes along. Quite a while ago I did a series of posts about the Bank of Maplewood. Matter of fact here are the links if you’d like to take a look at them again.
Bank of Maplewood – Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Three (continued).
If you didn’t look at any of those links at least look at Part Three, will ya? In Part Three an image from the 1915 Maplewood Directory and a letterhead are shown that make it clear the bank was not still in its original location at the NE corner of Oakview Terrace and Manchester.
This story is actually about the Citizens Bank of Maplewood. Notice that the name is almost the same as the Bank of Maplewood. Just one word was added. Just why was this new bank formed is a question that one of the banks longest serving members, Mary Piles, is trying to solve. I’m curious, too. Why did these folks feel like they needed another bank only one block away from the one they already had? What about the Swinks? John was the president of the Bank of Maplewood and the owner of the building in 1904. Robert was involved in the start up of Citizens Bank. Were those guys brothers? Were the banks competitors?
Those are a few of the unknowns to us. Perhaps some of my readers will be able to shed some light on this?
There are many many more images of photographs and documents that the tireless researcher and caretaker of the historic material at Citizens’ Bank, Mary Piles, has sent me. I had planned to make this post much longer but either the interface with this digital publishing program is failing or perhaps it is in my own computer. Oh joy. All of these images loaded extremely slowly until I couldn’t load another one. Wish me luck.
Much thanks to Mary. Hopefully I’ll be back soon.
Doug Houser September 12, 2020
I had heard about the spring in the bank but never knew if it was a for sure thing or not. I guess that makes sense since water I would guess collects off Lohmeyer and runs down hill and needs some place to come out. I have to wonder if it runs year round or only after a rain. Doesn’t seem like a lot of area to collect water and form a spring but maybe more of a seep? Maybe Dan or Mary could get us a picture or tell us a little more about it and how they deal with it. I think of my grandfather’s spring house where he kept his metal milk cans full of milk in a large vat of water that was spring fed. Water constantly running thru it to keep the milk cold.
Would it be possible, Dan or Mary to get a photo of the spring as it looks today?
It is a shame that we lost all of those neat old homes in the redevelopment of that area. My mother worked at Citizens National Bank, the current building, years ago and it always fascinated me that they have a spring in the basement. Thanks for all of the other cool information!
You are welcome, Mike. A spring?
The old Famous Barr on Kingshighway and Chippewa had a spring in their basement also, it never was a problem unless it rained hard. kinda like here.
I think the main St. Louis Public library has a spring in the basement also.
Doug Houser, can you confirm that?
I knew of this spring as well. No pun intended. While we’re on the subject of springs, many moons ago I invited a group of spelunkers out to assess a Maplewood cave that I asked them to list as Sutton’s Cave. You can refresh your memory here.
https://40southnews.com/maplewood-history-suttons-cave/
The reason why I bring this up is these nice fellows asked me if I would like them to show me the location of a very active spring that was nearby. I said I would so they did. You can have a look at it too if you like.
Go south on McCausland until it turns into Wabash. The road makes a hard left and then you pass under railroad tracks and the Highway 44 overpass. The spring gushes out from under the overpass on the east side of it. It immediately flows into a drain that takes it underneath Wabash and empties into the River Des Peres. To pull over safely you should be headed towards Maplewood on Wabash. Then pull over on your right just before you go under the highway.
Yes, and it has it’s own trench to a drain in the floor.
Years ago, I had a house that was built at the bottom of a street that was put in above my house and yard. When it rained it all drained down from up there into my back yard, and surprise one year, I had a spring out there in my yard and a whole lot of water there. Once I called and had someone look at all the water out there (I had the house up for sale) and I needed to see where it was coming from., that’s what I was told.they told me it would probably dry up, when the rain stopped….and it did I believe. So I am thinking it did the same there at the bank too.
Pat, that is fairly common around here. I’ve heard it called a wet weather spring. Water flows downhill through the soil and leaks out to the surface when it finds the bottom of the slope.
You teach me something every time I open your posts, Thank you Doug, enjoying your insight. Still looking for a photo of William Stites and Daniel Sheerin, waiting for our libraries to reopen. You’re the best
Thank you, Mary. I posted the list of the members of the 1915 Board of Directors that you supplied.