Sometime in 2002 or 2003 or thereabouts a long time Maplewood resident passed away. This lady had lived at 7324 Vine in one of Maplewood’s oldest and most interesting homes. I know I’m going to get this wrong but I remember her last name as Vierling or something close to that.
7324 Vine was built between 1890 and 1891 for Adolph Huntziker. Mr. Huntziker worked for Woodard and Kiernan Printing Co. and is credited with inventing the loose leaf ring binder. County historian Esley Hamilton has suggested that perhaps a large sculpture of a loose leaf binder would be an appropriate piece of public art for the front yard.
I had stopped by the estate sale as this was in the days before the Maplewood Historical Society had gone belly up. I was looking for any items that might pertain to the history of Maplewood. Mrs. Vierling was Huntziker’s great niece. The home had never been out of the family.
The overly generous estate sale manager suggested that I might like to have the Vierling collection of slides. Mr. and Mrs. Vierling had been world travelers back in the days when that really meant something. A cursory look in one of the boxes revealed slides of pyramids and camels. They might have also photographed things in Maplewood I thought, so I accepted.
We moved the slides to the basement of one of the members of the historical society and that is where they are now. If anyone would care to take a look at these slides I’d be very grateful. The caretaker has expressed a desire to have them out of her basement.
They certainly contain many interesting images. Whether or not they have any of Maplewood is unknown. Let me know if you’d like to take a look at them. I’d hate to have something important slip through our fingers. Thanks.
How wonderful to have that goldmine of slides! I’m currently going through my parents collection from the 1950’s to 1980’s and lucky to have my mom still identify people and places. I actually found this website because she has photos of the aftermath of Golde’s burning in 1966. They lived in Maplewood in the early 1950’s to 1966 and I lived at James/Big Bend for two years in the late 1990’s. My husband and I love Maplewood. Please let me know if anything is ever organized on looking through the slides. I would love to help! Sounds like fun.
I think the MO History Museum Library also runs projects like this with the help of volunteers
I’m sure you’ve seen this document before – I had not. The Vine house is mentioned, but no clarification on a name after Huntziker. http://www.dnr.mo.gov/shpo/survey/SLAS006-R.pdf
Hi Doug, I am familiar with the 1982 survey by Rosemary Davison. I get much information including some in this post from her research. Rosemary was highly regarded in the historic preservation community. She passed away not very long ago.
Esley Hamilton had this information for us.
Her name was Charlotte C. Vierling.
Here’s the way I found it that you can use in the future:
Go to the Real Estate Information website for the County Department of Revenue. http://revenue.stlouisco.com/IAS/
Search by address, in the lower left corner of the screen.
When the address you want comes up on the right, click on it, and a screen of information appears above.
The next to last line on the first block of information has just been activated in the last few years. It says “Deed Index List.” Click on that line and another table will pop up with a list of recent deed transactions involving this property. Not every property has useful information here, but they are adding more and more over time, which is very helpful for researchers.
Sounds like a wonderful service project for a Maplewood student….
…or students. I agree, Sam. We’ll see how this thing turns out. I have some folks interested in this project. Anyone out there that can digitize slides?
Or a history major at Washington U or Webster U. Maybe students of the Webster film studies department could digitize the slides.