For the first seven years of Route 66 — from 1926 to 1933 — the road went through Maplewood’s business district, the Missouri History Museum wrote in its blog recently.
From the Missouri History Museum:
In 1853 the Missouri Pacific Railroad began running between St. Louis and Webster Groves, with a stop at Maplewood (then described as “[at] the River des Peres, a little beyond the Sutton’s”). The town’s main thoroughfare, Manchester Avenue (now Manchester Road), was also heavily traveled because it served as the connector between St. Louis and Jefferson City. By the time Maplewood was incorporated in 1908, the town also hosted the Manchester Line, one of St. Louis’s electrified streetcar lines. It turned around on Sutton Avenue (at today’s Sutton Loop Park) and offered direct, no-transfer service to downtown St. Louis.
Read the full post from the Missouri History Museum.
I nearly forgot to mention that the first city hall is on Sutton and home to Studio X today.
The photo above was part of the first display the Maplewood Historical Society set up. It is a postcard that was from the collection of Donna Parks (then, now Ratkowski). It is postmarked 1909. It was taken in the 7300 block of Manchester. 7284 is not an address it’s a stock number. The first building on the left is the Maplewood Laundry which advertised its address as 7315-17-19 Manchester. Just past the laundry is the building that may have housed the first Kalb Electric store. Both of those buildings were located where Citizen’s Bank is today. Beyond them can be seen the first Maplewood Bank building which was on the NE corner of Oakview Terrace and Manchester. I believe the first three buildings on the right still exist. The one with the parapet (now missing) behind the utility pole is the T.Rohan building (I’m forgetting the exact name of the business in there today). The other two buildings and a small one squeezed in the narrow space between them were all lost during the unfortunate demolition during the 70’s. Citizen’s Park is in that location today.
Cool, I see the old City hall and some of the buildings that are still there! Keep the Photos coming!