Hills Street News
14
Growing Up in St. Louis Hills in the 1930s By Bill Rund, St. Louis Hills Neighborhood Association 1960-1961
A kid growing up in St. Louis Hills in the 1930s experienced a marvelous world of development and change. Back then there were few paved streets, no street lights, no schools and no churches in the area bounded by Hampton, River Des Peres, Chippewa and what is now Eichelberger. While there were no parks or playgrounds, a great portion of the area was farmland and woods loaded with rabbits, squirrels, quail, doves and other wildlife. There were ponds in which to swim, strong ropes tied to trees on which a kid could swing over deep ravines. Then, too, there were areas where one could find and pick loads of wild blackberries. Icemen, milkmen, men selling produce, bread and baked goods would drive their horse drawn carts up and down the streets and alleys seeking buyers for their goods. St. Louis Hills was a fantasyland in which to live for all the children in the neighborhood. While a great deal of home building was going on all around them, one group of youngsters decided to erect their very own clubhouse on a lot on Lansdowne, near where Steak 'N' Shake once stood, using scrap lumber and building materials from nearby building sites. Cyrus Crane Willmore, the developer of the Hills, didn't look too kindly on the project, so he sent his man, Tony, to evict the lads from their joyous clubhouse and to tear it down. The eviction and demolition of their clubhouse was a bitter pill for the boys to swallow, but they managed to put it behind them and move onto other childhood activities. One has to keep in mind, at that time St. Louis Hills was like a developing small town within a large city. For the children, it was like being a part of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. Today, St. Louis Hills still offers children a wonderful community in which to grow up, learn and play, with its parks and playgrounds, schools, churches, shops and stores. As the world turns, the growth and development of St. Louis Hills experienced by the youngsters in the 1930s will long be remembered. Even now, seventyfive years later, there is a proposal being circulated in the area to create a Community Improvement District (CID) to fund the construction of a neighborhood community center and pool on the property now occupied by Nottingham School.
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