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Location: Blair Avenue on the east, Salisbury Street on the south, 20th Street on the west and Bremen Avenue on the north.
Ordinance Date: 1854
Size: 11.84 Acres
Purchased: Deed
Cost: $36,250
Plant A Memorial Tree In Hyde Park
The neighborhood known as Hyde Park was once the town of Bremen.
Among the many Germans who migrated to the St. Louis area in the 1840's were quite a few who were natives of the German city of Bremen. Since many of these families had settled along Bellefontaine Road, this area was given the name of New Bremen after their home town. A survey of the town area was executed by Edward Hutawa in 1844 at the direction of the four
principal property owners; George Buchanan, E. C. Angelrodt, N. N. Destrehan and Emil Mallinckrodt. They were the incorporators of the town of Bremen in 1850 and the four east-west streets were named in their honor. Broadway was the main street and was dedicated as a public highway on May 10, 1852.
A post office was secured by a petition of the trustees in August, 1850 and trans-portation to St. Louis was provided by an omnibus line, operated by Erastus Wells and Calvin Case, established in 1845. A tax of one-fifth of one percent was levied on
all property in the town. As incorporated in 1850, the towns' limits extended from the river on the east as far west as Twentieth Street and from Dock Street on the south to East Grand Avenue on the north. It included the Farrar tract, which became Hyde Park.
Annexation of Bremen to St. Louis was under consideration in 1854 when the trustees opened discussion on the subject with Mayor John How of St. Louis. The question was submitted to the citizens of Bremen at an election in April, 1856, when they voted in favor of annexation, thus ending the official existence of the town of Bremen.
History of Hyde Park
What is now the site of Hyde Park was originally part of a land grant to Gabriel Cerre, which was purchased by Dr. Bernard G. Farrar in 1842. Dr. Farrar, who was the first American
doctor in St. Louis, invested in real estate after making his fortune in medicine and
pharmaceuticals. He became a victim of the cholera epidemic in 1849 and his widow
subdivided the tract in 1850.
The land, along with the family mansion, was later purchased from Mrs. Ann C. T. Farrar in 1854 for $36,250. The park grounds were leased to vegetable gardeners and thereafter as a beer garden with the revenue derived being expended for its improvement. Near the center of the park stood the Farrar mansion, which served as a bar and restaurant with hotel rooms for guests on the upper floors.
During the Civil War, political meetings and festive observances were held in this park. The meeting on July 4, 1863 ended so tragically that the leasing was discontinued and the sale of beer forever banned here. Between 9,000 and 10,000 people along with 75 to 100 convalescent soldiers from the nearby hospital at Benton Barracks (Fairgrounds Park), gathered for this Independence Day celebration and balloon ascension. The animosity of
those Union soldiers towards southern sympathizers mounted as the day grew, particularly
against those who wore a colored ribbon on their hats. The old mansion was badly damaged,
the partially inflated balloon was torn to shreds and the bar and restaurant attacked. A
request for protection was made to Colonel Almstedt's regiment, quartered just outside the
western fence of the Park. A company of these soldiers fired on the milling crowd. The
victims, all innocent bystanders, included two killed and six or seven wounded.
In 1870, the old Farrar mansion was razed and the park deteriorated until 1874 when
improvements were begun. By 1876, a pond and fountain had been installed along with
meandering walks and landscaping. It is believed that the park took its name from the
famous Hyde Park in London. A fence was erected on the Bremen Avenue side of the park to
keep out stray cattle from herds being driven along the street to the riverfront stockyards.
Construction of a bandstand was completed in 1896 at which time the park also contained
floral display greenhouses. A fire station has occupied the corner of Hyde Park at Blair
Avenue and Salisbury Street for many years. Construction of its perimeter streets reduced
the area of the park from its original 14.50 acres to the present 11.84 acres.
 Official Web Site of the City of St. Louis
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