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Location: Hampton and Jamieson Avenues
Ordinance Date: 1947
Ordinance Numbers: 44047, 44048, 44055, 44093
Size: 105.61 Acres
Cost: $52,000
View Willmore Park Picnic Grounds
Plant A Memorial Tree In Willmore Park
Picnic reservations: Call 314 289-5330
Ballfield reservations: Call: 289-5389
History of Willmore Park
Willmore Park, the last major park to be developed in the City of St. Louis, is one of the city's most popular parks.
The two large lakes provide quiet areas for fishing, the big playground gives children a place to run and climb, large pavilions are great spots for picnics, barbecues and gatherings and the trails are great for exercise for all ages.
Cyrus Crane Willmore, the developer of St. Louis Hills, in 1946 donated 70 acres to the city for park use.
Combined with adjacent city-owned property, this became the 105-acre Willmore Park in 1947.
Funds from the 1955 Parks Bond Issue were used to develop the park. Unlike most city parks, roads in Willmore Park are located along the periphery, providing large areas of open land.
The park was designed by landscape architect Stuart M. Mertz, in association with Layton, Layton, and Rodes.
The city used capital improvement funds after the flood of 1993 to reclaim some of the park overtaken by backwater from the River Des Peres and lake overflow.
The Missouri Department of Conservation improved the North and South lakes at Willmore Park in 1996-97. A fishing platform, parking space and trail for disabled anglers was added to the South Lake in 2001.
Cyrus Crane Willmore
Cyrus Crane Willmore was the developer of the 700-acre St. Louis Hills neighborhood. He came to St. Louis in 1912 after graduation from the University of Illinois Law School, and worked for a realty firm until 1922, when he formed his own company.
He first began subdivision developments in University City, Webster Groves and Normandy. In the city, he created Kingshighway Hills along that thoroughfare between Fyler and Pernod Avenues in 1926.
Willmore organized the St. Louis Hills Realty Company for the acquisition of the Francis Farm property.. The plat for this subdivision, known as St. Louis Hills No. 1, was recorded in March, 1929. In December, 1930, a survey was filed for St. Louis Hills No. 2, which included land west of Jamieson Avenue to the River des Peres drainage works.
Willmore's intentions for the area were clear from the beginning: tree lined residential streets for families and single persons, churches and schools throughout, bordered on three sides by developing businesses, open green spaces in parks and, one distinguishing feature...red concrete sidewalks.
Names of streets within the neighborhood, as well as early development architecture, reflect Willmore's English heritage -- Nottingham, Devonshire, and Tamm Avenue to name a few. Eichelberger Street, a main east-west roadway through the center of St. Louis Hills, originally was named Clarke Road for George C. Clarke.
Although housing construction was temporarily suspended by World War II, the Cyrus Crane Willmore Organization proceeded to survey and plat subdivisions in the area south of Eichelberger Street.
First of these was St. Louis Hills No. 3 in 1942. It included frontages on both sides of Rhodes Avenue from Hampton to Childress.
Two years later the first St. Louis Hills Estates was platted in an area west of Jamieson and south of Eichelberger, and in 1945 St. Louis Hills Estates No. 2 was planned, being bounded by Jamieson, Donovan, Eichelberger, Childress, Clifton and Loughborough Avenues. The Estates consisted of generously sized lots on curving streets with large ranch style homes, in its postwar development.
A Willmore sales brochure of 1944 quoted the Estates as providing "country living in the city" at an altitude where it was "swept by cool breezes."
In 1946, a multiple dwelling subdivision, St. Louis Hills No. 4, was laid out in the triangle formed by Loughborough, Hampton and Jamieson Avenues. Three years later, St. Louis Hills Estates No. 3 was opened in an area southeast of Eichelberger and Childress. St. Louis Hills Estates No. 4 completed the subdivision of the Willmore properties in 1950.
In 1945, Willmore was appointed to the City Plan Commission and in 1946 he donated 70 acres to the city for park use. Combined with adjacent city-owned property, this became Willmore Park in 1947. Cyrus Crane Willmore died on April 11, 1949, ending a colorful career in urban development.
 Official Web Site of the City of St. Louis
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