|
Over 100 Years of Clifton Area Census Images
Locale and Topography In a rather hilly section of
southwest St. Louis, bounded by Hampton Avenue on the east, Fyler Avenue on
the south and Interstate Highway 44 on the north and west, is the Clifton
Heights
area. Generally, the land slopes downward to the north and west as it
approaches the valley of the River des Peres, but it presents a varied
topography within its boundaries. Typical of this is the land in the
vicinity of Clifton Heights Park, which creates a picturesque landscape.
There are rather severe slopes on the north side of the area near the
highway and the River des Peres.
Subdivision
Originally this area was a part
of the Gratiot League Square, so called because it was intended to be three
miles square, although it was later slightly shortened on its western side.
Its northern limit was a line bisecting Forest Park, on the south it reached
to the present Bancroft Avenue and in an east-west direction it extended
from Kingshighway to Big Bend Road. Charles Gratiot was a French immigrant
who settled in Cahokia in 1777 and moved to St. Louis in 1781. In that year
he married Victoire Chouteau, a sister of Auguste Chouteau, one of the
founders of St. Louis. He applied to the Spanish Lieutenant-Governor Cruzat
in 1785 for a large land grant to the west of the Prairie des Noyers Common
field. After a survey by Antoine Soulard in 1796, its area was found to be
5,716 acres Gratiot's claim to it was
approved by the territorial government at New Orleans in 1798, after which
he built a log house on the property and cultivated a farm. After the
transfer of the Louisiana Territory to the United States, Gratiot's grant
was confirmed by the Board of Land Commissioners in 1808 as U. S. Survey
2037. In later years, Gratiot became a judge and was chairman of the board
of trustees for the town of St. Louis, as well as organizer of the Bank of
Missouri. Following his death in 1817, the
Gratiot League Square was divided
among his heirs, into a series of east-west strips each about 1,000 feet in
width. On March 10, 1831
William Sublette bought 446 acres of land on the River DesPeres, six
miles from from St. Louis for $3000 and a few weeks latter on April 26 his
Attorney purchased in his name an adjoining tract of 333 acres for $4000.
The two tracts together more commonly know as Sulphur Springs Tract. The
total 779 rolling, fertile acres were located in a rough triangle formed by
Kingshighway, Southwest, Tamm, and New Manchester which didn't exist until
latter. In 1831 there were no roads, just trails. Old Manchester (southwest)
originally Fox Creek Road was the trail, along with Pattison that Sublette
used to get to his property.
A view of the
Sulphur Springs area in another Muegge
watercolor
Click here for a larger view (Coming)
The resort hotel is on the right, next to the
train station. The stone house in the background may have belonged to
William Sublette. Whether or not it was his own mansion is another matter,
for some accounts place Sublette's home a bit to the east, near Macklind
Avenue. (Courtesy of the Missouri Historical Society)
By 1860 the Clifton Heights area was comprised of
portions of five large tracts owned by
Benjamin F Buchanan,
David W. Graham,
Peter Lindell and the Christy and Cooper estates
1878 Map of The Clifton Heights area
from Pitzman's Map of the County of St. Louis, Mo.
Click
here for
larger view .
In the middle 1880's,
subdividing for residential purposes began in three of these tracts.
Earliest of these were Dillon's and Bradley's subdivisions in 1884. They
were located in the southwestern corner of the Christy tract near Fyler
Avenue and the Frisco tracks. They were soon followed by the adjacent Hume's
and Quinette subdivisions in 1887-88. In the Buchanan tract, the first
residential subdivision was Breezy Heights, platted near Arsenal Street and
Ivanhoe Avenue in 1885. Adjoining plats were opened by Octavius C. McCune in
1886 and in Von Phul's Addition to Breezy Heights in 1887. McRee's Clifton
Terrace was opened in 1886 on Tamm Avenue, north of Arsenal.
The southwestern corner of David
W. Graham's Sulphur Spring tract was sold in 1885 to a group headed by a
Methodist minister,
Rev. Benjamin St. James Fry. They hired Julius Pitzman
to survey and lay out Clifton Heights subdivision, with its curving streets
and park. To the north of this, Ritter Place was recorded as a subdivision
in 1887. It was bounded by Knox, Wilson and Famous Avenues, near the Frisco
Railway. To the east of Ritter Place was Thomas Campbell's subdivision,
platted in 1889.
Between 1890 and World War I,
the Clifton Heights area experienced considerable subdivision development. Among
these were Smiley's subdivision at Arsenal and Jamieson in 1892 and
Kirschbaum's Addition at Tamm and Scanlan in the same year. The original
Clifton Heights subdivision was flanked on its eastern side by Eitman's
Addition in 1890, Newberry's Addition in 1894 and Cliftondale in 1908. On
its southern side, across Columbia Avenue, were Cramer's Addition in 1898,
Hallock's Addition in 1900 and Wentworth in 1906. Further west, along the
south side of Southwest Avenue, were the Buchanan Estate subdivision in 1901
and Liberty Heights in 1907.
The earliest subdivision in the
vicinity of Arsenal and Watson was Grandview Place in 1912. Several new
developments occurred in that area during the 1920's, including Seever's
Clifton Addition and Hampton Terrace in 1923, Highland Park in 1924 and the
large Arsenal-Watson Park, between Arsenal and Fyler, in 1925. Harry C.
Vollmar's subdivision was opened at Sulphur and Elizabeth Avenues in 1925
and Franke Court was developed, off of Smiley Avenue west of Tamm, in 1926.
There was not further activity until the large Clifton Hills subdivision,
north of Southwest Avenue and west of Tamm, was platted in 1953-55.
|
