A relatively small area bounded on the south by I-44 , east by Hampton, west by City Limits and north by Manchester, the Ellendale neighborhood's history is tied into Maplewood and the Southwest St. Louis neighborhood.
Much of what is now the Ellendale neighborhood was part of the property belonging to James C. Sutton who died in 1877.
Mr. Sutton's land was divided among his nine children. One daughter, Mary C. Marshall, sold her share, in 1890, to a St. Louis real estate company. The real estate company platted a subdivision named Maplewood and planted maple trees along its streets. Other plantings resulted in such street names as Elm, Myrtle, Hazel and Flora.
Maplewood was an inner suburb of St. Louis and electric streetcars which began running westward from St. Louis on Manchester Avenue in 1896 improved transportation. The pleasant suburban atmosphere attracted many new residents to Maplewood, including upper middle class and professional families.
Kate Thomas, another of James Sutton's daughters, started Ellendale. A large gas explosion prior to the 1904 World's Fair either demolished or damaged some of the older homes in the area which had been built in the late 1800's. However, several stately homes, originally built for executives of the Scullin Steel Company, after the 1904 World's Fair, are still standing on present day Ellendale Avenue and Ellendale Place. It's said that these homes were built with materials left over from the Scullin Steel exhibit at the Fair.
Charles Sutton, another son, sold his land south of the railroad to Moses Greenwood. Greenwood developed a subdivision named for himself, but with street names that included Piccadilly, Commonwealth, Tremont, Oxford, and Cambridge, which today are included in the Ellendale neighborhood.
McCausland Avenue was named for James McCausland who opened a tract west of Glades in 1859.
One of the topographic features in the Ellendale neighborhood is the valley of the River des Peres--once a river, now a drainage works--which emerges from its underground course through Forest Park near Macklind avenue just south of Manchester avenue, and flows again on the surface in a southwesterly direction before swinging south along the city limits. A public park at the corner of Arsenal street and McCausland avenue contains ball diamonds and lighted tennis courts.
Wilkinson school--a magnet school at 7212 Arsenal Street--was built in 1927. Surrounded as we are by Maplewood and the Southwest neighborhood, many activities spill over into these areas.
As in most of the city's outlying areas, commercial and industrial uses cluster around principal transit intersections such as Southwest. Industrial activity in the area began in the 1850's with the construction of the Pacific railroad. Excellent clay deposits brought the establishment of several firebrick works to this area of the city. Coal was also discovered in the area in the late 1850's. One establishment of long-standing, the Scullin Steel Company, ended production in the late 1970's. The property was sold to a developer who built the St. Louis Marketplace on the site at Manchester and Abbott.
Perhaps because we are a small neighborhood on the outskirts of the city, not much history is available. Our present day crime rate, however, is reported to be the lowest in the city. The percentage of home ownership is high. The major arteries, I-44, Highway 40, and I-55 are easily accessible and downtown is just minutes away. Public transportation is easily accessible. Maplewood and the St. Louis Marketplace provide plentiful shopping opportunities.
Excerpts are taken from "St. Louis--It's Neighborhoods and Neighbors, Landmarks and Milestones". Compiled and edited by Robert E. Hannon. Courtesy of the Missouri Historical Society.
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