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An 1878
map of the area west and north of Forest Park. --From
"Urban
Oasis - 75 years in Parkview a St. Louis Private Place" |
As the end of the 19th century neared,
St. Louis had expanded west to the doorsteps of Kingsbury Farm. On
its southeastern edge a huge city park had been developed, which was
dedicated in 1876 as Forest Park. Concurrent with Forest Park's
dedication, the City-County boundary was established just beyond the
park's western edge, taking the larger part of Kingsbury Farm into the
county. To the north and to the east there was
considerable residential building, including several fine private neighborhoods just east of DeBaliviere. In 1895 Robert S. Brookings chose land
just south of Kingsbury Farm and west of Forest Park as the new home of
Washington University. Kingsbury Farm had not yet garnered the same
eager interest by prospective owners and businessmen, no doubt largely due to the meandering course of the River Des Peres
through the property. With higher ground to the west, heavy rains
routinely caused the River des Peres to overflow its banks. What was to
become Parkview was part of a natural flood plain. |
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Then came plans for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St.
Louis, and the prospect that the fair might be sited in the undeveloped western
portion of Forest Park. The surrounding areas of open farmland were
furiously scrutinized by businessmen who visualized the profits that could be
theirs if they could develop it to handle the crowds that would be attending
the fair. Seizing on this prospect, early in 1901 Courtland B. Van Sickler bought an
interest in the parcels of land bounded by DeBaliviere, Skinker, Delmar and
Forest Park, abutting the eastern edge of where Parkview would eventually be. Mr.
Van Sickler is listed in the 1903 Gould’s Saint Louis Directory as a clerk in
a dry goods store, and it seems plausible that he may have represented a group of
wealthy investors. It was a
portentous acquisition. In June of 1901, the Louisiana Purchase
Exposition Committee announced that the Exposition would be built on the western half of
forest Park and other land to the west, which would be leased from its owners
(e.g., Washington University). Within five months, by November 1901, The Parkview Realty and
Improvement Company was formed with a capital stock of $5.5 million, an
enormous sum for the time. Van Sickler was far and away the majority stockholder,
holding more than 45,000 of the 50,000 shares. The land area acquired by
Parkview Reality and Improvement was that between DeBaliviere,
Skinker, Delmar and Forest Park (the land purchased earlier in the same year by van Sickler)
plus an additional 80 acres just west of Skinker - the
eventual home of Parkview.
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View west down
Lindell from deBaliviere, April 7, 1902. The sign says "Private
Street No Hauling Permitted". Washington University's Brookings
Hall is in the distance. --Photo in the private collection of
E. Taylor; reproduced with permission.
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Grading gang at work
June 12, 1902. --Photo in the private collection of E. Taylor;
reproduced with permission.
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Many established St. Lousians were involved in Parkview Realty
and Improvement Company. Henry S. Caulfield, attorney for the Lincoln
Trust Company, soon to be one of the original trustees of Parkview, and later
governor of Missouri, filed the Articles of Incorporation. Corporate directors were Adrian Ogle Rule, vice president of Kilgen-Rule
Real Estate Company; Thomas Wright, a cigar manufacturer; Moses
Greenwood, Jr., a U. S. Assistant Civil Engineer; George Durant, general
manager of Bell Telephone and first vice-president of Lincoln Trust
Company; and Edward H. Coffin, who worked for the Wabash Railroad. Early in 1902 the
company hired well-regarded railroad builder John Scott to grade the land and
tame the River Des Peres. The labors of man and beast took nearly
two years to complete, being finally finished in December 1903 at a cost
of nearly three quarters of a million dollars and a year behind
schedule. The exorbitance of
the cost provoked a lawsuit against Scott that worked its way through the
courts for ten years and ultimately went to the Missouri Supreme
Court. |
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While the grading work dragged on, the
owners of Parkview Realty and Improvement Company refined their plans. They
divided their property into three sections and had plans for each both during and after the
World's Fair. One section was the Catlin Tract, the long narrow strip of
land immediately bordering the northern edge of Forest Park along Lindell. This was
leased to
the Exposition and was used as the World's Fair amusement center.
After the fair, the Catlin Tract became the private neighborhood of gracious homes
on Lindell Blvd. facing Forest Park that we see today. Section two
encompassed the remaining property north of the Catlin Tract to Delmar.
This was leased for
storage and construction of temporary hotels, cottages, restaurants and
the like to serve the Fair. After the fair, this area stood mostly
vacant for some years despite Parkview Realty and Improvement's initial hopes that it would develop
immediately into sites of high class apartment buildings and residences. The third section was the 80 acres just on the other side
of Skinker, between Skinker and Melville, the railroad tracks and Delmar. This was
considered the most ideal and desirable of the tracts. Plans were to
sell the interest in this land to an association of members of the
Parkview Realty and Improvement Company and friends who would form a
separate real estate company to develop and sell lots in a high-class
private residential neighborhood. Thus was formed Beredith
Realty.
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From the 1903 prospectus of the Parkview Realty and Improvement Co.
--From
"Urban Oasis - 75 years in Parkview a St. Louis Private Place" |
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