Tour 2 

East on Argonne, south on Fillmore, east on Madison, south on Woodlawn, west along the railroad tracks to 415 Scott, return and go east on Scott, north on Clark, east on Monroe to 615, return to Clark, north on Clark, west on Argonne, north on Woodlawn, west on Jefferson to Kirkwood Road - 2.2 miles.

 

217 South Woodlawn

549 East Argonne- Kirkwood History House

Judge Clarke discusses with contractor the foundations for his new house. The house in the picture, built in 1867, was replaced by Seven Gables.

503 East Monroe

306 East Jefferson

From the railroad station, which is described in Tour 4, passing Eliot Unitarian Chapel described in Tour 1, turn right there to reach Madison, and make a left turn there.

 

420 East Madison:
Jacob G. Hawken, who served as the first clerk of the Kirkwood Board of Aldermen, lived in this area and the building now known as 420 East Madison is said to have been erected by him on his property. It was not, however, originally intended for human habitation. To the contrary, or so local lore holds, Hawken used it as a barn. A later owner was responsible for its conversion.

In its origins and in its adaptation, the structure can serve as tangible evidence of the extent to which Kirkwood was rural in atmosphere during the late nineteenth century, and of the ways it has changed in the twentieth century.

Continue along Madison to Woodlawn, turning right there to 217 South Woodlawn.

217 South Woodlawn:
This house was constructed in 1862 by John W. Sutherland. Sutherland was a lawyer with an office on Third Street in downtown St. Louis. With the advent of the Civil War, he became a specialist in handling war claims.

Sutherland became active in Republican politics and was a supporter and political ally of Edward Bates. Bates, who was prominent in Missouri politics from statehood (he was Missouri's first Attorney General), was a serious contender for the Republican nomination for president in 1860. He subsequently threw his support to Lincoln and became Lincoln's first Attorney General.

In 1864 Sutherland ran for the state Legislature and was easily elected along with the entire Republican ticket. During his term of office in Jefferson City he sponsored the bill to incorporate the city of Kirkwood, the bill to incorporate the Kirkwood school district and was elected a Curator of the University of Missouri. His first act upon reaching Jefferson City was to introduce a resolution condemning Price and other traitors who had recently invaded Missouri and commend Rosecrans and his troops for their gallant actions.

While a member of the Legislature, Sutherland became friendly with another member, Representative Enos Clarke, who lived at 101 Pine Street in St. Louis.

Sutherland apparently convinced Clarke of the beauties of Kirkwood and in 1866 Clarke purchased the block across the street and built his first house which he called Woodlawn.

Woodlawn Avenue was originally called Walker Avenue, but on April 4, 1877, Clarke, who was then known as "Judge," due to a patronage appointment from the Lincoln Republicans, convinced the city of Kirkwood to change the name of the street to Woodlawn after the name he had given his house.

Continue along Woodlawn, stopping at Monroe.

503 East Monroe:
"Seven Gables," built by Judge Enos Clarke following a fire in his original house around the turn of the century, came to be surrounded by one of the most notable gardens in a community which was justly famous for such things. The grounds here were described by his daughter, Rowena, as having flower beds "in set patterns; circles; stars; crescents; and I remember that the rose bed was in the shape of a shield. Always there were geraniums in solid beds, with borders of 'dusty miller' for the scarlet ones, and heliotrope for the pink ones. Formal beds of peonies and of zinnias; in fact, it seems to me that each variety of plant had its own space for growing." Most memorable of ail, however, was the "monstrosity of a big circular bed with a huge castorbean plant in the center, surrounded by canna, these in turn by scarlet salvia, and at last a border of coleus. Colorful, to say the least. And in those days, beautiful."

Yet another person who grew up in the neighborhood maintained as an adult he had "an odd cantankerous yearning after statues". A great iron St. Bernard guarded Seven Gables in Kirkwood. Such a garden was an expression of unbounded confidence in man's ability to create something magnificent, and a reflection in landscaping of the architectural styles of the period. Later generations might simplify the ornamentation of both their houses and their gardens because, in part at least, they lost faith in their own tastes, but Clarke was very much a part of an exuberant age.

The Judge was, notwithstanding all of that, a person who moved well into the twentieth century. His purchase of an electric automobile in 1910 is evidence of that. The Judge died in 1924. Among the possessions inventoried in his estate was a cow.

400 South Woodlawn:
A long time resident once expressed the belief that this house is "one of the oldest still standing in Kirkwood." Its early history has not been determined, but it is known that a local physician, Fayette Ewing, rented it in 1907 to Blanche and Katherine Byars for use as a school. They continued to offer instruction here until 1911 when their parents gave them land on North Taylor as a site for a new building.

Josephine W. Johnson, later the recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for her novel Now in November, has written a vivid account of her experience at the school: ". ... .there was the little bell on Miss Blanche's desk. The little bell. Ting! Rise. Ting ! Turn. Ting! Leave the room. A forgotten yearning fills me. To get hold of that little silver tingling bell. The power structure symbol. Not to destroy it. Oh no. But to be the tapper of that little bell. To make others Rise, Turn, Face the Aisle--O power incarnate under my fat grubby finger."

Students were allowed to use the hall for reading and study, and their attention may have wandered as a result of its somewhat unusual furnishings. "The small hall's long bench covered with a coyote skin. That was the privilege. To sit on the dry gray hair and fiddle with snarling teeth, the cold glass eyes, the pink painted gums. A faint dusty smell came out of it." Little wonder that Blanche Byars left a profound impression on her pupils. "Power emanated from her plain person. But we did not hate her, nor did we hate school."

Continue along Woodlawn to the railroad tracks, then bear right there on Scott.

415 Scott:
In spite of the massive cost involved in the construction of a host of exhibition buildings, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, or St. Louis World's Fair of 1904, was allowed to use land in Forest Park only on conditions that it would be returned to the City of St. Louis in its original condition after the fair closed. That forced the demolition of virtually all of the major halls, but many of the smaller buildings were sold to individuals who moved them to new sites or, much more frequently, salvaged the material for use in residential construction. Wisconsin House was one such structure and it provided the wood and timbers for what is now 415 Scott.

It was originally intended to represent a summer house of "English Domestic type" and the half-timbering of the walls of the present home fits that tradition. An account of the landscaping around it during the fair is probably applicable in a general way to its site in Kirkwood. "There is a terraced court where hollyhocks and like old fashioned flowers grow. Wild cucumber and other vines clamber over railings of the porches, surround the columns and cover stretches of plastered walls. The Wisconsin House is a big, roomy, comfortable looking summer home." It was, to put that another way, very much like the homes Kirkwoodians had been building for more than a half-century. Return to the corner of Woodlawn and Scott, and walk east to Clark.

401 Clark:
On a national level during the last half of the nineteenth century, the demand for means of providing education for adults spurred the growth of such things as the Chautauqua Movement which offered courses in the sciences and humanities. Locally, that is in Kirkwood, the same thirst for intellectual development brought into being the Monday Evening Club, an organization that traced its history back to a meeting hosted in this house by Mrs. R. N. Hazard in 1880.

Women made up the whole of the original group, and they met on one afternoon each week to discuss topics relating to the natural sciences. After the husbands of the participants expressed interest, the sessions were switched to Monday evening. No formal organization was deemed to be necessary until 1884, and the use of the name Monday Evening Club began at that time. The club continued to meet for about another thirty years.

The secretary of this group, in reviewing the work of the first twelve years, noted that "the range of subjects has been large. Studies of authors, of special books, of Art and Natural Science have given way almost entirely to Political Economy and Social Science. . . ." That contention about the breadth of the member's interests is borne out in a list of the topics discussed in 1895-1896, including "The Needs of Missouri," "The Agnosticism of Faust," "The Drift of Population Toward Cities'' and, at a meeting regarded with "good natured and cynical silence" by the men, "The New Woman, Is She New?" That last topic bred a debate as to whether it was "worthwhile, or in good taste for women to present themselves 'as a sex' to the public, challenging its recognition of their genius, worth, ability or even virtues as 'wives and mothers' .. ." For the late nineteenth century, that was indeed a controversial subject. Continue north on Clark to Monroe, and walk a short distance east there.

615 East Monroe:
Italianate residences, popularized in America through the writings of men such as Alexander Jackson Downing, became fairly common in Kirkwood during the last decades of the nineteenth century. Captain Elias J. Unsel, his title deriving from service on riverboats, built such a structure here toward the close of the 1870's. It has been said that he was so troubled by thefts of lumber that he had to hire a nightwatchman, a legend which runs counter to the pervasive image of the period as one that was relatively free from crime.

As a general rule, Italianate houses in the United States shared one basic characteristic: they were seldom exactly what they were intended to seem. Frame construction, far cheaper than stone, was deliberately shaped to simulate the more expensive material. In this case, the corners are decorated with pieces of wood which are intended to look like the stone quoins which masons would have used to add strength to the walls. In terms of the structure of a frame house, they are an affectation, but they add a touch of elegance and they maintain an essential purity of style.

The lumber used for the siding is not of the same width as that from which the quoins are made, a feature also to be seen in the home at 549 East Argonne. That suggests that both structures were erected at the same time and may even mean that they had the same builder.

Margaret Cabell, the daughter of the owners of this home at the turn of the century, played for the local girls' basketball team in 1902 and, five years later, was selected as the Veiled Prophet's Queen.

Return to Clark, walk north to Argonne, turning left there to reach Woodlawn, and continue north on that street.

116 North Woodlawn:
Yet another good example of the Italianate style, this was the home of Nannie O. Harris in 1878 and it was probably erected shortly before that date. After 1890, it became the residence of Judge Joseph B. Greensfelder, who came to be known as the "marrying justice." He was a wholesale merchant in St. Louis until the age of forty-four when he abandoned that career to enter law school. His wife was active in the Kirkwood Branch of the Needle Work Guild of America, an organization devoted to the production of clothing for distribution through other charitable institutions in and around St. Louis. The judge was one of the founders of the Kirkwood Savings Bank, later renamed the Kirkwood Trust Company, reflecting the duality and philanthropic concerns of the couple.

Continue north on Woodlawn to Jefferson, turning left there.

313 East Jefferson:
A homemade airplane in the yard was not typical of most homes in Kirk- wood around 1910, but Dr. John K. Broderick had such a thing. He built it himself and tested it, unsuccessfully, in what was then a pasture on the other side of the street.

His wife was, for the time, an equally unconventional person. She became in 1924 the first woman ever to be elected to the city's Board of Aldermen, and she was a successful candidate for re-election in each of the following five years. Her advocacy of a grading system for milk and inspection of dairy cattle brought Kirkwood to the forefront in St. Louis County as a protector of the health of its residents. Mary B. Chomeau, the first editor of The Kirkwood Historical Review lived in this house.

306 East Jefferson:
The use of the East Jefferson address for this house is somewhat deceptive because it was constructed at a time when the property extended south to Argonne Drive. What one sees from Jefferson is, therefore, actually the back of the building.

The present form and shape of the building was probably reached about 1870 as the product of the enlargement of a much smaller home which may have been erected before 1860 by Spencer Smith, the man who had subdivided the area.

William W. Keysor, a professor of law at Washington University, and his wife, Jennie, moved here in 1902. Both were remarkable individuals, but memories of her remained stronger. Described by one friend as "tall, angular, snowy-haired," she used the study of the house as a meeting place for a group of women having "no dues, no officers, no organization," but sharing a desire to the study fine literature. Her tastes in furnishings were, typical of her time, eclectic. "The walls were book-lined. There were two couches covered with some heavy Eastern material never seen in any other house in Kirkwood, there was a picture of the Roman forum, a plaster copy of the Victory of Samothrace, a large oil painting of Othello and Desdemona and sundry minor characters on a sunny portico, and most charming of all, a pen and ink sketch of the Nile, which at first glance resembled a flower...." What might be called clutter today was then held to be an appropriate atmosphere for a family that enjoyed reading Shakespeare or Browning.

That she had a decidedly practical streak is made clear in another anecdote. Newlyweds in Kirkwood are said to have often received a good, soft rag along with a normal wedding present from her, she believing that "Brides haven't had time to accumulate rags."

Continue west on Jefferson, passing 235 East Jefferson, another structure whose frame exterior stimulates stone.

The Kirkwood Public Library, 140 East Jefferson:
The process by which this building came into being reflects major themes in local history.

A deep interest in literature and ideas was made evident in the formation of a number of groups and associations, including the Monday Evening Club and Mrs. Keysor's informal circle, during the nineteenth century. Those residents who wished to borrow books from a library, however, then had to make the trip into St. Louis in order to draw upon that city's public and private institutions. The Home and School League attempted to make things more convenient for Kirkwoodians by establishing a delivery station at a local drug store where residents could receive books ordered from the St. Louis Public Library, but the need for a locally-based library became ever more apparent.

The League of Women Voters, noting that Kirkwood's children should have a library available for their use, took up that cause in 1922. With that impetus, a campaign to obtain a collection through donations was launched, centering around "Library Day" on March 8, 1924. Boy Scouts visited homes to pick up contributions, adults used their own automobiles to transport the books, and about two thousand volumes were obtained during the course of the effort. The city had already agreed to provide space in City Hall, but the success of the drive made it necessary to take over the large room used for meetings of the aldermen. That presented a peculiar problem, for under a local ordinance the room had to be left open at all times, making it necessary to install book cases with locks in order to deter theft. A volunteer staff kept the library open on two afternoons and one evening of each week, and more than thirteen thousand books were lent during the first year. That is evidence of the popularity of the new library, as is the fact that by a margin of 351 to 11 the voters of Kirkwood approved a special tax levy for its support in 1926, giving the institution the distinction of being the first publicly supported library in the county.

Plans for a separate building were drawn up in 1939. It was to cost more than $75,000, $35,000 of which would come from a bond issue and the balance to be derived from a federal grant. The bond issue passed, but the request for the grant was disapproved. A lot had already been purchased when the decision on the grant was made, and the library board was forced to scale down the original plan. Once again Kirkwoodians displayed their interest and enthusiasm through donations which made up the difference between the money remaining from the bond issue and the actual cost of construction.

The cornerstone of the earliest section of the building was laid on March 9, 1940. Growth of the collection and of the library's activities and community services necessitated enlargements and improvements in 1955 and 1962. Those cost a total of almost $250,000, more than five times the amount required to erect the original structure.