Historical May 1981 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
It was 1855 when the city of St. Louis expanded out to Grand Avenue. That western edge of the city was largely forest and prairie. Fort Jackson later grew up in the area east of Grand along the road to the Lindell farm.
It became famous during the Civil War and is now the Frost Campus of St. Louis University.
Just before that divisive war Trusten Polk and John Hogan purchased land west of Grand north of Bonhomme Road.
The Bonhomme section of St. Louis County ran from just north of Creve Coeur Lake south to the Meramec River, west to the Missouri River and east to what is now Lindbergh Boulevard. Bonhomme Road entered St. Louis at Olive Street and was renamed Olive Street Road late in the nineteenth century.
The section of Delmar Boulevard from about Euclid west to about Hamilton was originally Bonhomme Road–but this gets ahead of the story.
North of Olive Street in St. Louis was Morgan Street. Originally called Oak Street, Major William Christy renamed it for General Daniel Morgan (1736-1802), a hero of the Revolutionary War who took part in the Saratoga campaign, of 1777.
Major Christy was a relative of Andrew Christy who in turn was the bachelor who bought out Samuel Wiggins, his ferry and the monopoly thereto attached which still lives in the business of the Terminal Railroad Association.
They are the Christys of Christy Park in South St. Louis.
Getting back to Morgan Street, it eventually ran from the river out to Walton Avenue about three blocks east of Kingshighway. Where it crossed Grand Avenue, however, it had a jog in it.
The western part of Morgan beyond Grand was not directly across from the eastern part.
It was at this point on Grand Avenue where Trusten Polk and John Hogan owned property west of Grand.
Trusten Polk was from Delaware with strong ties to Maryland.
John Hogan was from Maryland.
They agreed there should be a road between their properties of significant proportions to act as a main highway west of Grand.
Even though Morgan Street ended nearly across from their proposed new road, they decided to name it Delmar after the first syllables of their home states’ names.
As the county developed, Delmar was extended west to Bonhomme Road which was called Olive Street Road by this time. Meanwhile, the Polk and Hogan properties were subdivided and the name of the first street north of Delmar was Morgan–the extension of the earlier Morgan Street east of Grand.
This was in the early 1880’s after the city had expanded to 600 feet west of Skinker Road.
The U. S. Post Office now entered the street-naming picture of St. Louis and said long, more-or-less, connected streets with different names should be given the same name for their entire length.
The name Delmar was extended east from Grand onto the old Morgan Street all the way to the river.
When University City was laid out at the turn of the century, Delmar was extended west to McKnight in a straight line despite the fact Olive Street Road curved and went west north of the proposed Delmar extension. Morgan Street now ran only from Grand west to Walton.
It was the railroad that cut across Delmar at this time just west of where Olive Street Road branched off that ended the junction between Delmar and old Bonhomme Road.
This is also the reason Olive Street Road does not take its users to Olive Street as it once did and as its name suggests: This brings us to the great renaming time of World War I. West of Kingshighway across from where Morgan Street was about to enter the latter due to street extension ran a German-named street–Von Versen.
In 1917 when the United States entered the war to end all wars, every city in the nation was changing the names of its German streets.
In St. Louis, Berlin Street became Pershing– named for the Missouri general who was commander of the American Expeditionary Force in Europe.
One of the first three American soldiers killed in World War I was a man named Enright.
His name now identifies the original Von Versen, and it was decided to extend it east of Kingshighway to Grand, replacing Morgan Street as it remained after Delmar was extended to name Morgan east of Grand to the River.
In summary, Delmar Boulevard is the current name for all or parts of the following streets or roads: Oak Street, Morgan Street, Bonhomme Road, Olive Street Road.
It comes from the first syllables of the state names of Delaware and Maryland because Trusten Polk and John Hogan came from these states and wanted the road between their properties to celebrate their homes.
However, if anything is certain it is change. Laclede’s Landing has renamed Delmar returning it to Morgan Street between the river and Third Street. West of Third Street, Delmar is now called Convention Plaza out to Fourteenth Street.
Only time will tell how long it will remain unchanged out to McKnight.
Originally published in The Paper, May 1981.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1981_05.pdf, printed page(s) 10; PDF page(s) 10.
