Historical February 1984 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Living in the flood plain of a river which cannot be seen but yet is powerful enough to require a flood clause in a homeowner’s insurance policy demands some explanation. It’s difficult enough trying to tell your child there is a river under the street, but how can it be strong enough to cause flood damage? Nonetheless there is, under Des Peres Street, a river known as the River Des Peres where it can be seen!
But let’s take it one wave at a time.
It was 1699 or 1700 when the small troup of Jesuit missionaries are supposed to have attempted to start a mission site at the mouth of a small river entering the Mississippi. Its name was St. Francis Xavier River des Peres — St. Francis Xavier mission on the River of the Fathers.
As far as anyone can tell, this was the first attempt at a permanent settlement on the western shore of the Mississippi, the Father of Waters.
The last official record of the missionary settlement was the baptism of Peter Bizaillon on April 13, 1703.
There is some thought that the mission may have been on an island off the mouth of the River Des Peres, but in any case it closed down in 1703 and the Jesuits moved their operations south and east to a prairie called St. Joseph’s after the church built in what was to become the original town of Kaskaskia in Illinois country. Eventually a stone church was built which later collapsed and a large wooden church was built in its stead.
The original site of this missionary band at the mouth of the River Des Peres was totally destroyed by the river and the climate. Around 1815, a Roman coin was found at the mouth of the river and given to Territorial Governor William Clark. and this is often referred to as confirmation of the mission settlement. Nearly three hundred years ago, the river of our neighborhood was named by Jesuit missionaries.
We cannot see it, of course, since it is in a concrete box under Des Peres Street.
It wasn’t always that way, however.
When Hiram Leffingwell was proposing his notion of Forest Park in 1874, he boasted of the gentle woodland stream which traversed the proposed grounds of the park for a total river distance of four miles.
The park was created two years later, and the arboreal splendor of the River Des Peres was commonly noted among the graces of this the second largest urban park of its day, exceeded only by Fairmount Park in Philadelphia.
But 1896 changed all that.
The beautiful woodland stream became a “wild tempestuous river” when it flooded causing great damage to the woodland scenery of Forest Park.
From that time to its completion for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, work was carried on every year to encase the river in concrete.
Finally, during the years after the Fair and before World War I, the river was totally controlled. Where it once meandered for four miles in the park, it now only covers a distance of one mile, exiting the park in a pair of concrete tubes under Highway 40 which can be seen just east of where Macklind Avenue goes over the River Des Peres south of Manchester Road. Except for a couple of short above-ground appearances in the middle of Forest Park, the entire length of the River Des Peres is in concrete from the time it goes underground just across Kingsland from Metcalfe Park to its emergence east of Macklind south of Manchester.
Once it emerges from underground, it flows in growing volume west and south, along McCausland and Germania, to finally enter the Mississippi by National Lead’s plant.
It has become essentially a large storm sewer.
The Skinker-DeBaliviere area along the River Des Peres was originally a flood plain and swamp through which the river made its circuitous way.
The old Hodiamont house on Maple Avenue, nearly a mile north of Delmar, was built with a view of the river to its south within walking distance. That was, of course, 1826 and the land was totally devoted to agricultural pursuits.
When urban developments came, the swamp was filled in, streets platted, and houses built.
When the river flooded in 1896, all these developments were threatened along with the preferred ecology of Forest Park, and the river “had to be controlled.” The presence of the River Des Peres is still apparent in more than just insurance premiums.
The planning for a light rail transit spur to Clayton from the Wabash Station has to be above ground because it cannot be underground in the same location with a river!
In addition to this, the several buildings still standing along Des Peres Street have problems related to shifting foundations influenced by the passing river waters adjacent to their stone work.
But for most people in the neighborhood, all the river means is an additional insurance expense because we live on a flood plain.
Originally published in The Paper, February 1984.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Archival transcription note: Early mission chronology, the river’s engineering and alignment, flood-insurance and foundation claims are the author’s historical account and have not been independently verified.
Original source: SD_Times1984_02.pdf, printed page(s) 7; PDF page(s) 7.
