Historical April 1987 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
The land east of Skinker Road used to be rather swampy.
When M. Hodiamont built his farm house above the creek known as the River Des Peres, the creek meandered through a lowland which flooded regularly. Housing subdivisions ended at Union Boulevard because beyond it the land went down into the valley of the River Des Peres. Eventually, houses were built west of Skinker Road above this same valley.
The railroad came through and was built through the valley below the level of the adjacent housing. Olive Street Road went through the center of the River Des Peres Valley and joined with Olive Street east of Grand. Now, Olive Street Road ends (or begins) at Skinker Boulevard.
When it was indeed the Road to Olive Street, it went all the way east nearly to Compton Avenue.
At the point where Lindell Boulevard joins Olive Street is where Olive Street Road turned into Olive Street. What changed all of that, and what made it possible to build houses on the valley of the River Des Peres north of Forest Park, was land fill. Virtually all those living between Skinker and Union Boulevards are in the flood plain of the River Des Peres.
The current level of the railroad track is the lowest level of the valley of the River Des Peres except for the creek itself.
The bulk of the fill for this valley came from the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904, otherwise known as the St. Louis World’s Fair.
In fact, however, the filling of this valley began long before the fair with the engineering to control the flooding of the creek.
One of the reasons the land which became Forest Park was relegated to park land was this flood plain and valley of the creek.
The fair raised much of that land as well, and the River Des Peres now flows through the park largely underground in concrete pipes, coming back to the surface just east of Macklind Avenue along the railroad tracks coming west of the Mill Creek Valley which was another flood plain controlled for purposes of settlement and industry.
After Olive Street Road, still called “The Road to Olive Street” by old-timers in the county, crossed Skinker, it went down into the River Des Peres valley, crossed the creek, and headed up out of the valley to head east along what is now Delmar Avenue from about DeBaliviere to Kingshighway.
The original Delmar Avenue went from Grand Avenue to Kingshighway where it joined Olive Street Road.
The latter slanted northwest from the end of Olive Street until it reached Kingshighway and Delmar. Olive Street Road used to be one of the longest streets in the St. Louis area, behind only Broadway and Manchester Road. Looking at a map it is possible to see that Manchester Road went more or less southwest along Mill Creek and the River Des Peres, while Olive Street Road went more or less northwest across and along the River Des Peres. Both roads were a significant part of the transportation “system” which made it possible to bring produce into the city. Olive Street Road was cut off from Olive Street by two events: the filling of the River Des Peres valley north of Forest Park and the naming of the streets in St. Louis in the 1880’s after the United States Post Office ordered one name for streets in the city. Morgan Street used to run east from Grand to the Mississippi River; it ended just a short jog from where Delmar began to run west to Kingshighway.
At that point, Olive Street Road intercepted Delmar and continued all the way to the edge of the Missouri River flood plain where it joined Clarkson Road.
The edict of the Post Office made St. Louis name the street from the Mississippi River to McKnight Road Delmar Boulevard.
This effectively extended Olive Street almost all the way to Kingshighway where it now ends today. Thus the filling of the River Des Peres Valley cut one of the longest continuous westerly tending roads in St. Louis, Olive Street Road. Periodically, a plan surfaces to reconnect Olive Street Road with Delmar Boulevard, taking east and west traffic off Delmar, which ends at McKnight, and putting it on a street that is substantially longer and originally used for major traffic flow rather than residential street connections.
The major obstacle, ironically, is the same valley which ended Olive Street Road at Skinker.
It would be necessary to bridge the railroad which is still at the level of the original valley.
The advantages, however, are obvious.
This also explains why one street is called both a street and a road.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, April 1987.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Archival transcription note: Source historical route, landfill and postal-edict claims preserved as columnist’s account; not independently verified in this archival import.
Original source: SD_Times1987_04.pdf, printed page(s) 7; PDF page(s) 7.
