Update: I revisited the area in 2015; see Pevely Farms in 2011 here.

Go west out I-44, get off at the Lewis Road exit, and go north, and pretty soon you’ll come out into a valley that is one of the most beautiful areas of the Meramec River as it snakes its way through St. Louis County.

Pevely Farms, a show farm that brought people out from the City, has now been transformed into a housing development interlaced with a golf course.

In fact, there are lots of golf courses out this way, for some reason. But look closer, and you find the remnants of what once was clearly an idyllic area, relatively untouched by suburban development and sprawl.

I can only imagine what it must have been like to take the train out from the city, follow the river out past Castlewood and then arrive at the bend in the river where you can see for miles in all directions.