Manchester is one of the oldest settlements in the St. Louis region, with its roots going back to the early Nineteenth Century.
Manchester Road has long been a major artery not just through St. Louis County but the City as well, and was even known as Market Street Road for a portion of its history. Before its current orientation was laid out straight through the middle River des Pere valley, it once snaked its way up through the hills of what is now Clifton Heights. It was supposedly a Native American trail originally, and was only a two-lane road for most of its history. There are people still alive that remember it in that incarnation.
The Lyceum Building, which was built in 1894, served as the City Hall, but will be replaced soon as it is too small for the growing modern suburb. It came close to being demolished but was restored in the 1970s.
I’ve always been told that Manchester sacrificed the north side of the street for the widening of the road, thus preserving the historic structures on the south but demolishing most of the old houses and other buildings on the opposite side. It looks like that story holds water judging from what exists today. There has been some attempts at building pedestrian friendly development on blocks on the south side of Manchester Road.
South of Manchester some of the original houses are left, but much has been demolished for light industry or other businesses.
Ever since I was young, there has been a row of Nineteenth Century buildings on the south side of Manchester.
There have always been random businesses in these homes.
This one, which is probably one of the oldest, has always been a TV repair business, though I wonder how much business it gets nowadays.
This home has been annihilated for a vacant lot.
I have no idea why; I thought it was one of the most distinctive and interesting houses on this strip between Highway 141 and Suphur Springs Road.
The building on the left has been fixed up, not annihilated.
But there are some truly anemic and dead strip malls on the north side of the road. This used to be a Children’s Palace, which went the way of the dodo so long ago I can’t remember when it closed.
Heading up Henry Avenue, there is the old school.
There are a couple of cool houses, as well.
You can see below that this one clearly started as a log cabin.
And this one was probably originally just the back part, two up, two down, as they say.
So cool you’re covering my hometown! Manchester is really bad though when it comes to preserving its history. The brick house (Mary Monnastes House) turned TV shop and the old Methodist parsonage behind the demolished Victorian house have also been demolished as of the past year. The old Methodist parsonage was rather ironically moved there to save it when 141 was created. My guess is that they were all demolished for property speculation for a new shopping center, lowering the property taxes, or something else. I’m still very angry they were all demolished.
If you would have gone up Henry Ave there are some more nice Victorian homes and buildings including an old tobacco shed behind the yellow house. The log cabin you saw is actually from Moscow Mills and is called the Andrew Miller Cabin. It was built in 1820.
I thought that maybe more had been torn down! The reason I dug these out of the vault is because I had driven by this stretch and I felt like there were a lot of “missing teeth!” Thanks for the update.
Yes, I was just going to ask when you posted this originally, because as commented Justin mentioned, at least 2 of the buildings on Manchester were knocked down in 2023 (or maybe late 22) I can’t recall exactly. I live off Henry Ave and drive this stretch several times a week. There are times I get angry that Manchester and Ballwin did not preserve the “historic district” for the sake of the 5 lane thoroughfare. With the money and resources in these towns, the “h.d.” could be really cute and a destination similar to St. Charles, just not as large. Would have Manchester stayed smaller; would have light rail improved traffic; could it have gone underground or been relocated north or south of the current road?
I also noted in the old map the name of a Catholic church, rectory and school. Was it the original St. Joseph? Any photos of that? I have long wondered why there are not any older church buildings of Catholic churches anywhere in West County, save for Valley Park and Ascension’s little chapel.
These are OLD photos from the vault—over ten years. I pulled them out for fun because I realized I never used them.
I will investigate the Catholic Church!
As a 5th and 6th grader, I don’t recall that part of Manchester Rd. There were days living on “Lone Oak Dr., we walked to school to St. Mary Magdalen in Brentwood . I only recall businesses on both sides, unless you were going toward the Berry Rd subdivision . To bad I missed it all.
It was the sticks for a long time into the Twentieth Century!