I read a recent Post-Dispatch article about the recent travails of the unincorporated North County community of Glasgow Village, and a neighborhood leader who was quoted saying that 600 of the 1700 housing units in the area needed to be demolished, a whopping 35%.
The huge area, just south of I-270 before it crosses the Mississippi River at the Chain of Rocks, was built in the early 1950s, when the eponymous amusement park was still in operation, and the western water intake was still reached via a dyke. I-270 was not even built yet. Lookaway Drive, a street of elegant early Twentieth Century houses, formed the eastern boundary. Honestly, despite the proximity to I-270, I still feel like the area is isolated.
C.T. Williams was the developer, and the development was built in a series of numbered sections. Houses costs around $11,700 and came with modern amenities such as garbage disposals and dishwashers.
As can be seen above and below, large swaths of forest were left as common areas, and street names were inspired by Scottish place names.
The dominant, if perhaps the only, house style, was Cape Cods, much like the nearby Castle Point neighborhood, which I looked at recently.
I have to admit that the design was very well-thought out, with a compact floor layout that managed to fit three bedrooms, an eat-in kitchen and living room that flowed into a full-sized dining room. While most houses did not include a one car garage, some did across an open-air breezeway. The architects, as can be seen above, were Paul Klingensmith and Associates. Klingensmith was a director of the Missouri State Association of Registered Architects and had offices at 4232 West Pine in St. Louis. He was also active in drawing up plans for the 1940 renovation of the Ulysses S. Grant historic site. He originally worked with Brussel and Viterbs in 1918 before opening his own firm.
There was also a commercial shopping district in the center of the development, with a core of apartment buildings surrounding it.
It perhaps looks more cosmopolitan than when I went by before its demolition a few years ago.
Tomorrow we’ll look at Glasgow Village today.
I grew up there. Grades K-4 there. Wow. It was like a true TV 50s life too. Lots of kids. Ride your bike in the streets. Playground and woods to play in.
I was raised from birth in Glasgow Village. I have yet to see a better place to raise your children. We had it all. A walk to chain of rocks park from my elementary school to celebrate the beginning of summer off. There was a big gondola with pic nic tables that were filled with anything you wanted to eat that day There was a huge swimming pool and rides galore like the mousetrap, bumper cars, the highlift, the riding spookhouse (which was my favorite). They even had a building with pinball machines. I’ll never forget the mechanical fortune telling lady in a booth at the entrance. I was a pitcher for the neighborhoods Khory league baseball team. We had four baseball diamonds at the communities disposal. I can remember the woods where we built forts and fished for crawdads in the creek. We had our own Glashop center that incorporated a a Tomboy Grocery Shopping Center, a hardware store ( Rememberthe old man with stogie in his mouth and the howdy neighbor), a five and ten store, a Rexall drugstore ( My mom used to send me up there to buy her a pack of smokes. And i was just a kid!), a barber shop, a doctor ( remember old Doc Moscow. When you asked him how much for the visit he would be like ohhh give me ten dollars). A beautyshop for the ladies. Remember Bonnie Boys where you could get a bag of burgers and a Sasbarilla for cheap? Want to go fishing? Just down the road and next to the river was a large pond. Hell we even had our own phone book ( Can you recall your phone number? I still can). Sometimes I think of Glasgow Village and the innocent life of my childhood and my heart wells up. And sometimes I think about the deterioration of that beautiful town and I get angry and hurt inside. But all and all it was the best childhood any kid could have and I will continue to treasure it in my heart until my time comes.