Old State Road follows a ridge line through the foot hills, providing a link from Manchester Road near Ellisville down to Eureka. I imagine it is a very old road. It appears in Julius Pitzmann’s famous map of St. Louis County from right after the Civil War. There are many interesting old houses and barns along it. The first house above could date back to as early as 1854-1861 and may have been built by Joseph Conway; it appeared on maps by 1878.

While there has been some development of subdivisions in the northern half of the road, due to the shear ruggedness of the southern half, there are still heavily wooded sections where you can see mountains peaking through the bare trees of the winter season.

Little of the forest is original, as historic aerials shows as far back as 1937; most of the area was cleared for pasture and farmland, and the woods that have grown back are dense and scrubby. The house below dates to around 1910, and is the Henry Kroner House.

Please join me Wednesday, March 4, 2020 at 7:00 PM at the Missouri History Museum for my lecture on my latest research into Adam Lemp’s development of the cave property on Cherokee Street in the early 1860s, with new discoveries from historic maps, business contracts and examination of the lagering cellars under the brewery. Admission is free.