Back in July, we had looked at Quinette Road, which terminated at Meramec Station Road. Today we’ll look at the small speculative development of Quinette, which was platted at the terminus of the road, far out in West County at the time in 1858.

The nature of the Quinette Subdivision becomes clearer after reading an advertisement the developer placed for several pieces of property he was subdividing.

Looking at the third parcel, of 475 acres, it becomes obvious that much of the land was probably intended for small farms and only a small portion was for houses. The land is incredibly hilly and rugged, and I suspect that most of the parcels were not built on until after World War II.

As can be seen in this aerial photograph from 1937, Crescent Avenue is seen snaking down on the left, Jefferson Avenue is visible in the middle, and Meramec Station Road is on the right. But interestingly, while it is platted still to this day, Rural Avenue was never cut through, and instead Boyd Avenue was laid out on the north side of the parcels seen stretching east to west from Jefferson to Crescent.

And as you can see here, Boyd travels straight across some very hilly topography.

So are there any historic houses left? I believe there are some, such as these two on Boyd Avenue, which look to be from the early Twentieth Century.

But there is a plethora of new development, made up of new subdivisions that branch off of the main streets that date back to 1858, taking advantage of the location and school districts.

And over on Jefferson Avenue, I suspect there are the cores of some very old houses, perhaps even dating from the late Nineteenth Century.

It’s a fascinating area, now part of the northern portion of Valley Park (the city hall is located here), and is a link to a period before the Civil War.