Russell Boulevard, McKinley Heights

Southside and Elsewhere 039

Leafy trees dominate the segment of Russell Boulevard that goes through McKinley Heights, a small neighborhood south of Lafayette Square.

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Expensive, lavish four-family flats point to the area’s relative wealth at the turn of the Twentieth Century, when many of these buildings were built.

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I’ve always been interested in why so much of the housing stock is relatively so young, despite being so far inside of the city, east of Jefferson.

In fact, there was large amounts of open land in the first decades of the Twentieth Century. What was on this land before the current houses, I wonder?

Russell

2 Comments Add yours

  1. Peter says:

    The area between Geyer and approximately Shenandoah was South Side Park in the 1800s, the park even had a racetrack. After the 1896 tornado development the park was gradually developed, and sped up after the opening of Mckinley Highschool in 1904. More information in the neighborhood historic register nomination: http://www.dnr.mo.gov/shpo/nps-nr/84002655.pdf

    1. Chris Naffziger says:

      Thanks, Peter!

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