Tower Grove South Coal Diggings, Beckville, Tholozan Avenue and Environs

Moving to the north side of Beckville, which is the south side of Tholozan Avenue, there are more old houses that most likely date back to the early days of coal mining in the area. There is even a rare Italianate wood frame house.

Below we see another one of those tract duplexes with the central chimney and what is now a single front door but the space for a second front door. I suspect the chimney split into two flues for fireplaces for both units of the house.

If you could go back in time to 1934 and stand on the front porch of the house above, you would see the view below. It’s striking to imagine that less than one hundred years ago, the area was still relatively rural in character, and to the north up Lucy Street there were still a couple of now-gone wood frame coal miners’ houses.

Lucy Street North from Tholozan Avenue. Photograph by unknown, 1934. Missouri History Museum Photographs and Prints Collections. n39001. Scan © 2009, Missouri History Museum.

Below, this house hides behind a colorful fence, but I suspect due to its placement on the lot and its form, that again it is another old survivor from the coal mining days.

Proceeding over to Meramec east of Morgan Ford, we now head down the route of the old Coal Mine or just Mine Road, which then turned onto the right-of-way of Chippewa Street before reaching Gravois. There is this rare wood frame Second Empire house below.

This is just west of the dramatic viaduct that cuts through the hill.

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