I had some business up in North County so I snapped some hurried shots of some interesting places along Bellefontaine Road, which was the former name of North Broadway in the City as it wended its way to the fort of the same name near the confluence.
Well, this first place is technically on Dunn Road, but it’s close to Bellefontaine Road. But what was this place? A small motel or maybe an automobile repair garage? I don’t know but it was interesting.
Next up is Bellefontaine United Methodist Church, which is on Bellefontaine Road itself about a mile or so south of I-270.
The church’s website is down, so I do not know what the status of the congregation is; it also does not appear on Google Maps. It is strange. The land was donated in 1855 by James Russell Bissell, whose family lived in the area.
If you look closely below, you can see an older church building hiding behind the later Modernist wing to the east.
Further south, on the west side of the road is the General Daniel Bissell House, which is owned by St. Louis County Parks, and is open on special occasions and for weddings.
I believe it was built in stages, with the portions you can see from the road built last.
But if you start looking closely behind the south facade, you see something different.
On the back side of the house is clearly the oldest part of the house, and as the family grew wealthier, the front and south side of the house was added on.
Per Newspapers.com, the Dunn Road address was a nightclub called Ramshaw’s in the eighties and nineties. As late as 2008, it was called Club House. There’s a 1969 mention of it implying that it was a private home. It had to have been a number of things over the years, I suspect.
Interesting configuration for a nightclub! Thanks for the info.
BUMC closed a few years ago. There was a small story about it in KSDK. It’s a shame. I was baptized there as a little kid, and I remember the main sanctuary feeling like the biggest room in the world.
Ah, that explains it. Thanks for the link to the article.
I think a few other ministries have rented it out, and a Google search of the address shows some kind of private school was there at one point, though I don’t know if any of these groups still use it. I hope they can find a use for the building.
Here is an interesting link with the history of the older church building, as well as buildings in the surrounding area.
https://stlouiscountymo.gov/st-louis-county-departments/parks/about/st-louis-county-landmarks/bellefontaine-neighbors/