Lafayette Square’s ‘Sherwood Forest’, inaccessible for years and enclosed by chain link fence topped with barbed wire, never looked particularly friendly. In fact, there was a slow evolution going on in there, that played out over the years.
Just uphill from the conspicuous five story apartment development at 2300 Lasalle is a row of nearly completed townhouses. This tract was part of a large pork packing plant as early as 1903. It’s mapped in an earlier essay: https://lafayettesquarearchives.com/?p=1133
Sherwood Forest lay immediately north of an area last owned by General Motors. GM parked and serviced a commercial truck fleet there. They intended to extend their holdings in the area south, between MacKay Place and Missouri Avenue, perhaps as far as Park Avenue. It would have made Park effectively part of a truck route. That may have seemed like no big deal in the 1960s but was completely out of phase with the creation of a historic district near Lafayette Park.
In an effort to stem the advance of the truck lot, two residents, Alan Doede and Bill Odell bought up the lot we knew until last year as Sherwood Forest. Fenced off, it sat for decades. The area formed a barricade against inappropriate development and waited its time for something to better fit the neighborhood. The homeowners of the Northwest Quadrant of Lafayette Square were less than thrilled by the vacant property, but it did seem to serve their long range interests.
When Praxair blew sky high in 2005, it widened the blank spaces fronting Chouteau and led to a lot of unoccupied concrete jungle in the area. Sherwood Forest held fast, with seeds falling into cracks in the asphalt, germinating into saplings and then maturing into full trees.
They pulled up the asphalt as they grew, allowing further shoots and roots to do their work. It was an object lesson in the determination and persistence of nature. The trees became habitat for birds. The fence and greenery sheltered raccoons, possums and an occasional fox. Every so often someone would heave a brandy bottle or a ruined tire over the fence, but it seemed otherwise peaceful. Sherwood Forest became an unintended consequence of leaving an urban surface untended over time.
The lost in time theme of the area extended to its perimeter as well. Here’s a sticker on a Hickory Street Sherwood Forest light post from the Democratic primary aldermanic race of 1978.
There’s a story in the sticker, but for another episode. Somewhere else it would have been removed. Folks passing by may not have realized the Leisure stickers were even there.
So now we’re looking at the new Lafayette Reserve, a townhouse development observant of historical codes. It serves as a springboard for improvement of the whole Northwest Quadrant of Lafayette Square. The trees came down a week after these photos. The development follows closely behind.
It’s been a long wait for the area residents, but, as the trees will tell you, persistence pays.
Credits
The always interesting blog at Cityscape-StL first revealed the development at Jefferson and Chouteau, back in 2019. It’s still a great early look. Thanks to Chris Stritzel – https://www.cityscene-stl.com/post/jefferson-and-chouteau-revealed-first-phase-to-begin
Thanks to Bill Odell for assistance and proofreading.
For more information on the pending Lafayette Reserve development, visit their website at
Just a minor notation to this detail about meat processing operations , for the uninitiated . It would be fun to dig around these new finely replicated town homes and sniff the yards for historic olfactory delight .
Shaw’s Garden of old was treated to the smells of the Tower Grove / Vandeventer locations of both the meat packing plant and its dependent cousin , Packwood soap Co. which used rendering from the packing plant to produce the basics for some soaps . Until the last 20 Yrs, you could still smell the offal when it rained on a hot day in that area . Of course the smells from the Brewery were greeted as sweet indeed by comparison ! louden Wainwright ‘s ballad comes to mind – Dead Skunk .
How great are the changes and improvements now , but less earthy .
Just goes to show you: If we leave things alone long enough, they heal themselves. Unfortunately, in some cases now, that might take several 100k years, but still…Sherwood Forest was a case in point. Intriguing and mysterious to look into.
Thanks, Mike
Thanks for reading, Duke. I’m reminded of the Robert Service stanza, “I have clinched and closed with the naked North, I have learned to defy and defend. Shoulder to shoulder we’ve fought it out, yet the wild must win in the end.”