August 2025 - Lafayette Square Archives

1959: Family And Village Champ

A relic of the horse and buggy era

While it was open to the general public, the Rhone Rum Bar at 2107 Chouteau Avenue was a funny sort of place. It sported a German river name, tropical theme, sand volleyball court and small concert stage. We went there once to hear a Beatles tribute band. The first song of their set was “I Am The Walrus.” Not exactly a toe-tapper, but it went with the venue’s general incongruity.

The building went up in 1896 to house the Champ Spring Company. This business began as a provider of buggy springs – early shock absorbers. Unlike buggy whips, springs made the transition to automobiles, and the company thrived.

1910 advertisement. There were four car companies in St. Louis that year.

Introducing the original Champ

Champ Spring was named for its founder, Charles E.M. Champ, who established the firm in 1882. He worked as its president right up to his death at the age of 81, in 1933. He lived from 1911 through the rest of his life on a large estate at Goodwood Farm. That was far from Lafayette Square, on Brown Road in North County, near Natural Bridge road.

Goodwood was a 300 acre farm, originally belonging to horse breeder Joseph Lucas, as in Lucas and Hunt Road. When Lucas died, Champ bought the land for $100,000, developing a large dairy herd and bulk milk production business.

Champ’s son Norman took over operation of the spring company. By 1946, it employed 100 and expanded from 2107 through 2119 Chouteau Avenue. The business was well located along Missouri highway and truck route 50. It kept to its specialty of leaf springs for cars, trucks and busses, growing into rebuilding, repairing and modifying existing leaf springs.

Here is a look at the Chouteau location in Lafayette Square (from where a ZX gas station is today) in 1955:

The second Champ follows suit

Norman Champ was a busy man from his early years. In 1937, he was on the Berkeley board of alderman, overseeing the municipal incorporation of that small village. At the same time, he was a deputy marshal and member of the Berkeley police board. Even this early, Berkeley had achieved a reputation of existing mostly for the revenue gained from fines for driving violations.

In 1957, 67 year old Norman Champ sold 400 acres of his land near Brown Road to the city, which exercised eminent domain to enlarge Lambert Field. He made $1.75 million on the sale. Champ continued to run a healthy business in dairy cattle on his remaining 180 acres at Goodwood. Originally, Champ’s 100 holsteins and guernseys were milked twice a day by hand. This required a lot of manual interaction, which was actually performed by German POWs during the latter stages of World War II. In 1954, the operation finally mechanized.

Norman Champ was much more than a dairy farmer, however. His status covers much ground, including trusteeship of Westminster College, Second Presbyterian Church, Shriners Hospital and Southside YMCA. He belonged to the Moolah Temple and Scottish Rite Masons. Champ had both money and ambition. Maybe it was a matter of time that his path would cross with that of Bill Bangert.

A plot of land in Champ Village

In January 1959, Champ sold 62 acres to Bill Bangert for creation of the village that bears his name. It lies near the junction of I-270 and I-70 in northwest St. Louis County. The county council approved expansion of this tract to 308 acres, ok’ed its incorporation and ratified five trustees for the village. These were Norman Champ, his son and his secretary along with Bill Bangert and wife Rosemary.

The village was created as a scheme Bangert and Champ devised, to develop a large sports stadium and industrial center there. The municipality itself was mostly undeveloped bottom land. Population of Champ then was fourteen. It has never gotten much past that.

Norman Champ, third from left, Bangert, far right, and others with stadium model; 1958

It was probably inevitable that Champ and Bangert’s interests would eventually diverge. As Bill Bangert owned all the land involved, Missouri Attorney General Thomas Eagleton saw the new village as a private enterprise, rather than a true municipality. He pushed a suit against its legitimacy. Champ left the village board of trustees in late 1962, and testified a year later that he sold his holdings in the village to Bangert for $350,000. Norman added that he had never lived within the village, residing at his Goodwood home in Berkeley over the preceding five decades. Norman Champ was 74 years old, and tired of big dreams. He would die eight years later, in 1972, surpassing even the long life of his father.

In a final gesture of goodwill, Champ gifted $98,000 in stock to buy a park in north St. Louis County. Still there, the 120 acre site is called Norman B. Champ Memorial Park.

Champ Park; St. Louis County in Florissant.

One more round of Champs

A third generation saw Norman B. Champ, Jr graduate MIT with an engineering degree and Harvard with a business degree. He became state finance chair for Jimmy Carter’s presidential campaign. He was also a committeeman for Clayton, in addition to being president of Champ Spring Company.

It came out in 1970 that Richard Rabbitt, the then-current Missouri House Speaker received a fee of $100,000 for negotiating a sale of twelve acres owned by Norman Champ Jr, for expansion of Lambert Field. The purchase price was $500,000 over the land’s appraised value. As it worked out, the parcel was never used for airport purposes.

Rabbitt was later charged with taking kickbacks and peddling influence, and convicted on 15 counts of extortion and mail fraud, .

Demonstrating a lifetime and bloodline of family privilege, Norman Champ, Jr fumed when his stepson was disqualified from a state high school tennis tournament for having attended school in Florida the year before. The Post-Dispatch in April of 1981 reported that Norman weighed whether to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Referred to as a “longtime Democratic power broker,” Norman Champ, Jr later became a vocal opponent to a proposed city sales tax increase. By this time, he had taken on a distinctly Bidwillian look:

In his strenuous opposition to the tax, he faced off against Mayor Vince Schoemehl, Charles Knight of Emerson Electric, and Civic Progress. Champ lost this one, as a majority of both city and county voters supported the levy.

In 1988, the Missouri Court of Appeals ended a five year challenge from Norman Champ, Jr over the use of public funds to pay campaign debts. This challenge was denied.

The unwinding of things

What were once big battles devolved into petty dustups between Champ and local government. His earlier political clout counted for nothing when the city placed a no-parking sign in front of the Champ Spring Company on Chouteau Avenue. It was part of a procession of such signs along the north side of the block. After 94 years of enjoying easy access, this made his blood boil. Now 62, he had remained a major contributor to Democratic politicians at every level. Champ vowed to take the signs down himself. A mayoral aide regretted him taking that stance, but said they had the authority to put them up, while he had no authority to take them down.

When Lambert Field expanded their property yet again in 1966, the Champ dairy farm moved out to Elsberry, MO, where Norman Jr’s brother Joseph and wife Tish continued the operation. Joseph Champ was vice president of Champ Spring Company, and drove a sixty mile commute each morning to work on Chouteau Avenue. He also managed the now 3,500 acre dairy farm on Highway 70. In 1992 a wayward cigarette most likely started a house fire that took both their lives.

McClellan checks in

Six years later, colorful local journalist Bill McClellan journeyed to 2107 Chouteau to call on Norman Champ, Jr. For over a century, the family business remained in place without changing their focus on heavy duty truck springs. Globalization had cut deeply into profits by then, as cheap labor and steel from India and China took business from Champ. The company was down to three employees from forty in 1963.

McClellan’s visit was inspired by something he learned a week earlier. An envelope under the front door of Champ Spring Company held a city notice that Champ had no occupancy permit. The firm was given 24 hours to comply or be shut down. It was both impersonal and jarring to a business occupying the same site for 102 years.

While scrambling to address the problem, Norman Champ mused on another issue several years earlier. While contesting a steep property tax increase, he was notified that his building was condemned. He complained, “How can you say my building is worth more at the same time you’re condemning it?”

An impressive pile of achievements

Norman Champ, Jr died in 2005 at the age of 76. Like his father, he piled up accomplishments and accolades along the way. He was a member of the National Council on the Arts from 1977 through 1985. He served on President Carter’s Committee for the Preservation of the White House (a role that begs for reinstatement). For twenty years, Champ was a committeeman for Clayton Township, founding director of Laumeier Sculpture Park, commissioner of the St. Louis Art Museum, member of the Missouri Arts Council, and board member of Webster College.

In business, he was an executive with the St. Louis Car Company, director of Mark Twain Bank and Firstar Bank. Champ was both a longtime member of the Rotary club and President of the South Side YMCA. At another home on Chappaquiddick Island, he belonged to the island association and Rotary Club. Champ was a member of the University Club, Veiled Prophet Association, and Edgartown Yacht Club in Massachusetts. Not bad for a guy coming up from leaf springs and dairy cattle.

The village of Champ remains, the tiniest and least populated of St. Louis County’s 91 municipality grab bag. It is almost totally quarry and landfill. It really represents both the giveth and taketh away of a big city.

And of 2107 Chouteau Avenue? The area just west from the foot of Mississippi Avenue was revived by Paul and Wendy Hamilton in the mid-2010s, with the creation of Vin De Set, Hamilton Steakhouse, Winnie’s Wine Bar and other attractions. 2107 Chouteau became the Rhone Rum Bar, which is now a private event space.

Epilogue

St. Louis has many ‘old money’ families. Here were three generations of a largely self-made one. Norman, Sr was lucky to have pulled free from the village of Champ with his reputation fairly unscathed, especially after lending the family name to it. All this is by way of introduction to the next essay, a dive into the wild world of Bill Bangert, a man who had his name legally changed from William because, “everybody calls me Bill.” He turbo charged the Champ village story, making and losing fortunes along the way. It promises to be an eventful ride through St. Louis County history. Stay tuned.

Profile of village of Champ; Fox 2 News Joey Schneider Sep 30 2023 https://fox2now.com/news/missouri/only-10-people-live-in-st-louis-countys-smallest-village/

Photo of CEM Champ from St. Louis Post-Dispatch; August 29, 1933. Obit from same, August 28, 1933

Goodwood farm sells for $100,000; St. Louis Post Dispatch; December 21 1911

Berkeley driving violations from St. Louis Globe Democrat October 23, 1943

Champ dairy operation from Globe-Democrat; November 6, 1957

Creation of village of Champ; Post-Dispatch; January 22, 1959

Norman Chance for Carter; Post-Dispatch; January 3, 1977

The Richard Rabbitt story; Post-Dispatch; July 31, 1977.

Tennis DQ for Champ stepson; Post-Dispatch April 26, 1981

Sales tax fight; Post Dispatch; July 30, 1982

William Bidwill image from Post-Dispatch obit; October 3, 2019

No Parking Signs Irk Businessman; Post-Dispatch; Louis J. Rose; June 3, 1990

Fatal fire at Champ house in Elsberry; Post-Dispatch; Thom Gross; June 3, 1992

“After 102 years, manufacturer feels pinch from city” Bill McClellan; Post-Dispatch; December 20, 1998

Additional bio background of Norman Champ from https://stlouiscountymo.gov/st-louis-county-departments/parks/about/park-history-documents/champ-history/

Some bio background of Joe Champ from http://missouridairyhallofhonors.com/1988-distinguished-dairy-cattle-breeder-award/

Some bio background of Norman, Jr from https://vineyardgazette.com/obituaries/2005/02/18/norman-b-champ-jr-was-political-activist

http://barkerreunion.blogspot.com/2012/02/history-of-champ-goodwood-farm-on-brown.html

Photos of Village of Champ, Rhone Rum Bar and Norman Champ Park from Google.

2007 Park Avenue: Home, Hospital, Mortuary, B&B

An earlier essay in this series dealt with the colorful history at the northwest corner of Mississippi and Park Avenue. https://lafayettesquarearchives.com/1951-an-anchor-on-the-corner-in-lafayette-square/. Next door is a large and deep three story brick home on a double lot. To its immediate west is another distinctive home, so close as to nearly adjoin. There is a backstory to both, although this essay focuses on 2007 Park Avenue.

Another successful Germanic immigrant

A native of Austria, William Skrainka moved to St. Louis as a young man and became both a stone merchant and quarry owner. As early as 1870, his business appeared in Goulds Business Directory at the NW corner of Dillon and Park Avenue.

By 1875, Skrainka was in the building materials business with partner Claus Veiths, at 501 N. Levee Street. That year, William began construction on a house at 2007 Park Avenue in Lafayette Square. The family moved in during April of 1876.

An 1878 business directory found the Skrainka firm under the topic “stone contractors” at the northwest corner of Locust and 6th Street. The listing has William living with his wife Mary and son Fred at 2007 Park Avenue.

He and his wife controlled the properties at 2007 and 2011 Park Avenue from 1876 through 1912.

The Skrainkas at home

In 1883, in addition to a Skrainka location at Locust and 6th, a Gould directory places his business at South 18th Street and Gratiot. This quarry, an easy reach from Lafayette Square, features in the 1875 Compton Dry Pictorial Map. The family also owned a large diabase (an igneous form of basalt useful for building foundations and roadbeds) quarry near Fredericktown, Missouri.

From Compton and Dry; 1876. As 2007 Park was built that year, it does not appear, but 2oo1 and 2011 Park are both present on the map.

By 1888, Wm. Skrainka and Company included sons Morris, Frederick and Louis. The family enterprise at that time engaged in “grading, curbing, guttering, macadamizing and crosswalks.” Its business address was 404 Market St, Rm 308, and the residence for William, Mary and Fred remained at 2007 Park Avenue.

By 1892, the Gould Blue Book, which located the family at 2007 Park the year before, had nothing on any of them. G.J. and Lina Helmerichs owned 2007 Park Avenue and it was home to them and a Miss C. Kleinschmidt. This remained the situation through 1894.

Skrainkas on the move

The new resident was owner of G.J. Helmerichs Leaf Tobacco Company at 56 Chestnut and 67 Market Streets. His trade was nearly exclusive with the heavily German folk of South St. Louis, as shown by frequent advertising in German American papers like this 1859 Westliche Post:

In 1893, William, Mary and Fred lived at 3100 Pine Street. A year later, William died in St. Louis of Bright’s disease at the age of 79.

Two years later, Mrs. William Skrainka and Frederick resided at the Hotel Beers. This was a swanky establishment on the corner of Grand Avenue and Olive Street. It burned down in 1931, and is today the site of the Kranzburg Arts Center

2007 Park was then occupied by just Mrs. Helmerich and Miss Kleinschmidt, and they remained through 1897.

The Skrainkas kept moving. In 1897, Fred, Louis and Morris Skrainka were all listed at 319 N. 4th Street, and two years after that, Fred resided at the West End Hotel, staying there through 1912.

In the 1904 Gould Business Directory, Skrainka Construction Company listed Louis as President, Frederick as Vice President and Morris as Secretary. Their mother Mary Skrainka lived at the West End Hotel.

On Dec 19, 1906, Mary Skrainka died in Berlin, to where she had travelled in search of medical therapy.

Not Mr. Vanderbilt; Dr.Vanderbeck.

A well known maternity physician, Cornelius C. Vanderbeck moved to St. Louis from Philadelphia, where he edited and published The Philadelphia Druggist and Chemist periodical. In 1890, he authored The Ladies New Medical Guide – An Instructor, Counselor and Friend. Vanderbeck ran a sanitarium on Franklin Avenue in St Louis by 1898, and was a frequent lecturer on health topics in the city.

In 1908, Dr. Vanderbeck established a private infirmary and maternity hospital at 2007 Park Avenue.

Let ’em know you care – send them a post card from the hospital. This, from 1909.

2011 Park Avenue, next door to 2007, was originally built in the late 1860’s for Johannes Ludewig, a wholesale furrier. It was home a decade later to George Muller, longtime owner of a saloon on North Third Street. His upscale watering hole was a favored meeting place for politicians and retired “colonels” over a generation.

In 1912, Vanderbeck sold 2007 Park Avenue and then rented it back. He used the proceeds to expand operations to 2011 Park Avenue. Vanderbeck bought that three story home from jeweler F.W. Drosten for $8,000. Now Vanderbeck’s offices, clinic and residence were in 2007 Park, and a a fifteen bed “private infirmary” operated next door. This arrangement lasted until 1920. The two buildings connected by a second floor breezeway. Evidence of the passage still remains in both houses.

It can be inferred that much of Vanderbeck’s work was charitable on behalf of unwed mothers. Frequent want ads in the papers advertised both for nurses and adoptive parents.

From maternity to eternity

Allen and Bessie McLaughlin bought 2011 Park Avenue in February of 1920. Their family ran a funeral home at 2007 Park Avenue until 1922. When C.C. Vanderbeck died in 1932, with funeral arrangements handled by McLaughlin Funeral Home. Next door, 2011 Park Avenue later converted to a hotel operated by B.C. McLaughlin.

Obit from 1922. Funeral at 2007 Park Avenue.

When the McLaughlin Funeral Home moved to 2301 Lafayette Avenue, 2007 Park Avenue became, like many large residential properties there, a rooming house. At one time it hosted a beauty parlor on the first floor. A faint image of the words ‘Beauty Shop’ are still visible occasionally in one of the original front windows.

A climb back to respectability

2007 Park languished as a rooming house from the 1940s through the 1960s. It’s good that the exterior was built for the long term, as that may have proven its saving grace. It sat before the main gates of beautiful Lafayette Park, but the neighborhood itself had fallen far from its Victorian glory.

St. Louis Globe-Democrat; March 1962, from an article entitled, “Neighborhoods of Distinction.” In the background are 2011, 2007 and 2003 Park Avenue.

Doug and Carol McDaniel moved into 2007 Park Avenue in 1973, and stayed for two decades. They cleared and landscaped the lot next door, overhauled the house, reconfigured walls and removed bathroom fixtures and a couple of kitchens.

May, 1975, with 2003 Park Avenue torn down and lot ready for improvement. Gates to Lafayette Park in background.

A small house at 2003 Park Ave was demolished and merged into the adjoining lot to create 2005 Park Avenue. Although extensively improved, it remains a legally buildable lot.

Undated photo showing 2003 Park Avenue, between 2007 and 2001 Park.

Rooming house to B&B and back to home

When Mike and Kathy Petetit purchased the house in 1997, they set about converting it to the Park Avenue Mansion B&B. It was a popular spot for weddings, receptions, honeymoons and neighborhood card tournaments for the following two decades. They sold the property in 2018 and retired to a single story home with pool in the Arizona desert.

When Mike and Patricia Jones bought 2007 Park Avenue that year, they did what people do with the big old rambling historical buildings in the Square. They tore apart and redesigned the kitchen, a bedroom and a bathroom. No matter how much one puts in, more is always indicated. A growing need for tuck pointing, rebuild of the fish pond and a new roof combined with Covid to keep the property from visitors and guests. This conspired to send the Joneses westward, into a new single story home in 2022.

2007 Park Avenue remains a key building among the mansions fronting Lafayette Park. The park dates to 1836, and the homes surrounding it mostly went up in the 1870s and 1880s. French Second Empire details like the mansard roof, tall arched windows, double sets of doors and extensive use of iron remain prevalent here, as in the immediate area.

Like the Lafayette Square neighborhood that surrounds it, 2007 Park Avenue is rich in history and protected as both a city and national historic district. Through generations of dedication to it, the home has kept with the times while maintaining its heritage.

Note: When we sold our home on the Square, our realtor created a video walk-through. If you’ve ever been curious about the innards of a house with this much exterior, you’re welcome to take a virtual tour, here: https://saint-louis-real-estate-photography-llc.aryeo.com/sites/YBMAJGW/unbranded