1908: The lives of 1536 Mississippi

The five French Second Empire homes in the photo above are perhaps the most photographed of the entire historic district. They sit along Mississippi Avenue, one of the four 90’ wide streets that surround the square shaped Lafayette Park. These five have pride of place, across from a park gate and equidistant from both Lafayette and Park Avenues. 

Built during 1876-78 as fashionable three story townhouses with mansard roofs and stone fronts, 1536 Mississippi is the middle of the five. It serves up a rich history for this dive into the history of Lafayette Square homes and residents. 

In the beginning

The man who originally contracted for the five homes was August Nedderhut, owner of a pork packing company in St. Louis. His interests migrated toward real estate development, but he had a capable meatpacking lieutenant in Ernest Kretschmar. In 1883, Kretschmar began his own company, specializing in hams. As part of John Morell, Kretschmar remains a valuable brand.

The comprehensive Compton-Dry map of 1875 St. Louis predated Nedderhut’s Mississippi Avenue development. It is, however, easy to see the spot he chose to develop, and why.

The first reference to an owner for 1536 Mississippi appeared in 1878. It described how Anne Hamill, aged 64, died at the new family residence. She was the widow of Samuel Hamill, a prosperous wholesale grocer. Her move to Lafayette Square was a downsizing one, as the family estate on Compton Hill covered five acres, with stables and a fruit orchard. 

Dedicated sites for occasions like births, weddings, deaths and funerals had to wait. It would be awhile before better roads, suitable vehicles and a commercial infrastructure could host those events. Until then, home was where one’s life often played out. Anne Hamill’s funeral several days later, took place right where she died.

A quick descent follows disaster

A monster tornado in 1896 deconstructed much of Lafayette Square. The wealthy residents moved west and rebuilt. A general economic malaise also spread during this famously gilded age. 1536 Mississippi, with its ten rooms and granitoid cellar became a rooming house. Tenants paid for the exclusive use of one room, generally sharing a bathroom. For their evening meal, many residents walked to the nearest boarding house, where meals were provided with lodging. The house next door at 1538 Mississippi was such an establishment.

A rooming house held a collection of people from various walks of life. They shared a roof and worked individually through life’s transitions. Without much city regulation, rooms could hold a number of people, sometimes three occupants who slept in shifts. Many times a family occupied a room, with the kids taking any available space in which to sleep. 

People crowded into spaces, especially in the days when disease transmission was little understood. Tenants became infected and then cross-infected others. St. Louis had a dark experience with cholera in this regard. In 1883, authorities transferred Louise Funken of 1536 Mississippi, along with five others, to the quarantine hospital. They were all stricken with smallpox. 

Some of the people who lived there

George Thurman grew wealthy as a tobacco merchant in Pike County, Missouri. He parlayed his community status into a seat on the bench of the Pike County court. Judge Thurman’s fortunes turned against him, and he filed for bankruptcy in 1868. His family residence in 1885 was at 1536 Mississippi. At the age of 70, with his health in decline, he shot himself in the temple and died at home. The funeral was, as for many others, at home, with burial at Bellefontaine Cemetery. 

In 1893, Mrs. Laura Green of 1536 Mississippi crossed the street at Park Avenue and Dillon Street. There she was knocked down and run over by City Ambulance #8. Although badly shaken, Mrs. Green felt relieved that she had suffered no broken bones

In September, 1899, John Wiley, 52 years of age, met an end similar to that of George Thurman. He was, for a full decade, assistant cashier at Wiggins Ferry Company. Wiley was staying with a friend at 1536 Mississippi. A bullet killed him at 7 a.m., apparently as he dressed. No one could figure why he shot himself. He seemed steady and content, with a wife and two grown married daughters. It didn’t add up. A forensic look at Wiggins books showed that all his accounts balanced. The police chalked it up to a tragic accident. 

There were happier stories at this address, to be sure. In April of 1885, John Maury was born to  Charles and S.F Maury at this home. Marriage licenses are on the record for various residents in 1889, 1890 and 1901. A ticket out, perhaps? 

The whole building went up for sale in August of 1907. The sale price demonstrated a seller willing to extend generous terms. Nonetheless, the place languished in the real estate section for a year. 1908 was the annus horribilis for this address, as you’ll see.

1908 – Eventful, if not fun

Marriages could just as easily suffer as prosper. Christine Johnson was a resident of 1536 Mississippi during the summer of 1908. She complained to police that her husband William interrupted her while she dressed for work at a department store. He objected to her applying powder, grabbing the powder box and throwing it out the window. He said, “you don’t need to do all that primping just to go to work” and then kicked her. The judge fined William $100.00. Hard to imagine that this verdict did much to improve their relationship, but that’s lost to history. 

1908 was a happening year for this address. In early January the home was owned by Jacob Miller, a cigar maker, aged 55. He reportedly leaped between the tender and a freight car of a passing train, and was killed. May Hutchins lived upstairs in a single room with her three children. Miller often brought the children picture books and took them to shows. Estranged from his wife for the past fourteen years, Miller had filed for divorce a week before his sad end. 

And that’s not all. Poor young Harry Kirchauser, 24, was minding his own business when approached by a woman with a proposition of an intimate nature. He accompanied her to a room at 1536 Mississippi. While in a state of undress, a confederate of the woman attacked Kirchauser and relieved him of three diamond rings. This kind of three person drama was fairly common, known in police circles as the ‘badger game’. As it turned out, the woman was foolish to have formally rented the room. The landlady identified her for the police and Harry was reunited with his rings and clothing.

In August of the same year, Mrs C.R. Hutchings left some preserves on the stove to cook, and went shopping downtown. A small boy later passed by 1536 Mississippi, saw smoke issuing from a window and alerted police. The Post-Dispatch noted, “firemen mussed up the place by running various hoses through doors and windows, but managed to save the preserves.”

Change of ownership, if not fortunes

The building itself changed hands in October 1908. A.D. Aufschlaeger sold 1536 to Mont and Nellie Robertson. The selling price was $4,500, a good deal for a large and solid home with a park view. In 1916, their daughter Burette was robbed of $18.00 at gunpoint by two men with revolvers at 13th and Pine Streets. The Robertson’s other daughter Ede died of the flu in late 1918. Her funeral occurred at the house. Mont, who worked for the Iron Mountain Railroad, also died at home in 1920, of natural causes at the age of 68. 

Later came the Great Depression, when the neighborhood suffered like everywhere else. The great homes provided rooms for rent, but generated little capital for upkeep or improvement. The entire Lafayette Square district appeared on a 1947 city planning map as ‘obsolete’. This put it in line for clearance, along with nearby Mill Creek Valley.

Politics were fiercely contentious as there was so much need and so little deliverable from the ward bosses. The Post-Dispatch reported that in 1936, the St. Louis Election Board could verify only six of the fourteen voters registered at 1536 Mississippi Avenue. This paled in comparison with the Green Frog Saloon on South Broadway. Despite its thirty registered voters, owner James Anastasia named himself as the only occupant, protesting that even he wasn’t registered. 

World War II brought an influx of jobs and migration to St. Louis, so at least the boarding and rooming houses stayed full. In 1944, Private Oscar Presley, 28, a medical corpsman won a Purple Heart for wounds received in Italy. He and his wife lived at 1536 Mississippi Avenue. 

The old neighborhood stirs

Post war, the house remained occupied as a tenement. There isn’t much information beyond what petty crimes appeared on the police blotter. A renaissance began when young movers and shakers followed a vision of neighborhood restoration begun by John Albury Bryan in the 1960s. In 1970, Ruth Kamphoefner moved into 1526 Mississippi Avenue, two houses north of 1536. She was a lifelong driver of improvement within Lafayette Square. The artisans associated with Bob Cassilly, and ambitious young adults with big dreams and little money pitched in. They cooperatively restored homes and brought the area back. It’s a heck of a story.

Neglected for years, 1536 Mississippi sat empty when Tom and Merry Dahms began the restoration of it. Ray Brodzinski was a longtime photographer and cameraman for Channel 2 in St. Louis. He also presided over of the Good Citizenship Award, granting cash tributes to worthy do-gooders in the city. Ray bought 1536 and resided there until his death in 2019. It has remained in good hands since. 

The history of this neighborhood goes back to the 1836 establishment of the park it surrounds. Its story parallels that of the city, with the exception of surviving with much of its original housing stock intact. Lafayette Square is a living museum with devoted curators. They continue to work gratis and share their neighborhood with curious and romantic alike. 

Resources

Ever been the dupe in a ‘badger game?’ Outside of Madison, WI this is a dated reference to two people conspiring to put another into a morally compromising situation for the purpose of extortion or simple robbery. Wikipedia is an unending source of background for minutiae like this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badger_game

1947 City Plan is presented in detail at https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/archive/1947-comprehensive-plan/

John Albury Bryan was an architect who realized the intrinsic but little realized value of Lafayette Square, beginning in 1949. For an introduction, here’s an earlier essay dealing with this founding father of the rebirth in this area. https://lafayettesquarearchives.com/1949-john-albury-bryan-reboots-lafayette-square/#:~:text=For the sake of argument,Chair of the St.

For more on Ruth Kamphoefner and the neighborhood turnaround of the 1970s, from her own perspective, take a look at my earlier essay, here: https://lafayettesquarearchives.com/1994-ruth-weighs-in-on-a-neighborhood-milestone/

Various local newspapers are referenced here, including the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of June 8, 1883 (smallpox), April 14, 1885, May 19, 1893 (Laura Green), September 25, 1899 (John Wiley), January 4, 1908 (Jacob Miller), June 7, 1908 (Wm and Christine Johnson), November 3, 1918, and July 25, 1936 (election board results).

The St. Louis Star and Times is cited for articles from April 28, 1916 (Burette Robertson), and references to residents from August 18, 1916, February 14, 1920, and August 30, 1926.

The St. Louis Globe-Democrat provided stories from October 13, 1878 (Anne Hamill), August 27, 1885 (George Thurmond), September 26, 1899 (John Wiley), January 4, 1908 (Jacob Miller), and October 25, 1908 (Ad Aufschlaeger).

1536 Mississippi Avenue only appeared on the annual neighborhood house tour once, in 1991. The booklet from that tour credits the Dahms for restoration. It was a boon to that five house stretch, as it had sat idle longest of all.