Forward, Into The Past
Beginning with William Carr Lane, 48 elected mayors have served the city of St. Louis. The first 45 were men, and the most recent three have been women. Four of the mayors once called Lafayette Square home. They are:
Continue reading “1842-1925: Lafayette Square Mayors”A convenient feature of living in Lafayette Square is that you can easily access different interstate highways. From the Square, one can head to who-knows-where within a couple of minutes. To hit I-44 west, about 200 feet from the on-ramp to I-55 south, turn immediately at the corner of 18th Street and Lafayette Avenue. You most likely know the spot:
As covered in the recent essay, https://lafayettesquarearchives.com/?p=5062 Norman Champ was a man with a solid and profitable business in Lafayette Square, In addition to a home in St. Louis’s north county, he managed a thriving dairy and cattle herd. As chair of the board of aldermen, Champ guided the municipal incorporation of Berkeley, Missouri, and served the new community as alderman and deputy marshal for several years.
A St. Louisan of herculean strength and nearly unlimited ambition crossed paths with the staid and methodical Champ. This essay, the second of a pair, deals with Champ’s star-crossed partner, Bill Bangert.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?”
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.
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.
A little known aspect of Lafayette Park history involves its role in expanding our national pastime. In the 1850’s, the mansion of Edward Bredell Sr. stood directly across from the park on Lafayette Avenue. Edward Sr. made his fortune in mining and dry goods wholesaling. He later established the Missouri Glass Company as an enterprise for his son to manage. Edward Jr. attended Brown University, where he likely was introduced to New York rules baseball. Games involving balls and bats in various forms have been described as early as the 1820s, but the New York game was well defined and quickly gained popularity in that area
Continue reading “1860: Lafayette Square on First “Back in 1995, first-wave restorationist and Lafayette Square MVP Ruth Kamphoefner composed a tidy summary of observations and cautionary tales from her 25 years in the neighborhood. It not only paid tribute to some outstanding doers, but feels nearly as appropriate today as it did then. I’m in awe of Ruth, and what she accomplished in her decades here. What I write is surely inadequate. She can better convey some of it for me. In her own words…
Early in the 1970s, so many people came to house tours that we had lines half a block long in front of houses. So many properties sold that we envisioned the complete restoration of Lafayette Square within a year or two.
“Pretty soon we won’t need to have any more house tours!” I gloated to Jerry Ferrell, LSRC president at the time.
Dreamer.
The LSRC neighborhood association turned ten years old in April of 1979. A resident wit and frequent contributor to the Marquis turned her attention to commemorating that anniversary. Linda Underwood lived for years on Whittemore Place. With her husband Gary, she was an early and frequent advocate for the neighborhood, involved in the day to day restoration of Lafayette Square. She did this with unfailing humor and the ability to take it all in stride.
Here’s a lightly edited and photo enhanced excerpt from her Marquis article, “You Think Lafayette Square Is Weird Today…Read On”
Continue reading “1979: The Pony Was The People”In 1874, an innovative farmer from DeKalb, Illinois received the original patent for barbed wire. Joseph Glidden established the Barb Wire Fence Company with Isaac Ellwood, also of DeKalb. It’s doubtful that either man foresaw this invention becoming one of what the BBC recently listed as “the 50 things that made the modern economy.”
All the iron on Earth originated in large stars that existed before our Sun even formed. Iron is the final product of a star’s radioactive decay, which fuses hydrogen atoms to form ever heavier elements. When the hydrogen fuel is exhausted and sufficient mass accumulates in the core of the star, it no longer supports its own gravity, and explodes; or so I’m told. In that supernova explosion, huge chunks of iron can be thrown many light years into space. Such a chunk came to land in eastern Missouri’s St. Francois County and became Iron Mountain.
Continue reading “1893: Iron Men Of Lafayette Square – Christopher And Simpson”
St. Louis is situated on some terrific ground with which to build a durable city. Limestone bluffs once lined the riverfront, and were quarried for facades and foundations. As mentioned in the preceding essay, a long deep seam of high grade clay ran under present day Manchester Road. There was coal galore, conveniently mined from the same area as the clay. Mold and fire the clay and you have a brick. Handy materials for an incredibly fast growing, if fire-prone city. Inexpensive and plentiful Italian and Irish immigrant labor kept production costs low. A terrible fire led to a city ordinance in 1849 mandating brick as the city’s construction material. Many such buildings have lasted over 150 years.
Edward Sterling (1834-1911) founded a bonafide brick-making empire, based in St. Louis. Early in his life, his uncle Elisha was managing a steam furnace company in Cleveland. Looking to diversify the business in the 1850’s, Elisha and his associate Ethan Rogers looked into the manufacture of bricks.
Until that time, brick production consisted of forming clay into molds by hand and then kiln-firing in batches. Now, late into the industrial revolution, underlying assumptions about labor and efficiency were challenged in almost every aspect of the economy.
Rogers invented and patented “a new and improved machine for molding and pressing brick by hydraulic pressure”¹. The first hydraulic brick machine was put into service in Cleveland in 1856. Three years later, that machine was sold to a manufacturer in Nashville, and eventually melted down for ordnance during the Civil War.
As a young man going his own way, Elisha’s nephew Edward unsuccessfully tried his hand at running a lumber company. He then returned to Cleveland and secured a financial interest in the patent rights for Rogers’s hydraulic dry brick press. Edward acquired a new press and in 1860 moved that 33-ton, cast iron machine to Memphis. In 1860, this press produced 8 million bricks in 11 months.
When the Civil War interrupted his production in Memphis, Sterling established a plant in St. Louis, He leased a brickyard near the southeast corner of Chouteau and Mississippi streets (in what is now Lafayette Square) and began manufacturing in late April 1865. With the luck of being in the right place at the right time, the following month brought the end of the Civil War, and began a long process of physical reconstruction.
The Sterlings family business soon attracted other investors, and Hydraulic Press Brick Company incorporated in 1868.
Edward Sterling became Hydraulic’s first president. The company took over the buildings, equipment and machinery in use at the plant on Chouteau and Mississippi. It also acquired an interest in the rights to three patents: the Rogers hydraulic press; a novel design for a brick kiln; and another design for an improved “perpetual kiln.” Hydraulic’s annual production in 1868 amounted to around 5 million bricks, and 7 million the following year. Sterling claimed this output was far less than the demand.
The quality of this brick – heavy, dense, and strong – proved itself in tests conducted by the government. The crush strength of a Hydraulic brick proved more than twice that of conventional handmade brick of the time. James Eads also performed tests and praised the solidity of Hydraulic brick. The product thus began selling itself. With both press and kiln patented, profits flowed to Sterling’s enterprise. Hydraulic product was used in the construction of Eads Bridge, the Bissell Point water treatment plant and Anheuser-Busch brewery. As word spread, it found use is both Chrysler and Manhattan Life buildings in New York.
By the end of 1872, the company had increased its throughput to nearly 18 million bricks a year. With 14 kilns and 2 brick presses, the plant could produce nearly 9,000 bricks per hour.
It’s possible to locate both Sterling’s home and business on the 1875 Compton and Dry map of St. Louis. At that time he lived at the intersection of 14th and Chouteau Ave. His Hydraulic Press Brick Works had migrated down the road to Chouteau and Grand.
As the company yards followed excavation of the clay deposits, several moves west ensued. The works eventually resettled at Kingshighway, where it remained at the turn of the 20th century. Hydraulic Press Brick by then was churning out over 100 million bricks per year, It was, by then, the largest brick company on Earth.²
Edward retired from the business in 1905. Eight years earlier, he prepared a home to retire to, in Redlands, California. “La Casada” was a 22 room mansion of 8,000 square feet. Italian/Mission Revival in style, it featured extensive formal Italian gardens and seven landscaped terraces running down a hillside. Scenic America magazine in 1912 proclaimed this home to be “The most beautiful residence in all southern California”…
…with nary a brick in sight.
Thanks to research sources, including
(1) Mimi Stiritz – National Bldg Arts Center 2017. Much of this post is influenced by her work at http://web.nationalbuildingarts.org/collections/clay-products/ornamental-brick/hydraulic-brick-company-the-early-years/
(2) Mound City On the Mississippi. City of St Louis Planning and Urban Design Agency
Bob Corbett of Webster University did an extensive amount of research into mapping the proximity of coal and clay mines in the Dogtown area of St. Louis. It proves the point in this essay’s first paragraph. http://faculty.webster.edu/corbetre/dogtown/history/mines.html
Thanks also to Michael Allen and Chris Kallmyer “The Land and The Brick” http://www.chriskallmyer.com/works/commonfield-clay/commonfield-clay-interviews/land
Part one of this essay series on St. Louis brick appears here: lafayettesquarearchives.com/1849-like-a-ton-of-bricks-part-1/
