Medium Essays (1001 - 3000 Words) Archives - Page 2 of 7

1994: Ruth Weighs In On a Neighborhood Milestone

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.

1885: A Lafayette Park Ghost Story

Adapted from a story by the St Louis Post Dispatch of December 25, 1885

LAFAYETTE PARK GHOST.

IT STRIKES TERROR TO THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Seen by George Wilson and a Couple of Inquisitive Young Men – It Is Fully Identified as Supernatural – A Newspaper Investigator Solves the Mystery and Relieves the Pressing Fears

George Wilson is an ashman who lives on Jefferson Avenue near Russell Avenue. While passing through Lafayette Park last Saturday night he spied a ghost. The apparition nearly crazed him with terror for a time.

1840: A Case of Milk Sickness

Nature is wonderful stuff. I delight in watching the shifting strength of various woodland plants as they compete through the summer. I got to studying the mayapples of late spring, when the forest floor is covered with them. Each plant labors to create a single drooping fruit. Roots, shoots, fruits and all are mostly gone by July.

Introducing White Snakeroot

There isn’t much that first blossoms around here in September, but two exceptions are the goldenrod and white snakeroot. Both of these have the run of the place right into October, lining the edge of woods and walking paths. Their tiny flowers serve the vital function of providing late season nourishment to bees, butterflies and moths. The only other reason to deliberately plant it might be that its bitter taste deters deer and rabbits.

1874: Wire Titans Of Lafayette Square

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.”

1893: Iron Men Of Lafayette Square – Christopher And Simpson

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.

1994: Lafayette Square Street Names

What follows is a subset of a well-researched history of St. Louis city street names. Every name tells a story, and the byways of Lafayette Square are no exception. Please note my appreciation at the bottom, as a lot of good work went into this compilation.

(E-W) and (N-S) refer to direction each street runs.

1858: Palmatary Maps The Square

Richard Compton and Camile Dry rightly deserve credit for their amazingly comprehensive 1875 pictorial map of St Louis. It is the standard by which others are judged, and certainly worth your study if new to the subject. I highly recommend the expandable version on the Library of Congress site: https://www.loc.gov/resource/g4164sm.gpm00001/?st=gallery

1894: The Rainwater Rifles

In a recent essay here about Augustus Eichele, the match king of Lafayette Square, his obituary mentioned his membership in the Rainwater Rifles. Curiosity roused, I plunged into a deep pool of Rainwater.

21 Benton Place in Lafayette Square dates back to 1870. Noted architect John H. Maurice designed it for Brevet General John S. Cavender (1824 – 1886). The new owner commanded the 1st Missouri Volunteer Light Artillery during the Civil War. He was a veteran of the battles of Wilson’s Creek, Shiloh, Vicksburg and Fort Donelson.

1880: Matches, Pianos and the Square

It’s a long way from the subject of matches to that of pianos. Maybe not so strange when taken through the long lens of history in Lafayette Square.

On Carroll Street east of 18th Street is a row of houses built from 2013 through 2015. They face an older row of houses built around 1872. The homes at 1717, 1719, 1723 and 1725 Carroll were designed and built for Augustus Eichele, who had 1727 Carroll built for his own use. The other three were constructed for his daughters. 1725 connected to 1727 through a passageway meant to enable one of Augustus’s daughter to tend him in his old age.

1859: Lafayette Park and Krausnick

Sometimes the research for a historical essay seems linear enough, but then pinballs off at unanticipated angles. I set about to simply find some background on Edward Krausnick, the little-remembered first superintendent of Lafayette Park. What followed is a reminder that real lives seldom follow a linear narrative.