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Jerre Wright (May)
These are copies of dialogues that some of our classmates are having - feel free to jump in and join the discussion.
Old Orchard was never one of my haunts -- I lived my entire life within 1 block of Rock Hill Rd. After Jerry and I were in HS, however, my mother, who always knew where everything was in WG, went back to work at Doll Heating and Air conditioning in Old Orchard. When we were back for the reunion, I looked for the Doll H&A location and could recognize little of the neighborhood. I suspect that those who have been closer to WG through the years have a better feel for the transitions and can see the homologies.
For gas, we went to the station that was next to the ice cream stand on Big Bend--near the tennis courts. The DQ was a big Hixson hangout. I think that station was a AAA franchise and Dad worked for the AAA. When others were putting their $1 of gas in the family car, I was just charging it --as long as I only used the car for transportation; no cruising or hot-rodding allowed. For repairs we always went to James Chevrolet in the city because a family friend was a mechanic there. I never learned anything about cars because, if anything went wrong, we just took it to Ches. I wish Ches had taught me about engines. My wife knew more about car repairs than I did, but, of course, was treated as an airhead when dealing with auto mechanics. It would really infuriate her.
My dad's chess partner George Perrine, who lived on Edgar Road just north of the railroad, patronized Bach's. I did not remember that it was a Texaco station.
IIRC, there was once a Dodge dealer near there, owned, I think, by the father of one of the cheerleaders that Charles Pickrel was fond of photographing for the school paper.
I certainly remember Thiemeyer's hardware store.
My favorite store in Old Orchard was Old Orchard Pharmacy. Walter Blackmun used to advise me on photo techniques such as how to photograph fireworks (OOH! AH!). He had a Contaflex camera. They had a soda fountain, Casablanca style ceiling fans, a stuffed owl in the back, and a big gasoline pump style dispenser with free lighter fluid in it. I used to buy fountain pen ink there for school papers. And I'll bet that you remember those things too.
The last time I saw Lynn Van Cleve before the reunion, she was working at that Velvet Freeze.
About fifteen years ago, I bought a fountain pen from a catalogue. It arrived on a Friday, and I drove up to the now-gone Ben Franklin store in Old Orchard to buy some ink. They did not have it. The young lady had never even heard of fountain pen ink.
If there's anything scarier than an armed robbery, it's someone threatening to kill one's mother. We had a guy push past the door on Elm and threaten just that. I dissuaded him with some industrial strength coaching and a credible warning of great bodily harm. But the stress caused me to sound a lot more like Don Knotts than James Arness.
Our family used a Texaco station on Log Cabin Lane just off Big Bend in Old Orchard. It was run by the three Bach brothers Marshall, Fred and ____. Dad had an account with them and they would bill us each month, so we just filled up the car and they knew who we were.
We lived on Lake Avenue (one block street between Bompart and Summit) so Old Orchard was our shopping lace of choice especially before we could drive. We have fond memories of Mr. Thiemeyer’s hardware store. The store was a classic “store of three wonders”—we wonder if he has it, he wonders where it is, and we all wonder how he found it. I remember in particular Dad looking for a hammer to chip out fossils from a road cut along the highway. A mason’s hammer did the trick.
My youngest brother worked after school for a while at the Velvet Freeze in Old Orchard. One day the store was robbed at gunpoint while he was working. Steve still has scars on his soul from that experience even though he wasn’t physically harmed.
Here are a few more historical ramblings for those who may be interested...
There is an old building that has been for sale for some time on Big Bend in what we used to call "Little Webster". It housed a tool rental business for some four decades, but it is likely to come down soon, so I took a photo of it yesterday. It sits at an odd angle to the street. I recently remembered that when I was a child, it housed a Gulf service station and that it was then actually located on Gore Avenue, part of which was later re-routed a short distance to the west when I-44 went through forty five years ago. I once had a bicycle inner tube patched there.
I've been searching diligently, and it seems that there are no copies of maps or photos of affected sections of our town before the Interstate available on e-Bay or in the City Hall or in the library. A friend who is a docent at Hawken House, which houses the Webster Groves Historical Society, is still asking around for me.
A Google search on "Gulf station on Gore in Webster Groves" led me to this recent interesting and most excellent article about service stations in Webster's past. I had planned to write something similar, but my knowledge of the area west of Little Webster is too sketchy.
My foggy recollections of the no longer extant section of Big Bend that was taken by the Interstate do include a vague memory of the Standard station that the author mentions as having been located east of Gray and on the north side of Big Bend.
I also seem to recall two more businesses there: an upholstery business on the south side of Big Bend west of the railroad crossing (Tom, were they the people who moved to Chesterfield and who once worked on your 1932 Buick?) and a place that sold phonographs. The latter was owned by Mark Potter, who was a friend of my dad's.
There was also a frozen custard stand on the south side west of the railroad crossing. I think it was called "John's", and kids from Hixson used to go there after school.
Back to service stations in Webster: the author of the article linked above mentions Shell, Mobil, Standard, and Gulf stations in Old Orchard. Here's the scoop on two of the Shell stations.
One was Wendell's Shell in Old Orchard, where my parents went. It ceased to be a service station a long time ago. The building now houses Roger's Produce. It was once the location of the Imo's Pizza store where the infamous kidnapper Michael Devlin made pies with the youngster who lived across the street from us years ago. Devlin grew up a block and a half from our house. I recall seeing him once. He was walking a pet ferret on a leash. All of my attention was focussed on the cutting area of the business end of the animal, and I do not remember what Devlin looked like then. (I also remember interacting with him once when I bought a pizza from the Imo's he later managed in Kirkwood; as I recall, he was a rather disagreeable character.)
The other, which was located on the north side of Big Bend near Maplewood, later became a deli and later, Zinnia's restaurant. It now houses an acupuncture establishment. On one hot day when it was still a Shell station, I noticed the driver of the bus in which I was riding get out, go into the station to use the restroom, make a call on the pay phone, and get into a car that came for him and ride away. The engine of the bus was will running. My neighbor and I got off to walk home, but strangely, many of the passengers whom we apprised of their predicament elected to just sit there and wait for someone else to do something!
There are now only three gasoline stations in Webster Groves. I think the number was once close to two dozen. And as John Hoffman points out in the article, one cannot get a tire repaired or a headlamp replaced at any of them.
On another subject, many of the young parents who live on our street were born after we moved here. As it turns out, none of them knew the history of Summit Ave. that I discussed in the note below, but those who have friends who live on the old eastern stretch refer to it informally as "Little Summit."
There is a fine jewelry store on Big Bend known as Summit Jewelers. The owner once lived on Summit, hence the name, and he has ordered a book about the old Public Service Company that he says includes a picture of that bridge taken a very, very long time ago.
I have also learned that the divided section of Lockwood west of Rock Hill Road was once comprised of a two lane undivided street on what is now the east bound section, and that the streetcar tracks had their own right of way on what is now the west bound part of Lockwood.
If anyone can add anything, please do.
If you drive east on Newport in Webster Groves and pass Marion Avenue, you will come to Summit Avenue. Less than 150 ft. further east, you'll see another sign for Summit on the left.
But if you drive north on Summit from Oakwood and continue across Newport, you will still be on Summit. When you get to Greeley, you will see a sign for Summit Avenue and another identical sign about 70 feet further east. The two Summits converge just north of Greeley.
If you never notice that, you could have some trouble finding an address or telling someone else how to find one.
Here's the deal, and I'm not sure how else you might learn about this.
Years ago when I was starting to drive, northbound Summit stopped at Newport. There was a little jog to the right, and northbound Summit started up again.
The part of the road that now continues straight north across Newport was there all right, but it was closed to automobile and truck traffic. There was a no trespassing sign at each end that stated that the road was owned by the St. Louis Public Service Company, which was the predecessor of the Missouri part of Bi State. Buses ran on that road. High school kids sometimes drove on it on dares.
Just before they got to Marshall Avenue, the northbound buses turned onto a short little two lane segment that veered to the right at an angle and crossed Marshall and continued straight onto what is now called Dutton. That's where kids sled these days when there is enough snow. The bus route continued on a long, high metal bridge that crossed over Deer Creek going toward Maplewood. The bridge was designed to prevent cars from going on it.
Back in the 1940s, streetcars used that route.
The buses later took a different route, and bridge was dynamited some time after we moved on to Marion in 1972. Somewhere along the way, the PSC route was opened to traffic and renamed Summit Avenue, and later on, that little angle that went on to Dutton was taken out. The segment of Summit to the west retains its old name.
Now you know the rest of the story.
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