David Gibson

Jerre posted a string of emails that started out with a discussion about Webster stores and gas stations.

I erroneously stated that Gore Ave. was rerouted when the hightway was put in, but I have since seen a very old map that disproves that assertion.  My reason for having thought that was that, according to my photographic memory which is not always in focus, the street by the Gulf station paralelled the front of the Gulf station.  That may not have been true.  I do think that the Younts  tool rental building was the Gulf station.

Jeff Reuter

I was trying to remember the burger hangout at the corner of Gore and Big Bend where Big Bend crossed the tracks.  It looks like the highway took it and a lot more.  Gore continued south up the hill to Glendale Rd.  I hope my directions and street names are correct.

Dail Mullins

Jeff,  I want to say that the name of that place was "John's" (or maybe "Jon's"), but I'm not sure.  Could be totally wrong.

Sandra Werder (Eno)

It was called John's Dairy Swirl............

Steve Parsons

Steve Parsons

Also next to John's was a Sinclair gas station then Seapaw(sp) Upholstery and at the end of the other shops was Soutar Auto repair. 

Jeff Reuter

Thanks to all who responded.  It is good to see that there are still some of us with good memories.

John Stephen Alden

When I was little there was a Pevely Dairy Soda Fountain at Big Bend and Gore.  We parked the family car facing a fountain with colored lights.  Later the building was the Fleur De Lys Resturaunt.  That was a big deal!!

Does any body remember the bike shop and drug store in 'little' Webster?

Steve Parsons

The bike shop was Bitts Bikes and the drug store was, I think, Kagel Drug. Steve  

James Scott

this is fun, reading about all the places in webster that we went to. keep in mind, this is our history. we lived it. if anyone remembers, when i walked to bristol, in grade school, what is now the strabs grocery store, used to be a coal yard !! there was more there too. two gas stations, and later a city products ice house. i used to go there and get the broked bags of ice, and we would have ice for two or three days. across the street, was endicott chevy, and a packard dealer. wow ! that was so long ago. 60 years. God bless

David Gibson

A Webster Groves police officer named Bits Paillou bought or established the bike shop after leaving the police department in 1958 or 1959.  He had spoken to our civics class at Hixson shortly before that. Bits once repaired the Sturmey-Archer gears on my bike and refused to accept any money for it.  I thought the shop was called Big Bend Bikes; I do know that it was called that later on when the man who is now my brother in law managed it.  It was a Schwinn store.  

In 2013, the Post Dispatch published an obit for Maurice Emile "Bits" Paillou, a 1948 CBC graduate who had fought at the Chosin Reservoir in Korea in 1950.

The upholstery shop moved to Chesterfield after the highway went through.  Tom O'Brien (class of 1959) had them re-upholster a 1932 Buick out there at one point.

Soutar's auto repair shop moved to Old Orchard.  

When I was still in Junior Hight School, a friend of my father's named Mark Potter had a store along that section of Big Bend.  They sold record players, speakers, and so forth.

At one time there was a third ice cream shop in the Little Webster area:  Greenlea's, on the south side of Big Bend.  IIRC, they were part of a chain that became Velvet Freeze.

Kaegel's Drugs stayed in business until Mr. Kaegel retired.  The building always seems to  have a space for lease sign on it.

The old Pevely store with its fountain disappeared long ago.  There was later a series of resaurants there, and then a Mr. Gas discount gasoline station.  The Art of Entertaining, which sells gourmet prepared entrees and desserts, occupies that location now.  The owners are related to the Lemckes of Lemcke Appliance, which is still in old Webster. 

By the way, the highway also took out several establishements along South Elm south of the Walter Weir station.  The only one I remember was a barber shop.  Several side streets on the east side of Elm were also taken out.  Ken Thein Signs was on one of them.

Tom Schillinger

Bitts was a former Webster Police Officer.  I worked for him when he opened his bike store.

William Hoss

I believe Pevely had a horse stable at the east end of the site too, but it was gone or at least converted to a garage by the time I remember going there for ice cream.

Bill Hoss

David Gibson

Jim Scott's comment about the things that were once located at the current Straub's site interested me.  As far as I knew, Straub's was "always" there.

But no, Jim nailed it.  The meat manager told me today that they have been in their current location since 1961.

How, then, did Betty O'Brien (mother of Tom and Ann) shop there before 1961?  She always shopped at Straub's.

The guy said that their original location was across the street and to the east, near where the old Blanner Electric shop had been.  I do not remember ever having gone there.

After graduation in 1962, I had a summer job at a place called Midwest Manufacring, located just to the east of Straub's.  One of my jobs was to go to Straub's to get coffee and donuts for the foremen in the morning, and sandwiches for the office staff at lunch.

James Scott

david, the old strabs store was on the same side of the street as charlies barber shop. east of gore ave. i believe it had a white tile front. the last time i looked at the site, it had a guitar store in it. also, on the corner of lockwood and gray, there used to be a mobilegas station. where webster records used to be was velvet freeze ice cream. where the bank is now, at allen and lockwood, was a shell gas station. picture this, just east of the shell, was a very small lumber company, as well as the toll house.  now, back to straubs, in the same block where straubs is now, after the coal yard left, were two more gas stations. the first was an independant co., and the second was a cities service. this is east to west. after the independant burned, the space was taken up by a city products ice house. they went out of business, and the space was taken up by the hill behan lumber co. across lockwood, where the new stores are now, used to be a standard gas station. jim  

Jeff Reuter

I remember a Cities Service station on Lockwood by the name of Dunham and Maines that my dad started going to after we moved from Rock Hill to Webster in 1958.  I recall it was on the south side of Lockwood but much  farther east of Gore. There was also a building on the north side that housed the previous YMCA, which I recall was only a large house with a pool table.  I'm thinking that the Cities Service station would have been across the street, or near.  I haven't been to Webster in over 40 years, so my recollection may not be that good.

Mike Foresman

Dunham & Maines ( City Service Station) was on the south side of Lockwood at Plant Ave.  This is one block west of the Library.  I worked for Bill Dunham & Grover Maines during highschool and while on Christmas & spring breaks from College.  BMW and then a Porsche dealer was right next door to the west.

David Gibson

Jeff, Dunham and Manes (short "a", two syllables) was indeed a Cities Service station, but it later became a Gulf Station.  Bill Dunham retired, and when Gulf withdrew from the area, Grover Manes' franchise was worthless.  He started anew at a station (Phillips(?)) in Little Webster on the north side of Big Bend just east of Gore.  He had to give it up for health reasons.

Their old Lockwood location is now a parking lot for Dewey's Pizza.

I once attended a Y day camp in that old white buliding, and I later learned that my great grandparents (whom I never met) had rented that house for a while after selling their farm at Jackson and South Gore.

It was raized some time after 1985.

Mike, you are referring to Webster Auto Service, owned by Willi Fink.  They sold both BMWs and Porches until the formation of Porsche-Audi forced them to divest the Porsche business and sell only BMWs.  They later moved to Kirkwood and then to Crestwood and then to Clayton. 

I had a Porsche 912 for a while, and then two BMW 2002s.  Routine maintenance was extremely labor intensive on those models, and the dollar to Deutshmark echange rate becme so unfavorable that getting rid of them was the only prudent thing to do.

Louise Merrill once bought a used, real Mini Cooper from Willi for her daughter.  It was a blast.  Mrs. Fink later ran the Clayon dealership, which had been renamed Autohaus BMW (Willi wanted to be listed first in the Yellow Pages), and coincidentally, that became the first sales location for the new Mini here.

Mary Hoffmann (Hunt)

About the Pevely fountain and things Webster.  Virtually the same Pevely fountain was on Forsyth in Clayton across from the classy, moderne Famous Barr branch. On those inimitable hot, muggy St. Louis evenings, there was nothing like an ice cream at Pevely with those changing colored lights and spray from the fountain.

What is the name of that sponge-like rock with quartz crystals in the holes at Pevely's fountains? Only as an adult do I admire and appreciate Missouri geology. Recently I bought a big, detailed state-wide guide titled something like "Geological Wonders and Curiosities of Missouri." A great book! If only I had time to visit....at the right time of year.

Clayton was my home turf. Through fourth grade, I went to Glenridge School (on Yom Kipper I was one of 3 kids in class in my room). We lived at 7560 York Drive in the Moorlands, the beautifully detailed apartment house block now on the National Register of Historic Places, a block north of Clayton Road and east of Hanley. I liked being close to things. 

My mother dropped me off at the St. Louis Art Museum  (dropped me off!!! How times have changed) for free art appreciation classes. Did any of you share that experience? The museum's famous landscape paintings of the Missouri River and frontier scenes had a big effect on me. The lessons stopped after we moved to Webster, due to my baby brother, I guess. In high school I liked taking my babysitting money and meeting my University City friend Mickey Katz at the art museum, or shopping in Clayton, or messing around with her friend on Westmoreland. The handsome cross-street neighbor from Country Day, Andy Schwartz, had a swimming pool. I longed for Andy to ask me out. 

Of course I took the bus....no need to deal with parents! Ever since, I have been a public transportation advocate who likes to live in denser areas. Now I live in the old copper-mining center of Calumet, Michigan, and everything I need is within half a mile of my house. As a normal American, I am quite a hypocrite and use my car all the time, like a rolling storage unit. But my son, who lives in Hamburg, Germany, has no car at all, never wants one, and saves lots of money. One hitch with European cities: no garages for garage bands. Sam's band rents space in a World War II bunker. 

I'd love to hear from classmates whose grade-school experience was mostly spent somewhere else. I believe that comparing and contrasting different childhood environments is good for kids, kind of like being bilingual.  

How did being part of a big city with big-city amenities and neighborhoods affect you? I loved the Italian groceries on the hill, and Soulard Market. My dad stopped there on Saturdays when he went to the big factory he managed near the Anheuser-Busch Brewery and Mississippi River. He took me along. I've always enjoyed old industrial environments...which seems odd to many suburbanites.

James Scott

ok, back to lockwood and gore, on the north side of lockwood, the parking lot next to gerber chaple, going west, used to be a kroger grocery store.hard to believe. how many remember when the church burned? and lamberts across the street? jim

John Stephen Alden

James

I remember the Webster Pres fire on NewYears Day in eighth grade(1958).  Lammerts Department Store opened in 1937 in the Bristol Building and closed in 1972.  I don't recall the Kroger Store.  Do you remember Belcher Typewriter?

John Stephen Alden

David Gibson

I'm glad you mentioned Walter Wier.  Look back on Post #21 at the very bad photo.  There is Walter's name under the arch.  The woman who posted that asked if that was the inspiration for the Gateway Arch.

When I was four and five we lived across the the street from Albert L. "Al" Kaegel in Webster Gardens.  He was a great guy.  I remember vividly the walk he took us on down Old Watson Road so we could get close enough to see Crestwood Shopping Center being built.  Al just died in 2011. Here is his obituary:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/stltoday/obituary.aspx?n=Albert-Kaegel&pid=153194240

Eileen Taylor (Palsgrove)

John asked about Belcher Typewriter. My family's business is Baco Ribbon and Supply which my sister owns and operates now. She said if you want to know more about it, contact Bill Belcher 

Helen Murrill (Richards)

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to let everyone know that I have kicked cancer's rear end and am doing very well down here in San Antonio.  Chemo and radiation are in the rearview mirror and my hair is slowly growing out - mostly silverish- white (I love the low maintenance).  Haven't decided what to do with it later on but time will tell.  I've forgotten where I put my brushes and hair products!  I really appreciate those of you who reached out to me during my treatments. 

Sue Ginn (Grigsby)

So glad to hear that! Always keeping you in my prayers! Sue G