Manchester is one of the oldest settlements in the St. Louis region, with its roots going back to the early Nineteenth Century.
Manchester Road has long been a major artery not just through St. Louis County but the City as well, and was even known as Market Street Road for a portion of its history. Before its current orientation was laid out straight through the middle River des Pere valley, it once snaked its way up through the hills of what is now Clifton Heights. It was supposedly a Native American trail originally, and was only a two-lane road for most of its history. There are people still alive that remember it in that incarnation.
The Lyceum Building, which was built in 1894, served as the City Hall, but will be replaced soon as it is too small for the growing modern suburb. It came close to being demolished but was restored in the 1970s.
I’ve always been told that Manchester sacrificed the north side of the street for the widening of the road, thus preserving the historic structures on the south but demolishing most of the old houses and other buildings on the opposite side. It looks like that story holds water judging from what exists today. There has been some attempts at building pedestrian friendly development on blocks on the south side of Manchester Road.
South of Manchester some of the original houses are left, but much has been demolished for light industry or other businesses.
Ever since I was young, there has been a row of Nineteenth Century buildings on the south side of Manchester.
There have always been random businesses in these homes.
This one, which is probably one of the oldest, has always been a TV repair business, though I wonder how much business it gets nowadays.
This home has been annihilated for a vacant lot.
I have no idea why; I thought it was one of the most distinctive and interesting houses on this strip between Highway 141 and Suphur Springs Road.
The building on the left has been fixed up, not annihilated.
But there are some truly anemic and dead strip malls on the north side of the road. This used to be a Children’s Palace, which went the way of the dodo so long ago I can’t remember when it closed.
Heading up Henry Avenue, there is the old school.
There are a couple of cool houses, as well.
You can see below that this one clearly started as a log cabin.
And this one was probably originally just the back part, two up, two down, as they say.
