Normandy is one of the most interesting parts of St. Louis County, and I have created a tag for future and past posts of the area, including the municipal boundaries of the modern city but also areas part of the historic area owned by the Lucas Family. Charles Lucas, and more importantly his son John Baptists Charles Lucas, secured Spanish land grants in the area after emigrating from the northern French coastal region of Normandy in the late Eighteenth Century. Looking at the map above, their original land is obvious because Spanish land grants were square and were rotated to capture the most valuable land; thus, the central core in the center of this detail of the township map from 1909. They obviously owned additional land, as well. They are buried in Calvary Cemetery.
Jean Baptiste’s daughter married Anne married Theodore Hunt, so there is also that name appearing on the map above. Anne gave land for St. Mary of Victories, as well as other Catholic charities. The first major addition onto the original grid of St. Louis was on land owned by Jean Baptiste and the Chouteau family; it now forms the heart of downtown. The Hunt manor was in what is now Glen Echo Park, recently merged by voters into the city of Normandy.
As is the case with any development in the U.S., the Lucas and Hunt lands were subdivided into lots for residential housing. The map above shows the Normandy Heights Addition to the northwest of the Normandy train station, which was located at the intersection of the tracks and Natural Bridge Road. Interestingly, and verified by historic aerial photography, the Normandy Hills addition to the west was never developed with any buildings, and was incorporated into the campus of the University of Missouri, St. Louis.
These two houses above and below are on lots of the Normandy Heights addition along Natural Bridge Road. The house above appears to have been owned by W.P. Hunt, no doubt an heir of Anne Hunt.
Turning into the neighborhood, we find these pared down Queen Anne Style houses along Augusta Avenue, no doubt built during Normandy’s period as a railroad suburb. They look similar to houses one would see in other railroad suburbs such as Kirkwood, Webster Groves or Ferguson, the last of which was only a station up the train tracks.
The millwork that would have made the houses more elaborate rotted off long ago, but the general character of the houses point to a late Nineteenth Century date of construction.
St. Ann’s Lane takes its name from the parish that has been located in the area since 1856. I have to wonder if the Catholic church named it so in a nod to Anne Lucas-Hunt. The family surely donated the land.
Right before getting to Florissant Road, there is this wild commercial building, which has received a Formstone covering. I would be interested in learning its history.
