The backbone of any city is its history. It is appropriate for the accomplishments and services of historical figures and events in St. Peters’ history to be recognized.
There are families that are new to our community and families who can trace their ancestry in the area back for generations. But for all families, St. Peters has always endeavored to be a community that makes its residents proud.
Let’s look at a different decade in the past century and see the people and activities that have brought St. Peters to the 21st century.
The Way It Was …
Some things never change. Throughout 1899 there had been much discussion as to what day and year marked the close of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, however it was recognized by everybody as a turning point. There was an inclination to sum things up, to say who had been the greatest men of the century, what had been the greatest books, the greatest inventions, the greatest advances in science.
The fact that we are now an urbanized, industrialized and technologically advanced culture is a direct result of events that occurred at the turn of and during the twentieth century. Life as we know it today would be impossible without the inventions and developments that occurred early in the twentieth century.
Think for a moment about the world as the twentieth century began. Gasoline-powered automobiles, electric lighting, telephones, motion pictures and aspirin were still a novelty only read about by most Americans.
The McCormick reaper had made large-scale farming profitable and the U.S. was by far the world's largest agricultural producer. The nation had 193,000 miles of railroad track, with five railroad systems making shipping of agricultural products practical.
By 1900, major oil fields were being tapped and the supply of American oil seemed limitless. Standard Oil Trust dominated the world's petroleum markets. The United States was the largest steel producer in the world, turning out 10,000,000 tons a year.
Henry Ford had built his first gasoline car in 1892. With the founding of the Ford Motor Company in 1903, the age of the automobile was underway.
By 1903, the era of aviation arrived when Orville Wright successfully piloted the first "heavier-than-air" flying machine at Kitty Hawk, NC.
Republican William McKinley of Ohio was the last of five Civil War veterans to serve in the White House, signaling the end of the post-war era. The emergence of Midwest leaders in national politics demonstrated that the United States was no longer a nation oriented to the Atlantic seaboard.
Newspapers of 1900 reported the inventions of the hamburger and the first disposable razor patented by Gillette. They reported on the first Memorial Day observed in the U.S. and of the first Nobel Peace Prizes being awarded to Jean Henri Dunant and Frederic Passy.
The sporting pages talked about the first American League baseball games and the first Rose Bowl game.
Toward the end of the last decade, newspapers were reporting an amendment passed by the Senate giving Congress the powers to enact something called income taxes.
In 1900, doctors had not heard of insulin and science had not heard of relativity. Farmers had not heard of tractors, nor bankers of the Federal Reserve System. Merchants had not heard of chain stores, nor military men of camouflage.
The average salary was $750 annually, a loaf of bread cost 9 cents and milk was 32 cents per gallon. Life expectancy was approximately 49 years, the divorce rate was 1/1000, and the national debt was $1.1 billion.
Food was stored in ice boxes and the horse-drawn ice wagon was a familiar site as were ox teams and horse-drawn streetcars. The blacksmith was a reality and the hitching post had not yet been replaced by the parking problem.
After years of steady growth, the beginning of the new century found St. Peters as a thriving farming community. The primary commodity sold by farmers was wheat. Bottom farmland was worth $80 to $125 per acre depending on improvements and location. The land on the hills was selling for $60 per acre.
St. Peters was also a junction for two railroad lines. The depot west of Dardenne Creek was used by the K line railroad. The Wabash line used the depot on the eastern edge of town.
The building of new businesses such as the first bank of St. Peters was made possible by the abundant sources of timber available.
The St. Peters Volunteer Fire Company was formed in June 1904. Frank Taubler was elected chief of the 24 volunteers in the company. When the alarm bell sounded, active volunteers would respond to the little wooden building that housed the hand pumped fire engine.
The hardworking residents, some of which were second and third generation descendants of St. Peters settlers, took time out of their busy lives to have a little fun.
Family ties in St. Peters were very strong and many families whose names are still heard frequently today were doing their best to establish the roots of a successful community. Businesses in town were doing well and community life had settled into a rhythm tied to the seasons. Residents began exploring the idea of formally incorporating St. Peters.
Residents of St. Peters petitioned the County Court of St. Charles County for incorporation, and on February 24, 1910 County Court Clerk H.C. Sandfort affirmed incorporation. St. Peters city trustees were appointed until citizens elected their first town board on April 1910. The City’s first leaders were: George Schneider, chairman; Frank Iffrig, secretary; H.B. Algermissen, treasurer; Emil Marheineke; and Frank Taubler.
These men were active in addressing challenges such as frequent flooding, deep dust or mud in the streets, no sewage restrictions, the keeping of farm animals, broken and dangerous plank sidewalks, a lack of street lighting, and fighting in the streets. Taxes and ordinances were formed. The majority of the City’s early expenses were for levee strengthening, improving streets with gravel, and installing oil street lamps that were serviced and cleaned each month by two young boys for $3.
On July 7, 1915, the town survived a tornado and rain storm that covered the streets with a foot of water, uprooted trees, damaged homes, and leveled barns, outbuildings and storage structures. Nobody was seriously hurt, but cleanup and rebuilding took a long time.
On June 20, 1917, Aloysius Crockwell joined the Navy, apparently the first of 36 residents from St. Peters to fight in World War I. A total of 1,166 St. Charles County residents fought in the war; 49 died, including Crockwell, whose ship was torpedoed.
St. Peters felt the effects of modernization. The Roaring Twenties brought us modern ideas, advances and products. The decade saw the mass production of automobiles, the availability of credit, and the rising popularity of mass entertainment, with the advent of radio, popular sports and movies. The Volstead Act prohibited alcohol during this period, but that didn’t stop people from drinking at speakeasies or from stills. The Twenties ended with a cataclysmic event – the stock market crashed in 1929 and the Great Depression began.
In St. Peters, the effects of automobile travel and modernization were seen in its population numbers and business practices. Highway 40 – the first concrete highway in St. Charles County – was surveyed in 1923 and built in 1924. Construction gangs slightly boosted the town’s population during the time. But, as highway construction continued to move west, so did the construction crews, decreasing the area’s population.
With the advent of highways and improved auxiliary roads, St. Peters businesses struggled and the hotel closed. Some businesses adjusted to the times by catering to automobiles. Garages and gas stations did good business servicing cars and farm trucks.
The City saw a decline in population for the decade. Census figures showed a 358 population in 1920 and 248 in 1930.
Electricity also made its way to St. Peters. Circa 1927, the East Missouri Power and Light Company extended power lines to smaller towns in St. Charles County, including St. Peters and the Cave Springs neighborhood. The decision to have electricity in St. Peters was approved unanimously by the town’s voters.
A stark contrast from the Roaring Twenties, the Thirties suffered from recession. In the throes of the Great Depression, the nation and the world saw drastic changes in leadership and government. In place of wealth, came poverty and public welfare.
The automobile was prevalent by this time, prompting the members of the St. Peters Warning Company to disband. The Warning Company was formed to provide mutual assistance in fighting horse and mule theft. After 64 years of service, it dissolved on January 6, 1931.
St. Peters saw its population grow from 248 in 1930 to 305 in 1940. One of the City’s favorite sons, Dr. Manley O. Hudson, was appointed in 1936 to the Court of International Justice, which could be called upon to settle international disputes. The world court was established in conjunction with the League of Nations, as part of the Treaty of Versailles after World War I. Although not a member of the League, the U.S. had one judge on the world court.
In 1939, the three-story structure of the Farmers Cooperative Elevator Association of St. Peters burned down. Originally a grain mill and one of the City’s oldest businesses, the elevator sold flour, coal, grain and mill feed when it burned on December 13, 1939. One day later, the elevator was back in business in another building.
The world was at war for a second time, and the U.S. was drawn in on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. The Great Depression ended with World War II. And WWII ended with the U.S. dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. The U.S. and Soviet Union emerged as world superpowers, ushering in a Cold War that would wage capitalism against communism with nuclear destruction in the balance.
St. Peters (which grew in population from 305 in 1940 to 377 in 1950) and St. Charles County partook in the war effort in a number of ways.
A newspaper article on December 15, 1942, noted that St. Peters was quick to ration for the war. In the spring of 1942, a scrap iron drive proved successful, with farmers, 4-H clubs and Boy Scouts hauling in 100 tons of iron in one day. The article said the community asked that cooking fats and silk and nylon be rationed next.
Meanwhile, the City and County suffered from an environmental catastrophe linked to the war effort. In 1940, the federal government purchased 17,239 acres in the Weldon Springs area for the construction of a TNT plant. Nearby residents opposed, but weren’t given a choice. The plant was the largest of its kind in the world, capable of producing one million pounds of TNT per day. While hundreds of local people were employed by the plant, the byproducts of TNT production polluted the environment, causing 150-year-old farms and communities to be abandoned. By the winter of 1941, the local creeks that drained into the Dardenne watershed were red with pollution, killing fish and damaging a once-rich wildlife area.
For years after the war, people suffered the ill effects. TNT production was discontinued after the war, and the plant was converted to other uses.
A number of local residents also fought in World War II. To honor the community’s veterans, the public may visit the St. Peters Veterans Memorial at St. Peters City Centre.
The world was caught in a struggle between two competing philosophies in the 1950s. Democracy, championed by the U.S., butted heads with communism, with the Soviet Union as its chief supporter. Hearings led by Sen. Joseph McCarthy aimed at ridding the U.S. government of communists. The U.S. also fought in Korea to stop the spread of communism.
Rosa Parks, meanwhile, refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Ala., and the Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, Kan., ushered in school desegregation. The civil rights movement was well underway.
Also in full swing was the Baby Boom. Suburbia was born as the population and economy grew after World War II. More and more families could afford to buy single-family homes outside urban areas.
St. Peters, however, had yet to feel the effects of this growth. The population modestly increased from 377 in 1950 to 404 in 1960. The community remained agriculture-based, with Old Town as its center. Entertainment mostly consisted of social gatherings, such as parish picnics and baseball games. In 1953, the original St. Peters Community Chamber of Commerce bought land to build St. Peters Community Park, now known as Olde Town Park. In the mid-‘60s, the Chamber would become the Park Association.
Highway 70 was built through St. Peters during this time. According to notes from a member of the original Chamber of Commerce, the remains of an Indian village was found in 1954 during the highway’s construction. Mound Drive near I-70 was named after the Indian mounds found near the Cottage Hills subdivision.
Faster growth was on the horizon, and in 1959 the town took the first step to prepare for progress. The voters in 88-acre St. Peters approved a ballot measure to become a city of the Fourth Class under Missouri statutes. This move would allow the small community to issue bonds to build a municipal water system.
The turbulent Sixties saw the escalation of the fight for civil rights and the war in Vietnam. Protests, some turned violent, targeted the end of discrimination; other demonstrations called for the war's end.
Man walked on the moon in 1969, the same year that some 450,000 partyers swarmed a Bethel, N.Y., farm for the Woodstock Festival.
Television became more and more important to society, broadcasting images of war violence and assassinations. President Kennedy, his brother Robert, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. all were gunned down in the Sixties.
St. Peters, like much of Middle America, enjoyed calmer days. Quiet, subtle changes during the Sixties laid the groundwork for change here.
The small town grew from 404 to 486 people during the decade. But, 88-acre St. Peters positioned itself for a population boom to come. In 1959, voters approved a measure to become a city of the Fourth Class under Missouri statutes. This enabled the small community to build a municipal water system during the Sixties. By 1968, the City began construction of a sewage system.
Far-sighted elected officials of the time realized that the construction of Interstate 70 in the Fifties and acres of vacant farmland in the St. Peters area combined for enormous growth potential. The infrastructure to support this growth was under construction.
The Seventies saw the U.S. retreat from Vietnam, the Watergate scandal, President Richard Nixon's 1975 resignation and subsequent pardon, the Energy Crisis, a recession, the Iranian hostage crisis (began in 1979), and trends such as bellbottom jeans, the pet rock and disco.
Locally, the story was growth – tremendous growth. St. Peters grew from a town of 486 in 1970 to a burgeoning suburb of 15,700 by decade's end to become the fastest growing city in Missouri. Annexations, mostly voluntary, became commonplace, increasing the town's area from less than a square mile in 1970 to more than 11 square miles in 1979.
The Police Department grew from part-timers to a staff of nearly 30 well trained, full-time officers. A few roads grew to nearly 90 miles of public streets. In 1978, the City issued 760 permits for residential construction, an all-time high that would stand until 1983. Ten new industries moved to St. Peters in 1979, investing $3 million in the community and creating 166 jobs. The May Stores Regional Shopping Center, which would become Mid Rivers Mall, began construction in 1979.
During the decade, the Board of Aldermen significantly reduced property and real estate taxes, lowering the tax rate from $1.85 per $100 assessed valuation to $1.00. City staff, meanwhile, worked hard to keep pace with growth. As the population and boundaries expanded, so did services. From dirt roads used primarily by farmers, an arterial street system began to emerge. In August 1978, voters approved a $3.5 million no-tax bond issue that paid for major road improvements, including building a new road, Mid Rivers Drive (now called Mid Rivers Mall Drive).
Water and sewer services also expanded to keep up with demand. Additions to the water plant doubled the City's capacity to 6 million gallons a day, while construction began on sewer treatment facilities to handle a population equivalent of 30,000.
The growth began in the Seventies, and it would continue undaunted.
St. Peters saw "totally awesome" growth in the Eighties. Census takers counted 15,700 St. Peters residents in 1980. By 1990, that figure rose to 40,660, an astounding 260 percent increase in the population. Remember, in 1970, the City had only 486 residents. The year 1983 saw the biggest increase ever in new St. Peters homes, with 992 residential building permits issued. In comparison, 1982 saw 409 residential building permits.
With this amazing growth came the enormous responsibility of accommodating it. One of the most noticeable effects was the traffic. Aided by passage of a half-cent transportation tax in 1983, the City built 14 miles of multi-lane streets during the Eighties. Mexico Road was transformed from a rural road to a four-lane thoroughfare from Cave Springs Road to Highway K in O'Fallon. Mid Rivers Mall Drive was extended to connect Interstate 70 to Highway 94. The Mid Rivers Mall Drive/I-70 interchange was built, and the City rebuilt interchanges at Cave Springs and Highway 79.
The water system capacity was improved from 3 million to 13 million gallons per day during the Eighties.
The City also built a new police station, public works/parks building, and the Senior Citizen Center, which has proved to be a great home away from home for our senior population.
With more people, came a need for more places to play. City Centre Park, Laurel Park and Spencer Park each were developed in the Eighties. Community recreational space grew by 153 acres.
Business was booming, too. The number of businesses grew from 398 businesses in 1980 to 1,450 by decade’s end. Mid Rivers Mall opened its doors to Dillard’s and more than 100 new shops in October 1987, helping to make St. Peters a shopping destination.
The property tax, meanwhile, was lowered another 7 cents per $100 assessed valuation to 93 cents/$100.
As the decade ended, City Centre — featuring the current City Hall and City Centre Park — neared completion on Mexico Road at the newly constructed St. Peters Centre Blvd. In October 1988, 150 people partook in City Hall's groundbreaking.
While the Seventies and Eighties presented challenges in St. Peters due to tremendous growth, the Nineties can also be remembered for all the exciting new public services that the City initiated. Not content to be average, the City of St. Peters sought and achieved the status of a model city.
The current City Hall opened its doors on April 1, 1990, and has been a source of community pride ever since. A Citizen Action Center installed in the new City Hall lobby still provides a one-stop spot for all residents' municipal business.
The construction of the REC-PLEX soon followed. In November 1992, 75 percent of voters approved the bond issue to build the REC-PLEX and develop Woodlands Sports Park. The award-winning REC-PLEX opened in time to host pool events for the 1994 U.S. Olympic Festival. Residents in St. Peters and from the entire region continue to enjoy its athletic facilities.
In September 1990, the old City Hall building at 3960 Mexico Road was converted into a new Cultural Arts Center, which quickly became St. Charles County's focal point for performing and visual arts. (The cultural arts operation has since moved to the beautiful Community & Arts Center, located at 1035 St. Peters-Howell Road.)
A new Ranger Enforcement Division, and its mounted patrol, also began in the Nineties. The Rangers have initiated a Youth Program series with events such as the Bike Safety Rodeo, Kite Extravaganza, Animal Show and Tell Day, and Fishing Derby.
In 1993, the St. Peters Police Department became the third law enforcement agency in Missouri to become nationally accredited, signifying that the Department meets or exceeds established professional standards for law enforcement.
St. Peters aggressively tackled environmental issues in the Nineties. The City: built Recycle City, 131 Ecology Drive, which processes recycled goods; initiated the curbside Blue Bag recycling program, which continues to gain in popularity as the City reduces the amount of trash it takes to landfills; developed Earth Centre, a yard waste composting facility; and was recognized as a Tree City USA by the National Arbor Day Foundation due to the City's comprehensive urban forestry program.
The City assumed control of residential waste collection, reducing fees and improving services with an automated refuse collection system.
The construction of two I-70 overpasses (Spencer Road and Executive Centre Drive) and the completion of Highway 370 were among the major construction projects during the decade.
The City also worked to preserve its past. A book about St. Peters' origins was written, the St. Peters Historical Commission was formed, and an historic log cabin was saved from demolition by being moved to a site in Old Town.
Through this retrospective on the last century of the second millennium, we've learned that St. Peters has always thrived, whether it was as a charming agricultural community or as the fastest growing city in Missouri.
At the turn of the previous century, the United States was the largest agricultural producer in the world. A large railroad system made shipping of agricultural products practical. St. Peters, at the junction of two railroads, was a good example of a successful farming community. Businesses, including a bank, began to form in what is now known as the Old Town area.
St. Peters, having gained a sense of community, decided to incorporate. On Feb. 24, 1910, the County Court Clerk affirmed the community's incorporation as a village.
The first Board of Trustees, elected in April 1910, dealt with the issues of the day: frequent flooding, deep dust or mud in the streets, lack of sewage restrictions, the keeping of farm animals, broken and dangerous plank sidewalks, a lack of street lighting, and fighting in the streets.
The town's population grew from 269 in 1910 to 358 in 1920 and fell to 248 by 1930. Construction crews for major road projects (such as Highway 40, the first concrete highway in St. Charles County) came and went, at first spiking the area's population. With the advent of highways and improved auxiliary roads, St. Peters businesses struggled for customers and the hotel closed. Garages and gas stations sprang up to service the newly popular automobile. Electricity, meanwhile, made its way to St. Peters circa 1927.
Our City remained largely a farming community into the seventies. The town's population grew from 248 in 1930 to 486 in 1970. During this time, the residents of St. Peters enjoyed a peaceful, country lifestyle with a social life centered around friendly gatherings, parish picnics and baseball games.
Growth was on the horizon, however, when Highway 70 was built in the mid-1950s. Town leaders recognized that St. Peters needed to prepare for growth as part of America's sprouting suburbia. In 1959, the voters in 88-acre St. Peters approved a ballot measure to become a city of the Fourth Class under Missouri statutes, allowing the small community to issue bonds for a municipal water system. By 1968, the City also began construction of a sewage system.
Then, in the 1970s, the town's population skyrocketed — to 15,700 by 1980 and to 40,660 in 1990. Currently, St. Peters has a population in the neighborhood of 55,000.
Tremendous growth meant tremendous challenges for the City to maintain public services. From dirt farm roads, an arterial street system emerged. Water and sewer services expanded. The Police Department grew into a full-time, well-trained force. Our current City Hall, the Police Station, the Senior Center, the REC-PLEX — all were built in the past few decades. Meanwhile, Mid Rivers Mall and numerous other businesses opened their doors in St. Peters.
As we enter the millennium, so has St. Peters entered a new era of growth. With prosperity here and our future promising, may we remember the good work that has blazed our City's path.
