Glendale in the 1870s

Before Glendale was Glendale, it was the Glendale Station (established in 1870) along the Missouri Pacific Railroad. And it was a collection of estates and scattered houses across the 1.2 square miles of Glendale’s current area.

A starting point for understanding Glendale during this period is the 1878 New Atlas for the City and County of St. Louis created by Julius Pitzman, St. Louis County’s land surveyor at the time. The atlas (shown to the right) shows the area around the railroad line stretching to Kirkwood on the west, Webster on the east until Manchester Market Road on the north. The atlas lists roads, property boundaries, ownership, parcel size and the approximate location of buildings and other features, listing in total 30 odd owners—a motely collection of farmers, country estate owners, and wannabe real estate developers. Comparing the owner’s names with other information taken from local newspapers of the time—the St. Louis Globe Democrat, the St. Louis Post Dispatch and the St. Louis Republic—as well as other sources of information provides snapshots of Glendale’s life at the time.