RGHStory 2 Eps 1-3
RIVERVIEW GARDENS
HIGH SCHOOL
A BRIEF HISTORY
(FROM EARLY ESTABLISHMENT TO 1969)
BY JANE BYERS
PART TWO
EPISODE 1
(Published April 10, 2022)
SCHOOL OF STRIKE
On Thursday, April 8, 1948, the students at Riverview Gardens High School organized a strike to protest the failure of the School Board to renew the contract of their Principal. The showdown started with a dust-up between the District Superintendent and the High School Principal. The students refused to enter the school building on Chambers Road at 8:55 a.m. when classes began and announced their plans to stay out until the School Board explained its reasons for dismissing their Principal. They picketed the school grounds and some paraded their cars through nearby neighborhoods, displaying banners, signs and placards supporting their Principal. Even some parents joined the striking students in front of the school. The story was picked up by a local paper, The Mercury, in far away Pottsdown, Pennsylvania. The strike garnered a blistering editorial from the St. Louis Globe Democrat.
The strike appears much more daring and gutsy than a Senior Skip Day or a Senior Skit. It also appears to have been pulled off without the destructive nature of a Senior Prank. Who were these students and where did they live? They would have been born in the early 1930s, babies in the throes of the Depression. They would have lived through WWII but would not have fought in it. It’s possible that any one of the strikers could have married in 1948, 1949 or 1950. It’s possible they could be our parents. In fact, Kathy Kibler’s Dad, Jack Kibler, Sandy Heise’s Mom, Doris Schuischelis, and Paula Owen’s Mom, Mary Strickland, were members of the RGHS Class of 1948.
At that time, the western border of Riverview Gardens School District extended only to Highway 367/Lewis & Clark Boulevard (then called Highway 99). (For the sake of convenience, future references to this thoroughfare in Part 2 of A Brief History are shortened to Highway 367.) The Moline School District on the west side of Highway 367 was classified by law as “common” and consisted of a lone public school (Grades 1-8) and no high school program. So, some of the blue jeans, bobbie sox and flannel shirt strikers might have lived within the boundaries of the Moline School District if they had elected to attend high school in the Riverview Gardens School District rather than in another District with an accredited high school program.
1948 SCHOOL DISTRICT BOUNDARIES.
In any case, it is without doubt that none of these students lived in Bissell Hills; or Northland Hills; or Hathaway Meadows; or Hathaway Hills; or Hathaway Manor; or St. Cyr Hills; or Glasgow Village; or Oakwood Park; or Sun Valley; or Northfield Gardens; or Glen Owen; or North Hills Gardens; or Dellwood Hills; or Dellwood Park; or Bella Hills. None of those places existed in 1948. It’s possible they might have lived in the subdivision of Riverview Gardens or one of the few houses in the residential community of Moline Acres or the subdivisions of Castle Point; or Green Acres; or Surrey Corners; or Atwater Terrace; or Highview Acres; or Coburg Ridge; or Bella Crest. The primary landscape of both Districts in 1948 was rural, blanketed with farms, smaller truck farms, vineyards and wooded areas, and dotted with sporadic residential subdivisions and communities. Farming prevailed.
So what powered the changes in our little corner of North County that created the world we knew when we started kindergarten just eight years following the strike? And what happened over the period stretching from our grade school days through 1969, years after the student strike was long forgotten? And what was the impetus behind the design and construction of our modern high school? The answers are intertwined and this is the story I want to tell in Part Two of A Brief History. The crux of the story turns on four prevailing forces, each creating reverberations throughout the Riverview Gardens School District: the development of new subdivisions with affordable homes; the generation of a baby boom by our parents; the ever-urgent construction of school buildings; and the initiatives undertaken to meet perennial financial challenges.
Riverview Gardens High School: ECHOES 1948
EPISODE 2
(Published April 10, 2022)
BEFORE THE DELUGE
Let’s first attend to a few preliminary details and set the stage. On the eve of these four prevailing forces taking hold, the Riverview Gardens School District annexed the Moline School District in 1949, the year after the strike, solidifying the modern day boundaries of the District.
RIVERVIEW GARDENS SCHOOL DISTRICT BOUNDARY FOOTPRINT ESTABLISHED 1949.
Most of us were born in 1950 or 1951, so the School District boundaries were set by the time we were born. At that point, unlike the Barb Black, David Manning, Betsy Peckron and Denise Schewe families, most of our families did not live in the District.
At the end of WWII prior to the annexation, 64% of the land in the combined Districts constituted general farms (45+ acres), while about 8% constituted truck farms (10-15 acres), making 53% of the land in the District dedicated to farming.
Riverview Gardens High School and surrounding farmland areas: ECHOES 1946
The industrial base of the community was anchored on the east side (the Riverview Gardens School District side) by the Missouri Portland plant, a heavy-manufacturing operation occupying close to 100 acres, and two light-manufacturing plants, one owned by GAF Corporation and the other owned by Keasbey & Mattison (taken over by CertainTeed in 1962). Together, they occupied another 100 acres adjacent to Missouri Portland. The latter two plants manufactured asbestos and asphalt building materials, including asbestos shingles and asbestos cement pipe for water and sewer systems. The west side (the Moline School District side) of the community was anchored by Emerson Electric, then occupying about 10 acres located in the City of Ferguson at West Florissant and Lucas and Hunt. Emerson maintained two manufacturing plants, focusing on consumer product and defense businesses. Not far from the School District borders established in 1949 were the Ford and McDonnell Douglas plants.
All of these manufacturing plants brought, and would continue to bring, increased jobs, new transportation and commuter services and residential growth to the area. Many of our parents worked for these companies, including Cathy Hunt’s Dad, who worked at the Ford plant. I remember this well because several of us were at a pajama party at Cathy’s house one Friday night in 6th grade. Mr. Hunt arrived home late that night after working the second shift. When we continued our late night high jinks well into the early morning hours, Mr. Hunt finally had to stand outside Cathy’s bedroom door and quietly admonish us to quiet down so he could get some sleep. Dead silence followed and erupted into suppressed giggles when he retreated!
As for residential growth in the community on the east side of Highway 367, the Riverview Gardens subdivision that had been marketed beginning in 1917 was the most populous area with approximately 500 residents. Many of the lots, though sold, were then still undeveloped. When Dorothy Fey was born in May 1951, her family lived at 531 Chambers Road in a subdivision known as Coburg Lands. By 1961, Mr. Fey, an architect and owner of Fey Construction Company, would build an innovative mid-century modern home on Lookout Drive on one of those undeveloped lots in the Riverview Gardens subdivision. The Riverview community had grown to the extent that it also was served by three churches—St. Catherine’s Catholic Church on Diamond Drive at Chambers Road, Berea Evangelical Lutheran Church on Diamond Drive and Riverview Gardens Baptist Church on Jeffrey Drive (the church in which I would grow up). A nearby subdivision was the company town of Prospect Hill, discussed in detail in Part One of A Brief History. The houses were small structures. By the end of WWII, the black population in Prospect Hill and the District had been considerably depleted. Subdivisions also were being developed along Bellefontaine Road. Betsy Peckron’s grandfather, Ernest Boyd, was instrumental in developing Green Acres and Surrey Corners, upscale neighborhoods with park-like settings. The homes were brick structures, well heeled and well kept. In 1949, the number of homes in these neighborhoods was limited—about six homes had been built in Green Acres.
On the west side of Highway 367, residential development was concentrated primarily in the four corners of the intersection of Chambers Road and Halls Ferry Road. On the southeast corner was the unincorporated residential community of Moline Acres, a small collection of streets offering moderately priced and well-cared for brick homes, clearly having benefited from planning, development and adequate financing. On the northeast corner was a neighborhood of small, inexpensive houses situated on streets that bore royal titles, such as Earl, Count, Baron, Duke and Lord. Christened Castle Point, there still were many homes yet to be built in the subdivision. A similar subdivision called Atwater Terrace was located on the northwest corner of Chambers and Halls Ferry. Like Castle Point, home construction in Atwater Terrace had been staggered and interrupted on streets named Green Valley, Winkler, Ventura, Bella Clare, Crown Point and Cloverdale. In the southwest quadrant, approximately 50 houses were located in a 240 acre subdivision called Highview Acres, an older residential area with streets named Ventura, Jacobi, Nolte, Kappel and Hecht, where the homes generally were not expensive and, in some cases, were in need of upkeep. Moline Elementary School was located near this tract.
RIVERVIEW GARDENS SCHOOL DISTRICT - 1951: MUNICIPALITIES AND UNINCORPORATED AREAS.
In 1949, following the annexation of the Moline School District to the Riverview Gardens School District, the unincorporated residential community of Moline Acres voted to incorporate as a village, comprised of 93 taxpaying citizens and an estimated 25 children under the age of 18. Twelve years later, in 1961, the Village of Moline Acres became a fourth class city. As a matter of clarification, Moline Elementary School was located in unincorporated St. Louis County west of Halls Ferry at 1860 Chambers Road—not in the Village of Moline Acres east of Halls Ferry.
CITY OF MOLINE ACRES
In June of 1950, Bellefontaine Neighbors incorporated as a fourth class city, with 766 people, 18 streets and one church (Bellefontaine Methodist Church founded in 1854). Riverview Gardens High School and Junior High School were located at 805 Chambers Road within the city limits of Bellefontaine Neighbors. By 1960, the population of Bellefontaine Neighbors would grow to 13,650.
CITY OF BELLEFONTAINE NEIGHBORS
It also was in 1950 that the Village of Riverview officially incorporated. Two schools in the Village of Riverview serviced the District: Riverview Elementary on Diamond Drive and Turner School in Prospect Hill. Turner School would continue to operate as the school for black students in the District until 1955.
VILLAGE OF RIVERVIEW
In March of 1951, Dellwood incorporated as a village and, in November of 1954, the residents of the Village of Dellwood voted to become a fourth class city. While most of Dellwood was located in the Riverview Gardens School District, portions of Dellwood were located in the Ferguson and Hazelwood School Districts.
CITY OF DELLWOOD
At the time of the Moline School District annexation, the redrawn boundaries of the Riverview Gardens School District included small areas of the incorporated cities of Ferguson (incorporated in 1894) and Jennings (incorporated in 1946).
CITY OF FERGUSON
CITY OF JENNINGS
In summary, by March of 1951, the Riverview Gardens School District included six municipalities within the District boundaries: all of the Village of Moline Acres and the Village of Riverview; and parts of the City of Bellefontaine Neighbors, the Village of Dellwood, the City of Ferguson and the City of Jennings. The balance of the District was part of unincorporated St. Louis County. All told, the newly configured Riverview Gardens School District held in reserve plenty of space for what was coming.
RIVERVIEW GARDENS SCHOOL DISTRICT - MUNICIPALITIES.
Where were our own parents in April of 1948 at the time of the strike? A very small sample-size illustrates the varied backgrounds of our parents, who were on the move in more ways than one and ultimately moved into the Riverview Gardens School District. My parents had been married a little over four months and were living in the Bootheel of Missouri, farming cotton and soy bean crops for Pevely Dairy, with no children on the way. Both my sister Cheryl and I would be born in the Bootheel before Mom and Dad left farming behind for a more promising future and moved in late 1951 to St. Louis; they rented an apartment devoid of a kitchen sink in North St. Louis near Sportsman’s Park at Grand and Dodier for a few months before moving again in July 1952. At that time, my Dad drove a truck for Livingston Electric.
In 1948, Pat Lingenfelter’s parents were renting a house on St. Louis Avenue in the Normandy School District with their two boys, Danny and Mickey, ages 13 and 8. Mr. Lingenfelter’s father (Pat’s grandfather) also lived with the family until he passed away in 1952. Mickey attended Garfield Elementary in Pine Lawn and Danny graduated from Normandy High School in August 1952. Patti would be born in July 1951, the summer before Danny began his Senior year at Normandy High School. Pat’s Dad worked as a store manager for Rapps Supermarkets.
Dan Johanningmeier’s parents weren’t married in 1948. His Dad lived with his parents on Mora Lane near Goodfellow Boulevard just inside the North St. Louis city limits. His Mom lived in Freeburg, Illinois. Dan’s parents met while working at the Railway Exchange Building at 7th and Olive in Downtown St. Louis (the home of the Famous-Barr Department Store featuring the spectacular Christmas windows). Dan’s Mom worked in the jewelry department at Famous-Barr and his Dad worked as a draftsman for an architectural firm in the building. They married in January 1950 and lived in Freeburg with his Mom’s family after they married. Dan was born in Belleville, Illinois in June 1951, about 30 months before his parents moved to Missouri in late 1953. Dan’s Dad continued working as an architectural draftsman at the Railway Exchange Building but his Mom stopped working to care for her new born baby boy.
Before moving in September 1952, Cheryl Niebur’s parents were living in a one-bedroom apartment at 3503 Norwood Avenue in North St. Louis (between Union and Kingshighway and two blocks south of Natural Bridge). Their two girls, Sue and Marsha, were ages 6 and 4. Mom and Dad claimed the bedroom, while the girls slept in a Murphy bed in the living room. It also was not unusual for various relatives to live with the Nieburs for intermittant periods. When Cheryl’s sister Joan was born in January 1949 and Cheryl was born in March 1951, they slept in their parents’ bedroom. The Nieburs lived in the apartment for nine years. During those years, Cheryl’s Dad worked his way up in the fuel oil business with Hartog Oil Company, from fuel oil truck driver to dispatcher to general office manager.
And what can Echoes 1949 tell us about Riverview Gardens High School during the school year immediately following the strike? There were 14 faculty members, including the dapper and immensely popular Coach Joel Hall, who began teaching at Riverview in the fall of 1943.
Coach Joel Hall. ECHOES 1946.
Several of the RGHS yearbooks from the 1940s and 1950s rave about the ever popular Coach Hall. Mary Strickland, Paula Owen's Mom (RGHS 1948), told me the students loved him. In those days, he drove a Beetle Bug. It was so light that, as a prank, some of the boys from the Class of 1946 lifted it onto cinder blocks one day at school. She also told me Coach Hall's wife was drop dead gorgeous! She claimed he also had a long memory. When Beverly Owen was at RGHS (Class of 1971), he kept calling her Mary. Sandy Heise attested to his memories about her mother and uncle when they were at RGHS in the late 40s and early 50s.
Coach Hall: ECHOES 1950.
The Dedication in ECHOES 1948 reads as follows: Mr. JOEL W. HALL - The 1947-48 issue of the "Echoes" is dedicated to a member of the faculty, who, in his five years at this school, has made many friends among both faculty and students. He has spent long hours working with the athletic teams of Riverview Gardens High School, with excellent results. His track team won the conference track meet in 1944, and in the same year, his volleyball team won eight out of eight games, taking the North County League title. In three years of baseball, the team has ranked second in our league. In 1944 and 1948, the school basketball team won first place in the league by going through the season undefeated in league play. In view of these accomplishments, we, the members of the year book staff, dedicate this book to Mr. Joel W. Hall, Director of Athletics, better known among students as "Coach."
Individual class photos in Echoes 1949 spotlight 47 Seniors, 53 Juniors, 55 Sophomores and 52 Freshmen, a High School Student Body of 207. Seventh and Eighth Grade group pictures are also featured. Grades 7-12 attended school in the two-story brick building constructed initially in 1926 at 805 Chambers Road to house Grades 1-8 in the District.
Kathy Kibler’s Mom (Joan Sippy) was a 1949 RGHS graduate who married Jack Kibler, a 1948 RGHS graduate, soon after she graduated. Joan Sippy Kibler is shown in Echoes 1950 as the Principal’s secretary during the 1949-1950 school year, the year after she graduated. Kathy’s brother Dean was born in May 1950 and Kathy came next in 1951. Kathy would grow up at 303 Midridge in the Village of Riverview.
Mother and Daughter: Joan Sippy (RGHS 1949) and Kathy Kibler (RGHS 1969)
Dorothy Fey’s brother (Earl Fey) also graduated in 1949, almost two years before Dorothy was born in May 1951. As a young child, Dorothy was confused when Earl, a grown-up in her eyes, dropped in to visit and addressed her mother as “Mom.” Who was this man? What was going on? Like Kathy, Dorothy would grow up in the Village of Riverview, spending her early years at 531 Chambers Road and then moving to 351 Lookout Drive.
Brother and Sister: Earl Fey (RGHS 1949) and Dorothy Fey (RGHS 1969)
Each of Kathy and Dorothy grew up in the Village of Riverview from the time of their birth. But where were the rest of us going to live??? Well, let’s find out.
EPISODE 3
(Published April 10, 2022)
OUR HOUSE IS A VERY VERY VERY
FINE HOUSE
HATHAWAY HILLS: 2 and 3 Bedroom Floor Plans.
HATHAWAY HILLS: 2 Bedroom Floor Plan.
The homes built in HATHAWAY HILLS are all of brick construction with gas heat, tile kitchen and bath, attached brick garages and over-head garage doors. The interior painting of walls and woodwork is of a fine quality with a varied selection of colors. Electric fixtures and millwork are of a fine quality, venetian blinds throughout, kitchen equipped with beautiful cabinets with additional pantry so as to afford plenty of storage space. Every convenience has been thought of to make the homes in HATHAWAY HILLS exceptionally comfortable and livable. These homes in HATHAWAY HILLS are 5 and 6 room homes consisting of 2 and 3 bedrooms with exceptional closet space. The 15x25 foot basement is large enough for conversion into a rathskeller where children could play during inclement weather. St. Louis Globe-Democrat, September 10, 1950; St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 11, 1949
Homes in HATHAWAY HILLS make use of modern materials such as glass block, and decoration is in approved decorator-colors. Heating is by gas-fired heat and air-conditioning units. Kitchens come equipped for either gas or electric service, or both. And the L-shaped living-dining room, popular in so many plans, is used extensively here. Only open fields about two years ago, HATHAWAY HILLS is now a thriving community of considerable stature. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 9, 1951
GLASGOW VILLAGE: 3 Bedroom Floor Plan in all homes.
The GLASGOW VILLAGE plan is distinctive. The homes are informal and liveable, with different features—SIX FULL ROOMS FOR LESS THAN $11,000.Your new home in GLASGOW VILLAGE will have one of the most attractive, functional and modern kitchens imaginable. Included in the kitchen is a waste pulverizer and Dishmaster. At your option, the kitchen can be equipped with Frigidaire’s refrigeration, electric range and other modern conveniences to lighten your household chores for easier all-around living. All GLASGOW VILLAGE homes are frame and use a basic floor plan. Exteriors are varied, with some having picture windows and some having shutters. All come equipped with hardwood floors, venetian blinds, weather-stripped windows, aluminum screens, combination storm and screen doors, and insulated walls and ceilings. The floor plan gives a certain feeling of spaciousness, obtained by the use of hallways. These halls provide for easier traffic flow and separate living areas from sleeping areas and dining areas from kitchens. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 9, 1951; St. Louis Globe-Democrat, September 16, 1951
BISSELL HILLS: 3 Bedroom Floor Plan.
It’s A First For Schuermann. THREE BEDROOMS — Floor plan of three-bedroom home in Norman Schuermann’s BISSELL HILLS subdivision, Bellefontaine and Chambers Roads, just north of the City. This year is the first time in his long career that Schuermann has included a three-bedroom house in one of his subdivisions. Notice that planning, in even modest homes, orients the bedroom area to one section of the building and living quarters to another. Absence of hallway area is an economy and convenience factor. St. Louis Post-Dispatch, September 9, 1951
The Classic BISSELL HILLS Look!
TWO-BEDROOM BRICK RANCH HOME IN BEAUTIFUL
BISSELL HILLS
BRICK GARAGE ATTACHED ON 60 FT. LOT
ALL HOMES HAVE: Full Basement, Hardwood Floors, Venetian Blinds, Picture Window, Certified Adequate Wiring, Gas Heat, Tile Kitchen and Bath, Copper Plumbing, Automatic Gas Water Heater, Storm and Screen Doors, Full-Length Aluminum Screens, Kitchen Ventilating Fan, Rubber Tile on Kitchen Floor, Concrete Drive to Garage. Many of the homes have lovely breezeways and other features that make life in BISSELL HILLS so pleasant. See these homes today…offering modern living at prices that defy comparison. St. Louis Globe-Democrat, December 9, 1951
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