Our little town and the one next door to it were built up in the 1890s. The wealthy families in St. Louis would board the steam locomotives to Webster Groves and Kirkwood (while lesser people would sleep out in Forest Park) to escape the summer heat and the furnaces of brick and pavement in the City.
Those summer “cottages” here are on a slightly lesser scale than those in Newport. You know, those quaint little “get-a-ways” that are three stories, plus stables, tennis courts and require an army of grateful servants who get to escape the heat. Anyway, I digress.
The wooded landscape, the golf courses placed among the open spots and the chug, chug, chug of the train made commuting a lengthy, however, elegant way for the men in the families to maintain their work and enjoy their families at leisure.
Of course, now, you wouldn't set foot in Forest Park (our equivalent of Central Park) at night, nor are there any “commuter trains” from any areas where those who have steady employment live. How far we've slipped no matter how far we've come.