Our History

Indigenous people lived in Eastern Missouri for centuries until the Indian Removal Act of 1830. After the 1804 Louisiana Purchase by the United States, Robert Walsh took ownership of land comprising today’s Claverach Park in 1818. Walsh sold the property in 1835 to Dr. John and Jane Kennedy, who built the first dwelling on the property and undertook preparing the native grass prairie to begin farming. Kennedy sold the land to Benjamin Thomas in 1854; the farm then stayed in the Thomas/Boland family for nearly 70 years and would be known as Claverach Farm, Welsh for cloverleaf. Subsequent land purchases expanded the farm’s footprint to 230 acres between present-day Wydown Blvd., Clayton Road, Big Bend Blvd., and Hanley Road.  On the rural homestead, hay, alfalfa, rye, and oats were grown for commercial sale; for personal use, there was poultry, an orchard, and a vegetable garden. Following the 1904 World’s Fair in nearby Forest Park, residential development continued westward, and in 1921, Catherine Boland (the daughter of Benjamin Thomas) sold the farm for development to the Moorlands Land Company.    

Claverach Park was planned by Prussian-born surveyor and city-planner Julius Pitzman, who co-designed the original plan for Forest Park and is known for his design of private neighborhoods in St. Louis (e.g. Benton Place, Compton Heights, Portland Place, Westmoreland Place, Washington Terrace, Parkview Place, Claverach Park, Lake Forest, and Wydown Forest).

In his Claverach Park design (recorded in 1922), Pitzman avoided the rigid regularity of urban streets and instead designed Claverach as a parklike setting… 88 acres of rolling land with curvilinear streets (to achieve privacy & visual interest) lined by stately trees, one centrally located neighborhood park, and 9 pocket parks. To accommodate the waning of horse-drawn carriages and the popularity of automobiles, Pitzman dispensed with rear alleys and incorporated front driveways.  After 60 years as a private neighborhood, in 1983, residents voted to approve a 3-year tax to partially pay for new roads, sidewalks, granite curbs, and streetlights and turn the streets (and ongoing maintenance) to the City of Clayton.

The neighborhood of 210 houses retains an intact collection of architect-designed dwellings reflecting popular period revival styles with Tudor, Jacobean, Dutch Colonial, Georgian, French, and Spanish influences. Claverach Park (including all properties constructed prior to 1966) was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2015. The neighborhood will celebrate its Centennial in 2022.