By Martha K. Baker
Photographs by Ashley Heifner
If there is a typical Olivette house, it’s a World War II ranch sitting sedately beneath towering trees. You’ll find such houses on Lisa, Cherri and Kentom, cul-de-sacs off Warson Road, and the scene is repeated throughout Olivette.
Yet over the past decade, many of these older dwellings have been razed and replaced with large custom homes.
“The trend is holding steady,” says city manager Mike McDowell, citing three or four units proposed each month. In October 2005, the City Council established regulations to accommodate existing neighbors’ druthers in new designs from owners, developers and builders. Proposed houses are “larger in almost every single case,” says McDowell. The standards cover everything from elevation to materials, from stormwater runoff to the maximum degree a garage can extend beyond the façade of a house (15 feet). The council handles each proposal individually, says McDowell. “People invest here because of the schools [Ladue School District] and the stable neighborhoods,” he adds.
Who was that good old man? Bonhomme, as in Old Bonhomme Road, is French for “good man.” Who was he? No one knows. Maybe bonhomme was just a generic nickname, typical of French settlers, for “farmer.” The “old” harks back to the 1806 petition for a St. Louis County road to lead from downtown St. Louis to the Bonhomme settlement.
A plank road, its boards ever cupping, was laid on the ridge north of Old Bonhomme Road. That toll road became Olive Street Road, which became Olive Boulevard in 1946.
Founder with the funny name: Irish businessman Ringrose Drew Watson (1785-1856) bought 80 acres in what would become Olivette on April 1, 1826.
Will anything ever replace Flotken’s Super Market? Flotken’s (9643 Olive) was a hub of Olivette commerce (and home of the Picnickel Daze festival) from the 1960s to the ’80s. “It was the gathering place,” says Mayor Jim Baer, elected on a mandate of change. The new “gathering place,” he adds, will be the $9 million Shoppes at Price Crossing, the first commercial development in Olivette after a 25-year drought.
Where to find Olivetti in the morning: Olivette Diner (9638 Olive, 314-995-9945), for banana waffles or Hot Hash & Holly
Statistics:
Population: 7,000-plus | Boundaries: north, the St. Louis Terminal Railroad line; south, the northern boundary of the city of Ladue; west, Warson Road; east, Interstate 170 | Acres: 1,756 | Race: white, 70 percent; black, 22 percent; Chinese, 2.4 percent; Hispanic, 1.6 percent
Famous bowlers: Nelson Burton Sr., a member of the National ABC Hall of Fame, built Olivette Lanes (9520 Olive) in 1956.
Famous Olivette playwrights: The family home of playwright William Inge (Picnic, Splendor in the Grass), on Old Bonhomme, is being restored by a niece, actress Lynnmarie Inge; the basement skating rink will become an exercise room.
Willy Holtzman won a 2006 Peabody Award for distinguished achievement in television and radio with the Showtime production Edge of America. His memoir of his father’s experience in World War II, Hearts, was staged last year by the New Jewish Theatre.
9119 Olive. It’s Chevy’s Fresh Mex now, but the Quonset hut served as a bus garage for Ladue Local Lines as early as 1953.
