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40 South News

Maplewood History: Another Look at Manchester Road in Brentwood, ca. 1930

2 years 7 months ago
The images in this post were run not long ago as part of The Amazing Lillian Herold Weber Collection – Part Four.  Since then, with the help of the donor and my Brentwood correspondent, we’ve analyzed them a bit further.  I think we have a clearer understanding of what we’re looking at now than we […]
Doug Houser

Maplewood History: A.H. Curtis Was Found Alive!

2 years 7 months ago
The Owner of the Goldsmith Studio Had Disappeared On A Fishing Trip Readers with most of, or at least a large part of, their memory cells intact may recall that at the end of my last post about the images from Goldsmith Studio, the proprietor had gone missing. Eager to confront this mystery, I launched […]
Doug Houser

Maplewood History: More Photographs from the Goldsmith Studio

2 years 7 months ago
As most of you know I have been running a series of posts that have been supplied from the collection of Emma Beauvais Thomas Grumley.  This is number eight.  The collection included a large number of images of friends and acquaintances of Emma’s, one has to assume.  Many of these had nothing written on them […]
Doug Houser

Report of “shots fired” in Maplewood

2 years 8 months ago
Acting Maplewood Police Chief Matt Nighbor reported on Friday to Maplewood block captains of a report of shots being fired near the 2400 block of Laclede Station Road. He said on Wednesday, February 23, at approximately 11 p.m., officers responded to the 2400 block of Laclede Station Road for a report of “shots fired”. Maplewood […]
Doug Miner

Former Maplewood Mayor James White dies; visitation to be at J.B. Smith

2 years 8 months ago
Former Maplewood mayor, James P. White, died on February 24, according to posts on social media and direct contact with a neighbor of the White family. White served two term as mayor of Maplewood, 2009-2017. Prior to that he served as Maplewood Police Chief. See his obituary here. Visitation will be held at J.B. Smith […]
Doug Miner

Some businesses moving, others moving in (or out)

2 years 8 months ago
Some Maplewood businesses are moving within Maplewood, some are moving in, and some are closing. Sole Survivor has moved from the corner of Manchester and Sutton just 500 feet east, to 7358 Manchester, next to Great Harvest Bread and La Cosecha Coffee. To the other side of Sole Survivor is the empty spot left by […]
Doug Miner

Maplewood History: The Emma Beauvais Thomas Grumley Trove – Part Four

2 years 8 months ago
This trove contains many fascinating early images. According to a couple of history of photography websites, George Eastman, the founder of the Kodak Company, invented film to replace the apparatus and chemicals that professional photographers were using.  If that weren’t enough, he also created a way to make photography less expensive and available to amateurs. […]
Doug Houser

Maplewood History: The Love Song of W. Lyman Thomas – Status Report

2 years 8 months ago
Before you read this post, I believe you would do well to read my first post about The Love Song of Mr. Thomas.  It contains a lot of information that I don’t intend to repeat. This post is to let interested parties know that all of the letters that Mr. Thomas wrote to his wife-to-be, […]
Doug Houser

Maplewood History: The Emma Beauvais Thomas Grumley Trove – Part Three

2 years 9 months ago
Never Before Published – Vintage Images of the Thomas Home and Grounds One of the tactics I used to try and better understand Emma’s collection of photos and documents was to separate the images by the way they had been mounted.  Nearly all were on cardboard of one sort or another.  In my last post, […]
Doug Houser

Maplewood Ward 3 seat: 2 candidates; Nick Homa

2 years 9 months ago
In the Maplewood City Council, Ward 3 council member Jenny Schmidt is not running for reelection. Two residents filed for the seat and will be on the ballot on April 5. They are Nick Homa and Mary Killian (see her info here). Both have sent information to 40 South. This is information that Nick Homa […]
Doug Miner

Maplewood Ward 3 seat: 2 candidates; Mary Killian

2 years 9 months ago
In the Maplewood City Council, Ward 3 council member Jenny Schmidt is not running for reelection. Two residents filed for the seat and will be on the ballot on April 5. They are Mary Killian and Nick Homa (see his info here). Both have sent information to 40 South. This is information that Mary Killian […]
Doug Miner

Maplewood Ward 1 city council seat on ballot in April: 2 candidates

2 years 9 months ago
In Maplewood’s Ward 1, longtime city council representative Karen Wood decided not to run for the seat. Two residents are running for the position: they are Matt Coriell and Shana Jones. Both have Facebook pages for their campaigns stating their reasons for running and positions. The election will be held on April 5. In Ward […]
Doug Miner

Maplewood History: The Emma Beauvais Thomas Grumley Trove – Part Two

2 years 9 months ago
In 1896, William Lyman Thomas Took a Little Trip – To Memphis. Images he brought back have recently surfaced as part of his daughter’s collection. The trove, as I received it, was in a large box.  It consisted of two folders, each containing some images, but the largest number, 200+, were in the bottom of […]
Doug Houser

Maplewood History: On Being A History Broker

2 years 9 months ago
I have no memories of ever wanting to be a historian.*  Just happened. I have been interested in old houses for as long as I can remember.  Mostly I never gave a thought to who built them or the families that lived there. I toured a lot of historic buildings and listened to the guides’ […]
Doug Houser

Another Trove of Maplewood History Comes to Light – Part One

2 years 9 months ago
This one consists of documents and images that once belonged to Emma Beauvais Thomas Grumley. I’ve been using trove enough here lately that I thought I had better look up the meaning and find out if I have been using the word correctly.  So I did and I have.  This from one of the many […]
Doug Houser

Maplewood History: Sebastiano Ricci and Maplewood

2 years 9 months ago
Woodside was once home to a Venetian Masterpiece Unbelievable?  Yep, but true. Beginning in 1999, Yours truly and many other folks were expending a lot of time and effort to make sure Woodside, Maplewood’s oldest home at Folk and Bredell, remained standing despite the efforts of a bunch of other folks that didn’t want to […]
Doug Houser