West Newsmagazine 4-19-17

30 I WEST COUNTY CHAMBER I
April 19, 2017
WEST NEWSMAGAZINE
Luisa, 84
@WESTNEWSMAG
WESTNEWSMAGAZINE.COM
The birth of West St. Louis
County as we know it
By MARY SHAPIRO
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Originally incorporated on May 13,
1957, as the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce,
the West St. Louis County Chamber
of Commerce has been enriching the
community and its businesses for 60 years
and counting. Now headquartered at 15965
Manchester Road, Suite 102, in Ellisville,
the not-for-profit membership organization
includes 436 members in Ballwin, Clarkson
Valley, Ellisville, Manchester, Twin
Oaks, Valley Park, Wildwood, Winchester
and unincorporated St. Louis County.
“We had 283 members in 2007 when
I began working with the chamber,” said
Chamber President Lori A. Kelling. She
added that the chamber now averages “10
new members a month, and 48 new members
have joined already in 2017. And we
have members from all over the St. Louis
region – businesses who have customers in
West County or those who want to be connected
with business leaders in this area.”
On Saturday, June 10, the chamber will
celebrate its 60th anniversary with a gala
at The Country Club of St. Albans. Tickets
and sponsorships are available by calling
the chamber office at (636) 230-9900 or
registering online at www.westcountychamber.com.
From humble beginnings
The group’s first meeting was held in
the basement of Ballwin Elementary. Don
Essen, owner of the old Essen Chevrolet
auto dealership in
Do you know?
Ballwin, was its first
president, according
to chamber records.
Kelling said its
founding principles
included three top
priorities:
• Improved education,
especially
getting a second
Rockwood District
high school built so
West County students
didn’t have to travel
to Eureka High. After
the chamber successfully
lobbied against an earlier bond
issue, the Rockwood Board of Education
included the building of Lafayette High in
its next bond issue.
• Installation of sanitary sewers and other
infrastructure improvements necessary for
growth in West County.
• Leading efforts to improve Manchester
Road from a two-lane to a five-lane
The chamber’s Government Affairs and
Transportation Forum covers eight municipalities
[Ballwin, Clarkson Valley, Ellisville,
Manchester, Twin Oaks, Valley Park,
Wildwood, Winchester and unincorporated
St. Louis County] as well as four police
districts [Ballwin, Manchester, Ellisville and
St. Louis County]; two fire protection districts
[Metro West and West County]; three
school districts [Parkway, Rockwood and
Valley Park]; St. Louis Community College
in Wildwood and the Missouri Department
of Transportation.
Circa 1962 – Don Essen pitches the
Manchester Road widening project to the
West County Rotary Club.
highway – that happened in 1962. [The
chamber also played an instrumental role
in the expansion of Route [Hwy.] 141 in
the 1990s.]
At that time, Manchester Road/Hwy. 100
was a two-lane road with shoulders in some
places. Manchester, Ballwin and Ellisville
were small communities separated by farm
land and unincorporated areas. Valley Park
was a little town along the Meramec River.
Twin Oaks was a small collection of houses.
There was no city named Chesterfield. In
what is now known as Chesterfield Valley
was Gumbo Flats, an area that held several
farms, a number of small commercial
patches and Spirit of
St. Louis Airport.
“New subdivisions
were sprouting
single-family ranch
homes in the area,
quickly adding to
the area’s population,”
Former chamber
chairman Glenn
Koenen said, of
West County in general.
“Don noted that
one thing united the
region – from about
Barrett Station Road
all the way out to the
rivers – the Lafayette telephone exchange.”
“From its first days, one of the chamber’s
areas of concern was the area’s collection
of state highways,” said Koenen, who also
is a former executive director of the Circle
Of Concern food pantry and emergency aid
center. Members felt that the region was
not getting enough support from the state
in improving Manchester Road and high-