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Community Corner

Lindbergh Links: One Road, Two Names; the Difference Is a City Limit

Patch looks at the history behind why Lindbergh Boulevard becomes Kirkwood Road.

The longest road in the St. Louis area, Lindbergh Boulevard runs roughly 30 miles through north, central and south county, touching nine of our Patch sites. On this anniversary of namesake Charles Lindbergh's death, we wanted to take a . Each Patch editor has a different take on how Lindbergh touches that community. Drive along with us through our Lindbergh Links — and we hope you'll add your own observations along the way.

Aviator Charles Lindbergh’s namesake highway travels the length of St. Louis County from north to south, but once a driver hits the city limits of Kirkwood his wheels are rolling on Kirkwood Road.

That can be confusing to drivers today, but imagine the head-scratching when Kirkwood Road was known as Webster Avenue. It wasn't because the road led to Webster Groves.

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“It was originally Webster, but it was only Webster in Kirkwood,” said Sue Burkett, librarian at the Kirkwood Historical Society. “Lindbergh was Denny Road but when Denny got changed to Lindbergh, Kirkwood didn't want to change it." 

Confused? Imagine how train travelers must have felt when they arrived at Kirkwood and saw a sign for Webster, Burkett said.

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“People got confused when they got to Webster Avenue as opposed to Webster Groves,” Burkett said.

Back in the 1850s, the founding fathers of Kirkwood, Hiram Leffingwell and Richard Elliott, wanted to name the new town’s streets after United States presidents. Thus Kirkwood’s downtown streets include presidential names from Washington to Fillmore – except for presidents no. 10 and 11, John Tyler and James K. Polk.

“Then a strange thing occurred,” wrote McCune Gill in a historical profile of Kirkwood that was later published in the Kirkwood Historical Review. “Presidents Tyler and Polk were omitted and the names of Senators Clay and Webster were substituted. Leffingwell, it seems, was a politician as well as a real estate promoter and was a vigorous supporter of the Whig Party.”

Apparently the Whigs didn’t like Tyler because, even though he was elected on a Whig ticket, he became a Democrat during his time in office. And Polk, who was also a Democrat, was “equally obnoxious” to the Whigs because he had been elected by a very narrow margin over the opposing Whig candidate, Henry Clay, Gill wrote.

That naming system left the name "Webster" on one of the busiest streets in town -- the north-south road that intersected Main Street (now Argonne) at the center of town where the train station is located.

It wasn’t until 1914 that the board of aldermen received a request to change Webster Avenue. According to June Dahl's book, "The History of Kirkwood," merchants wanted a name that would better identify with Kirkwood. The aldermen agreed, and since 1915, the former Webster Avenue has been known as Kirkwood Road within the city limits.

Later, in 1930, the county changed Denny Road to honor Lindbergh's historic 1927 nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean, but Kirkwood stood firm.

SEE MORE LINDBERGH LINKS STORIES
- Drive north to Ladue-Frontenac Patch: Shriners Hospital for Children, an Icon on the Boulevard
- Drive south to Sunset Hills-Crestwood Patch: Reinvention Has a Long History Along the Boulevard
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- History: A Long Boulevard, a Lengthy History

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