Photography of Bel-Nor



The little municipalities of Bel-Nor, Pasadena Hills, & Pasadena Park are located in the Normandy area which extends along Natural Bridge Road from St. Louis City. These neighborhoods were built on wealthy estates.



Lion of The Valley passages

“Erastus Wells completed his West End Narrow Gauge Railway, from near Grand and Olive to Normandy in 1876 and to Florissant, a total of sixteen miles, two years later, the country squires had easy access to the City. This tiny steam engine and cars rocked and swayed to Wells’s home, Wellston,” before passing the estates of D. R. Francis, the Kennetts, and Jefferson Clark’s “Minoma.” Along Natural Bridge Road it served passengers from the mansions of George R. Taylor, John O’Fallon, William Glasgow, and those of the silver titans, Charles Clark and Charles McLure, before arriving at Normandy, the balliwick of Anne Lucas Hunt’s heirs—Hunts and Turners and their Lucas cousins. [. . . .] Fashionable social clubs, such as the Florissant Valley and the Kinloch Country Clubs, the Glen Echo Country Club (social and golf), and the Normandie Golf Club were located near Narrow Gauge. Glen Echo was the first and Normandie the second golf course west of the Mississippi” (Page 344-345).



From page 478: In 1950, “there were nearly two dozen growing villages in the Normandy area.”



Enter University of Missouri – St. Louis on page 492-493:

“In 1963 the University of Missouri established a campus on Natural Bridge Road in Normandy as part of its coordinate-campus system, which consisted of campuses in Columbia, Kansas City, Rolla, and St. Louis. Led by district superintendent Ward A. Barnes, the Normandy Board of Education had encouraged this development by transferring land for which it had paid nearly seven-hundred thousand dollars to the university for a nominal sum. (Paraphrasing: UMSL struggled for recognition problems in the St. Louis community. Many students were the first of their family to attend college found their way to the campus in substantial numbers).”



Page 186 tells a startling fact that, “The founder of Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby, Meriwether L. Clark, Jr., grew up not far from the Lucas track in Normandy.”



Therefore, the Normandy area was settled initially by large landowning founding families whose names can be found on major roads and secondary roads. The sub-dividing of their wealthy estates over time became a dozen small villages.



Those villages are: Bel-Nor, Bellerive, Greendale, Normandy, Glen Echo Park, Velda Village, Velda Village Hills, Uplands Park, Beverly Hills, Pasadena Hills, Pasadena Park, & Northwoods.



Several large parks, cemeteries, and Country Clubs also surround these small villages and they are: Glen Echo Country Club, Normandy Country Club, Norwood Hills Country Club, St. Vincent County Park, Greenwood Cemetery, Oak Grove Cemetery, Lake Charles Memorial Park (Cemetery), Zion Cemetery, and St. Peters Cemetery.



Now that the historical frame of reference and the history of Normandy’s Country Club social elites has been established let’s fast forward to today beginning with Bel-Nor.



Bel-Nor

Demographics:

The small city had a population of 1,598 in 2000 of which 17.1% was 65 years and older compared to the national average of 12.4%. However, as I walked through the entire neighborhood and spoke at length with one resident I discovered that many elderly people have passed on to condensed living or entirely and new and young families have replaced them. This was evident by the many play sets for toddlers that I saw and children out riding tricycles and bikes while parents watched.



Census 2000:

White 57.2

Black or African American 39.6

Hispanic 0.9 or 14 people

Homeownership is 96.0% compared to a national average of 66.2%

Bachelor’s degree or higher is 47.1% compared to national average of 24.4% but is close to Kirkwood’s 51.5% and higher than all surrounding middle class suburbs (all St. Charles County, Maryland Heights, Florissant, etc.) and much closer to upper class burbs like Kirkwood, Webster Groves, & Manchester.

Median Family Income in 1999 dollars is averaged at $67,917 compared to the national $50,046 and $3,287 higher than O’Fallon, $7,739 higher than St. Charles, and a two or so thousand higher than St. Peters. For St. Charles County supposedly to be one of the wealthiest counties in the country Bel-Nor and other pictured cities are above their ranks.



However, this village is small at over 1,500 people which skews the numbers just like Huntleigh, Frontenac, Ladue, and Town & Country which are all small from around 1,000 to 9,000. This fragmentation is a hindrance to regional planning, organizing/managing growth, and undermines the long-term stability of a municipality or area of municipalities.



Architecture

As you will see the variations of architecture are related yet varied and span the decades from 1910s-1940s. Most of this architecture is not exclusive to the core of St. Louis but can also be found in father historic but outlying suburbs such as Kirkwood, St. Charles, Webster Groves and even in the rural hinterlands or towns such as Owensville (Franklin County > fun find I admit) or Fredericktown for which St. Louis was the regional exporting post for hinterland goods to other parts of the nation. Our architectural heritage is shared with these places as parts of families moved into the country after arriving as immigrants first in St. Louis.

St. Charles is St. Louis's little sister who also had a hand in this distinction and starting point or commerce/trade/exporting point.





Pictures



Commercial buildings along Natural Bridge Road along outer boundary of Bel-Nor with Spiro’s Restaurant (Greek) being the main and favorite one. There is a walkway into the neighborhood behind the building that many people use (pedestrian-oriented)

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Potential for build up?

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Following structures face Natural Bridge Road

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Looking Back Towards Entrance

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Normandy United Methodist facing Natural Bridge Road

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UMSL Alumni center and hosted a black tie galla as I taking pictures

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Colonial variations from one & half stories and expanded ones to two stories

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Fairy Tale Tudor

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St. Louis Craftsman bungalow (draw three line between windows where the two first floor windows make a horizontal line and extend lines up to central window)

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St. Louis Arts & Crafts (Detailed masonry with more elaboration in some cases) - Kansas City has really neat and drastically different Arts & Crafts buildings

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Decorative Gable

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General Suburban Small

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General Suburban Medium

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General Suburban Large

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Mix it up!

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Neighborhood elementary school; most or near all people send their kids to private schools (Lutheran North, Incarnate Word, SLU High, Chaminade, CBC, DeSmet, many others)

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Brick > International Modern suburban as evident by the window design and horizontal lines

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Limestone or Stone

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Tudor

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St. Louis Bricalow (Wide Brick Bungalow < made up word)

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Notice the stone columns with inlaid brick

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Barn Roofline [Real name from east coast? Is it a lighthouse style?]

Front Facing like a gable

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Side Facing

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Mediterranean or Spanish Renaissance

Stucco

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Brick

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A closer look makes one’s imagination wonder if the low dormer roof shields angry eye windows with a protruding nose or porch roof that sinks its teething columns into the foundation protecting a hungry mouth doorway.

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(windows)

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Collegiate Gothic (?)

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Large Gable

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Picturesque Bel-Nor is the present manifestation of what was once the home of large land owning gentry and a jewel in the Normandy crown elevated above valleys to the south, north, and west.



Other neighborhoods that make the Normandy area one of the greatest hidden secrets in the St. Louis region encompass Pasadena Hills, Pasadena Park, and Bellerive.



With North Park boasting a projected future 12,000 jobs, Fortune 500 company Express Scripts new headquarters at UMSL, & easy proximity to the airport, Metrolink, and major highways the attractiveness, accessibility, and location make this neighborhood and the Normandy area ripe for rebound. The gateway to the north is ready for a makeover such as the rehab and rebirth of retail along with possible mixed-use developments between

Natural Bridge around Florissant Rd and Lucas & Hunt. Parking lots and one-story abandoned strip malls await!



A parting shot

Thank you for posting these wonderful pictures. You cannot beat St. Louis inner suburbs, they are incredible. I love every one of these doll houses.



And thanks for dedicating this set to me. I am flattered. And thanks for your friendship.



Gratefully yours,

Expat



PS: Around DC, they call the barn houses Dutch Colonial.

Thanks for the great pics! Can I add that I'm reasonably sure the architectural style that's seen in pics #96 - 99 is called Cotswold Cottage? (very popular throughout the St. Louis area in the '20s). There's lots of other examples of C.C. styles throught your photo homage, but photos #96 - 99 look to be prime examples of that style.

What a jewel of a neighborhood in a sea of post war crap. Thanks for the excellent tours. :smt023

To set the record straight most of the post war crap does not exist until you go north to Jennings-Florissant or west to parts of Bel-Ridge and past to St. Ann for those small wood sided now vinyl sided white houses. The majority of homes south of I-70 are all pre-war and there are many similar homes on roads that extended outside of these communities like Lucas & Hunt, Florissant Rd, Natural Bridge, etc...



But you are right that it is a jewel admist post-war homes situated more than two miles away > using google earth can better show a person.

SMS has already clarified, but I am compelled to add my 2cents. These neighborhoods shouldn't be confused with typical County sprawl. Wouldn't it be fair to say they are the northern reaches of the high-quality inner ring suburbs. And actually, what some people would call post-war crap in farther North County isn't actually that crappy. I didn't come to know North County until my adult years, but much of it is very attractive. I would like to see it rediscovered rather than the continued flight to the hinterlands.

Please notice all of the Save the Golf Course Signs in people's yards. Taylor Morley Homes is trying to team up Normandie Gold Course and rid BelNor and Glendale of their greenspace and develop. Visit www.savenormandiegolfcourse.com to learn more.