It was the early 21st century. No one had figured a way to overcome community objections to running the North-South Connector (MO State Highway 755) through the city and Lafayette Square. So a new road was created, which just grazed the historic district. This was Truman Parkway, and it subsumed what was formerly Grattan Street. This ‘connector’ didn’t flow directly into either Interstate 44 or 55, but kind of split the difference, providing access to both (in darker blue below.)
A block of Lafayette Avenue partially spans the highway entrances. It runs from 1600 through 1617; a mix of buildings from long ago, and a roadway where buildings once stood.
Garage doors, for openers
Beginning on the west side, at 1617 Lafayette, is Zumwalt Corporation, providers and installers of garage and entrance doors. As the distinctive art deco exterior suggests, it dates back to 1924. Founded by Maurice Richard Zumwalt, it was originally in the business of fabricating screen doors, wooden windows and sashes.
The popularity of cars led the company to focus on garage doors, and by 1950, it became their primary emphasis. Today, Tripp Zumwalt leads a third generation of this family enterprise. It employs more than thirty, and operates a fleet of twenty trucks. It’s the longest continually operating commercial business in the Lafayette Square historic district.
A horse for one’s hearse
Next door is an all red two story brick structure at 1615 Lafayette. It is boarded up except for a single garage door, and stubbornly resists change. It has stood since at least 1885, and served for years as a combination livery/undertaker. It had rooms available for funerals.
These were once the stables of Heier and Wiebusch. By 1909, it also featured a coal yard. The Zumwalt Corporation took over the building for storage around 1936, and it’s remained largely unchanged since.
At this point, Truman Parkway (formerly Grattan Street) intrudes, having wiped out some local history in its construction. I’m filling in the blanks that would have been there before 2004.
Ed’s Auto evolved from another livery
Once beside the red painted brick livery, at an incongruous traffic light sat 1611 Lafayette Avenue. Back in 1896, the white brick building was another horse boarder, the Lafayette Park Livery. In the wake of a legendary and fearsome tornado that May, a driver for the firm was buried beneath the collapsed front wall of the stables. Henry Wiebusch was the last person to have seen him. He reported:
“When the wind began to rise, and just before our building gave way, I saw a horse and wagon coming down the street before the gale. The driver had no control of the horse at all, and the whole rig was blown about like a piece of paper. In front of the stable just then, the building went down. After it was all over, we found poor Bill Crooks in one part of the ruins, the wagon in another, and the horse in a third. All was under tons of wreckage.”
Only two rigs remained intact and eleven of the stable’s two dozen horses ran away.
By 1926, cars had taken over the roads, and the former livery made way for the Bond Battery and Electric Company. It was a niche business, providing fully charged rental batteries for cars at $1.50 per two day period. This, to provide the cranking power once generated by hand to start a car. A battery representative cited examples of people getting worn out from cranking and deserting their vehicles rather than continue the exertion. It’s worth noting that $1.50 then would be about $28.00 today. This was a wealthy person’s convenience.
Can’t tell you much about 1611’s stint as Ed’s Auto Service, other than from the above photo taken a quarter century ago. It claimed that Ed had been at it for 37 years at that point. He must have done good work.
A theater, a showroom, a men’s store
Adjacent to Ed’s Service, 1603 Lafayette was boarded up by 2000, with ‘No Trespassing-No Loitering’ signs giving the only information for the property. Searching the newspaper record revealed that on Christmas day, 1898, Perry Ash of this address, aged 35 and married, lay in serious condition at nearby City Hospital. He had fallen from a hay loft the day before, and wrenched his shoulder. Given a bottle of liniment, he drank half and reacted poorly…