Marian Czyzewski was out looking for his dog, Ranger, on St. Patrick’s Day. Mere hours after Marian brought Ranger home from the shelter, the dog had gotten loose. The retired K-9 police officer trekked up and down his dead-end street of Corona Court in Webster Groves—and ultimately was able to track down the escaped dog, thanks in no small part to his neighbors.
Marian and his wife, Nancy, have lived in a one-story ranch home on Corona Court for decades. Nancy grew up in the house, one of only a few in the area with a covered carport, which Nancy says her father added in the 1980s. Many neighbors tell the same story of now living in the house where they grew up. Adjacent to Shady Grove Creek and a wooded area that buffers it from busy Brentwood Boulevard, it’s a community where people pitch in when you need a simple favor, like looking for your dog at dusk.
“I just think it’s a nice community, and the houses are nicely spaced apart. Not everyone wants—or can afford—these huge houses,” Nancy says, adding that other nearby suburbs, like Kirkwood, are too crowded with shopping centers by comparison…