Across the Mississippi River, not far from here, lies the incorporated village of Millstadt, Illinois. When the village was established, in 1837, it was christened Centerville, because it stood in the midst of Columbia, Belleville, and other small towns. But when it came time to name the post office, it was pointed out that there was already a Centerville nearby. The largely German town fathers decided to rename it Mittelstadt, which means something like Centerville in that language. But the name was misspelled by the U.S. Post Office, and became Millstadt.
I bring this up because it reminds me of a similar story about Webster Groves. The town was first called Webster, after Daniel Webster. But when it came time to name the post office, it came to light that there was already a Webster post office in Missouri, so it was changed to Webster Groves in recognition of the town’s richly forested environs. Nobody misspelled Webster Groves, though there is a long-standing problem of people leaving the ‘s’ off the end, and rendering it Webster Grove. Even today, we receive various mailings at the library addressed to Webster Grove Public Library (or even to Mr. Webster Grove . . . but that is a different matter.)
After decades of existence as a developing area of nice houses, schools, and businesses, Webster Groves was incorporated on April 2, 1896. That means that next month we will pass 125 years as an official city. The library will observe the anniversary by offering social media posts about its early history, and creating bibliographies of the best local history items in our collections. I hope you’ll take some time to read about the history of this wonderful city.
Webster Groves Public Library 