House Research
Today I spent most of the morning and part of the afternoon researching our house here in St. Louis. I've wanted to do this for years, but never knew how to go about it. Recently, I learned that one of our patrons at the library works at city hall and is familiar with the process. When I asked her about it, she was very helpful, giving me directions to the departments I needed and what to do when there. I am very grateful to her for all her help and encouragement.
Anyway, the first stop was the Assessors's office where I traced the ownership of our land back to 1885. The house itself was built in 1895. Along the way, I found some interesting tidbits of information. The woman who owned the land at the time the house was built had the same last name as we have. Two other owners, related to each other, had the same name as one of my husband's ancestors, ie. Sheets. The most fascinating bit of story that turned up was about the owner prior to Agnes Sheets. Arthur Rump died on Apr 9, 1934, the will dated Oct 16, 1923. It was probated April 17, 1934, the executrix was Agnes Blair Sheets. In June 1934, the executrix was ordered to settle the estate. The will left $1.00 to 2 sisters, 1 brother, and 1 half brother. The rest of the estate, including the property, house, and all other assests was left to the executrix, Agnes Sheets. Hmm. Wonder what the siblings did to anger Mr. Rump.?
Besides Mr. Rump, one other owner died and the deed was probated. The property has had 16 owners since 1885. the house 13 including us. We have lived in the house longer than any other owner. About 1950 the house was probably converted for a time to a duplex; when it was returned to a single family unit is unknown.
Once I had traced the ownership back as far as the assessor had records, I went to the recorder of deeds to try to learn what the house looked like when it was built. Unfortunately, the records of our house have either been lost or destroyed or never were recorded. Our neighbors house was recorded and the two are part of the same lot, we have the eastern half, they the western half. So, that part of the search was a little disappointing.
From there it was up to the archivist's office (in the same room as the birth and marriage liscenses!). There I learned that I needed a bit more information from the Assessors office - namely the book and page numbers for the earliest deed I found. That only took a couple minutes as I knew which microfiche it was on. The archivist was able to find the original description of the land that our house was built on. Actually, the description is quite interesting. Start at a large stone on the edge of X's land, go north to the black oak tree, 20 inches in diameter, east to a sapling 2 inches in diameter, etc. I doubt very much if anyone could find the boundaries using these measurements today.
According to the archivist, the land originally belonged to a member of the Choteau family. When he died, there was quite a battle over the land, who was to own it, or how it was to be apportioned. The block of land became Clifton Heights and was apportioned with two parks, one of which was destroyed when interstate highway 44 went through. The parks were originally privately owned, but later were given to the city.
After the archivist copied the information for me, I went to the office that holds the permits for building and remodeling. Interestingly, the girl in the office could find only 2 work permits, one in 1937 that said that Mr. Sheets built a framework shed, and one that says we also built a shed in 1983.Nothing else was done to the house, inside or out, at least according to the building permits, anyway. Nothing on any of the mutiple rehabs that have been done over the years, including our own. I guess since the records for the original building can't be found, no reason to record any changes that were made to it?
This was a lot of fun, learning what is available about our house and seeing some areas of city government that I had never had the opportunity to use before. All in all a great experience.
Anyway, the first stop was the Assessors's office where I traced the ownership of our land back to 1885. The house itself was built in 1895. Along the way, I found some interesting tidbits of information. The woman who owned the land at the time the house was built had the same last name as we have. Two other owners, related to each other, had the same name as one of my husband's ancestors, ie. Sheets. The most fascinating bit of story that turned up was about the owner prior to Agnes Sheets. Arthur Rump died on Apr 9, 1934, the will dated Oct 16, 1923. It was probated April 17, 1934, the executrix was Agnes Blair Sheets. In June 1934, the executrix was ordered to settle the estate. The will left $1.00 to 2 sisters, 1 brother, and 1 half brother. The rest of the estate, including the property, house, and all other assests was left to the executrix, Agnes Sheets. Hmm. Wonder what the siblings did to anger Mr. Rump.?
Besides Mr. Rump, one other owner died and the deed was probated. The property has had 16 owners since 1885. the house 13 including us. We have lived in the house longer than any other owner. About 1950 the house was probably converted for a time to a duplex; when it was returned to a single family unit is unknown.
Once I had traced the ownership back as far as the assessor had records, I went to the recorder of deeds to try to learn what the house looked like when it was built. Unfortunately, the records of our house have either been lost or destroyed or never were recorded. Our neighbors house was recorded and the two are part of the same lot, we have the eastern half, they the western half. So, that part of the search was a little disappointing.
From there it was up to the archivist's office (in the same room as the birth and marriage liscenses!). There I learned that I needed a bit more information from the Assessors office - namely the book and page numbers for the earliest deed I found. That only took a couple minutes as I knew which microfiche it was on. The archivist was able to find the original description of the land that our house was built on. Actually, the description is quite interesting. Start at a large stone on the edge of X's land, go north to the black oak tree, 20 inches in diameter, east to a sapling 2 inches in diameter, etc. I doubt very much if anyone could find the boundaries using these measurements today.
According to the archivist, the land originally belonged to a member of the Choteau family. When he died, there was quite a battle over the land, who was to own it, or how it was to be apportioned. The block of land became Clifton Heights and was apportioned with two parks, one of which was destroyed when interstate highway 44 went through. The parks were originally privately owned, but later were given to the city.
After the archivist copied the information for me, I went to the office that holds the permits for building and remodeling. Interestingly, the girl in the office could find only 2 work permits, one in 1937 that said that Mr. Sheets built a framework shed, and one that says we also built a shed in 1983.Nothing else was done to the house, inside or out, at least according to the building permits, anyway. Nothing on any of the mutiple rehabs that have been done over the years, including our own. I guess since the records for the original building can't be found, no reason to record any changes that were made to it?
This was a lot of fun, learning what is available about our house and seeing some areas of city government that I had never had the opportunity to use before. All in all a great experience.