Out of hills, valleys, Eure Place develops
Early image of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. As of 1924, The Sisters of St. Francis, a corporation of Maryville, Mo., owned lots 50-57 in the Eure Place addition, on which St. Elizabeth’s Hospital was constructed. Image supplied by Robert Spaun.
MARY LOU MONTGOMERY
One hundred and eighteen years ago this month, as the sun peeked over the horizon in the east, there was an unusual gathering of men and their horses in front of Armstrong’s grocery store, located on the western outskirts of Hannibal, Mo., at Broadway Extension and Richmond Street.
Men, their teams and available wheel scrapers were solicited by Cecil C. Garrett, business manager of the H.C. Garrett Improvement Company. April 5, 1906, marked the first day of grading for a new 15-acre housing development on Hannibal’s western edge: Eure Place. There were streets to be constructed, gulleys to be filled and lots to be leveled upon the hills and valleys that previously served as a portion of the George W. Richmond property.
Farmer George W. Richmond, born in 1845, lived on the far southwest corner of the proposed development, along with his wife, Sarah (Sallie) Mitchelltree Richmond, son George, and sisters Anna Richmond (born 1832) and Susan Richmond (born 1836).
The remaining property had been purchased by three out-of-town investors: Dr. J.W. Eure of Brookfield, Mo., partnered with C.M. Williams of Kansas City and the Rev. H.C. Garrett, also of Brookfield. In 1900, Rev. Garrett had been minister of Hannibal’s Arch Street Methodist Church.
Rev. Garrett’s 26-year-old son, Cecil, who was living in a two-story frame house on Broadway Extension purchased in 1901 by his mother, Annie Garrett, had been named project manager. Today, the address is 1800 Broadway.)
Throughout the early development, Cecil Garrett actively advertised and promoted this new subdivision in the Hannibal Courier-Post:
Hannibal Courier-Post, April 4, 1906
“Wanted: Good teams and wheel scrapers. Report at 7 o’clock this morning at Armstrong’s grocery, on Broadway extension. C.C. Garrett.”
Thus Eure Place, consisting of 139 residential lots, began its transition from concept to fruition.
News briefs
The happenings at the Eure Place construction site were of interest to the people of Hannibal, and gained a number of mentions in the daily newspaper, as recorded on Newspapers.com:
Cecil Garrett reported to the Hannibal Courier-Post on May 20, 1906, that he had sold four lots to Mrs. Oven, wife of Dr. Thomas P. Oven of Brookfield, for $1,000. By July 18, 1906, 25 lots had been accounted for, mostly to out-of-town investors.
There was a large ditch on the property near what would become Magnolia Avenue.
On May 11, 1906, the newspaper reported that much of the ditch had been filled up and the work of constructing a culvert through it was expected to commence soon. “A large crew of men are at work on the place and it presents a very busy scene.”
Then, on May 26, 1906, Hannibal was besieged by a heavy rain storm. While initial reports received were of damage to the construction site, Cecil Garrett told the newspaper that, in fact, the rain helped fill the large ditch. He told the newspaper that the rain actually saved the firm time and money.
John W. Mefford, a Hannibal contractor, purchased lot 72 in Eure Place addition in September 1906. He announced plans to build a house upon that lot, located on Magnolia Street. At the end of October, the house was complete. (The address is 224 Magnolia.)
In September 1906, coping was extended on the southern border of Eure Place parallel to Broadway Extension.
In January 1907, Mefford Brothers received the contract to construct a two-story house on Lot 58 of Eure Place, at a cost of between $2,000 and $3,000. Lot 58 was located on the southeast corner of Magnolia and Broadway Extension. (It is unclear if this house was actually constructed.)
In late February 1907, Cecil Garrett was involved in a runaway accident on St. Mary’s Avenue. The Courier-Post reported, “He was driving along St. Mary’s avenue when the animal which he was driving became frightened and started out in an uncontrollable speed. After going a short way the horse ran the light road wagon into a wagon and turned the buggy over, throwing Mr. Garrett to the ground.” Luckily, Garrett was not injured in the accident.
In May 1907, work was under way on Frank Key’s new house at 308 Magnolia. At the time of its mention in the Hannibal Courier-Post, the foundation was completed. The house was to be of brick.
When work on Magnolia Street proper complete, crews started the grading for Virginia street in mid November 1907, rushing the work before cold weather set in.
While Rev. Garrett relocated with the Methodist Episcopal Church South, to El Reno, Okla., his son remained in the family’s home at 1568 Broadway Extension, (later renumbered 1800) advertising heavily via the Courier-Post newspaper in order to garner interest in this new West End development.
Wedding bells
Cecil Garrett was united in marriage to Etta Glascock on June 12, 1907, at the Marion County country home of the bride’s parents, Stephen and Henry Etta Gentry Glascock. Rev. Garrett, now living in El Reno, OK, performed the ceremony, with the assistance of Rev. J.H. Jackson, pastor of Hannibal’s Park Methodist Church. Their attendants were Miss Adiene Bates, of Palmyra, and Mr. Charles Fry, of Hannibal. Miss Katherine Glascock, sister of the bride, sang “O Promise Me.”
As a wedding gift, the couple received the aforementioned Lot 58 in Eure Place addition, located on the northeast corner of Magnolia and Broadway extension.
Illness
Cecil C. Garrett contracted pneumonia in the winter of 1908. Following a recovery period, he moved with his wife and newborn daughter to El Reno to be near his parents. The change in climate proved beneficial to the young entrepreneur, and in El Reno he associated with J. Matt Brown of the El Reno Developing Co. But pneumonia once again plagued his lungs, and after a week, he succumbed to the virus. His death came on April 5, 1908. He was 27. Funeral services were conducted at the church of which his father was affiliated, St. John’s ME Church South.
The El Reno Democrat, on April 9, 1908, reported that the body was shipped on the 4:15 train to Hannibal, Mo.
Rev. and Mrs. Garrett accompanied the remains to Hannibal, where services were conducted at the Park Methodist Church. The Hannibal service was conducted by Rev. S.M. Robinson. Burial followed in Mount Olivet Cemetery.
Cecil Garrett’s daughter, Miryl Garrett Morris, in an interview with Robert Spaun and his sister, the author of this article in 1992, said, “I was born in my mother’s bed at the top of the stairs at the left in the Glascock farm house west of Hannibal.
“My grandparents, the Rev. H.C. and Annie Elizabeth Garrett, were sent from Hannibal by the Methodist Conference to build a church in El Reno. (The church was still standing in 1992.) This was Indian Territory and quite an adventure for a young man to come and make his fortune in real estate. Oklahoma became a state in 1907, the year I was born. My parents followed my grandparents to Oklahoma.
“My father had not had time to establish himself. So it was really a time of sadness and upheaval. (My mother) stayed in Oklahoma with the Garretts, but her heart was in Missouri.”
Cecil C. Garrett’s death, and his father’s relocation to Oklahoma, complicated the Eure Place property holdings. Rev. Garrett returned to Hannibal several times to settle up his real estate interests.
Cecil’s young widow remarried. In December 1917, Etta Glascock Garrett Bowersock sold the lot, given as a wedding present, to the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of Maryville, Mo., a corporation, Lot 58 Eure Place, Hannibal, Missouri, for $612.
Next week: W.J.A. Meyer and Co., step up to continue Eure Place development.
The 1913 Sanborn map shows the houses which had been constructed in the Eure Place Subdivision as of the time the map was drawn. Note in the upper right hand corner, circled, is the Armstrong Grocery Store. In 2024, Brad Walden is in the process of remodeling this building. It was on this corner that men, their teams and available wheel scrapers gathered at this corner in 1906, in order to start grading work for the new subdivision. Map accessed via the University of Missouri Digital Library.
This chart, based upon an advertisement in the Hannibal Morning Journal, April 11, 1907, shows the lots in the Eure Place addition, which was laid out in 1906. The lot numbers were acquired with the help of Harla Friesz, Marion County Recorder of Deeds, and her staff, Palmyra. Illustration by Mary Lou Montgomery.
Rev. H.C. Garrett, Daily Oklahoman newspaper, Dec. 19, 1909. newspapers.com
In 1924, Alexander K. and Freida Kilian Love were the owners of the house built upon Lot 47, Eure Place addition. The address of the house, still standing in 2024, is 211 Virginia St. In March 1951, the Loves purchased the north four feet of Lot 48, Eure Addition, from Sister of St. Francis of Maryville, Mo. Consideration, $75. A.K. Love was born in 1885, and died in 1966. He worked as a master mechanic for the Short Line Railroad. Photo from Steve Chou’s vast historic collection.
Mary Lou Montgomery retired as editor of the Hannibal (Mo.) Courier-Post in 2014. She researches and writes narrative-style stories about the people who served as building blocks for this region’s foundation. Books available on Amazon.com by this author include but are not limited to: "The Notorious Madam Shaw," "Pioneers in Medicine from Northeast Missouri," "The Historic Murphy House, Hannibal, Mo., Circa 1870,” “Hannibal’s ‘West End,’ and the newest book, “Oakwood: West of Hannibal.” Montgomery can be reached at Montgomery.editor@yahoo.com Her collective works can be found at www.maryloumontgomery.com
