A & M Cyclery, 3123 Morgan Ford, & My Grandfather's Brick Building

My grandfather founded A&M Cyclery on Morgan Ford with my grandmother, Luella.
The store was open for business in the early 1920s.

He owned this building at 3123 Morgan Ford which was a *very* small home.

He extended the front of the building out to the sidewalk, created a storefront, and hand dug a small room that extended into the basement beneath the building.
He laid the brick.
My uncle and dad were born in this building.

I live 300 feet away and pass this building when I walk my pup to the park.

My grandfather was Frederick James Herman, an autodidact, builder, mechanic, a cyclist, and a kind and generous man.
He was the best person I've ever known.

He built a clubhouse on creosote treated stilts along the Meramec River.
I spent a lot of summers with him and my family along what is now the Chubb Trail Loop behind Lone Elk Park.

I was swimming in the river before I could walk according to my mother.
I was riding a bike at 5 without training wheels, could handle a canoe in swift current at 10, and was able to swim across the river at 11.

I once asked my grandad about a pretty rock I had found and he said, Christie, that's quartz and it's formed by mineral deposits.
I was five at the time and astonished that an adult spoke to me as an equal.
He inspired me to learn, research, explore, and to ride a bike.

*
This is my last post.
I'm ending with the brick storefront and business my grandfather created.



This is an ad from the 1940s at the shops first location.
My grandfather sold the business to my uncle, Virgil Herman, who moved it across the street. He eventually became a brilliant aeronautical engineer with a 'top secret' McDonnell Douglas job in the 60s and lived in Torrance, CA.

This phone number is still in use for the current business.


The Arsenal location:

Finally, thanks for the emails over the years about my blog, the photos, the concept, and that movie.
I was thanked in the credits even though I'd never talked with the director and only one of his 'interns'.
I've heard I was accused of copyright tyranny and yet I've noticed the movie has a copyright ;)

Me on my Raleigh bike I bought at the current A & M shop.

Seared Tomato and Brick - A Narrative Landscape

My grandfather owned this building on Morgan Ford.

Limestone Pavers - Going, going, gone

This is how the roads in TG Park looked before asphalt. They were made of limestone pavers.
I like to imagine how horse hooves sounded clopping over the stone.
Some gutters remain but most of them were covered.

Vitrolite A Go Go

Tim, The Vitrolite Man, was hired to remove the burgundy vitrolite from the former Hesselberg Pharmacy on Hartford and S Grand.

It's a sad day.

Feathers

I'm doing a documentary on a wee Golden and her interest in Greek Mythology.
You can expect a documentary by someone else since that's what happens to my ideas.
Thanks for your supportive emails over the years on the subject :)

Hubcaps

Henry, one of the scrapers in my neighborhood, is hilarious.

Hot Time Summer in the City

Having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave. Morgan Ford and Juniata St in Tower Grove South. The bricks of Three Monkeys and a sunset over 7-11. Welcome to our corners.

Saying Goodbye to The Kingshighway Street Viaduct

Why is the parapet open on my left side to traffic? There was a bus stop on both sides at the top of the viaduct. Employees of the former Ravarino & Freschi Pasta (R & F Pasta on Kingshighway and Shaw - NE corner) used this bus stop.

View from one former bus stop looking across Kingshighway at the northbound stop.

At the bus stop looking south.