Kings Oak Neighborhood Overview

Location

It is easy to see the origin of the Kings Oak neighborhood’s name in its northern boundary, Oakland Avenue and its eastern edge, Kingshighway Boulevard. The neighborhood is further bounded by Manchester Avenue on the south and Macklind Avenue to the west.

History

The houses in Kings Oak were all built in the early 1900s, around the time of the St. Louis World's Fair of 1904. Institutional facilities came later, and there has been some reuse and demolition. For example, the current Science Center building at 5050 Oakland was formerly the Falstaff Brewing Company office site. Earlier, it had been St. Louis University's Walsh Stadium. Where the Compton/Drew Investigative Learning Center Middle School now is, was once the St. Louis Merchants Exchange. Also on that site was a restaurant/nightclub building originally known as Stan N Biggies, a restaurant owned by baseball Cardinals great Stan Musial, and that later became known as 64 West.