Visiting My Childhood Home

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Dennis and I have been in Missouri since June 29.  I didn’t realize how much of this trip with be about my dad’s legacy in the St. Louis, Missouri area.

This originally started with writing a letter to a couple that had bought a church and transformed it into a home.  A friend sent me the article about this from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.  What made this so impactful to me was not only that I had attended church in this building as a child, but that my father had built the church.  I’ll get back to this church/home in my next blog since I haven’t been there yet. I will be going there next week.

This past week I was scrolling though LinkedIn, something I do to see where my work colleagues and family are working.  A post by my daughter-in-law, who is a realtor, showed an open house of a home on South Compton Ave in St. Louis.  That post stopped me in my tracks.  My father, a 10 year old immigrant from Romania, who arrived in January 1930, first lived in a rented property on South Compton Ave in St. Louis.  

A number of years ago, when my dad was visiting St. Louis from Phoenix, my sister and I drove the St. Louis area with him taking photographs of all the homes he lived in since coming to America in 1930.  I pulled out the photo of the home on South Compton and realized this is not the home of my daughter-in-law’s listing, although the style of the home was similar.  What I noticed was the roof like was very different.  That made me curious.  I went to Google Street-View, and moved down through the street until I found the home my dad lived in.  It had a new porch—one could tell it had been remodeled.  What convinced me that it was the same house is that the roof line is the same, the trim around all the windows are the same, and all the windows are in the same place on the building as my earlier photograph.   I zoomed in on this particular house and got the address on it.  When I shared this with my daughter-in-law, she commented this house was just two doors down from her listing.

The Duplex on South Compton Ave, that may father’s family lived shortly after arriving in the United States.
The same house today in 2025.

That got me curious about the house my dad built which I lived in from age 6 to 21.  Out of curiosity, I wrote the owners/residents a letter.  I mailed it on Monday, July 14.  Stephanie opened my letter on Wednesday, July 16, and immediately texted me that they were leaving on vacation and Thursday, early evening would be available for me to drop by.  I was going to go with Dennis, but he went out of town to spend time with his brothers.  I took my oldest son, who was in the photo I put in the letter. My son suggested I send a photo of the interior.  Anyone could take for find an old photo of the exterior of a house, but sending a photo inside the home shows that we really do know the house.  I sent the photo of me and my oldest son when he was 2 years old.  While we were visiting, they suggested we could do a reenactment of the photo.  I declined—someone would have to get me off the floor!

The photo I included in the letter. This photo was taken on Christmas 1974.

What a lovely couple Lee and Stephanie was.  They showed us around, and were surprised that I had photos of the original house—before my dad did any remodels.  Because they removed walls and put in new walls, and vaulted ceiling, some rooms took a bit of imagination to remember what the room looked like in the past.

Here is the house when it was being built and next as it looked a couple years ago. 

1955

These two photos of the kitchen and dining room are actually taken from a real estate listing around 2021. The house had not changed at all. Nothing was different from the time my parents moved in the early 1990’s.

Notice the layout of the cabinets, also the style of the cabinets on the left. The door by the stove goes to the garage. To the left of that door was another door that went into the family room, and between that cabinet and the door to the family room was a door that led to the stairway to the basement.
The kitchen layout is similar to the previous.
Notice the walls in the dining room. The next photos shows those was are gone.
Instead of the cabinets that were on the left of the kitchen, there is now this island. The walls of the dining room are gone. The doors to the left of the door to the garage have been moved. There is now an open stairway to the basement. Where there was a closet in the corner of the family room, is now the entrance to a hallway with two bedrooms made in the space of the family room and the covered back porch are. The refrigerator is now where the pantry was. The most striking thing is that the the knotty pine paneling that was in the family room in now the ceiling of a new vaulted ceiling.
The old living room, circa 1972.
My oldest son on the left (the same one as the little guy on my lap in the 1972 photo) in the living room with the same fireplace. All the woodwork and doors were done by my dad when he remodeled.

Now we took a walk downstairs, and too my surprise, much was the same, but much was added and just really made for great lower level area.

The year my mom bought my dad a pool table for Christmas. He had to follow the string to find it walking through these folding doors.
The folding doors still exist! They love them and have no plans to remove them.
This photo of my cousins was taken around 1956.
Here is the same fireplace in 2025.
A party at our home about 1968. Notice the bay area on the right. (Did we always wear dresses back then)?
Same bay area in 2025.
Just to the right of the fireplace they moved the wall back and built this bar. The large cabinet is the cabinets from the kitchen that my parents had remodeled.
A closer look at the bar cabinets that were previously the kitchen cabinets. They just look like they belong at a bar.
These mint green cabinets were in that same place in our basement and are the same color. When my dad’s construction office was in the basement, these cabinets held the office supplies. When the company grew and built their own office, these cabinets housed all our games.

So many things were the same, and they loved the 1950’s mid century bathrooms with the colored fixtures.  Even the faucets in the bathroom are the same.  

The bathroom in my parent’s bedroom still yellow with the same wallpaper they put up.
This bathroom was the one we three girls used. It has not changed at all.

The patio my dad made in the back yard is still there. He did not have the fencing. He also had brick edging the circular design.

You can see where the bricks were originally surrounding the circles. This was not changed by the current owners, but the ones before them.
Here is the brick design around the patio. in the back of this photo you see a curved bench. My dad intended to put the bench in on the curve of the patio. That never happened. I think the curve wasn’t the same as the curve of the patio.

The new owners have the front patio area torn out as they are planning to put in a water feature and make an interesting entrance.  I cannot wait to see it when they have it completed.

When I first moved into this house in December of 1955, I was 7 years old. I did not like the house because I could not see out the windows. I had to jump to see out. Of course a few years later I was tall enough to look out the window. I asked the current owners’ daughter if she could see out the windows. She said when they moved there, she could not out either, but was now tall enough to see out.

I’m shorter than the windows.

Visiting with this lovely couple who loves this house was such a joy. It brought back so many memories of my life in this home. Thank you, Stephanie and Lee, for allowing me to revisit my childhood.

3 comments

  2. So cool! I would love to visit the houses where we lived in St. Louis – Sunset Terrace and Matthews Lane! Maybe one day! I like that you sent a letter to the current owners – that’s a great idea!

    Can’t wait for the blog on the church! I have so many memories of that dear, little church as well! I am so interested in how they have made that building a home!

    Cindy

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    1. If you type in your address (12249) on Zillow, there are photos of the Sunset Terrace house–it’s recently been rehabbed! Tonight we see the church!

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