House History and Local History Resources

House History Resources

People know Webster Groves for its houses that have stood for a hundred years and more. The Library often receives inquiries from residents looking into the history of their home, so we have compiled the following list of resources available mostly online. Also, feel free to contact the Reference Librarian, John Egel, by email at jegel@wgpl.org to set an appointment for one-on-one help researching your home’s history.

City of Webster Groves building permits and property tax records, digitized from the microfilm held by the Library. The building permits run from the first year they were issued in 1908 to 1996. Real estate tax records cover the full period the City of Webster Groves kept its own records: from incorporation in 1896 to 1947.

• Index to building permits. To assist with locating specific building permits, we have created a searchable index to them. This is a work in progress, currently covering permits from 1908 through 1935. *RECENTLY UPDATED to 1935*

Hodgdon’s Directory of the City of Webster Groves, 1907 and 1908-1909

A large collection of St. Louis County and City directories, including Gould’s, can be found at Missouri Digital Heritage.

St Louis County Department of Revenue Real Estate Information. This site is important for looking up the legal description and other information about your property.

Online collection of Webster Groves historical maps.

Included are the 1862 and 1870 Julius Hutawa Atlases of St. Louis County, the 1878 Pitzman Atlas of St. Louis County, the 1893 Atlas of St. Louis County and the Northwest Publishing Co 1909 Plat Book.

In the Reference Area downstairs we have a collection of historical maps that can be viewed within the Library. Included are the Sanborn Insurance maps for 1903, 1917 and 1924. See this index for details.

Registered Historic Districts and Landmark Buildings

Webster Groves has over a dozen districts and buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and over 50 city-designated landmark buildings. This anthology provides ready access to the documentation behind the designations. 

HeritageQuest provides U.S. Census and other genealogical data. This service can be accessed from anywhere with a WGPL card number.

Our Ancestry Library Edition is available within the Library, either through our public computers or through your own laptop or mobile device connected to our public Wi-Fi.

The Missouri Historical Society’s House History Resources offers a variety of resources to help you research the history of your St. Louis City or St. Louis County home.

With the Library’s Newspapers.com account, you can access the following Webster Groves newspapers: The Webster Times from 1896-1898; Webster Groves Times from 1909-1914; Webster News-Times from 1912-1961; Webster Advertiser from 1963-1971. This service is only available within the Library, either through our public computers or through your own laptop or mobile device connected to our public Wi-Fi. 

FamilySearch is a free genealogy website created and maintained by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It requires that you set up a user account with an email address and password. The site has a massive repository of documents including court records, deeds, directories and newspapers.

Webster Groves Historical Society

Anyone can be a member of the Webster Groves Historical Society.  They welcome everyone with an interest in the history of our community, old homes, preservation of historic sites, genealogy, and archival research. You can also participate in their Century Home Plaque program.

Other Webster Groves History Resources

The Kate Moody Collection consists of over 10,000 historical documents assembled by Katherine Twining Moody, a Webster Groves resident and librarian with St. Louis Public Library from 1895-1945. From the 1880s until her death in 1950, she collected photos, newspaper articles, genealogical records, hand written oral histories, correspondence and other documents dealing with the history of Webster Groves, St. Louis County and St. Louis City. As a joint project of Webster Groves Historical Society, which owns the collection, the Webster Groves Public Library, has digitized the collection and made it publicly accessible in a searchable format as part of the Missouri Digital Heritage program. Search for your address or for names of past owners of your home. You may be surprised at what you find.

Webster Groves Historical Archive

An online repository of photos and documents maintained by the Library pertaining to the history of Webster Groves.

Webster Groves Historic Walking Tours

This web presence was created by local historian Bill Wichman and his wife Diann to augment the eight historic walking tours first developed in 2001 through the support of the City of Webster Groves and the Webster Groves Historical Society. The site includes pdfs of the Walking Tours map and guidebooks, as well as audio descriptions of the homes highlighted on each walk, allowing you to “follow along through the past” using your smart phone as a guide. You can also pick up hard copies of the guidebooks at the Library, the Historical Society or City Hall.

Old Webster Historical Photos

Visit this website created by Dan Warner of Warner Properties. It’s rich with photos and history of Old Webster, the city’s vibrant shopping and restaurant district around Gore and Lockwood Avenues.

High School Yearbooks

The Library has a nearly complete collection of Webster Groves High School’s yearbook, The Echo, dating back to 1911. The above link will take you to our online collection of scanned yearbooks. (Note that we do not include online versions for editions less than three years old.) Our reference shelves hold original bound copies for viewing. While we do have online versions, we are missing the following physical editions and would gladly accept them as donations: 1911, 1916, 1966, and 2017. We are also accepting either donated or loaned versions (for scanning) of Douglass High School’s yearbook, The Oracle. Currently our online collection contains the 1955 edition.

Webster-Kirkwood Times

The Library has an almost-complete collection of original issues of the Webster-Kirkwood Times from its first issue (as The Webster Times) in 1978 to the present.

Reference Books

We also have a variety of local history book in our reference section, including histories of the city, neighborhoods, and churches, along with books about century homes and even some early residential and business directories. Copies of some of these items are also available to check out.