Finding Historic Sites at Wild Acres Park in Overland Mo.

January, 2025
by Geoff Stillwell (with lots of help from Sandy and Marcia Jackson, Karen Seal, and Weldon Tieken)

Weeks ago, I was doing an afternoon session with Overland Historian Sandy Jackson at a stream clinic at Wild Acres Park. After surface level preparation, Sandy and I went through a quick history of Wild Acres and topics that would be of interest to the attendees: the artesian spring that fed the lake and was the source of Coldwater Creek, The World’s Fair Bridge (or maybe not), and Holy Family Seminary. I was uncomfortable because the locations of these features, or if they really existed, was in question, and the information I was sharing about past owners other than the Garnett family was incomplete at best. I decided to return to these issues and try to do a little research and find some answers for people that care. I was truly fortunate to have the help of Sandy and Marcia Jackson, along with Weldon Tieken, the congregation historian at Holy Family Seminary. 

My investigation looked to find which historical features were at Wild Acres and their location. I provide a chronological summary of the ownership of the property for reader background in the full document. This can be downloaded here. The purpose of this effort was to investigate the site for historical features, and create a map of those features and a file with their spatial coordinates. 

Wild Acres was the first country estate in St. Louis, built by a wealthy family along the Creve Coeur Trolley line. It was built by Charles Garnett as a luxurious country estate. Later the property was owned by Louis Cella and finally became a seminary of the Missionaries of the Holy Family. I was trying to locate artifacts on this landscape from these three eras. They are covered in much greater detail in the documents referenced above and provide background.

Quest for the Spring

There is a notion that Wild Acres Lake had an artesian spring for a source. This notion is perpetuated in park brochures, public information, and even real estate listings. I have spent a lot of time at the park trying to find this feature. The current City of Overland description of the park as well as the Wikipedia Page of Coldwater Creek use this description.

First Wooden Bridge at Wildwood (Garnett Estate)

At the beginning of the quest, I thought the structure at the end of the bridge (above) might have been the Garnett pump-well house. This prompted a search for the spring along the upper hollow of Coldwater Creek in the vicinity of the bridge. The current bridge is the World’s Fair Bridge — according to story, Mr. Garnett moved from the World’s Fair after a fire devastated most of the mansion and wooden bridge.

The immediate area and nearby features of the original bridge are presented in the photograph below (remains of World’s Fair Bridge in left middle foreground).

Immediate Area and Features in Vicinity of the Original Bridge

In recent years, the authenticity of the World’s Fair Bridge has been questioned. Sandy Jackson contributed an explanation of this debate. It can be found in References (Newspaper Articles and Maps, Hamilton, 1955) and also found in the main document.

I discussed these features with the seminary historian, and I realized they were not features of the original Garnett Estate. Detailed pictures of these features are listed in the references. The contact with the seminary also helped bridge those 50 years of the seminary and park’s history (1944-1994). Important features in this photograph are:

1. Cover in foreground — valve to turn on/off water line to cemetery,

2. Rocking across hollow/rill — the seminary built a grotto here. A marble

platform is at once in front of the grotto.

1. Heavy steel plate at far right center — placed by the seminary to allow a tractor to cross the hollow when the drainage channel was open at top.

A careful survey of the upper hollow revealed a small basin in the brush along the southern park fence. Photographs of this structure are below. At that time, I did not think this was a spring and asked Overland Parks about it. They confirmed that this structure was presumed to be a spring in the past but was really an MSD conveyance for Canterway Drive storm runoff. This basin connects to the lake through a channel under the remaining bridge and to the lake. This channel remained uncovered for many years during seminary times. I refer to this small hollow that empties into the northwest arm of the lake as the World’s Fair Hollow.

At this point, it was clear that I was looking for features in the wrong place and using the incorrect assumptions. I contacted the seminary congregation historian, Weldon Tieken, and this action has made this investigation meaningful. Some seminarians still have living memories of these older structures of the Wildwood landscape that were still existing on seminary grounds.

Spring or Well?

Springs are defined as a surface discharge from a subsurface aquifer. Artesian springs flow upwards to the surface from water pressure within the subsurface aquifer. An artesian spring may become a well if used as such, but an artesian well may simply be a drilled well that under aquifer water pressure flows to the surface without pumping. Transverse and vertical seepage of groundwater infiltrating through soil is not a spring, and this water apparently does seep into Wild Acres Lake. There is not any historical evidence or sources at Wild Acres that are springs. Mr. Garnett drilled this well to provide water to the lake he excavated and water to his estate mansion. Marcia Jackson found some drilling records from the Garnett Well. This well was in a pump-well house. Some students at the seminary had seen the pump-well house, though it does not exist anymore. This “artesian spring” was found.

In the pump-well house photograph provided Weldon, the building on the right is the well house. This photograph was taken at the seminary before the gym existed (the arrow points to Garnett’s Pump/Well House). Mr. Garnett’s carriage house is in the background.

Apparently, Garnett’s well was in the main row of estate buildings along Ashby Road. The well is capped and presently under the parking lot close to the southwest corner of the gym. There is not any evidence for an artesian spring at Wild Acres Park. This well existed from 1908 to 1967 (or earlier) and cannot be accurately described as the source of Coldwater Creek.

What is the source of Cold-Water Creek?

What is the source of a stream? Simply put, it is the furthest upstream headwaters rill location (from the mouth) which contributes a perennial flow into the stream. There are many versions of this criterion from the USGS, National Geographic, and Smithsonian definitions. According to Wikipedia, a stream’s source is “the furthest point from which water could possibly flow ephemerally. The latter definition includes sometimes-dry channels and removes any possible definitions that would have the river source "move around" from month to month depending on precipitation or ground water levels.”  There is a north/south tributary of Coldwater creek that enters the main channel about two blocks east of Wild Acres park, but I have not determined if it is a natural channel or engineered drainage channel. The channels of Coldwater Creek are greatly changed and that should add context to this discussion. As an example, they have been mostly buried in St. Ann. The landscape of Wild Acres is certainly the furthest upstream basin of the creek. When the lake was pumped out there was a remaining streambed along the bottom of the lake from the World’s Fair hollow (northwest arm). The pumped-out lake has refilled most likely due to overland flow and transverse flowing infiltrated groundwater. I think this is convincing evidence that the basin landscape at Wild Acres is the source of Coldwater creek through normal gaining stream processes.

Collaboration with Former Students of the MSF Seminary on Placement of Features

This investigation benefited greatly from the collaboration and goodwill of former seminary students in fall 2024. I had two walkthroughs at Wild Acres with the seminary historian and former seminary students. Their memories found both Garnett and seminary waypoints. Almost all, but two locations, were satisfactorily found. The locations left unidentified included the Garnett ice shed. At this time, it is not entirely clear whether the shed was at the east end of the bridge or was, in earlier years, the seminary storage shed. Hopefully, someone might have interest in improving this work and finishing this effort to close the loose ends. There were two buildings that survived from the Garnett era into the seminary era shown in the earlier photograph. Those two buildings were the seminary storage shed (building 1) and the Garnett pump-well house (building 2) and were eliminated before or during the gym construction. I placed these buildings based on photos given to me by Weldon from the seminary archives. All that remains of the two buildings is a bit of rubble and a capped well under the asphalt between the gym and the carriage house.

Final Placement, Choice of Map Format, and Transportable Placement Files

Universal availability and cost originally resulted in selecting Google Earth as the mapping platform. The KMZ (waypoints for Google Earth) files and associated Excel file were created for the purpose of exporting coordinates and locations to other mapping platforms. Almost all the background information as well as some historical maps are included in the references section as background or for future studies. The Google Earth map is now being upgraded to an ESRI ArcGIS Online map. The ESRI map with placemarkers and pictures, and an Excel file with placemarker names and coordinates are the main goals of this project. The ESRI online map can be viewed in a browser without any specialized mapping software. An ESRI online trial map shared to the public is available here.

Conclusion

I will first discuss (or paraphrase) Weldon’s narrative of recent events at Wild Acres Park. As the seminary congregation historian, he attended critical city meetings and interviewed city officials during the demolition of the main seminary building. He believed Overland considered using the main building as a city hall. In 2006, the building was empty and the pipes froze and burst, causing damage to the heating system and water damage throughout the building. The building was vacant for 17 years. Rejuvenating the building would involve extensive repair along with mold, asbestos, and lead abatement — the cost was extremely high. In 2023, the city decided to demolish the building, which was completed by November 2023. In August 2022, the park dam was damaged by heavy rains. In summer 2024, the lake was drained (though it has presently collected water) and both the lake and the area around it will be improved through 2025. 

Weldon wrote, “It is good to see that the area will remain as a wonderful place to visit and walk around the property. Many people come to watch the different birds in the area. The seminary's cemetery is still on the site” (Tieken W., Part 3, 1944-1994). 

I agree with his assessment. I grew up in Overland and moved to St. Ann (nearby) when I was 25. I served as an assistant scoutmaster at All Souls Church. As someone with strong Overland connections I wish to conclude with the following thought. One of the most historic buildings in the St. Louis region was demolished, perhaps to never be seen again. Local news coverage of the demolition can be seen here. 

How does one evaluate the cost and benefits of saving unique historical buildings such as the Main Holy Family Seminary/Garnett mansion? In certain cases, the value of something cannot be estimated in dollars for simple comparison with the cash value of other popular projects. I believe we must bend the benefits curve towards greater restoration. We must preserve our history, strengthen our resolve, lives, and culture for an uncertain future.