ST. LOUIS — When you think of St. Louis history, you may recall learning about the Lewis and Clark expedition and the 1904 World's Fair, but there is much more history to be learned.
St. Louis native Erica Threnn is an administrative assistant by day and a historian by night. She is the person behind Found. St. Louis, a historic goldmine on Instagram and Facebook. She uses her platform to share interesting facts about St. Louis' buildings and the people who once occupied them.
Threnn spends her free time at places like St. Louis Public Libraries, City Hall researching property history and building permits, and the Missouri Historical Society Library. Erica also uses Ancestry.com and Google Maps to deepen her knowledge.
Sometimes it's beautiful the way things have been restored and sometimes it's horrifying to see how much has changed since 2007 when the Google Maps street view first came into play, particularly in north St. Louis, she shared.
2112 South Jefferson Avenue
"We know that the census says we continue to lose people. We are losing working-class people that cannot find housing. ...We keep looking around asking why everyone's leaving in the city well we've torn down thousands of our buildings. And the buildings that we have left, a lot of them have become unaffordable," she said.
According to the historian, in the 1970s, people living in the Soulard neighborhood decided to rehab the buildings they were living in because others wanted to tear them down. Erica said, the people were not rich but their grassroots actions saved some neighborhoods.
"It's unfortunate that we couldn't do this with more neighborhoods," she said. "I was reading about Mill Creek Valley and I think it said over 5,000 housing units were torn down."
Many people see St. Louis city as North versus South, but Threnn said that there are dozens of communities, each one unique.
St. Louis historian
Oddly enough, Threnn has not always enjoyed history.
"The way history was taught to me was through a lot of lecturing and a lot of memorizing facts," she said about her formal education. "I am interested in St. Louis history because it affects me and it affects the people around me."
Her journey as a historian began in 2020 at the age of 38. She was living alone in the Benton Park neighborhood at the time the global pandemic arrived in town. Running became the antidote for her depression.
"I would run in a different direction through every street I could find and I would run up to five miles in one direction," Threnn said. "I grew up in the city. I am a proud product of St. Louis Public Schools. I grew up in the city my whole life. I work in the city now but it's just different seeing those historic buildings on foot. You feel so much closer to them. You look at them in a way that's different from when you're just driving through and passing by."
During her runs, one mansion on Jefferson Avenue piqued her interest.
"Like the tenth time I ran by it I thought to myself, 'This was definitely built for somebody. I wonder how hard it would be to find out who this person was?' I'm just so fascinated by this mansion."
3155 Jefferson Avenue
She decided to find the answer that day, and then she posted her findings to social media:
"3155 S. Jefferson
"Built in 1889
"In 1887 Ferdinand Herold bought this land and later had this mansion built. He chose this location because it was very close to his brewery - the Cherokee Brewery Co, which was located at Cherokee and Iowa.
"Some of the rich Germans did NOT want to live in rich neighborhoods and instead chose to live among the working-class Germans. That's why you see some of these mansions pop up in neighborhoods not traditionally associated with wealth.
"If you've ever been to Earthbound Beer, you've stood in the same 150+ year old stock house that once belonged to the Cherokee Brewery - all of the other buildings associated with the brewery have been demolished. Earthbound also dug out the original lagering cellars.
"When Herold got out of the brewing biz, he opened a steamboat company shockingly named Cherokee Packet Co. He even had a steamboat named after himself.
"Like many mansions in StL, this became a boarding house - in the 1940 census there were 8 families living here.
"I think this house was sold a couple of years ago - will be interesting to see it brought back to life. Or maybe it was just built to look haunted. Only time will tell."
Erica's decision to post her findings led her down a passionate and never-ending journey of exploration. As she learned, she shared, and her 200 followers grew to 10,000 followers on social media over the past four years.
Now she writes history the way she wants to read it. Threnn takes pleasure in digging the juicy stuff out.
For example, she recently found out about a brick home built in 1915 that was picked up and moved across the street so that a school could be put in its place on Meramec Street in 1923.
"How do you move a brick house in 1923?"
Another post she shared was about a Fox Park neighborhood home that once housed a six-time Olympian by the name of George Eyser. Threnn learned that Eyser competed in the St. Louis Olympics in 1904 with a wooden leg. A person claiming to be the current occupant of the home commented under her post, "That's my home now."
"When I post history I post good, bad, and everything in between. We are just so interesting. The stuff that has happened here," Erica said. "That's what I love about our history."
Threnn has become a resource to others who enjoy her content. She said as people ingest the information, they share it with others and request their homes as a feature.
"It's been really, really fun and it makes me so happy that people enjoy learning about the same things I'm learning. ... It makes me really happy people are having conversations about our history that maybe they wouldn't have had if I didn't make that post."
