History

The City was officially incorporated in 1917 but had its beginning as a place for city dwellers from St Louis to come and play and relax at the summer resorts and clubhouses that were located there along the Meramec River. In the late 1880's the Missouri Pacific and San Francisco Railroads came through the area and the place was called "Meramec Station." The Frisco Hotel was built in 1880 to house the railroad workers who worked on laying the line and today still stands and houses the Whittle Shortline Railroad Shop. By 1900, there were still only 150 permanent residents in the town that the US Post Office called "Nasby." Besides the post office, the small community also had a distillery, the Valley Park Milling Company, a corn and flour mill; and a general store. What prompted a huge population "explosion" for the community was the establishment of the St. Louis Plate Glass Company in 1907 which employed 500 workers. Other business came to the area soon afterwards such as the Wilson Stove Company, a lumber yard, a bottling works, a sand and gravel company and a cigar factory, each needing workers causing the population to increase to 3,500 by 1907. At one time, there were 88 daily trains that stopped in the town because of all the manufacturing happening there. Unfortunately, a record flood of the Meramec River occurred in August 1915 and all those businesses were damaged or totally washed away. They never rebuilt and the population was back down to 500 permanent residents. Incorporation of the city came in 1917 and the name, "Valley Park," was taken from the mill that was located there. Valley Park continued to be a resort area and in the 1920's, 24 daily trains came from St. Louis bringing people to the resorts located along the Meramec River. Persistent flooding kept most industry and development away from the "old town" of Valley Park and eventually even the resorts and clubhouse succumbed to the flooding. In 2006, the Meramec Valley River Basin Levee was completed to protect the city.