Historic Monarch

Historic Monarch. c.1886. , Monarch Station was a whistle-stop railway depot on the Rock Island Railroad (originally known as the Saint Louis, Kansas City and Colorado Railroad, when established in 1886-87). The settlement of Monarch (earlier called Atherton, then Eatherton) straddled what is now the present-day Wildwood and Chesterfield border, near Wild Horse Creek, Eatherton, and Centaur Roads. A post office was opened in Monarch in 1895 and was active until 1907. William Sutton served as Monarch's only postmaster. The Sutton family lived on the top floor of the grocery store and remained there, after the store closed. For several years, there was a restaurant/tavern at the bottom of the hill, to the east of the current railroad crossing, and was known for its chicken and steak dinners. People came from St. Louis by train on the weekends, and there were some guest cabins on the property. It was 1941, before some area residents had electricity. The Chesterfield-Monarch Levee, originally called the Monarch Levee, is the major flood protection structure bordering the Chesterfield Valley. It was originally constructed by farmers to protect their bottom land from frequent Missouri River flooding. Over time, the levee was expanded and heightened, and much of this farmland was absorbed by development. During the Great Flood of 1993, the Chesterfield-Monarch Levee failed about one mile north of the site of the old Monarch Station, and the entire valley was inundated by floodwater from the Missouri River.