The Bolivar Street Neighborhood

The Bolivar Street Neighborhood. . , Bolivar Street was the western edge of what was known for a century as Millbottom ①. From the mid-1880s, the river, roads and train tracks converging in Millbottom made it a natural location for Jefferson City's emerging industries and associated development., Up until the late 1860s, the river was the primary artery for commerce and steamboats carried goods in and out of the capital city. The low-lying area around Wears Creek ② became the city's main boat landing., This thriving neighborhood was mostly working class German immigrants. Like the other capital city neighborhoods, residents worked, worshipped, shopped and played in the neighborhood where they lived. Two important changes in the 1850s transformed the area into the city's industrial center. One was the improvement of streets and footbridges that connected the area to the rest of the city east of it, and the other was the railroad., Millbottom was name for the mills built and operated there. Looking east in the mid-1880s, on would have seen the large Victoria Mill ③, a grist mill that provided many jobs for the neighborhood residents. On what later became AmerenUE property, Jefferson City Gas Works ④ was the first of a succession of utility companies to operate there. the dominant commercial structure, in size, number of employees, and production, was the Capitol Star Mill ⑤. By 1900, it was producing 500 barrels of flour a day and shipping tbhem all over the country by rail., Another imposing structure was the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company roundhouse ⑥ erected in the 1880s and razed in the 1970s. Many employees of the railroad lived within walking distance. Among these commercial anchors, the blocks between the Capitol and Bolivar Street were filled with other businesses, many with residential space above, and warehouses., At the southeast corner of Bolivar and West Main Streets, stands Porth House ⑦. It was the home and office of a doctor from 1888 until 1923. The house became the Colonial Tea Room in the mid-1900s and was later converted to office space., A significant home in the neighborhood is Cliff Manor, at 722 Cliff Street ⑪. It was built in the late 1860s for a federal district judge who sold the house in 1876 for $8000., At 728 W. Main, the Eveler House ⑫ was built in the 1880s by the owner of Richmond Hill Grocery store just one block away. The home is used as office space today.