The house on Sugar Loaf Mound has been the Strosnider family home for nearly half a century. Walter Strosnider and his wife Eileen waited nearly 10 years for the home on the river that they had always admired to become available. The Strosniders purchased the house in 1962.Since the houses construction in 1928 it has had 3 owners. The first owner was a river boat captain who had the house built into the side of the mound.
Sugar Loaf Mound is the last surviving prehistoric Native American mound in Saint Louis. Saint Louis used to have lots of mounds. In fact, it had so many mounds that it used to be called "Mound City". One by one the mounds were brought down in the interest of expansion and development. Surprisingly, the very thing that saved this mound was the very thing that brought all the others down. When Captain Adams built his house into the side of the mound so he could enjoy the best views of the river he prevented it's likely demolition.
The mound is probably 1,000 or more years old. There is much speculation about what the mound was used for. Some say it was a signal mound, while others say it was used for a temple or burial. Whatever the original use was it is beautiful and so are the views.
I encourage people to come view this property while it is on the market. This may be the only time for another 50 years that you will be able to take in the scenery from the top of this mound. The first open house open to the public will be November 9, 2008 from 12-4 pm.
This blog will be updated with more rich stories and history about the mound, its owners, and Saint Louis history. Please keep checking back!
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3 comments:
Do you know if artifacts have been found in the other mounds as they were torn down over the years, or if they were found to be simply large hills of dirt?
From what I have read, some artifacts were unearthed, but there was not much interest back then in preserving the heritage of the native peoples, so there is no known listing or collections to this day. You can learn more my searching "Cahokia Mounds", "Great Mound", or "Sugar Loaf Mound". Hopefully, the Osage will honor the past with a museum at the remaining mound with more information, too.
Oliver Schauemberg and his wife Anna owned that house when I was a small child (Uncle Oliver). They had a parascope susposedly from a German sub on the back porch, We would look across the Mississippi to the Illinois shore and also at boats going by.
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