Back in the 1790s ...

In the 1790s, the first colonial settlers began arriving in the Chesterfield area from the east. Many of the families of this generation gave their names to Chesterfield roads: Conway, Baxter, Clarkson and Long.

Justus Post laid out the actual town of Chesterfield in 1817. Post came from New England to build his fortune and a city. Chesterfield originally stood along the north and south sides of Wild Horse Creek Road between Baxter and Wilson Roads.

The face of the town changed with the arrival of the railroad. Both Drew Station (the train depot) and Burkhardt’s General Store (which also doubled as a hotel) were built at the southeastern intersection of the tracks and Olive Street Road, and the town now developed around this center.

The development of modern Chesterfield came in the 1960s, when Louis Sachs began a complex of condominiums, apartments and office buildings to surround a large regional shopping mall. Chesterfield Village helped Chesterfield grow as a West County suburb. On June 1, 1988, the city of Chesterfield incorporated. Today Chesterfield continues to grow and prosper.