American Inn & Garage

600 Highway At, Villa Ridge, MO 63089
Phone:

East < GO > West

This uniquely styled stone building with it's stacked cupolas was built in the early 1930s as a garage and filling station as part of the adjacent American which occupied an large old log house. But this was the era of the Great Depression and the filling station and garage were closed and the log house was standing empty by early 1937. The garage underwent a dramatic renovation in the spring of 2021 becoming a strikingly good looking building as seen in the photo above. The gable roof in the center of the filling garage building originally extended out over the pump island allowing for a drive through between the pumps and the building. The photo of the renovated building was sent to me, I'm looking forward to seeing the building again in person later.

The property is located on Hwy. AT at American Inn Road.
GPS: 38.461896, -90.873691

This 2017 photo of the pre-renovation buildings shows how significant the renovation changed the appearance of the garage. The American Inn and the garage were connected by an addition at some point, probably in the 1990s. Both the connecting addition and the Inn have been torn down. Over the years the log house has been completely covered by modern siding among other changes, including the door to nowhere on the second floor and the addition of the enclosed entry on the front of the first floor.

In mid-1937 the property became home to the new American Inn and Garage On March 1, 1937 Eugene and Marguerite Meyer moved in and reopened the American Inn restaurant on the ground floor of the log house. They lived on the second floor of the new restaurant. Mrs. Meyer was apparently quite an accomplished cook and the restaurant attracted politicians and prominent citizens from the local area St. Louis. They announced their retirement on the restaurant's 37th anniversary on March 1, 1974.

The garage building was a day care center in the early 1990s. When we went by in 2017 the old garage building had a sign on the side indicating it was a computer shop of some kind and the two buildings had been connected.

Photo(s): 2017, 2021