Three acres, one creek, and the neighbor's horses
Wildwood doesn't feel like the rest of suburban St. Louis County, and it was designed that way. Homes sit on large wooded lots, the roads roll and bend with the hills, and a surprising amount of the city still looks like the farms and settlements it incorporated from in 1995.
- Incorporated
- September 1, 1995
- Settlements
- 11 founding communities
- Typical lot
- 3+ acres
- Population
- 35,417 (2020 census)
Eleven settlements, one city
Long before it was a city, Wildwood's woods held a string of farming and stagecoach communities, each with its own store, mill, or crossing. Those names still live on the map and in the city's Historic Markers program: Centaur, Fox Creek, Glencoe, Grover, Hollow, Kelpe, Melrose, Monarch, Orrville, Pond, and Westland Acres.
In the mid-1990s, residents voted to incorporate Wildwood on September 1, 1995, to keep the place rural, wooded, and large-lot. The Historic Markers program that remembers the founding communities won the Missouri preservation community's McReynolds Award in 2022.
Designed to feel far from the sprawl
The three-acre rule. Single-family lots are typically three acres or more, which means the subdivision "backyard" is woods, meadow, or a horse paddock.
Real topography. Wildwood sits on the first ridges of the Ozarks. Elevation changes, limestone bluffs, and creek valleys make every drive a scenic one and every snow a logistics puzzle.
Rural roads on purpose. In much of the city's non-urban zoning, you won't find sidewalks, and pavement is kept narrow. You'll wave at neighbors. The deer won't wave back.
The slow rhythm of a Wildwood week
Saturday, 8 a.m.
The Wildwood Farmers Market at Town Center, May through October. That's where you learn the real local news, between the honey stand and the kettle corn.
Horses, still
Boarding barns, riding academies like Ridgefield Arena, and bridle trails keep Wildwood one of the more horse-friendly corners of the county. You'll see riders on the shoulder of a road more often than you'd expect.
Dirt under the nails
The Wildwood Farms Community Garden, scout troops, church suppers, and an annual Arbor Day sapling giveaway keep the small-town habits alive at the edge of the metro.
The roads you'll come to know
Manchester Road and Clayton Road carry the everyday errands, and Highway 109 threads the middle of the city north to south. Downtown St. Louis is a straight shot east; don't schedule it at rush hour and don't rush the hills. The trade-off for the commute is the drive itself, which is the prettiest in the county.