The Ghost Town of Allenton, Missouri

Allenton founded in 1890, was a small railroad community located along the Old Route 66 Highway. Once a thriving community, Allenton started to decline as the area surrounding the town began to develop. Economic shifts forced Allenton to become a community of mainly low-income housing. In 1973, St. Louis County declared the Town of Allenton blighted, and in 1985 St. Louis County allowed the City of Eureka to annex the dying community. In 2006 St. Louis County and the City of Eureka claimed that the former community didn't generate enough tax revenue to justify its existence. The City of Eureka used Emanate Domain to force residents out of their homes and sold the property to a private real estate investment company to build a thousand acre housing development. Today very little remains of the Town of Allenton. Main Street along with a few other roads are still marked by street signs but have fallen into disrepair. Remnants of old houses and fence posts can be seen littering vacant lots. Old mailboxes with their former house numbers still legible can be found standing along the now abandoned streets. Today, it seems that the purpose of these nearly forgotten symbols is to stand in quiet testament to prove a community once existed.