When Wayne Winchester bought Jensen’s Point near Pacific, Missouri, as part of a package deal for his WINTEC Pharmaceutical business in 1991, he didn’t have to preserve the historic property.
But he did, because he fell in love with it.
“Once I bought that property, I knew that Jensen’s Point had to be saved for posterity,” Winchester said in a recent article in the Washington Missourian. “It’s just a beautiful, beautiful place on the Old Route 66.”
Winchester fenced Jensen’s Point to foil would-be vandals, ran off trespassers and kept up critical maintenance of the property until the city of Pacific bought it, restored it and reopened it to the public in 2016.
As a last gift to Jensen’s Point fans, Winchester recently published a heavily illustrated 90-page book, “Jensen Point: Stop and Reminisce,” about the history of the site and the people who made it reality.
As the longtime former owner, Winchester became privy to a lot of Jensen’s Point history, including interviewing George Detchemendy, who supervised its construction by Civilian Conservation Corps workers during the 1930s. Detchemendy told Winchester Jensen’s Point was built from stone quarried and cut on-site and moved into place by horses and mules.
Jensen’s Point, with its stone gazebo at its peak, sits on a silica bluff east of Pacific that overlooks the Meramec River Valley, two railroad lines and Route 66. It was named botanist Lars Peter Jensen, an early director of the Shaw Arboretum in nearby Gray Summit, Missouri.
Winchester dug up many old photographs and fascinating tidbits about Jensen. He laid out the grounds of many properties owned by beer magnate Adolphus Busch, including Grant’s Farm in southwest St. Louis.
Jensen also directed the beautification of Route 66 from St. Louis city limits to the Arboretum. Several roadside plaques that once lined the roadway are long gone. Many of the flowers planted along Route 66 continued to bloom annually until the 1990s, when they were dug up and stolen.
Fortunately, the daffodils that Jensen planted at Jensen’s Point continue to pop up each spring.
Jensen died at age 71 in 1941, less than two years after the dedication of Jensen’s Point. He is buried in Rock Hill, Missouri, which is another old Route 66 town.
Winchester also includes brief but informative histories, photographs and memorabilia about Jensen’s memorial service, Henry Shaw Gardenway, the Bascom/Crews House where Jensen once lived, and the CCC’s 1770th Company in Pacific that built Jensen’s Point.
The author also passes along a few anecdotes he collected during his ownership of the site, including its former reputation as a make-out spot for lovers:
“One elderly gentleman from town quipped that more babies were conceived on Jensen Point than all of the bedrooms in Pacific. According to rumors and a few family tales, this might have actually been true at one time.”
Winchester includes color photographs during his tenure as Jensen’s Point owner. One set shows hair-raising images of two workers replacing the gazebo’s roof without the use of safety harnesses.
Other images include weddings, memorials, parties, family reunions and, finally, the second dedication May 30, 2016, after the city bought the property.
(Some of the book sales’ proceeds will go to Moving Kids on the Spectrum and to help restore Jensen’s Point. To buy copies, contact Winchester at waynewinchester542@gmail.com or call 636-584-1375, or contact Brenda Wiesehan at brenda@pacificframer.com or call 314-393-7996.)
How awesome to have a book with inside information. We visited the point several years ago and it was a highlight of the trip even without being open or restored. We will have to go back and see it as it was intended. Thank you Wayne Winchester for taking care of this wonderful place. Look forward to getting the book.
I’m scrounging around on the InterWeb, mostly Google Maps. The article claims that Lars-Peter Jensen is buried at Rock Hill, MO. This is now a suburb of STL, on the Manchester Rd alignment but I cannot find a cemetery within Rock Hill proper. Find-A-Grave.com gives a listing for Lars Peter Jensen, 1869-1941, buried in St. Paul’s Churchyard (or cemetery?) in Affton, which is a few miles south of Manchester Rd and even a few blocks south of Watson Road. Has anyone checked this out? Also curious: while there seems to be a St. Paul’s churchyard, there doesn’t seem to be a church in that area – or at least nothing that I can see from Google Maps.
The citation about Jensen being buried in Rock Hill came from the book.
I found two St. Louis newspaper articles from 1941 that reported Jensen’s death. He was to be buried in St. Paul’s churchyard, but it didn’t list what city.
Regrettably, I’m not that familiar with the history of St. Louis. However, findagrave.com gives the location as “St. Paul’s Churchyard” which is right across Rock Hill Road from St. Paul’s cemetery — the more likely location of the actual burial — in Affton, which is also a suburb of St. Louis, a few blocks south of Watson Rd. It’s a good bet that our master gardener is buried there. The info from the book probably confuses Rock Hill Road with the city of Rock Hill, which is a few miles north.