How Wentzville Became One Of Missouri's Fastest Growing Cities

Wentzville is one of Missouri's fastest growing cities. This St. Louis suburb is located in St. Charles County, which is the wealthiest county in all of Missouri. The city of St. Louis has it's troubles and continues to decline, however the Greater St. Louis area has quite a few nice areas to call home, and Wentzville is one of them.
0:00 - 7:40 Cookie Cutter Suburbia
7:40 - 8:15 Timberland High School
8:15 - 14:56 Old Town Area
14:56 - 17:10 Holt High School
17:10 - 19:49 GM Plant
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[@ChrisHarden]

See more of what the Wentzville area looks like here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oJjNeWmma7SBotU St. Louis Suburbs Playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PLkAKbwTlGHeI5aIcCV3CrAaJR-ruM5hYR Missouri Playlist: kzbin.info/aero/PLkAKbwTlGHeIXvc8HEI2mmzzTnnJCcnB9 Help me grow my 2nd channel! KZbin.com/@ChrisHardenArchives ==================================================================== EVERYTHING THAT I USE IN THE FIELD: Main Camera: amzn.to/3iS4vvF Side Cameras: amzn.to/2WuCYIs Media Mod for Camera: amzn.to/3j7CMGF Lav Mic: amzn.to/3lsMkz9 Drone: amzn.to/3ITcKBV SD Cards: amzn.to/3C2co9O Camera Mounts: amzn.to/2UXVR6p Cables Required for Longer Recordings: amzn.to/3BYnr3Q Computer: amzn.to/3787b2j External Hard Drive: amzn.to/3lb23Tf WHAT I USE AT HOME: Computer: amzn.to/3rKIdiN Sound Mixer: amzn.to/3C15Ubx Microphone: amzn.to/2VaCjvo Microphone Accessories: amzn.to/3v7A35Z INTERACTIVE MAP that shows you all of the places that I've made videos on: (Doesn't always work on mobile devices. Will always work on PC.) www.google.com/maps/d/u/2/edit?hl=en&mid=1Lhzf04ocimPu-ROkg4cfXEYEvKMNnlI5&ll=40.42251908668993%2C-85.1051609828125&z=9 SOCIAL MEDIA & CONTACT INFO: Email: [e-mail] On Twitter: twitter.com/Chris_Harden55 On Instagram: instagram.com/c_harden7 On Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisHardenYT DISCLAIMER: Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you. As an Amazon Associate I do earn a small commission on qualifying purchases. As always, thank you for supporting my channel!

[@joeybutafuco1845]

40 minutes from wentzville to downtown St Louis? Maybe at 3 in the morning! Lol great video!

[@williamgates4399]

I remember growing up in the 1960s. We would drive out to Wentzille. I had a girlfriend who lived in Wentzill. I would go from Maplewood, MO. Just west of St Louis. Thank goodness gas prices were around 30 cents per gallon back then. No big box stores and no major home improvement centers. Just a spot in the road off of the highway.

[@katevernor2244]

This was a great video and thank you for this amazing overview! I think the commentary about bringing a chain into Old Town really missed the mark. There are a TON of amazing local places on the drive you took through Old Town: Friendship Brewing, West Allen Grill, Elbee's, Not Jaded Tea Room, Thai Kitchen, Lava Lounge, Old Town Smokehouse, Stello Wine Bar, and more. I appreciate the Old Town area being kept focused on local small businesses rather than being commercialized by the chains on the Parkway.

[@charleykeenan6171]

This was pretty eye opening. I feel this is happening all over the country (as you noted "many businesses by the interstate.. like many other towns.." Our town is a suburb of Nashville and that is exactly how the growth has gone here (and in about the same time frame). It tends to leave locals unable/unwilling to stay in their own communities (IMO). That said, thanks for all of the insight into the state of our country at the 4 ft level..

[@UserName-ts3sp]

i grew up in a suburb of columbus not far off the interstate. it’s similar just not quite as rapid growth as wentzville

[@jKLa]

It's really mostly ongoing white flight from North St. Luois County. That has really slowed down a lot since 2010 though. The pace of racial change in the transitional parts of northern county is still significant in some parts but has slowed WAY DOWN on average over just the past decade.

[@lstradamus]

This was excellent can't wait for part two.

[@ThePumpin1]

Wentzville is "growing" at the expense of other communities in the area. The population of the St. Louis metro isn't gaining NEW growth, just shifting it. Most of the residents just moved to Wentzville because of "white flight."

[@CJColvin]

Wentzville Missouri is where I bought my 1996 Ford F150 from.

[@CJColvin]

They should at least beef up the downtown area in Wentzville to give it a more urban vibe as well as some culture (simalar to what Kirkwood, Webster Groves, Maplewood, University City, and Clayton have) considering everyone is moving there to Wentzville and St.Charles County is the wealthiest county in Missouri.

[@SJRS700]

no its perfect, dont want to ruin it by urban vibe

[@CJColvin]

@SJRS700 Basically you don't like walk ablity then?

[@TakenTook]

This looks very similar to a lot of the upper middle class and wealthier exurbs around Detroit, in that you can still see some areas where older farm houses and adjacent fields haven't been sold off yet, interspersed with subdivisions with a bunch of huge houses on plots of land barely wide enough to hold them.

[@tonystarks1538]

I'm from Kinloch, MO but my dad moved to Wentzville in the early 2000s. Just 20 years ago there was almost nothing out there especially compared to what it looks like now. It's crazy how only 30 mins out of the city the cultures are so different. Wentzville is super nice tho and coming from where I'm from it really opens your eyes to a different way of living.

[@shellyeemiller6524]

My dad used to be a sign painter and lived there in the late 70's and early 80's he owned Randy's Sign Co. and painted all the billboards out on the higways all around there and signs too for towns all around there! Me and my sister would come up and stay in the summers to visit my dad, I miss those days so much! I wish I could get an old map of Wentzville and pictures of the older town to see if my dads old sign shop building is still there! I remember there being an old sewinf factory not far from it we would too and see his friend who cleaned the factory in the evenings and me and my sister always thought it was so cool, wew were every where in that building looking at everything! 😊 If anyone has Any information please reach out to me and let me know! I would glady appreciate it!

[@302Mustang13]

So that is the plant that builds the Colorado and Canyon. I knew it was built in MO but thought it was in the southwest part of the state. Nice to have a plant that gets good product unlike my community.

[@kylemoreland]

I used to work in Wentzville, and my boss would joke and say that Wentzville used to have 6,000 people and 3 bowling alleys, now they have 30,000 people and no bowling alleys.

[@joelyons3713]

That’s because small businesses was murdered by the Federal Reserve about 100 years ago. Thanks Bye!

[@CAROLDDISCOVER-FINDER2525]

Recently drove down there for UAW car show. Plus knowing people there over the years and when I went to visit we used to sneak over and see somebody perform but I don't think you mentioned. Chuck Berry had a place here for many years. George thorogood did a song heading to wentzville. That's approximately roughly the title of the song. If you had kept going straight instead of turning after the shopping center road and heading towards forestdale the back way, which is subdivision you turned around and might have been or still the line is there someplace. But if it continued going straight that light as A bank's hard to the right, you would have come across a fantastic Pizza Ranch restaurant. We're more familiar than for the North. They got their start in Iowa. Of course at road curves around and crosses highway 61 into another industrial area. As far as the GM plant in the UAW car show. What are brand-new Ford Super duties f-450 doing in there holding lots? They were parked along the perimeter the fence across from the UAW hall. They are inside the fence and they were arranged in specific manner. 1 Chevy 3500hd to Super duties 4:50 or 5:50. Then repeat the pattern. I was recently there in the last month or so. We were invited to come down to the show. Although I never belong to union and went off and got a business degree and kind of work away in a different direction. My family has been well represented in the union skill areas such as the teamsters. Of course Chuck Berry died a few years ago and had that little Lego concern. Your video of This Town including the blend of drone footage was of high-quality.

[@michaelpfister1283]

I have to wonder - with the massive growth in "work from home" jobs, especially in traditional urban centers, does that commute time matter as much? I have to believe that a lot of the folks fleeing St. Louis for places like Wentzville are working from home part-time or full-time.

[@ChrisHarden]

It's possible that they are working from home. A lot of companies though are requiring people to come back into the office. I know my old job was telling us to start preparing to come back in before I left several months ago, but who knows if the work from home thing is here to stay or not. We'll have to wait and see.

[@jKLa]

The growth around Wentzville is mostly ongoing white flight/attrition from suburban North St. County. This has slowed down a LOT in recent years as the everage pace of racial change in transitional neighborhoods has become MUCH slower in just the last decade, but it's still a significant ongoing issue in many places.

[@jKLa]

The more dispersed and also more affluent/educated on average pandemic related flight has now slowed as well but is also ongoing. Calls to come back to the ffice have been widespread but also resisted by many. Office vacancy rates still remain much higher then prepandemic and a fairly huge portion of full time work from home appears to be here to stay.

[@CorinneSTL]

⁠@@ChrisHardenSome people who live in Wentzville commute to St. Louis, but there are a ton of big employers in St. Charles county (Mastercard, MEMC, True manufacturing, citi, Bausch & Lomb, gm, etc). I lived in wentzville because the hubs works for GM. Grew up in St. Charles. Most people don’t have to commute to St. Louis city or county to earn a living.

[@ChrisHarden]

@@CorinneSTL I’m sure a lot of people who live there do work for GM or somewhere in St. Charles county. In that case it’s a perfect location to live. The average commute time for people in Wentzville though is still pretty high. That’s just a fact.

[@frankwoods4532]

Thumbs up!

[@alisongreen3225]

Cookie cutter is the main theme of St. Charles County

[@johng3422]

As a resident of Wentzville I enjoyed your video. You drove by a couple newer sportsbars. One has a big volleyball area. There is a great microbrewery, too. Maybe you got some of that in the next Wentzville video that I am about to watch. And, BTW, your opening aerial view isn't Wentzville.

[@user-vg6vx9ve7j]

From St Peters to Six Flags it takes 90 minutes at 2:00 AM . I-270 is always a parking lot at all hours of the day . I-270 was supposed to help the St Louis area. Not Dexter Lombardo out 🤠

[@arnoldwatcher]

Wentzville is one of the last places where you can flee from St. Louis crime and politics.

[@jetsons101]

Wentzville looks like a nice place to live but you weren't kidding about the "Cookie-Cutter" look, for example 4:26 to 4:48 it's Window--Front Door--Window--Three Car Garage then "repeat" Why is there always a Walmart in nice areas, they do a great job of messing up a great downtown main street. The Old Town Area looks kinda clean, not much if any graffiti. Nice to see a small town/city still put-up Christmas decorations. 17:22 Chris this was a great watch. Hmmm didn't see you get out of the car in this vid......

[@FixItStupid]

Thank You !

[@broosewee]

Don't miss the George Thorogood song - "Back to Wentzville" A tribute song of sorts to Chuck Berry's style of music.

[@OrangeBoss-ww8eb]

due Ofallon Mo had population 789 in 1950 today 91316. largested in metro does it have downtown?????

[@CJColvin]

Nope not at all.

[@robotbuster1487]

George Thorogood wrote a song about Wentzville.

[@MooseBme]

!(: THANKS ;)!

[@ShelterCats]

How did you get into doing this? And I can’t imagine how many miles you rack up on your car.

[@stlstreets1318]

Work car, so Work pays for it 😂

[@danielpayne3336]

no current shots of Berry Park ?

[@johng3422]

There really isn't much there to see. Mainly a big granite memorial that you can see on their website. You can see his home from the road but you can't get into the estate.

[@SJRS700]

Wentzville looks like the Perfect Town, open spaces, big roads, new houses, a really great vibe, Away from the city. Commute times are not a lot, still 100 times better than using public transportation to travel

[@collinhadley4119]

Damn I love using Public transit

[@davidoney3459]

You missed the growth of Lincoln County?

[@cosmictraveler1146]

It’s probably because it was fall but it looks really peaceful but bleaahhhh suburbs stink as a non driving person.

[@user-ws2py3wk3y]

I agree with you but having a big house with a lot of space must be nice.

[@couchfighter]

dude, your in wentzville? stop by the race spot

[@johng3422]

Mid-America Raceway closed a long time ago. It's now a neighborhood. Surprise!

[@badxradxandy]

Can't stand the giant HOA McMansions that used to be farm land.

[@mariakettlehut7399]

No thanks ,to close together.