William Frank Greenwald, 1891–1961

William Frank Greenwald (also spelled Gruenwald and Gruenewald) was born on 18 August 1891 in a house located at 2713 Missouri Avenue in St. Louis, Missouri. His parents were Harry and Mathilda Augusta (Meyer) Gruenwald, both of St. Louis. The family lived at 2713 Missouri Avenue until 1895; then at 2714 Bismarck Street from approximately 1895 through 1900. When his father, Harry, died in 1898, Mathilda married Adam Winter, who raised William and his siblings: Lillian Louise (Gruenwald) Sappington, 1886–1977; August Henry Gruenwald, 1887–1888; Frederick Greenwald, 1889–1981, and George Greenwald Winter, 1894–1992.

During the early 1900s, Adam Winter moved the family from the city out to a farm on Kennerly Road near its intersection with Old Gravois Road. By the time of the 1910 census, William Frank Greenwald lived at 7302 Minnesota Ave in the City with his sister, Lillian, and her husband, Joseph Eddie Sappington, but also on the Kennerly Road farm.

Adam married Bertha Wilhelmina Caroline Helbig, the daughter of John E. and Bertha W. C. (Ehmke) Helbig at St. Luke’s Lutheran Church on Taft Avenue in St. Louis on 12 March 1912. The family located to Sappington about 1917, where they lived until about 1940 when they moved to 510 South Fillmore Avenue in Kirkwood. They had five children: Leroy John, 1912–1995; Lillian Helen (Greenwald) Grommet, 1915–2000; Theodore Walter, 1920–2017; William George, 1922–1995; and Walter Frank, 1928–2014.

William Frank Greenwald was a carpenter and worked on the construction of the Bevo Mill in 1916. During the 1920s and 1930s, he started a realty company, building custom homes in the St. Louis area. He served on the initial building committee of the original Rott School, ultimately resigning from the committee to bid on and build the school. He worked on the building and/or remodeling of the Holz Navajo Hotel, now the Sisters Tea House and Gift Shop in Fenton. He also built homes at 510, 516, and 520 South Fillmore, two of which are still standing.

During the years 1941 through 1943, William and his sons, Leroy, Theodore, and William built military camps in Kansas. By 1943/44 William and his son Leroy were working on the ALCAN highway project in Canada; while his sons Theodore and William served in the U.S. Army Air Corps in the Pacific and European theatres respectively.

Following WWII, William Greenwald and Sons was formed. They built many of the homes, schools, churches, fire houses and city halls in the St. Louis and St. Louis County area until the company closed in 1985 and all of the family members retired.

William Frank Greenwald was a lifelong Lutheran attending Salem Lutheran Church, Affton, and Concordia Lutheran Church, Kirkwood. He died on 21 October 1961 and Bertha (Helbig) Greenwald, died on 15 July 1954. Burial for both was at Sunset Memorial Park.

(Sources include the U.S. census, marriage licenses, family interviews, death certificates, and employment and religious records)

Written by Theodore Wm. Greenwald
June 2019

© 2019, St. Louis Genealogical Society