Busch Garden Drive

This street might confuse those who remember Busch Gardens, an amusement park that operated between 1964 and 1979, as being twenty miles away in North Hills. The Anheuser-Busch brewing company owned that property. Lilly Anheuser Busch (1844-1928) owned this one. Born in Germany, she was a daughter of Eberhard Anheuser (1806-1880), who set up a brewery in St. Louis in 1860. The following year, she married Adolphus Busch (1839-1913), another German immigrant, who became half-owner of the brewery in 1869. The company was rebranded Anheuser-Busch ten years later, not long after Adolphus created the Budweiser brand. The Busches were based in St. Louis but bought a winter home on Orange Grove Blvd. in 1904. (Previous owner: John S. Cravens.) They would acquire much more land across town, including some 38 acres that they opened to the public as “Busch Gardens” in 1906. Lilly subdivided the Busch Gardens tract in 1920 but Busch Garden Drive, Busch Place, Garden Lane, etc. weren’t laid out until 1949.