On this date, voters in Ellisville moved to transition the community from its status as a village to a full-fledged city, according to a history posted on the St. Louis County suburb’s website. The city traces its origins to pre-1837, when Captain James Harvey Ferris of Kentucky settled the area. This photo shows the Ferris house in 1933. Men and women whom Ferris kept as slaves made the house’s bricks by hand, records show.

Photo credit: Historic American Buildings Survey, C. (1933) Captain Harvey Ferris House,Manchester Road, Ellisville, St. Louis County, MO. St. Louis County Ellisville Missouri, 1933. Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/mo0259/.