Saint Peters

A 200-year-old historical downtown. The oldest Italian bakery in the St. Louis metro. One of the state’s most-hiked trails. These spots are all within 5 miles of Heritage, a residential enclave situated between the Missouri River to the south and Missouri Route 364 to the north. The small community is so accessible to other parts of St. Charles County, and St. Louis County just across the river, that Mike Fisher, owner of Mike Fisher & Associates Realty, lived in the area for 30 years and only recently moved because he needed to swap a two-story home for a one-story house, he says. “It’s a great location, and the homes are very well kept for their age group.” Heritage’s network of subdivision streets is bordered by neo-colonials and two-story ranch-style homes built anytime from the ‘70s to the last five years. You don’t often see sidewalks cutting through the community’s trimmed lawns, but the common sites of attached garages and wide driveways indicate cars are how residents usually get around. Heritage is in St. Charles County, popular with homebuyers because of its high-quality school districts and plentiful amenities, but because it’s on the southeastern edge of the county, it’s near the jobs hub of St. Louis. The neighborhood's convenience makes it highly desirable, Fisher says. “Homes there are getting top dollar.” A three-bedroom condo can be picked up in the high $100,000s, but three-bedroom detached houses are more likely to be priced in the high $400,000s, with larger houses costing as much as $600,000. What’s more, Heritage features less than a month of inventory, so home shoppers are likely to face a competitive market. Kids here will start their journey through the Francis Howell School District at Becky-David Elementary School, rated an A by Niche and a winner of the U.S. Department of Education’s National Blue Ribbon School award. After fifth grade, children can get a well-rounded experience at Barnwell Middle School, which gets a Niche grade of A for its academics but also offers 15 extracurriculars, including a robotics club, environmental club and jazz band. At Francis Howell North High School, which gets a Niche grade of A-minus, teens can pick from more than 20 Advanced Placement courses from psychology to music theory. Residents have to take an overpass above a busy freeway to access Schaefer Park, but once there they’ll likely find the park – wedged between the highway and a subdivision – is rarely crowded. That means a low chance of facing large crowds while taking the little ones to the playground or strolling through the park’s bunches of wildflowers. Meanwhile, Heritage’s south end is bisected by the Katy Trail, a 240-mile hiking and cycling path that can take you along the bank of the Missouri River to historic downtown St. Charles. Restaurants and shops are few in Heritage. However, its prime location means the community is parked within 5 miles of the city of St. Charles’ commercial zones. In fact, just outside the neighborhood sits Rosciglione Bakery, which originally opened in St. Louis in 1900. More than a century later locals line up for meat-layered Italian sandwiches and cannoli. Continue 2 miles past the bakery, and you’ll arrive at a row of retail centers with a Schnucks supermarket, a Walmart and other shopping stops. Heritage offers residents a rustic riverbank on one side and shopping and dining on the other, with good homes and schools in between.

Northeast of the booming development surrounding St. Charles is a band of rural subdivisions and family farms between the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. These communities include Kampville, South Shore, Orchard Farm and Black Walnut, and they offer a laidback pace of life revolving around agriculture and the riverfront. The area has more vast fields of corn and two-lane country roads than it does shopping malls or dense downtown strips, but Orchard Farm resident Tyler Westerfeld says he and other residents are more than content spending their time floating on the Mississippi River, grilling with friends and family. “The river is one of my favorite places to be. The popular thing to do here is there’s a ferry 5 minutes from here that takes you to Grafton, Illinois across the Mississippi River. You can go there and eat, get something to drink, listen to live music and watch the river roll by.” A house here is likely to look like a 1960s ranch home in a three-street subdivision across the road from a soybean field or a solitary three-garage home (providing enough room to store a boat) with a driveway that ends steps from a riverbank. Elsewhere, there are older farmhouses set on large acreages, many of which have been handed down through several generations. For example, Westerfeld operates Westerfeld Bee Farm LLC at his house, which was built by his great-grandparents in the ‘40s and previously used to raise livestock. Most homes will sell from about $175,000 to $300,000, though larger lots with land zoned for farming will cost much more. Steve Roth, a local Realtor with MO Realty, explains that commercial sod farms and other growers in the area have driven up demand, with land selling for about $15,000 to $25,000 per acre. Another important consideration is that the Kampville area exists in a 100-year floodplain, meaning that flooding is possible, but not likely. The entire area is covered by the Orchard Farm School District, which Niche ranks in the top 10% of Missouri school systems. Students begin at Orchard Farm Elementary School, which gets an A rating from Niche, and advance to Orchard Farm Middle School, which gets an A-minus grade and is also located right next door. Orchard Farm High School is rated a B-plus by Niche and recently opened in January of 2024 to better accommodate the district’s growing student body. One advantage of attending Orchard Farm High is access to technology like 3D printing. The campus contains two 3D printers where students can request free prints. When it comes to spending time outdoors, the Mississippi River is the most popular choice. Several marinas in the area, like River Island Marina, offer access to the river and somewhere to store motorboats so locals can get out onto the water to go fishing or cruising around. "You can go out any weekend in the summer and you'll see hundreds of boats on the river," says Roth. Another popular way to access the Mississippi is Riverside Landing, a local park with a free boat ramp, walking trails and a scenic lookout area. In addition to a newly built playground, the park also offers concrete pads and electrical hookups for RV camping. Residents can also trade the riverfront for a day at the lake by heading to 370 Lakeside Park. Located just south of Kampville, the park’s arsenal of rental equipment allows visitors to borrow kayaks and canoes to streak across the 140-acre lake or rent a bicycle and pedal the asphalt trails circling the lake's grassy banks. On the shore, park-goers can fire off arrows at the archery range or let their pets roam off-leash at the dog park. Restaurants and retail are few and far between, but residents often mingle at Boathouse Food & Deck, perched along the Mississippi River next to Northshore Marina. Sure the kitchen’s cod sandwiches and Cajun pasta are hits with customers, but the restaurant’s real treat is the view from the deck, where patrons can sip fruity drinks while watching the sunset transform the blue sky and green trees on the far bank into orange-colored hues. For grocery runs or other shopping trips, a trek to neighboring St. Charles is probably necessary, since it’s the closest place to find big stores like Target or Save A Lot supermarket. Another local dining opportunity can be found just across the river in Grafton, which is "Loaded with all kinds of restaurants", says Roth. Grafton Winery & Brewhaus is a popular spot for wine tasting and dining on charcuterie, while The Loading Dock offers sandwiches, waterfront seating and live music. Despite being located in a rural area, Westerfeld says, “I love the location. It’s a little agricultural, but I can be at Main Street St. Charles in 15 minutes. I can be at St. Louis International Airport in 20 minutes. I can be at a St. Louis Cardinals game in 30 minutes.” Cars are necessary for getting around the neighborhood, and, with Interstate 70 passing right through Saint Charles, residents can drive the 25 miles to Downtown Saint Louis in just over 30 minutes. Kampville receives a CAP Index crime score of 1 out of 10, which is lower than the national average. The national average is a score of 4.