Editing Wellston, Missouri (section)

==History==
[[File:Industry in Wellston, Missouri.jpg|thumb|right|Industrial area in Wellston]]
Wellston was incorporated as a city in 1909. Due to "government difficulties" the city was dissolved three years later, becoming an unincorporated place in Central Township,<ref>[https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/6224/records/3408062 Wellston, Central Township]. Residence of Estelle Krebs in the 1930 United States Federal Census. Accessed via ancestry.com subscription site, 3 April 2025.</ref> only to be reestablished as a city in 1949.<ref name="thesis">{{cite thesis| title= A case study of brownfield redevelopment in Wellston, MO| work= [[Thesis]] | publisher=[[Kansas State University]] | year=2009 | author=Ashley Williams |hdl = 2097/1340| type= Thesis }}</ref> The city was named for [[Erastus Wells]].<ref>http://stlouis.missouri.org/neighborhoods/history/arlington/text1.htm Neighborhood Histories--Arlington accessed 8/29/2010</ref>

During the early 1900s, the [[Wagner Electric|Wagner Electric Company]], a manufacturer of small motors for [[Small appliance|appliances]] and [[transformer]]s, began development along Plymouth Avenue in Wellston, growing to occupy the entire block and providing 4,500 jobs during [[World War I]].<ref name="thesis"/> North of the Wagner site, ABEX Corporation built a steel foundry that began operation in 1923.<ref name="thesis"/>

In 1982 ABEX moved out of its Wellston location; the next year, the Wagner Electric Company closed its doors.<ref name="thesis"/>  After closure, it took 22 years, and millions of dollars in tax credits and development grants, for the St. Louis County Economic Council to demolish five buildings and clean up {{convert|15|acre}} of the Wagner [[brownfield land]] along the MetroLink so that it could be made marketable as the Plymouth Industrial Park.<ref>{{cite news| title= Wellston industrial park prepped for construction | url= http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2005/01/31/focus12.html?t=printable | publisher=[[St. Louis Business Journal]] | date= January 28, 2005 | access-date=2010-04-20 | first=Leigh | last=O'Keefe}}</ref>