Charlack, MO

Charlack is a small St. Louis County city at the meeting of St. Charles Rock Road and Lackland Road. Its name is a literal map mash-up: Charlack joins "Charles" from St. Charles Rock Road with "Lack" from Lackland. The road crossing also shows the city's old municipal story. Before Charlack incorporated in 1945, St. Louis County, St. Ann, and Overland took turns patrolling the village. The crossing is still the city's clearest landmark for residents and drivers alike today.

Charlack's first local police station was a ten-by-four-foot building behind a gas station at that intersection, with a sheriff and two deputies. In the late 1970s, the village bought the building that housed City Hall and the police department from a grocer who lived behind his store. Most of Charlack lies in the Ritenour School District, with a smaller section in the Normandy Schools Collaborative. The city's everyday map still comes down to two roads, a civic building, and school-district lines.