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Earliest travel through the Ritenour area was on the road from St. Louis to St. Charles, now known as the St. Charles Rock Road. It was the first road to traverse St. Louis County, connecting the two oldest settlements in eastern Missouri. This road furnished access to the Santa Fe and Oregon trails for the many west bound wagon trains that were outfitted at St. Louis. A ferry, established in 1805, afforded a river crossing at St. Charles. In 1819, St. Charles Road was established as a post and stage road and in 1825 the County Court appointed overseers to realign its course. An act of 1837 incorporated the road as the St. Louis and St. Charles Turnpike with an eighty foot wide right-of-way and a 24 foot wide roadway.
After passage of the Missouri Plank Road Law in 1851, the road was constructed of 2-1/2 inch thick oak planks laid on three sills lengthwise in the roadway. Tolls were established and gates were set up. By 1862, some parts of St. Charles Road were macadamized and three years later it had been built of rock for its length, leading to the "Rock Road" title it still bears. It became the first concrete highway in the county in 1921 when its twelve mile length from Wellston to St. Charles was paved at a cost of $600,000.Within St. Louis, the road was later named in honor of Rufus Easton, the City's first postmaster and recently it was renamed in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
A portion of the land along St. Charles Rock Road, just outside the southwest boundry of Woodson Terrace, housed a dogtrack that drew many people to the region. Along the northeast border of Woodson Terrace, The Marvin Park Methodist Church owned campgrounds where they held their revivals and held summer camp for children from the city of St. Louis. As people began to frequent the area, they also began to settle there. The Marvin Park subdivision stands on the site of the old Marvin Park campgrounds. Approximately 85% of the land west of present day Woodson Road was a cattle farm owned by the Herklotz family. The home that stands in the J. L. Brown city park belonged to the Herklotz family. The Meyer family owned a large farm on the opposite side of what is now Woodson Road. These farms were bought up by developers who built homes and businesses in the community after World War II.
Woodson Road started out as an Indian footpath, and then became a cowpath for local farms in the area in the early 1800's. The road is reported to be named after the Richard Woodson family., who were farmers in the area. The road was later paved and connects Woodson Road with St Charles Rock Road.
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