Natural Bridge Road began in St. Louis County about 1837 as Owens Station Road, leading from Normandy to Owens Station, later incorporated as Bridgeton in 1843. Improved with planks as a toll road in 1851 at a cost of $120,000 shared equally by the Natural Bridge Plank Road Company stockholders and St. Louis County, it was known throughout the 1800s for scenic beauty and one of the best road surfaces in the county, became a county highway in 1945, and was widened to four lanes in 1950. The road took its name from a natural limestone bridge once used to cross the spring-fed Rocky Branch, or Stony Creek, near Salisbury Avenue in St. Louis, and it also served wagon trains heading west to the Oregon and Santa Fe trails. To the east lies Normandy, land acquired by speculator B.C. (Charles) Lucas from victims of the 1811 New Madrid earthquake and named for his father's homeland in Normandy, France; Normandy was incorporated as a town in May 1945 and later became a third class city. Bellerive Country Club was established in 1910 on 128 acres between Natural Bridge Road and Florissant roads, named for Louis St. Ange de Bellerive, the last French governor in North America, and later hosted PGA tournaments and national amateur championships before relocating to west St. Louis County in 1960. Junior college classes began in the former clubhouse in 1960, and the clubhouse and grounds became one of the campuses of the University of Missouri system when it was created in 1963, by which time classes had expanded into nearby storefronts along Natural Bridge Road. Charles Lucas lived on what is now the Incarnate Word Academy and died in a duel with Thomas Hart Benton in 1817, leaving his land to his sister Anne and his brother James. Slightly east at 7717 Natural Bridge stands the 1904 Colonial Revival home of Wilson Price Hunt, grandson of Anne Lucas Hunt, now in commercial use and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Along this section of the St. Vincent Greenway trail, many trees were planted by property owners and are not native to Missouri, but sassafras and black walnut appear in abundance on the south campus. Planned improvements in the area include possible streetscape work by the University, the City of Normandy, and other entities, with a landscaped median, additional street trees, replacement of overhead wires with new street lighting, and anticipated mixed-use redevelopment east toward the Wedge and west near North Hanley Road.