"Finally, shop and eat in Ladue! Our business owners are your neighbors and we want to support our local shops." Mayor Nancy closed her letter in the City of Ladue's Fall 2026 newsletter that way. The same letter said Ameren's first phase of work in the Clayton Road Business District was expected to finish by the end of October "so we can enjoy shopping in the district without construction interference."
The timing matters because Ladue's December happens on a short stretch of road. Small Business Saturday, a holiday open house, the city's 90th birthday gathering and the Ladue Merchants Holiday Walk all fall within eight days, and nearly all of them are on or near Clayton Road between Lay and Price. That is the stretch where the city has spent the fall adding a pedestrian signal, rebuilding sidewalk and clearing utility work out of the way. In a city that grew up around the car, the Holiday Walk is the one weekend each year that asks people to cross Clayton Road on foot, again and again, between shops.
A Signal Where the Walk Crosses Clayton Road
Clayton Road through the business district is a busy four-lane road, as the city's newsletter describes it. In 2022 the city completed a pedestrian audit of the district. One of its recommendations was a High-Intensity Activated Crosswalk beacon, known as a HAWK, at the existing crosswalk just west of Dwyer Place.
A HAWK is built for exactly this kind of crossing. A traditional traffic signal cycles all the time. This one stays dark until someone presses the button to cross. According to the city's Public Works project updates, there will be a push button on each side of the road and a single mast arm rising from a base on the south side. The city got an easement from the property on the north side so the sidewalk could be widened for the push-button pole.
The project was designed in 2025 and bid in March 2026. Gerstner Electric began construction on August 26, and the city's schedule called for completion by late fall. The newsletter gives the address as 9901 Clayton Road, which is also the address of Sportsman's Park Restaurant & Bar. So the new crossing sits at the west end of the shopping stretch, the end farthest from Lay Road.
Three Projects, One Corridor
The crosswalk is one of three jobs on the same blocks this fall. Taken together, they explain why the district has had cones and crews since late summer, and why the city's letter tied the end of that work to holiday shopping.
| Project | Who is doing it | Where | Started | Scheduled to finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| HAWK pedestrian signal | Gerstner Electric, for the City of Ladue | 9901 Clayton Road, west of Dwyer Place | August 26, 2026 | Late fall 2026 |
| Grid upgrades behind the storefronts | Ameren Missouri | Behind Clayton Road businesses, Waverton Drive to Magnolia Drive | August 24, 2026 | Scheduled through October 31, 2026, for this phase |
| ADA sidewalk, Phase VI | PCX, for the City of Ladue | Clayton Road, Lay Road to Price Road | Notice to proceed August 31, 2026 | By the end of 2026 |
The utility work is the largest of the three. Ameren's project page describes it as part of its Smart Energy Plan in Ladue, covering the Clayton Road business corridor and nearby neighborhoods. The work includes trimming tree limbs that can interfere with power lines and upgrading roughly six miles of overhead lines, done in phases through fall 2027. Ameren scheduled the work behind the Clayton Road storefronts to run through October 31, and that window applies only to this phase. Other phases in the surrounding blocks continue into next year.
The sidewalk work has been running longer than any of these projects. The mayor's letter describes new sidewalk along Clayton Road from Lay to Stone Hall Cabinetry, just east of Price Road. It also notes that Ladue has installed 6.85 miles of new concrete sidewalk since adopting its Citywide Sidewalk Implementation Plan in 2012. PCX received its notice to proceed on August 31, and crews began removing old sidewalk on September 10. The same letter says a shared-use path extension from Deer Creek Preserve will eventually link neighborhoods south of I-64/40 to the city's trail and then into the business district. That path is in final engineering and set for construction in 2027.
Walking It by Address
All this work is meant to connect a run of storefronts in the 9600 to 9900 blocks. These are the shops along the route, in address order from the Lay Road end:
- Vie, 9660 Clayton Road. A women's boutique open Monday through Saturday, according to its own site. The shop has been part of this tradition for a long time. When Patch covered the Holiday Walk in November 2011, a Vie employee told the outlet, "We have had a steady stream of traffic."
- Trillium, 9664, and Cha Boutique, 9666. Two more storefronts in the same cluster, both named in a Ladue News feature on Clayton Road's shop owners.
- Great Cover-Up Design, 9708. An interior design boutique whose own event calendar carries most of the district's holiday dates.
- Special Occasions by Paulette, 9712, and All Four Corners Picture Framing Studio, 9716. Both also appear in the Ladue News feature.
- Imagination Toys, 9737. Open for in-store shopping Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., per its website.
- Companion Café, 9781. Open daily from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., per Companion's site, which makes it the earliest door open on a walk morning.
- Ladue Taco, 9783. Next door to Companion, taking orders Wednesday through Sunday from 4 to 8 p.m. The walk is listed as ending at 4 p.m. on December 5, which is when Ladue Taco starts taking orders.
- 9800 Clayton Road. The address St. Louis Mom gave for the 2025 Holiday Walk, which ran from noon to 3 p.m. on December 6 last year with Santa, Frosty the Snowman, carolers, merchant discounts and giveaways.
- The Fashion Class, 9827. A sewing and fashion-design studio of roughly 1,700 square feet in Ladue Marketplace. The City Council granted its special-use approval on September 28, with plans for classes, camps, workshops and parties.
- Sportsman's Park, 9901. The restaurant at the new crosswalk, at the far end of the route.
Ladue News credits the Ladue Merchants Association as the group behind district events, including the Holiday Walk.
Just Off the Route
A shorter drive away, Playa Bowls took over the former JARS space at 8853-Q Ladue Road this summer. St. Louis Magazine reported that it is run by local franchisees Brittany and Jeff Ciaramita, who signed a deal to develop five locations. St. Louis Public Radio included the Ladue shop in its list of August openings.
The Calendar, Thanksgiving to the Walk
Every event below is either on the Clayton Road stretch or at City Hall, a short drive away. They fall in this order:
- Saturday, November 28: Small Business Saturday. Great Cover-Up Design is marking the day with holiday gifts and home accents.
- Tuesday, December 1: Holiday Open House & Cocktail Party at 9708 Clayton Road. An evening of cocktails and shopping in the store after it is decorated for Christmas.
- Thursday, December 3, 4 to 6 p.m.: Hot Chocolate, Cookies & Conversation at City Hall. Ladue was incorporated in December 1936. For its 90th birthday, the city is putting out cake, cookies and hot chocolate, along with items from the city archives and activities for children. The mayor's letter adds, "Everyone is welcome!"
- Saturday, December 5: Ladue Merchants Holiday Walk. Great Cover-Up's event page lists the walk from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with carolers, Santa and holiday shopping. The city has also tentatively scheduled Fill the Fleet for that morning, from 9 a.m. to noon. Ladue police, fire and other city vehicles will collect new, unwrapped toys for Toys for Tots, and the Ladue Youth Council will hand out free hot chocolate to people who donate, according to the city's October 2026 administrative report.
The city's newsletter asks residents to sign up for notices on its website and follow its Facebook and Instagram accounts, where it posts its resident events. Those are the best places to check the final Fill the Fleet details in the days before December 5.
Holiday weekends are also when many Ladue homeowners start thinking about spring. If a sale is on your calendar for next year, Thompson & Richardson can walk you through what a well-timed listing on these blocks involves, from preparation to the first showing. Request a Private Home Consultation, and we will meet you for coffee at Companion before the walk.
