Neighborhood History 

The first homes in the Southampton Neighborhood were built around 1905. The brick “arts and crafts” homes were constructed primarily in the 1930′s, Original residents say this type of home took about one year to build. Much of the original tract of land part of the Decker Farm was developed by the Mercantile Trust Company.

Mr. Sihrett supervised the building of the Subdivision and named it “Southampton” after a town in his native England. Many other streets in Southampton are also named after towns in England: Nottingham, Hampton, Devonshire, Lansdowne, Murdoch, Sutherland, Brannon and Macklind.

Early Southampton residents carried water to their homes from a spring at Nottingham and Kingshighway until a water main was constructed.

This area was one of several chosen as a possible site for the 1904 World′s Fair. Unfortunately, it was determined to be almost impossible to run adequate transportation facilities to the Southampton area and Forest Park ended up as the chosen location.