Riverside City History
Belgium Bottoms

The Belgium Bottoms came into existence in the southwest corner of Riverside (toward Parkville), when this area of the Missouri River valley was settled by approximately 10 families immigrating from Belgium. Riverside resident Gus Vandepopuliere said his grandfather, Gustoph Vandepopuliere, was one of the first. "The Deconinks were the very first family to locate here," he recalled. "They came right after World War I." Most of the Belgian immigrants raised produce for sale at the City Market or in St. Joseph. These ran true family farms. "I worked with my grandfather," Gus Vandepopuliere recalled. "We raised asparagus, parsnips and cabbage using teams of horses and mules."

Vandepopuliere admits there are some mysteries he has never solved. "Those parsnips. I wonder what they did with them," he laughs today. "You never saw them in the stores."

Today the "Belgium Bottoms" name lives on in one of Riverside's light industrial developments.

NEXT»