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The first tax was collected for street repair work in Kirkwood in 1865.  Every male resident and business owner was assessed $1.00 each.  The total amount collected was $158.00.  This was not enough to repair roads so the trustees of Kirkwood used the money to hire a Pound Keeper.  His job was to keep hogs, cows, goats, and other animals off of the streets to allow for the safe movement of horse and wagons.  At this time an ordinance was passed fining citizens for throwing manure and garbage into city streets and sidewalks.

The City of Kirkwood Street Department was formed in April 1889.  The first employee hired for the department was L.W. Wright.  He earned $400.00 per year and was required to provide his own tools and implements.

The first Street Department vehicle was purchased in 1919.  It was a Ford pickup truck.  Before that date all department equipment was horse-drawn.  Today, the department operates a fleet of 26 trucks.

In 1920, the department purchased a tractor as its first piece of construction equipment.  Today, the Street Department has 67 pieces of riding construction equipment as well as many smaller pieces of equipment such as concrete saws, millers, compressors, and vibrators. 

Most streets in Kirkwood remained dirt until the 1920s when many of them were macadamized.  Macadam streets were constructed using layers of large rock covered with smaller rock and asphalt fillers.  Almost one-third of the streets in Kirkwood today are constructed using this macadam technique.  At that time, sidewalks were constructed using wood planks. 

During the 1920s, city streets were not plowed during snowstorms; only sidewalks were.  At that time, snow removal equipment consisted of a V-Plow hitched to a mule.  Today the Street Department operates 10 truck-mounted salt spreader/snowplow combinations, two front-end loaders, and eight pickup truck snowplows. Several thousand tons of salt are used each winter to clear snow and ice from city-maintained streets.

During the depression years of the 1930s, the Street Department remained small, performing only maintenance activities.  In order to help its less fortunate citizens, the city allowed all able bodied men who could not pay their utilities to work two days per week for the Street Department until their bill was paid.  During this time the city workforce grew from 150 to 300 employees.  As a result, many roads, storm sewers, sidewalks, and curbs were constructed.  At that time, streets were laid by hand one rock at a time in what is referred to as riprap construction.  These rock bases are still functioning efficiently under many of Kirkwood’s streets to this day.

The Sign Department was added to the Street Department in the 1950s.  Its first job was to replace all of the existing street signs with miniature Washington Monument-inspired obelisks.  These concrete monuments were painted with street names on all four sides.  Several of these miniature monuments are still in use in the central part of Kirkwood today.

During the last 30 years, the Street Department has steadily decreased in size from over 40 employees to the present 13.