WENTZVILLE — At one time, Pete Luetkenhaus owned one of the only restaurants in town.

He took over an old A&W location on Pearce Boulevard in 1966 and turned it into Pete’s Drive-In. Today, Pete’s is considered a Wentzville landmark where patrons still can get car-side service and order what diner staff say are the best cheeseburgers in town.

In the years since he bought the place, Luetkenhaus, 83, has watched as the city’s population swelled from about 3,000 to more than 41,000. In an important way, though, he says the city in St. Charles County hasn’t changed. It still feels like a small town to him.

“This is a good town, with good people,” Luetkenhaus said. “We live on regulars. We don’t do any advertising; it’s all word of mouth.”

Incorporated in 1903, Wentzville began as a hardscrabble railroad town, stretching only seven blocks. And for most of the 20th century, it remained small. Its population gains, beginning in the 1970s, mirrored growth elsewhere in St. Charles County — and, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, it hasn’t slowed down.