Oakville is a Census-Designated Place and is located in South St. Louis County in the 63129 Zip Code area. Is about 25 minutes south of Downtown St. Louis via Interstate 55. Important roads for the community are Lemay Ferry Road, Baumgartner Road, Telegraph Road, Christopher Road, Ringer Road, Forder Road, Butler Hill Road and many others. The western edge of the community is the Meramec River. The eastern edge is the Mississippi River.
The residents in the Oakville community are served by the Mehlville School District. The district has two high schools, Oakville High School and Mehlville High School. The district also has four middle schools, ten elementary schools and an early childhood center. There are also three private Catholic schools that offer education for students Kindergarten through 8th grade.
Oakville has several St. Louis County Parks located within its borders. Three of them, Earl Widman County Park, Ferdinand M. Classe Park and Albrecht County Park were donated by individuals to St. Louis County and are natural parks and not developed. The others were purchased and have been developed. Those parks are Cliff Cave County Park and Bee Tree County Park. Cliff Cave Park has been designated as a Heritage Park and features a natural cave, Cliff Cave, which is the second longest cave in St. Louis County, three trails of differing length, fishing in the Mississippi River, a shelter, overlooks and more. Bee Tree Park features such amenities as 2 picnic shelters and a picnic site, playgrounds, trails, fishing in the Mississippi River, the Nims Mansion, and an overlook of the Mississippi River. Bee Tree Park is one of several St. Louis County Parks that can be used as a "wedding venue" and actually features several areas that can be used as a wedding site.
The area of Oakville that is located in the southern point where the Meramec and the Mississippi Rivers meet, has been settled since before the Louisiana Purchase in 1804. Several early settlers where given extensive Spanish land grants in the late 1780s. One of them was Jean Baptiste D'Gamache Jr. who surveyed the land for the Spanish road known as El Camino Real or "The King's Highway" that extended from St Louis to New Madrid Missouri. That road later became part of Telegraph Road. D'Gamache also ran a ferry across the Meramec at about where Telegraph Road crosses it today. Another early settler was Phillip Fine, Sr. He established two ferries, one across the Mississippi and one across the Meramec. At one time his son, Benjamin Fine, had plans to establish a river town and even filed plats but his plans never came about. A road in Oakville is named "Finestown" as a reminder of his idea.
Oakville has many buildings that are older that fifty years old. Several of them are considered St. Louis County Landmarks. One of them is the house that was built in 1929 for Eugene Nims, the Nims Mansion, and is located in the Bee Tree County Park. Another is the Fassen-Eiler Farmhouse that was built in 1857 by Phillip Fine's brother, Charles. One other St. Louis County Landmark in Oakville is the St. Paul's Parsonage that was built in 1878 as the parsonage for St. Paul's Church.