Some good history on an urban muni--Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri USA
http://www.westendword.com/Articles-c-2012-05-08-180337.114137-The-Park-Turns-100.html#123
Tom, the article says they built the old flat 9-hole course first. Then they added a second and third nine, which together formed the old 18-hole course, in 1913 and 1915. In 1913, if they used the same routing as in 1970, number nine finished a mile away from the 1st tee. That seems unlikely.
Here's a routing that might have made sense, using the numbering from 1970:
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 15, 16, 17, 18.
IIRC, the walk between 5 green and 15 tee was not all that long. If this is what took place, my guess is that Foulis designed the entire 18 holes, with the full routing in mind, before construction began, and only used the first 9 hole loop as an interim device, until they finished the full course.
Do you think they moved much dirt to build the course? Thinking back, it looks like hardly any.
Instead of the major overhaul Irwin's firm did, what would you think if they had stretched out a few holes, made the greens and bunkers more interesting, but kept the same routing/holes? I personally really liked a number of holes that are now NLE, especially 1-4 and 17. For me, old 18 was the weakest/most boring hole on the course.