St. Louis

By David A. Lossos

As we approach the 241st anniversary of the settlement on the banks of the mighty Mississippi that came to be the metropolis of St. Louis, it is appropriate to look back at this great city. We have precious few physical reminders of the days of Laclede and Chouteau. It wasn't until the mid 19th century that we regularly recorded via photographs the development (and destruction) of the sights that make St. Louis unique. It is through these images that we have the marvelous capability to look back and view our city through the eyes of our predecessors: To see the things that were here decades ago and still look the same; to see things that no longer exist, and to see what we have replaced them with; to see what we have preserved, and what we have discarded; and to see the present via the images of the past. There is no way to encompass all the changes that this city has seen in one book. The views in this book will give the reader a representative selection of the more recognizable sights in the St. Louis metropolitan area. The intent is to include most of the major places and things that everyone identifies with St. Louis. But also included are more obscure photos that show scenes with which many of our ancestors would also identify. There will always be progress, but that which is lost is worth remembering. So sit back, relax, and take a stroll down the streets of St. Louis as our ancestors knew them.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
• Release date: Nov 9, 2005
• ISBN: 9781439632772

David A. Lossos

Dave Lossos is a webmaster of many genealogy and local history websites, including Genealogy in St. Louis. A retired engineer and St. Louis native, he has published reference titles on early St. Louis places of worship and 19th century city directories.

Book preview

Louis.

INTRODUCTION

The first reaction I typically heard was, that’s been done, by those I approached with the idea of a Then and Now book about St. Louis. And that was certainly true. Not only had it been done, but done well. But I was confident that there was so much to St. Louis’s history that a dozen books on the subject would still never tell the whole story. Also, I wanted to inject a personal element into this book’s photos. For example, the view that the young newspaper boy on the opposite page would have been gazing at today is that which appears below.

As with most books of this type my initial concern was that I personally would be able to find enough interesting images of old St. Louis. Turns out that they were so plentiful that I didn’t even need to dip into a number of repositories that at first I thought I’d not be able to do without. I also planned to use a select group of my personal collection of vintage St. Louis postcards. Once again, there are many contained within, but not as many as I had planned to use.

Once I had decided on the Then photos, I was left with the challenge of capturing the Now images. That led to a number of adventures, such as climbing over barbed wire, trying to raise a window in a fourth floor warehouse that hadn’t been opened for years, and traipsing across the roof of a high-rise building on a blustery day. Additional trips to the same locations were commonplace due to an unruly sun that refused to shine the way I wanted, and unexpected crowds that would have detracted from the scene I was trying to portray (turns out St. Louis has a tendency to put up a tent and sell brats and beer at the drop of a hat).

Republican William Howard Taft was President Roosevelt’s chosen successor in the 1908 U.S. Presidential race. This scene shows the large enthusiastic crowd that gathered at the intersection of Twelfth and Delmar during a campaign stop in St. Louis.

Chapter 1

DOWNTOWN

Similar to the scene on the cover (but even before the Admiral), about all that’s left from this riverfront scene around the turn of the last century is the MacArthur Bridge (closed), the train tracks (buried), and the cobblestones on the levee (still able to twist an ankle). Oh, and the Mississippi River, of course.

The sign above greeted travelers going west across the Municipal Free Bridge into St. Louis. This photo was taken in 1917, the year the bridge first opened. The