Everything about St Louis totally explained
St. Louis (
English /seɪnt ˈluːɪs/,
French ) is an
independent city in the
U.S. state of
Missouri. It is bordered by the
Mississippi River on the east and by
St. Louis County on the north, south, and west. St. Louis is the largest metropolitan area in Missouri. Sometimes written as
Saint Louis, the city is named for King
Louis IX of
France. St. Louis is famous for its multiple
French and
German influences as well as having a
Victorian past. Two events at the beginning of the 20th century, the
1904 World's Fair and
1904 Olympic Games (the first ever held in the United States) are of particular pride to St. Louisans. In the 21st century, St. Louis has transformed from a
manufacturing and
industrial economy into a globally known focus for research in
medicine,
biotechnology, and other
sciences.
The city has many
nicknames, the most popular being "Gateway City", as it's seen as the Eastern/Western US dividing mark. St. Louis is also called "Gateway to the West" on behalf the many people who migrated
west through St. Louis via the
Missouri River (first leg of the
Oregon Trail) and other wagon trails. St. Louis is also called "Mound City". This term originated with the
Native American burial mounds that once were common in the city. These were largely destroyed to level the ground as the urban area grew. The most popular abbreviation for St. Louis is "STL" in reference to the
airport code for the city and the long-standing use of an interlocked S, T, and L by the
St. Louis Cardinals baseball team (the
St. Louis Browns also used an interlocked STL).
The City of St. Louis lies at the heart of
Greater St. Louis, a sprawling region of nearly three million people in both
Missouri and
Illinois. The
Illinois portion is commonly known as the
Metro-East. The Greater St. Louis area was the 18th largest
Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) area in the U.S. as of the July 2006 US Census estimate, with more than 2,800,000 people.
History
Prior to the arrival of
French explorers in 1673 the area that would become St. Louis was a major center of the
Mississippian mound builders. The presence of numerous mounds, now almost all destroyed, earned the later city the nickname of "Mound City".
European exploration of the area had begun nearly a century before the city was founded.
Louis Joliet and
Jacques Marquette, both French, traveled through the
Mississippi River valley in 1673, and five years later,
La Salle claimed the entire valley for
France. He called it "
Louisiana" after King
Louis XIV; the French also called their region "
Illinois Country." In 1699, a settlement was established across the river from what is now St. Louis, at
Cahokia. Other early settlements were downriver at
Kaskaskia, Prairie du Pont,
Fort de Chartres, and
Sainte Genevieve. In 1703, Catholic priests established a small mission at what is now St. Louis. The mission was later moved across the Mississippi, but the small river at the site (now a drainage channel near the southern boundary of the City of St. Louis) still bears the name "River Des Peres" (French
Rivière des pères, River of the Fathers).
In 1763,
Pierre Laclède, his 13-year-old "stepson"
Auguste Chouteau, and a small band of men traveled up the Mississippi from
New Orleans to found a post to take advantage of trade coming downstream by the
Missouri River. In November, they landed a few miles downstream of the river's confluence with the Missouri River at a site where wooded limestone bluffs rose forty feet above the river. The men returned to Fort de Chartres for the winter, but in February, Laclède sent Chouteau and thirty men to begin construction, laid out in a grid pattern as an imitation of New Orleans. St. Louis was a river city, and it therefore developed in response to its relationship to the river. Development, particularly economic development, clustered around the settlement’s
Mississippi River bank on what was called "the levee" and is now called "the landing." This long, smooth bank of land, which would later be paved with cobblestone, sloped into the river at an incline that was gradual enough to permit the river vessels of the time to beach onto it in order to be unloaded and loaded. All products at this time were shipped to and from New Orleans, orienting St. Louis' 18th-century trade north-south.
The settlement began to grow quickly after word arrived that the 1763
Treaty of Paris had given Britain all the land east of the Mississippi. Frenchmen who had settled to the river's east moved across the water to "Laclède's Village." Other early settlements were established nearby at
Saint Charles, the independent village of Carondelet (later annexed by St. Louis and now the southernmost part of the current City), Fleurissant (renamed Saint Ferdinand by the
Spaniards and now
Florissant), and
Portage des Sioux. In 1765, St. Louis was made the capital of Upper Louisiana.
From 1766 to 1768, St. Louis was governed by the
French lieutenant governor, Louis Saint Ange de Bellerive, who wasn't appointed by French or Spanish authorities, but by the leading residents of St. Louis. After 1768, St. Louis was governed by a
series of governors appointed by Spanish authorities, whose administration continued even after Louisiana was secretly returned to France in 1800 by the
Treaty of San Ildefonso. The town's population was then about a thousand. During the period when commandants appointed by Spanish authorities governed St. Louis, meetings of leading residents were also held from time to time, and "syndics" were sometimes elected to carry out certain governmental tasks.
In 1780 St. Louis would be attacked by the British as part of the American Revolution. A combined Spanish and French creole force would protect the city.
St. Louis was acquired from France by the
United States under
President Thomas Jefferson in 1803, as part of the
Louisiana Purchase. The transfer of power from Spain was made official in a ceremony called "Three Flags Day." On
March 8 1804, the Spanish flag was lowered and the French one raised. On
March 10, the French flag was replaced by the United States flag. French continued, along with English, to be one of the major spoken and written languages in St. Louis until the 1820s.
St. Louis first became legally incorporated as a town on
November 9,
1809, though it elected its first municipal legislators (called trustees) in 1808.
The
Lewis and Clark Expedition left the St. Louis area in May 1804, reached the
Pacific Ocean in the summer of 1805, and returned on
23 September 1806. Both Lewis and Clark lived in St. Louis after the expedition. Many other
explorers,
settlers, and
trappers (such as
Ashley's Hundred) would later take a similar route to the
West. Missouri became a state in 1821. St. Louis was incorporated as a city on
December 9 1822. A U. S. arsenal was constructed at St. Louis in 1827.
The steamboat era began in St. Louis on
July 27 1817, with the arrival of the
Zebulon M. Pike. Steamboats signified significant progress in river trade, as steam power permitted much more efficient and dependable river transportation. Unlike the hand-propelled barges and keel boats that preceded the steamboat as the choice vehicle of Mississippi River trade, steamboats could travel upriver, and against the current, just as easily as downriver. Rapids north of the city made St. Louis the northernmost navigable port for many large boats, and
Pike and her sisters soon transformed St. Louis into a bustling boom town, commercial center, and inland port. By the 1830s, it was common to see over 150 steamboats at the St. Louis levee at one time, and by the 1850s, St. Louis had become the largest U. S. city west of Pittsburgh, and the second-largest port in the country, with a commercial tonnage exceeded only by
New York.
In 1836 the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce was founded according to the current Chamber's literature. This would make it one of the oldest Chambers of Commerce in the United States. Along the way, it’s been involved with projects as diverse as securing funding for Charles Lindbergh’s historic 1927 transatlantic flight (thus the naming of the plane “
The Spirit of St. Louis”) and rallying community support for the design, funding and construction of St. Louis’ famed
Gateway Arch. The current chamber is now called the St. Louis Regional Chamber of Commerce, represents the Bi-State region.
The
Regional Chamber and Growth Association organization is run currently by Richard Fleming.
Immigrants flooded into St. Louis after 1840, particularly from
Germany,
Bohemia,
Italy and
Ireland, the last driven by an Old World
potato famine. During Reconstruction, rural Southern blacks flooded into St. Louis as well, seeking better opportunity. The population of St. Louis grew from less than 20,000 in 1840, to 77,860 in 1850, to more than 160,000 by 1860. At this time, public transit developed in order to effectively circulate the vast numbers of new residents in the city. Omnibuses began to service St. Louis in 1843, and in 1859, St. Louis' first streetcar tracks were laid.
Two disasters occurred in 1849: a cholera epidemic killed nearly one-tenth of the population, and a
fire destroyed numerous steamboats and a large portion of the city. These disasters led to
political action: old cemeteries were removed to the outskirts of the town; sinkholes were filled and swamps drained; water and sewer public utilities started; and a new building code required structures to be built of stone or brick. Furthermore, particularly after the 1849 fire, St. Louis' population decentralization westward accelerated, a pattern of migration that remains extremely evident even today.
In the first half of the 19th century, a second channel developed in the Mississippi River at St. Louis. An island ("
Bloody Island") formed between the two channels, and a smaller island ("Duncan's Island") developed below St. Louis. It was feared that the levee at St. Louis might be left high and dry, and federal assistance was sought and obtained. Under the supervision of
Robert E. Lee, levees were constructed on the Illinois side to direct water toward the Missouri side and eliminate the second channel. Bloody Island was joined to the land on the Illinois side, and Duncan's Island was washed away.
Militarily, the
Civil War barely touched St. Louis; the area saw only a few skirmishes, in which
Union forces prevailed. However, the war shut down trade with the South, as Union troops blockaded the Mississippi River from 1861 through the end of the war. Trade in St. Louis declined to about one-third its average, as the economy of the South, one of the markets St. Louis depended on, was devastated. Missouri was nominally a slave state, but its economy didn't depend on
slavery, and it remained loyal to the Union throughout the Civil War. The arsenal at St. Louis was used during the war to construct ironclad ships for the Union, and shipbuilding continued at the Port of St. Louis even into the latter half of the 20th century.
Eads Bridge, the first road and rail bridge to cross the Mississippi River, was completed in 1874.
On
August 22,
1876 the City of St. Louis voted to
secede from
St. Louis County and become an independent city. At that time the County was primarily rural and sparsely populated, and the fast-growing City didn't want to spend its tax dollars on infrastructure and services for the inefficient county; the move also allowed some in St. Louis government to increase their political power. This decision would later come back to haunt the City of St. Louis, as the results of that separation are still problematic today.
As St. Louis grew and prospered during the late 19th and early 20th Century, the city produced a number of notable people in the fields of business and literature. The
Ralston-Purina company (headed by the
Danforth Family) was headquartered in the city, and
Anheuser-Busch, the world's largest brewery, remains a fixture of the city's economy. The City was home to both
International Shoe and the
Brown Shoe Company. St. Louis was also one of the cities to see a pioneering
brass era automobile company, the
Success; despite its low price, the company didn't live up to its name.
Notable residents in the field of literature included poets
Sara Teasdale and
Marianne Moore,
T. S. Eliot,
William Burroughs, and
Kate Chopin, as well as playwright
Tennessee Williams.
St. Louis is one of several cities claiming to have the world's first
skyscraper. The
Wainwright Building, a 10-story structure designed by
Louis Sullivan and built in 1892, still stands at Chestnut and Seventh Streets and is today used by the State of
Missouri as a government office building.
Nikola Tesla made the first public demonstration of radio communication here in 1893.
In 1896, one of the deadliest and most destructive
tornadoes in U. S. history struck St. Louis and East St. Louis leaving a mile-wide continuous swath of destroyed homes, factories, mills, saloons, hospitals, schools, parks, churches, and railroad yards. Killing more than 255, damages adjusted for inflation (1997 USD) make it the costliest tornado in U. S. history at an estimated $2.9 billion. Several other tornadoes have hit the city including 1927 (79 killed, 550 injured) and 1959 (21 killed, 345 injured).
By the time of the 1900
census, St. Louis was the fourth largest city in the country. In 1904, the city hosted a
World's Fair, which led the
Olympic Games to be moved from Chicago, originally selected to host the games, to St. Louis to coincide with the Fair. With these games, the
United States became the first
English-speaking country to host the
Olympics. Citizens of St. Louis still look back fondly on the events of 1904; there were several events held in 2004 to commemorate the centennial.
St. Louis had developed a lively immigrant gang culture by the early 20th century, leading up to much bootlegging activity and gang violence. One gang leader, from an Irish part of the city referred to as "
Kerry Patch" (now almost entirely non-Irish-populated, the area is now part of the
Old North St. Louis neighborhood) was named "Jelly Roll" Hogan. Hogan's gang is mentioned in
Tennessee Williams'
The Glass Menagerie. In the 1920s there were shoot outs on
Lindell Boulevard between Hogan's Gang and the gang known as
Egan's Rats. A priest was brought in to broker peace between the gangs in 1923, but this truce only lasted a few months before two more people were killed in a public shoot out. In 1923, Egan's Rats made off with $2.4 million in bonds from a mail truck. Hogan during this time was a
state representative. He was elected in 1916, eventually became a
state senator, and spent forty years in elected office.
Although St. Louis didn't segregate people on street cars like other cities, racial discrimination in housing was commonplace, and discrimination in employment wasn't uncommon before World War II. During World War II, the
NAACP successfully campaigned, through protests and picket lines, to persuade the Federal government to allow African-Americans to work in war plants. Some 16,000 jobs were gained in this way. White southerners no longer had to be brought to St. Louis to do the work. State court rulings and local civil rights campaigns in the two decades after the war undid the legality of race-based restrictions on real estate ownership and opened some clerical positions in local banks, etc. that had been more common prior to WWII.
St. Louis, like many other Midwestern cities, experienced major expansion in the early 20th century due to the formation of many industrial companies. Like many U. S. cities, the city reached its peak population at the 1950 census. The Gateway Arch was built in the mid-1960s. In January 1999, the city hosted
Pope John Paul II for a day. Suburbanization in conjunction with the
GI Bill,
interstate highway construction, and changes in housing preferences shifted the population out of the city and into newly-formed suburbs. Although the overall population of the St. Louis MSA has always been growing, the St. Louis city population itself had been decreasing.
Recently, there has been revitalization in
Downtown St. Louis and along a corridor extending to the west through Midtown and the Central West End neighborhoods. The St. Louis Cardinals' new
Busch Stadium opened in 2006.
Ballpark Village would have been built where northern half of the former
Busch Stadium stood, but those plans have been put on hold. For several years, the
Washington Avenue Loft District has been
gentrifying with an expanding corridor along Washington Avenue from the
Edward Jones Dome westward almost two dozen blocks. Revitalization continues, including new construction, as the corridor extends to the west to Forest Park.
Because of the major upturn in urban revitalization, St. Louis received the World Leadership Award for urban renewal in 2006.
In 2006 the U. S.
Census Bureau reported St. Louis had a net population gain of 5,648 from the 2000 Census, to 353,837, the first gain the city has had since 1950.
Geography
Topography
According to the
United States Census Bureau, St. Louis has a total area of 66.2 square miles (171.3 km²), of which, 61.9 square miles (160.4 km²) of it's land and 11.0 km² (4.2 sq mi or 6.39%) of it's water. The city is built primarily on
bluffs and terraces that rise 100-200 feet above the western banks of the
Mississippi River, just south of the
Missouri-Mississippi confluence. Much of the area is a fertile and gently rolling prairie that features low hills and broad, shallow valleys. Both the Mississippi River and the Missouri River have cut large valleys with wide flood plains.
Limestone and
dolomite of the
Mississippian epoch underlies the area and much of the city is a
karst area, with numerous sinkholes and
caves, although most of the caves have been sealed shut; many springs are visible along the riverfront. Significant deposits of
coal,
brick clay, and
millerite ore were once mined in the city, and the predominant surface rock, the
St. Louis Limestone, is used as dimension stone and rubble for construction.
Near the southern boundary of the City of St. Louis (separating it from
St. Louis County) is the
River des Peres, virtually the only river or stream within the city limits that isn't entirely underground. Most of River des Peres was either channelized or put underground in the 1920s and early 1930s. The lower section of the river was the site of some of the worst flooding of the
Great Flood of 1993.
Near the central, western boundary of the city is
Forest Park, site of the 1904
World's fair, the
Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904, and the
1904 Summer Olympics, the first
Olympic Games held in North America. At the time, St. Louis was the fourth most populous city in the United States.
The
Missouri River forms the northern border of
St. Louis County, exclusive of a few areas where the river has changed its course. The
Meramec River forms most of its southern border. To the east is the City and the
Mississippi River.
Climate
St. Louis has been known to be a
humid continental climate (
Koppen climate classification Dfa) as well as a
humid subtropical climate (
Koppen climate classification Cfa), falling within the boundaries of the two climates, and has neither large mountains nor large bodies of water to moderate its temperature. Both cold Canadian Arctic air and hot, humid tropical air from the
Gulf of Mexico affect the region. The city has four distinct
seasons. The average annual temperature for the years 1970-2000, recorded at nearby
Lambert-Saint Louis International Airport, is 56.3 °F (13.5 °C), and average precipitation is 37.15 inches (942 mm). The normal high temperature in July is 89 °F (32 °C), and the normal low temperature in January is 21 °F (−6 °C), although these values have been known to vary at times. Temperatures of 100 °F (38 °C) or more occur no more than five days a year and temperatures of 0 °F (-17.8 °C) or below occur 2 or 3 days a year on average. The official record low is -23 °F (-30.6 °C) on
January 29,
1873, and the record high is 115 °F (46.1 °C) on
July 14,
1954.
Winter (December through February) is the driest season, averaging about 6.7 inches of total precipitation. Average annual snowfall is per year. Spring (March through May), is typically the wettest season, with approximately of precipitation. Dry spells lasting one or two weeks are common during the growing seasons.
St. Louis usually experiences
thunderstorms on the average 48 days a year.
Especially in the spring, these storms can often be severe, with high winds, large
hail and tornadoes. St. Louis has been affected on more than one occasion by
particularly damaging tornadoes.
A period of warm weather late in autumn known as
Indian summer can occur –
roses will still be in bloom as late as November or early December in some years.
Flora and fauna
Before the founding of the city, the area was prairie and open forest maintained by burning by
Native Americans. Trees are mainly
oak,
maple, and
hickory, similar to the forests of the nearby
Ozarks; common understory trees include
Eastern Redbud,
Serviceberry, and
Flowering Dogwood.
Riparian areas are forested with mainly
American sycamore. Most of the residential area of the city is planted with large native shade trees. The largest native forest area is found in Forest Park. In Autumn, the changing color of the trees is notable. Most species here are typical of the Eastern Woodland, although numerous decorative non-native species are found; the most notable invasive species is
Japanese honeysuckle, which is actively removed from some parks.
Large
mammals found in the city include urbanized
coyotes and occasionally a stray
whitetail deer.
Eastern Gray Squirrel,
Cottontail rabbit, and other rodents are abundant, as well as the nocturnal and rarely seen
Opossum. Large bird species are abundant in parks and include
Canada goose,
Mallard duck, as well as
shorebirds, including the
Great Egret and
Great Blue Heron.
Gulls are common along the
Mississippi River; these species typically follow
barge traffic. Winter populations of
Bald Eagles are found by the
Mississippi River around the
Chain of Rocks Bridge. The city is on the
Mississippi Flyway, used by migrating birds, and has a large variety of small bird species, common to the eastern U.S. The
Eurasian Tree Sparrow, an introduced species, is limited in North America to the counties surrounding St. Louis.
Tower Grove Park is a well-known birdwatching area in the city.
Frogs are commonly found in the springtime, especially after extensive wet periods. Common species include the
American toad and species of chorus frogs, commonly called "
spring peepers" that are found in nearly every pond. Some years have outbreaks of
cicadas or
ladybugs.
Mosquitos and
houseflies are common
insect nuisances; because of this, windows are nearly universally fitted with
screens, and "screened-in"
porches are common in homes of the area. Invasive populations of
honeybees have sharply declined in recent years, and numerous native species of
pollinator insects have recovered to fill their ecological niche.
Metropolitan statistical area
The
St. Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area is the largest
Metropolitan Area in
Missouri, and the
18th largest in the United States, and has an estimated total population of 2,866,517 as of
July 1,
2007. This area includes the
independent City of St. Louis (353,837) and the
Missouri counties of
St. Louis (1,000,510),
St. Charles (338,719),
Jefferson (216,469),
Franklin (100,067),
Lincoln (50,123),
Warren (29,685), and
Washington (24,182), plus the
Illinois counties of
Madison (265,303),
St. Clair (260,919),
Macoupin (48,841),
Clinton (36,633),
Monroe (31,876),
Jersey (22,628),
Bond (18,055), and
Calhoun (5,177).
Cityscape
The city is divided into 79 government-designated neighborhoods. The divisions have no legal standing, although some neighborhood associations administer grants or hold veto power over historic-district development. Nevertheless, the social and political influence of neighborhood identity is profound. Some hold avenues of massive stone edifices built as palaces for heads of state visiting the
1904 World's Fair. Others offer tidy working-class bungalows or loft districts. Many of them have endured as strong and cohesive communities.
Among the best-known, architecturally significant, or well-visited neighborhoods are
Downtown,
Midtown, Benton Park,
Carondelet, the
Central West End,
Clayton/Tamm (Dogtown),
Dutchtown South,
Forest Park Southeast,
Grand Center,
The Hill,
Lafayette Square,
LaSalle Park,
Old North St. Louis,
Compton Heights,
Princeton Heights,
Shaw (home to the
Missouri Botanical Garden and named after the Garden's founder,
Henry Shaw),
Southampton, Southwest Garden,
Soulard (home of the second-largest
Mardi Gras festival in the nation),
Tower Grove East,
Tower Grove South, Hortense Place (home to many grand mansions), Holly Hills, St. Louis Hills, and
Wydown/Skinker.
St. Louis Received the
World Leadership Award for urban renewal in 2006 and 2007. The improvement in the quality of life in the City of St. Louis received international recognition after the award was presented.
Culture
Tourism
There are many museums and attractions in the city. The
St. Louis Art Museum, located in the City's premier park,
Forest Park , and dating from the 1904 World's Fair, houses an impressive array of modern art and ancient artifacts, with an extensive collection of master works of several centuries, including paintings by
Rembrandt,
Van Gogh,
Pissarro,
Picasso, and many others. Forest Park is bigger than New York's
Central Park. The privately-owned
City Museum offers a variety of interesting exhibits, including several large
faux-caves and a huge outdoor playground. It also serves as a meeting point for St. Louis's young arts scene.
The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, located in
Grand Center, is an arts institution in a world-renowned building designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning architect,
Tadao Ando. The
Eugene Field House, located in downtown St. Louis, is a museum dedicated to the distinguished children's author. The
Missouri History Museum presents exhibits and programs on a variety of topics including the 1904 World's Fair, and a comprehensive exhibit on Lewis and Clark's voyage exploring the Louisiana Purchase. The
Fox Theatre, originally one of many movie theatres along Grand Boulevard, is now a newly restored theater featuring a Byzantine facade and Oriental decor. The Fox Theatre presents a Broadway Series in addition to concerts. The
St. Louis Union Station is a popular tourist attraction with retail shops and a luxury hotel.
There are several notable churches in the city, including the
Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis (more commonly known as "the New Cathedral"), a large
Roman Catholic cathedral designed in the
Byzantine and
Romanesque styles. It is the motherchurch and seat of the Roman Catholic
Archdiocese of Saint Louis, the principal diocese of Missouri; the current Archbishop is Raymond Leo Burke. The interior is decorated with lovely
mosaics, the largest mosaic collection in the world. The
Basilica of St. Louis, King of France (1834) (more commonly known as the "Old Cathedral") is the oldest Roman Catholic cathedral west of the
Mississippi River. The Old Cathedral is located adjacent to the
Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. Also notable is the abbey church of
Saint Louis Abbey, whose distinctive architectural style garnered multiple awards at the time of its completion. The
Gateway Arch, part of the Memorial, is arguably the city's best known landmark, as well as a popular tourist site. This Memorial commemorates the acquisition and settlement, by the citizens of the
United States of America, of all of the lands west of the Mississippi River that are part of the nation today. The Arch, and the entire 91 acres of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial park, occupy the exact location of the original French village of St. Louis (1764-1804). Unfortunately, no buildings from that era exist today.
The Hill is an historically Italian neighborhood where many of the area's best Italian restaurants can be found. The Hill was the home of
Yogi Berra,
Joe Garagiola, and many other noted athletes.
The
Saint Louis Zoological Park, one of the oldest and largest free-admission zoos in the country, is home to an Insectarium and the Prairie Village. The St. Louis Zoo is the most visited zoo in the United States, having surpassed the San Diego Zoo in popularity. It boasts many exhibits with animal-friendly habitats. The zoo is located in Forest Park, adjacent to the St. Louis Art Museum.
The
International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame and
St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum are located near Busch Stadium in downtown St. Louis.
Laclede's Landing, located on the
Mississippi Riverfront directly north of the historic
Eads Bridge, is popular for its restaurants and nightclubs. St. Louis also possesses several distinct examples of 18th and 19th century architecture, such as the Soulard Market district (1779-1842), the Chatillon-de-Menil House (1848), the
Bellefontaine Cemetery (1850), the Robert G. Campbell House (1852), the Old Courthouse (1845-62), the original Anheuser-Busch Brewery (1860), and two of
Louis Sullivan's early skyscrapers, the
Wainwright Building (1890-91) and the Union Trust Building.
On the Riverfront two sculptural groups has been designated a National Lewis and Clark site by the
National Park Service. This includes a twice life sized grouping of Lewis and Clark on the St. Louis Riverfront which commemorated the final celebration of the bicentennial of the expedition. These sculptures were done by
Harry Weber
The
Lemp Mansion, home of the ill-fated Lemp family, brewers of
Falstaff Beer and others, is considered one of the most haunted places in the nation. It is open to the public as a restaurant, murder-mystery dinner theater, and bed & breakfast.
Tourism outside the city proper
The Butterfly House is located in western
St. Louis County.
The
Museum of Transportation is just outside
Kirkwood, a suburb in southwestern
St. Louis County. Many large steam locomotives, classic cars, a rare
Chrysler Turbine car, and even a boat are some of the spectacles.
The
Magic House, a children's hands-on exploration museum, and Worldways Children's Museum, an international children's cultural museum, are also in Kirkwood.
The
Delmar Loop, in
University City, just west of the St. Louis city line, is a popular entertainment, cultural, and restaurant district. This was named one of the top ten most famous streets in the country in 2007. Recently the Delmar loop is developing east into the city proper. Such things as Pin-up Bowl, The Pageant, and many restaurants have decided to locate in the City of St. Louis.
Grant's Farm is a historic farm located in South St. Louis County, and was once owned by
Ulysses S. Grant. The Farm is now owned by the Busch family, who also own Anheuser-Busch brewing company. The Farm is free and open to the general public every summer.
The
St. Louis International Film Festival runs for 11 days in November every year and is one of the top regional film festivals in the United States.
Six Flags St. Louis, known as "Six Flags over Mid-America" when it opened in June 1971, is an
amusement park in
Eureka,
Missouri, in far west
St. Louis County. It is one of the original
Six Flags.
Saint Charles is the
seat of
St. Charles County and first capital of the state of
Missouri.
Cahokia Mounds, located eight miles (13 km) east of St. Louis near
Collinsville,
Illinois, holds the ruins of a city of the ancient
Mississippian aboriginal culture. Similar mounds within St. Louis, used as construction fill in the 1800s, gave the city one of its nicknames, "Mound City".
Alton, Illinois is a northern suburb with wineries, antique shops, golf courses, and bed and breakfasts.
Entertainment and performing arts
St. Louis is home to the world-renowned
Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra which was founded in 1880 and is the second oldest orchestra in the nation. The orchestra has received six
Grammy Awards and fifty-six nominations. The Historic
Powell Symphony Hall on North Grand Boulevard has been the permanent home of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra since 1968.
Leonard Slatkin, largely credited with building the orchestra's international prominence during his 17-year tenure as Music Director, is Conductor Laureate. The current Music Director of the orchestra is
David Robertson.
The
Opera Theatre of Saint Louis is an annual summer festival of opera performed in English, originally co-founded by
Richard Gaddes in 1976.
Union Avenue Opera, formed in the early 1990s, is a smaller company that performs opera in their original languages.
Other classical music groups of note include the Arianna String Quartet, the quartet-in-residence at the
University of Missouri–St. Louis, the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus, and the
Young Catholic Musicians, a group for young choir and band members made up of kids from over 60 parishes all over Saint Louis.
St. Louis has long been associated with great
ragtime,
jazz and
blues music. Early
rock and roll singer/guitarist
Chuck Berry is a native St. Louisan and continues to perform there several times a year.
Soul music artists
Ike Turner and
Tina Turner and
jazz innovator
Miles Davis began their careers in nearby
East St. Louis, Illinois. St. Louis has also been a popular stop along the infamous
Chitlin Circuit.
Popular music and entertainment in St. Louis peaked in the 1950s and 60s due to the popularity of
Gaslight Square, a thriving local nightclub district that attracted nationally known musicians and performers. This area was all but extinct by the early 1970s and today is the site of a new housing development.
St. Louis is also the home to successful modern musical artists, including
Living Things,
Sheryl Crow,
Gravity Kills,
Story of the Year,
Modern Day Zero,
Stir,
Strawfoot,
Greenwheel,
Ludo,
7 Shot Screamers,
MU330 Lye and
The Urge. In the 1990s, the metro area produced several prominent
alt-country artists, including
Uncle Tupelo — a
Belleville, Illinois trio often considered the originators of the style, whose members went on to found
Wilco and
Son Volt in 1994 — and
The Bottle Rockets. As of 2007 the
alt-country scene has celebrated a resurgence, producing a burgeoning
St. Louis Twang Scene, consisting of bands, burlesque dancers and roller derby queens. It is also home to local record label
Big Muddy Records.
Rap and
hip-hop artists include
Nelly,
The Saint Lunatics,
Ali,
Murphy Lee,
Chingy,
Huey,
Ebony Eyez,
J-Kwon,
Jibbs, and others. Around 2005 the
indie rock scene in St. Louis really began to develop with bands
So Many Dynamos,
Jumbling Towers,
Gentleman Auction House, and
Victoria emerging and garnering national recognition.
The theater district of St. Louis is in midtown, which is undergoing a major redevelopment and building boom. This district of the city is known as
Grand Center, St. Louis. The phrase can refer to the district itself (which is located within Midtown), or to the not-for-profit agency, Grand Center, Inc. (GCI), which possesses certain quasi-governmental powers and administers arts and urban-renewal programs in the area. The district includes the
Fox Theatre, one of the largest live Broadway theaters in the United States, the
Powell Symphony Hall, home of the
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Louis University Museum of Art, the
Museum of Contemporary Religious Art, The Sun Theater (under redevelopment), The St Louis Black Repertory Theater Company, the
Contemporary Art Museum Saint Louis,
the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, the
Sheldon Concert Hall, the Grandel Theatre and many others.
The Muny (short for "The Municipal Opera Association of St. Louis") is located in
Forest Park. Seating capacity for every performance is over 13,000 people with 1500 free seats. The Muny has completed its eighty-ninth annual season for the summer of 2007 with the production of
Les Misérables. The theater is influential with
Actors' Equity Association.
St. Louis is home to over 81 theatre and dance companies and one of the largest theatrical production companies in the U.S.A. known as The Fox Associates. Fox Associates, L.L.C., was formed in 1981 to purchase, renovate and operate the 4,500-seat Fox Theatre in St. Louis, Missouri. The Fox, which had once been at the center of the St. Louis "movie" theater district, had been closed since 1978 and was in need of both a major restoration and new entertainment programming to elevate it once again to its rightful position as the major venue for entertainment in St. Louis. The restoration was completed and in 1982 the Fox reopened as a major entertainment venue for Broadway productions, country stars and rock, pop and jazz artists. It has since become one of the highest grossing theatres in the country. Today, The Fox Associates group has helped produce some of Broadway's biggest hit musicals and has been influential in St. Louis' theater productions.
Parks and outdoor attractions
The city operates 105 parks that serve as gathering spots for neighbors to meet, and contains playgrounds, areas for summer
concerts, picnics,
baseball games,
tennis courts, and lakes.
Forest Park, located on the western edge of the central corridor of the City of St. Louis, is one of the largest urban parks in the world, out sizing
Central Park in
New York City by 500 acres (2 km²). It offers many of St. Louis's most popular attractions: the
Saint Louis Zoological Park, the
Municipal Theater (also known as
The Muny, the largest and oldest outdoor musical theater in the United States), the
St. Louis Science Center (with its architecturally distinctive
McDonnell Planetarium), the
Saint Louis Art Museum, the
Missouri History Museum, several lakes, and scenic, open areas. Forest Park completed a multi-million dollar renovation in 2004 for the centennial of the
St. Louis World's Fair. The Zoo, Art Museum, and Science Center are all world-class institutions. The Zoo-Museum Tax District provides them operating funds, so general admission to them, as well as to the History Museum, is free.
The
Missouri Botanical Garden, also known as
Shaw's Garden, is one of the world's leading
botanical research centers. It possesses a beautiful collection of flowering plants, shrubs, and
trees, and includes the Japanese Garden, which features a lake filled with
koi and gravel designs; the woodsy English Garden; the Kemper Home Gardening Center; a rose garden; the
Climatron; a children's garden and playground; and many other scenic gardens. Immediately south of the Missouri Botanical Garden is
Tower Grove Park, a gift to the City by
Henry Shaw. Tower Grove Park is one of the oldest "walking" parks in the United States, and hosts annual outdoor concerts free to the public.
The
Jefferson National Expansion Memorial is a 90.96 acre national park located on the downtown riverfront where the city was first founded in 1764, and commemorates the westward growth of the United States between 1803 and 1890. The centerpiece of the park is the stainless steel
Gateway Arch, which is the most recognizable structure in the city. It was designed by noted architect
Eero Saarinen and completed on
October 28,
1965. At 630 feet (192 m), it's the tallest man-made monument in the
United States. Located below the Arch is the Museum of Westward Expansion, which contains an extensive collection of artifacts and details the story of the thousands of people who lived in and settled the American West during the nineteenth century. Nearby and also part of the memorial is the historic Old Courthouse, one of the oldest standing buildings in St. Louis. Begun in 1839, it was here that the first two trials of the
Dred Scott case were held in 1847 and 1850. This park is also the location of the annual
July 4 festival,
Fair Saint Louis.
Sports
Enthusiastic and knowledgeable fans give the city a reputation as "a top-notch sports town" and "Baseball City USA."
The Sporting News rated St. Louis the nation's "Best Sports City" in 2000.
The
St. Louis Cardinals, one of the oldest franchises in
Major League Baseball, have won 10 World Championships, second only to the
New York Yankees.
The city of St. Louis has earned 12 professional sports championships. The
St. Louis Cardinals have won 10
World Series Championships, with one of the championships played against the old cross-city rival
St. Louis Browns in 1944. The
St. Louis Rams have won one
Super Bowl Championship (
Super Bowl XXXIV in January 2000), and the
St. Louis Hawks (who later moved to Atlanta) gave the city its lone NBA Championship (
1958). On top of that, the
St. Louis Blues hold the record for most consecutive playoff appearances in all sports with 26 straight, (1980-81 to 2005-06). Despite never winning the
Stanley Cup, they've made 3 trips to the finals (1968-1970).
St. Louis was also home to three prominent twentieth-century
boxers,
Henry Armstrong, and brothers
Leon and
Michael Spinks. The two are the only brothers in boxing history to have both captured the Heavyweight boxing title. Leon's son
Cory Spinks has also held a world title.
St. Louis has long had a reputation as being one of America's soccer hotbeds, and is home to what is arguably the richest soccer history in the nation. In addition to being the former home of several professional teams, including the
St. Louis Stars of the
NASL, St. Louis has a strong tradition of prep and select soccer, which is followed very closely by many people in the city. It has been suggested that prep soccer in St. Louis enjoys a similar following to prep hockey in Minnesota. The
St. Louis University men's soccer team has made 16
NCAA Final Four appearances, and has won 10 national championships. The team consistently ranks in the Top 10 of all Division I soccer teams in attendance. Of most pride to many St. Louisans was the
1950 World Cup team, which defeated England 1-0, in what is perhaps the greatest upset in
World Cup history. Five of the eleven players on the team were from St. Louis, many from the historically Italian neighborhood known as
The Hill. This event was chronicled in the 2005 film "
The Miracle Match". Certainly noteworthy is that fact that every U.S. World Cup team in history has included at least one St. Louisan on its roster, and there have been 20 St. Louisans elected into the
National Soccer Hall of Fame. St. Louis is currently without a
Major League Soccer team, but is considered a leading candidate for expansion in 2009. Several current American soccer stars including
Taylor Twellman,
Steve Ralston,
Matt Pickens,
Chris Klein,
Brad Davis,
Mike Sorber, and
Pat Noonan, all hail from St. Louis.
Professional Wrestling also has firm roots in St. Louis. Essentially, three men combined to make the Mound City not only the "Gateway to the West," but the unofficial capital of professional wrestling. The three men were
Tom Packs,
Sam Muchnick, and
Lou Thesz.
Wrestling at the Chase was a popular weekly event for hundreds of thousands of fans for several decades, both live and on television. St. Louis is also home to former
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)Champion and former World Hevyweight
Champion
Randy Orton.
Although high school sports are not as big in St. Louis as they're in such places as Texas, there are a large amount of well-known local rivalries:
SLUH and
CBC have played each other for more than 75 years in many sports, the annual "Turkey Day Game" between
Webster and
Kirkwood draws 15,000 supporters, and high school soccer games are often well attended, drawing upwards of 5,000 people to the bigger games. Recently, a boom in high school hockey has occurred, mostly among students drawn to the sport's freewheeling atmosphere.
In 2006, the
College Cup was played at
Hermann Stadium on the campus of
Saint Louis University.
The
Scottrade Center hosted the 2007
Frozen Four college ice hockey tournament on
April 5 and
April 7,
2007. The Scottrade Center also hosts the annual "
Braggin' Rights" game, a men's college basketball rivalry game between the universities of
Illinois and
Missouri. St. Louis is roughly equidistant from the two campuses.
In March 2005, the
Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis hosted the final two rounds of the
NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, also known as the Final Four. In April 2009, the Edward Jones Dome will host the
NCAA Women's Division I Basketball Championship Final Four.
Gateway International Raceway hosts
NHRA Drag Racing and
NASCAR racing events east of the city in
Madison, Illinois.
There are also several minor league teams in the area. The
Gateway Grizzlies (
Minor League Baseball) of the
Frontier League, which plays at
GCS Ballpark across the river in
Sauget, Illinois. The
River City Rascals (
Minor League Baseball) also of the
Frontier League, play at
T.R. Hughes Stadium in nearby
O'Fallon, Missouri. The
Missouri River Otters (
United Hockey League) have now folded; they used to play at
Family Arena in
St. Charles, Missouri. The
River City Rage are an
Arena Football team that play in
United Indoor Football at
Family Arena. The
St. Louis Stunners are a
basketball team that play in the newly reincarnated
American Basketball Association.
St. Louis is also one of the few cities in the country that plays host to local
Corkball leagues. Corkball is a "mini-baseball" game featuring a 1.6 oz. ball and bat with a barrel that measures just 1.5". Corkball is St. Louis's classic baseball game. Originally played on the streets and alleys of St. Louis in the early 1900s, today the game has leagues formed around the country as a result of St. Louis servicemen introducing the game to their buddies during
World War II and the
Korean conflict. It has many of the features of baseball, yet can be played in a very small area because there's no base-running.
Nearby
Town and Country is home to the
Bellerive Country Club, which has hosted several golf
major championships, including the 1965 U.S. Open and the 1992 PGA Championship. Bellerive will play host to the 2008
BMW Championship (PGA Tour), September 1-7.
On
September 11,
2007, officials announced plans for St. Louis council to build a soccer-specific stadium in
Collinsville, which would have paved the way for a St. Louis team to enter
Major League Soccer in 2009 as the 16th team; however, MLS decided to award the 16th franchise to
Philadelphia instead.
Media
The
St. Louis Post-Dispatch is the region's major daily
newspaper. Founded by
Joseph Pulitzer in the 1800s, the paper was owned by
Pulitzer, Inc. until 2005, when the company was acquired by
Lee Enterprises. The company also owns the
Suburban Journals, a collection of community newspapers that serve many St. Louis neighborhoods in addition to numerous suburban cities.
The
St. Louis Business Journal, published weekly on Fridays, covers the region's business news.
In 1900, St. Louis had at least five daily newspapers: the
St. Louis Globe-Democrat and the
St. Louis Republic in the morning, and the
Post-Dispatch and
Star-Chronicle in the afternoon, as well as the German-language
Westliche Post. One by one, these papers, already consolidated as evidenced by the hyphenated names, folded or further consolidated. The
Post-Dispatch bought out its last remaining afternoon competitor, the
Star-Times, in 1951. Until the mid-1980s, the morning
Globe-Democrat, which was editorially more conservative than the
Post-Dispatch, served as the
Post's main rival. Although the
Post-Dispatch and the
Globe-Democrat began a
joint operating agreement in the late 1970s, the
Globe-Democrat folded shortly after the
Post-Dispatch switched from afternoon to morning publication. An attempt to revive the
Globe-Democrat as an independent paper went bankrupt, and a separate attempt to start a new evening paper in 1989, the St. Louis
Sun, failed in less than a year.
The city's main weekly newspapers are the various neighborhood papers which together form the "Suburban Journals" and the primary alternative weekly publication is the
Riverfront Times
. Three weeklies – the
St. Louis Argus (est. 1912),
St. Louis American (est. 1928), and
St. Louis Sentinel (est. 1968) – serve the African-American community. A variety of glossy monthly and quarterly publications, including
St. Louis Magazine, cover topics such as local history, cuisine, and lifestyles. St. Louis is also home to the nation's last remaining metropolitan journalism review, the
St. Louis Journalism Review, based at
Webster University in the suburb of
Webster Groves.
The St. Louis metro area is served by a wide variety of local television stations, and is the 21st largest
designated market area (DMA) in the U. S., with 1,522,380 homes (1.51% of the total U.S.). The major network television affiliates are
KTVI 2 (
FOX),
KMOV 4 (
CBS),
KSDK 5 (
NBC),
KETC 9 (
PBS),
KPLR 11 (
CW),
KDNL 30 (
ABC), and
WRBU 46 (
MNTV).
The region's radio airwaves offer a variety of locally produced programming.
KMOX (1120 AM), which pioneered the call-in talk radio format in 1960, retains significant regional influence due to its 50,000-
watt,
clear-channel signal and an unusually active newsroom operation.
Public radio station
KWMU (90.7 FM), an
NPR affiliate, also provides extensive, locally produced programming treating social issues, politics, and the arts. St. Louis is one of only a handful of U. S. cities to have its own independent
community radio station,
KDHX (88.1 FM), which features a wide range of music and talk from local residents.
Washington University in St. Louis'
college radio station,
KWUR (90.3 FM), also provides community broadcasting and an eclectic mix of
underground music, although with an effective radiated power of only ten watts, it's only heard on the campus and in the immediately adjacent neighborhoods.
Economy
Many well-known U.S. corporations make St. Louis their home. Beer commercials have made the city well known as the home of
Anheuser-Busch Breweries. (Recent legislation has even proposed making Budweiser the official beer of the State of Missouri.) Local brokerages
Stifel Nicolaus and
Edward Jones, as well as online brokerage firm
Scottrade plus
Wachovia Securities (formerly A.G. Edwards, merged into
Wachovia Corporation) are major players on the national financial landscape. It is also the site for the headquarters of
Energizer, the battery company. Neighboring suburbs host
Monsanto, formerly a chemical company and now a leader in
genetically modified crops, and
Solutia, the former Monsanto chemical division that was spun off as a separate company in 1997.
Express Scripts, a pharmaceutical benefits management firm, has its corporate headquarters in the suburbs of St. Louis and recently announced plans to construct its new headquarters near the campus of the
University of Missouri–St. Louis.
Hardee's corporate headquarters lies in the metro area.
Enterprise Rent-A-Car is headquartered in
Clayton.
Emerson Electric is headquartered in the north side of St. Louis.
Charter Communications, the nation's fourth largest broadband communications company, is also headquartered in suburban St. Louis. The corporate headquarters of Medicine Shoppe International a subsidiary
Katz Group of Companies makes its home in the western suburbs. In addition, early in the 20th Century, St. Louis was home to
brass era automobile maker
Clymer.
In recent years the corporate landscape has evolved, with several corporate pillars leaving the city.
Mallinckrodt, headquartered in the St. Louis region for more than 130 years, was purchased by
Tyco International in 2000, though most of the former Mallinckrodt facilities remain i
