HISTORIC ST. LOUIS. 250 Years Exploring New Frontiers. A publication of the University of Missouri St. Louis. by J. Frederick Fausz, Ph.D.

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1 HISTORIC ST. LOUIS 250 Years Exploring New Frontiers by J. Frederick Fausz, Ph.D. A publication of the University of Missouri St. Louis

2 HISTORIC ST. LOUIS 250 Years Exploring New Frontiers by J. Frederick Fausz, Ph.D. A publication of the University of Missouri St. Louis HPNbooks A division of Lammert Incorporated San Antonio, Texas

3 DEDICATION To the memory of James Neal Primm and to the UMSL students who inspired us both. First Edition Copyright 2014 HPNbooks All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing from the publisher. All inquiries should be addressed to HPNbooks, Galm Road, Suite 101, San Antonio, Texas, Phone (800) , ISBN: Library of Congress Card Catalog Number: H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 2 Historic St. Louis: 250 Years Exploring New Frontiers author: J. Frederick Fausz, Ph.D. contributing writer for sharing the heritage: Joe Goodpasture HPNbooks president: Ron Lammert project managers: Roxanne Landman, Bob Sadoski, Larry Sunderland, Michael Swengrosh administration: Donna M. Mata, Melissa G. Quinn book sales: Dee Steidle production: Colin Hart, Evelyn Hart, Glenda Tarazon Krouse, Christopher Mitchell, Tony Quinn

4 CONTENTS 5 INTRODUCTION by UMSL Chancellor Thomas F. George 6 FOREWORD Reflections by St. Louis Mayor Francis G. Slay 7 PROLOGUE St. Louis: Where the Past is Present for the Future 12 CHAPTER 1 Exploring the Confluence of Cultures and Rivers 32 CHAPTER 2 Exploring St. Louis as Capital of the American West 49 CHAPTER 3 Exploring a Steamboat City of Expanding Commerce 80 CHAPTER 4 Exploring the World s Fair City in a Railroad Era 106 CHAPTER 5 Exploring Urban Challenges in an Automobile Age 142 EPILOGUE Inspiring Community Spirit in the New Millennium 164 SHARING THE HERITAGE 310 SPONSORS 312 ABOUT THE AUTHOR C O N T E N T S 3

5 Statue of King Louis IX of France. Known as the Apotheosis of Saint Louis, the statue by Charles H. Niehaus was unveiled at the 1904 World s Fair. Two years later, the city had it cast in bronze and placed in front of the Saint Louis Art Museum, where it remains a beloved landmark. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE FAUSZ FAMILY, We shall not cease from exploration, And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started, And know the place for the first time. St. Louis native, T. S. Eliot, Four Quartets, No. 4 (1942). H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 4

6 INTRODUCTION The history of St. Louis is one of opportunity and dreams coming true. That s apparent in the pages of this outstanding book chronicling the birth and development of St. Louis over the past 250 years. It s a story of individuals seeking better lives for themselves and their families. It s a story of individuals coming together to create great communities, companies and institutions. It s our story. I am especially proud of this publication as the University of Missouri St. Louis is a primary sponsor and many of the individuals mentioned in the book have strong associations with our campus either as graduates or supporters. I also was delighted that one of our faculty members, Dr. J Frederick Fausz, oversaw editorial direction and content creation. He s a natural storyteller and an outstanding historian whose knowledge of Western American history makes him one of our favorite professors. St. Louis has a rich history. It has experienced much growth and change over the past 250 years. It has seen success and failure many times over. For many, St. Louis was a gateway to somewhere else. For others, like me, it became a home. I consider us the fortunate ones. St. Louis will continue to grow and change. And, while I like to read about St. Louis rich, historic past, it s working for a better future that inspires and excites us at the University of Missouri St. Louis. We re in the business of making dreams come true. Thomas F. George Chancellor University of Missouri St. Louis I N T R O D U C T I O N 5

7 FOREWORD Above: Mayor Francis Slay, City of St. Louis. Below: Official anniversary logo of the stl250 Committee; used with permission as a registered Signature Event. The brilliance of St. Louis s celebration of its 250th anniversary year is that only the barest attention is being paid to the actual details of our foundation as a fur trading post by Pierre Laclede and Auguste Chouteau. Instead, our civic focus will be on other things: the river itself; the immigrants who found their way here; the buildings and neighborhoods in which they settled; the churches and civic cathedrals in which they congregated; the sports they adored; the great public spaces they built; the foods they popularized; the strength with which they struggled with the injustices of slavery and segregation, the ravages of Depression; and the mistakes they made. Like most St. Louisans, I am the descendent of immigrants. I was raised on a block in which I knew everyone. The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis is my idea of a church and the Eads is my idea of a bridge. I have never lived farther than a half mile from a park. I bleed red and blue for the Cardinals, Blues, and Rams. I have a taste for provel, in quantity. I have long thought that the Great Divorce of 1876, in which the city of St. Louis separated itself from St. Louis County, was our biggest civic misjudgment. From it can be traced the roots of a dozen other consequences that continue to vex us. The year in which we celebrate our founding is our most recent best opportunity to reflect on the courage and ingenuity of St. Louisans who faced flood, fire, discrimination, and violence; kept faith in their home; and built if not yet a Shining City Upon a Hill, at least a vibrant and diverse city perched on the bank of a great river, where all are welcome. Mayor Francis Slay, City of St. Louis H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 6

8 PROLOGUE A C I T Y W H E R E T H E P A S T I S P R E S E N T F O R T H E F U T U R E In joyful homes where the happy dwell, Where life is in gladness led, It cometh the heart with sighs to swell, The memory of the Dead. St. Louis poet Ethel Grey, The Memory of the Dead, In recent years, St. Louis has faced its greatest socio-economic crises since the Great Depression, with a dramatically diminished population and declining stature among American cities. In a Time magazine essay on Bastille Day, 2008, David von Drehle wondered if Poor St. Louis a Midwestern city with an Athenian heart could ever reclaim the global prestige of 1904, when it was the only city ever to host a world s fair and Olympic games simultaneously. Would retaining local ownership of the iconic Anheuser-Busch Brewery, von Drehle queried, be enough to give this city a few more years of dignity? The new Saint Louis Art Museum East Building at sunset on June 6, 2013, reflecting the Statue of Saint Louis. PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBERT COHEN, COURTESY OF THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. P R O L O G U E 7

9 The iconic Clydesdales remain a popular St. Louis treasure. Anheuser- Busch, LLC. Used with permission of Anheuser-Busch, LLC. All rights reserved. St. Louis will never regain the international acclaim of that spectacular summer over a century ago, when, as America s fourth largest city, with the nation s biggest brewery, it welcomed the world as a gracious host. But it takes more than one event or a single business to nurture the civic pride and community spirit that are essential in determining a city s true dignity. Residents are the key shapers of urban reputations, for by embracing and sharing an accurate knowledge of a city s entire history, they create connections through time and well into the future among all people who have lived there. That reinforces the reality that everyone occupies the same boat and must tap all talents and share all sacrifices to keep the fragile craft of community from sinking. Remembering is the greatest honor and highest compliment that anyone can bestow on ancestors who created the society we live in. Respect for the debts owed to that local, familiar past is why people buy tombstones, publish obituaries, and name children after relatives. When a city honors famous citizens with street names, plaques, or monuments, it enhances the relevance of history, validating the shared humanity between the living and the dead and ensuring that our labors have created legacies that will last long after our passing. The site of St. Louis resembles an amphitheater and on that natural stage our city has played major roles in historical dramas for two-and-a-half centuries. Only three dozen U.S. cities are as old as St. Louis, and our City of the Sainted King has H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 8

10 achieved national fame that is deserving of remembrance, recognition, and respect: S St. Louis was the first permanent European settlement closest to the strategic confluence of America s two longest rivers one of the best city sites on the continent. S St. Louis was the last permanent French city created in the present limits of the United States, and it perpetuated that special culture following France s loss of its American empire in S St. Louis did not displace a Native American population and pioneered innovative, alternative frontier policies of peace and prosperity as a hospitable Indian capital of diplomacy and trade. S St. Louis was a true city by design, function, and significance from its earliest days, thanks to civic-minded businessmen, whose profits from global commerce developed a consumer culture of affluence, civility, and philanthropy. S St. Louis became a refuge for French colonists from all areas of North America; served as Spain s northernmost regional capital in its New World empire; and was the first capital of the American West after the Louisiana Purchase. S St. Louis was the last home of the Corps of Discovery commanders, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, and their influence made the city a Gateway to the West for generations of American entrepreneurs and European immigrants. S St. Louis served as the Mother City of the West, whose citizens promoted many daughter settlements that became future towns in Missouri and several other states. S St. Louis was the Union capital west of the Mississippi and the only southern city to support Lincoln, playing key roles in winning the Civil War and emancipating slaves. S St. Louis was a major commercial hub of the heartland, connecting eastern, western, northern, and southern regions via steamboats and railroads. S St. Louis became a large industrial center and America s fourth largest city by 1900, promoted as the possible future capital of the United States. S St. Louis was a popular destination for international immigrants and tourists long before it achieved fame for the World s Fair and Olympic Games in S St. Louis has played a major role in aviation history for over a century, before and after Charles Lindbergh s famous transatlantic flight in a plane named for the city. S St. Louis achieved international prominence for its architecture, represented by the Eads Bridge, its early skyscrapers, Lambert Airport Terminal, and the Gateway Arch. S St. Louis has been a leading city in proposing progressive civic solutions to serious problems of urban decline since S St. Louis has world-class universities, free cultural institutions, and notable parks, historic sites, medical facilities, musical traditions, museums, and research libraries, with unparalleled archives on the history of the American West. S St. Louis has an incomparable heritage of baseball excellence, winning eleven World Series championships as the first National League city west of the Mississippi. S St. Louis has harnessed the potential of the new millennium most aggressively, by supporting innovative new businesses, improving the attractions of inner city living, revitalizing neighborhoods, expanding job opportunities, welcoming immigrants, and creating new options for popular entertainment and cultural refinement. That small sample of accomplishments should provide encouragement to the 3,000,000 people who live in the St. Louis Metropolitan Map of St. Louis, 1892, from Shewey s Pictorial St. Louis, Past and Present (St. Louis, 1892), p. 17. P R O L O G U E 9

11 T H E U N F U L F I L L E D P R O M I S E S O F A N N I V E R S A R I E S Major public anniversary celebrations represent the best and worst aspects of history. They attract broad interest and temporarily make information about the past more popular, but such popularity often encourages fleeting entertainment over lasting enlightenment and the marketing of silly souvenirs instead of respect for serious research. Anniversaries highlight the difference between popular heritage often flawed personal memories, mere rumors, and sheer fantasies about the past and professional history, the disciplined accumulation of accurate, verifiable evidence about events that no one remembers. The arrival of the new millennium illustrated those differences. The many millions of people who participated in that massive global revelry celebrated the wrong year revealing an astonishing level of ignorance about chronology in a commemoration that should have been all about chronology. St. Louisans have long had their own problems with chronology and seem incapable of reaching a consensus about the correct founding date of their city. The Official Bicentennial Celebration in 1964 honored the wrong birth date of February 14, and it has been virtually impossible to alter erroneous personal memories with professional research ever since. A popular publication recently proclaimed that an actual date of the city s founding is unknown due to the lack of documents from 1764 and inconsistencies of these papers. That is a lie fabricated by a PR promoter pretending to know history. Historians, like lawyers, give far more credence to written records than hearsay accounts, and the only founding date in a surviving manuscript written by an eyewitness (the city s eminent co-founder, Auguste Chouteau) is February 15, 1764, which he consistently confirmed several times between 1804 and 1825 including testimony under oath. All of the earliest historians of St. Louis accepted and repeated that date, and the city s first official public celebration of its founding was held on Monday, February 15, But flawed English translations of Chouteau s Narrative of the Founding of St. Louis in 1858 and 1911 misread his 5 for an inaccurate 4 and all of the leading city historians in 1964 were too careless to note that discrepancy. That error proliferated like a computer virus. As more and more citizens celebrated the wrong date in the past fifty years (unfortunately made more popular due to its association with Valentine s Day), flawed memories became resistant to verified, irrefutable evidence from experts. Once the mistakes of the early translators became widely known, however, all recent scholarly historians have agreed that February 15 is correct. And national, neutral commentators cannot fathom the local dispute, as when Charlie Rose on the CBS Morning News wished St. Louis a happy birthday on February 15, Unless St. Louisans stop trivializing historical dating as a personal whim, they will continue to perpetuate fictitious heritage instead of factual history. How can we expect young students to respect history if our most mature citizens disregard that most basic fact about their hometown? And how many other of our biased beliefs defy accuracy and honesty? Area, reminding them that human potential and commercial capital for 250 years have resolved crises far worse than those of today. Sadly, however, few residents appreciate those major milestones of impressive leadership that stimulated civic loyalty in past generations. The most relevant, resonating history is usually local and personal, starting with an awareness of family genealogy, progressing to an appreciation of one s unique neighborhood, and resulting in a broader, advanced understanding of the hometown and what it has contributed to the state, the nation, and the world. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 10

12 But for decades, public schools have almost entirely replaced local history with global social studies while making all courses dealing with humanity subordinate to STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering, and math). The failure to excite young minds about the history of St. Louis is an inexplicably missed opportunity, since the city was co-founded by a teenager whose exciting frontier experiences with French, Spanish, British, American, and Indian populations over sixty-five years could serve as an engaging multicultural textbook by themselves. Reading any history for pleasure and enlightenment has also declined dramatically in our era of proliferating electronic devices and the quick, short, and misspelled text messages they facilitate. History would probably be more popular and palatable if it were marketed as social networking with the dead. History is the memory of an entire society, and amnesia about the events that predated one s birth is akin to the confusion experienced when someone overhears only a partial conversation without knowing the topic or how it began. A knowledge of history is required for a meaningful patriotism that goes beyond mere flag-waving, because it provides details about the sacrifices of earlier generations in solving social crises. History also promotes citizenship and a wellfunctioning democratic government. People who live only in a self-absorbed present will never be able to differentiate between old trends and new ideas, lacking the wisdom of historical context when they enter the voting booth with no direction for improving the future. Finally, an intensive knowledge of the past is the best preparation for understanding the present. The study of history requires broad reading, a commitment to understanding all sorts of people and their motives for making decisions in a variety of contexts, and, especially, a commitment to factual accuracy. Throughout world history, cities have been special centers of multicultural convergence, where a rich mix of intellectual, technological, political, and commercial explorers advanced progress with new ideas and innovative solutions. St. Louis emerged as a great metropolis because of its urban entrepreneurs. In every century, its business leaders have invested in risky enterprises and used their expertise as political leaders, civic planners, and generous philanthropists to improve the lives of fellow citizens. The organizational profiles in the Sharing the Heritage section showcase the considerable accomplishments of major corporations, small businesses, important non-profit groups, and venerable cultural institutions. Taken together, their stories serve as an enduring time capsule of 2014, which future generations can use to measure the progress of their ancestral explorers in years to come. This book chronicles 250 years of the most significant explorations physical, political, intellectual, commercial, cultural, and social that made the City of St. Louis famous in American history. The depth of coverage required, enhanced by a vast number of rare illustrations, precluded information on events beyond the city s boundaries. But everyone in the entire metropolitan region should recognize that St. Louis is a special place where the past is still present for shaping a future filled with pride and dignity. What St. Louisan William Vincent Byars wrote about his ancestors over a century ago still holds true today: Aerial View of the downtown core of St. Louis on November 19, PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF BRIAN HOLSCLAW; PERMISSION FOR USE GRANTED THROUGH WIKIMEDIA COMMONS. Their deeds, their thoughts, each brave word bravely said, Live past the grave and master it, to give The living help and strength when life is fraught With sorest need of courage. J. Frederick Fausz P R O L O G U E 1 1

13 Indians live much better than men under tyranny and arbitrary government. Nature has given them a soul which condemns dishonesty, petty fraud, and all vices which are daily practiced in refined life. John Dunn Hunter, Osage captive (1823) C H A P T E R 1 EXPLORING THE CONFLUENCE OF CULTURES AND RIVERS Above: Detail of the Mississippi-Missouri River Confluence, PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF BOB SRENCO (BOB@SRENCOAERIALPHOTO.COM) AND USED WITH PERMISSION. Right: Purported Portrait of Pierre de Laclede Liguest. The sailing ship in the background symbolized Laclede s voyage to New Orleans in 1755, and his expensive clothing may have been a family gift to a second son as he began a commercial career in America. For the complex details about Laclede portraiture, see J. Frederick Fausz, Founding St. Louis: First City of the New West (Charleston: The History Press, 2011), 207. COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS (OBJ: ); PERHAPS COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL IN THE FAMILY S BEDOUS MANSION. While the crusader king, Louis IX of France, was killing Muslims in the thirteenth century, some 10,000 Native Americans were living at the future site of St. Louis, then a suburb of the impressive Mississippian metropolis of Cahokia. Five hundred years later, French colonists founded the first and final town here since those Indian mound-builders. Although they named it to honor the only French monarch to achieve sainthood, the popular nickname of Mound City was more appropriate, since two dozen of those man-made landmarks gave St. Louis a distinctive appearance for another century and imparted a special connection with Indians ever since. In his 1974 historical novel, Centennial, James Michener wondered why, of all the frontier towns founded near the same time, St. Louis alone should grow into one of the world s great cities. His answer was Brains referring to the many wise decisions made by the intelligent, well-educated city founder, Pierre de Laclede Liguest. That gentleman merchant was uniquely qualified to be a successful frontier entrepreneur, city planner, and Indian diplomat, given his multilingual abilities, commercial ambitions, military training, and tolerant, liberal attitudes derived from the French Enlightenment. Above all, he was an explorer who founded a city of explorers. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 12

14 W H A T S I N A N A M E? Pierre de Laclede Liguest is the full correct name of the founder. As a native of the French Pyrenees province of Bearn, he learned the local Occitan-Gascon language from infancy and had to study French as a second (and foreign) language. He never used diacritical marks in signing his name, and to do so retroactively is inaccurate with regard to proper non-french pronunciation. In his native dialect, Laclede was pronounced as Laclayed neither the Lacled of proper French nor the anglicized Lacleed of the local St. Louis gas company. Laclede also insisted on attaching Liguest a Bearnais word meaning willow tree(s) to his surname, because as a second son who could not inherit his father s estate, he was entitled to revenues from a family forest along the Aspe River. Liguest also functioned like junior or younger in distinguishing Pierre from his father of the same name. Liguest appeared only as an addon to the signature of his surname, and he was always addressed as Laclede in conversation. Laclede was born on November 22, 1729, into one of the most distinguished gentry families in the beautiful Aspe Valley of Bearn a small but fiercely independent province of free shepherds nurtured by the rugged peaks of the French Pyrenees along the Spanish border. His surname means gate in the unique Bearnais dialect most appropriate for someone who founded the Gateway to the West. His mother, Magdeleine d Espoey d Arance, was a noblewoman, and his father, Pierre de Laclede, was a wealthy landowner and university-educated attorney serving the judicial parliament of Navarre in the provincial capital of Pau. Young Pierre was born in a seventeenthcentury stone mansion at Bedous, then a village of 2,000 residents. He was remarkably independent at an early age, since his mother died when he was only four, after bearing seven children in seven years twice delivering babies only eleven months apart. As a child, Pierre was tutored in a home filled with books, cultural refinement, and scholarly conversation, learning that the sterling reputation of one s family was the truest measure of wealth. Above: Maison Laclede, the founder s birth home in Bedous, remains in use today as a special holiday rental property. PHOTOGRAPH AND PERMISSION TO PUBLISH COURTESY OF THE PROPRIETOR, CECILE TEISSEIRE. Below: Panorama of the Monumental Grandeur of the Mississippi Valley, by John J. Egan, c This portrayal of Mississippian Indian mounds was one of twenty-five vignettes in a massive panoramic painting measuring 7 high and nearly 350 long, recently restored. COURTESY OF THE SAINT LOUIS ART MUSEUM; ELIZA MCMILLAN TRUST (34:1953). C H A P T E R 1 1 3

15 Lush Garden of Bearn landscape near Bedous, PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF PHOTOGRAPHER IAN STOKES OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE, UNITED KINGDOM. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 14 Generations of Lacledes had enough property to qualify as landed gentry or even aristocrats, but they achieved greater local distinction as industrious and talented public servants, scholars, physicians, lawyers, merchants, and priests. Laclede s paternal grandfather was a merchant and royal officeholder under Louis XIV, who was respected for his personal integrity and public generosity. Pierre s uncle, Jean Joseph Laclede, was a celebrated author and close friend of Voltaire, the famous philosopher. And Pierre s older brother, Jean (heir to the family fortune) was an attorney and pioneering botanist, named by King Louis XV as the Master of Waters and Forests in Bearn. The Lacledes of Bedous lived in a fertile farming region known as the garden of Bearn, where numerous conical mounds and surrounding mountains made the landscape distinctive. It was a region as productive as it was picturesque, where the main food crop was maize, farmed by women as in Native America. Pierre grew up eating Indian corn and learned how his family s water mill operated long before he owned one in St. Louis. Most importantly, Laclede lived along rivers his entire life and feared devastating floods in deep mountain gorges before he built St. Louis on a limestone ledge high above the American Nile. His boyhood also may have influenced his insistence on living in the first stone home built in St. Louis, then very rare in that region, because it was the traditional housing material for all classes in Bearn. Six other small villages within a few miles of Bedous offered additional lessons for a curious boy. In Accous, the popular pastoral poet, Cyprien Despourrins, wrote verses during Laclede s lifetime that praised poor shepherds who valued personal pride above wealth. In Osse, Calvinism had flourished since the 1500s, and the Catholic Lacledes were notably tolerant in respecting and protecting those Protestants during frequent religious wars. Across the river from Bedous, the Laclede family forest supplied masts for the French Navy. Jean-Jacques Blaise d Abbadie, a Bearnais nobleman and naval official, met young Pierre in the 1740s when he came to select the trees he needed. They would meet again in 1763 New Orleans when d Abbadie, as the new Director-General of Louisiana, confirmed Laclede s fur trading monopoly that helped get St. Louis started.

16 As a teenager, Pierre enrolled at the 140- year-old Jesuit College in Pau, some sixty miles from his home. There, he marveled at the magnificent palace of King Henri IV, a direct descendant of Saint Louis and first monarch of the Bourbon dynasty, who ruled Bearn prior to reigning over France. Laclede later moved to Toulouse, attending a military academy to expand his interests beyond book-learning. Active and athletic, he was awarded an ornate sword as a champion fencer and soon after joined the provincial militia. Patrolling the high Pyrenees passes between France and Spain, only thirty miles from Bedous, Pierre gained proficiency in Spanish and became a keen observer of cultural differences in that borderland of mixed populations. When he turned twenty-five, Laclede decided to pursue a merchant career in a transatlantic world of greater opportunities. With no prospects of inheriting his father s fortune, he became a self-made entrepreneur, embracing the traditional Bearnais belief that every man had wealth and power within himself, but only unremitting activity would bring success and satisfaction. On June 7, 1755, the talented, multilingual swordsmen sailed from La Rochelle, exchanging the grandeur and sublimity of the Pyrenees Mountains for the steamy lowlands of Louisiana. Laclede departed from that port, rather than the closer City of Bordeaux, because the powerful, Protestant Rasteau family of La Rochelle had a dominant economic influence in New Orleans. Those transatlantic merchants were allied with Laclede s future business partner and his attorney in Louisiana, and La Rochelle supplied the merchandise for the expedition that founded St. Louis. Laclede arrived in New Orleans as the French and Indian War began, and he became Left: The royal palace at Pau, birthplace and home of King Henri III of Bearn, who became Henri IV, King of France, as the first monarch of the Bourbon dynasty. Laclede studied nearby in the Jesuit school he founded, and his knowledge that Henri was a direct descendant of Saint Louis may have influenced the naming of his new settlement; nineteenth-century print in the author s collection. Below: Plan et Projet de la Nouvelle Orleans, August 9th, 1763 dated one day before Laclede and Chouteau departed on the voyage to found St. Louis; nineteenthcentury facsimile in the author s collection. C H A P T E R 1 1 5

17 Map of French Illinois settlements in the mid-1760s by British military surveyor/ cartographer Thomas Hutchins; from a 1904 facsimile of his 1778 book in the author s collection. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 16 a business partner of Colonel Gilbert Antoine de St. Maxent, his commander in the Louisiana Militia. Maxent was a leading merchant and the government s supplier of diplomatic gifts to dozens of allied native nations. He probably introduced Laclede to his Conti Street neighbor Marie Thérèse Bourgeois Chouteau whose husband had abandoned her and their young son, Auguste. Under the laws of Catholic France, she could neither divorce an absent husband nor remarry until his death. Considering herself widowed, she began a twenty-year liaison with Laclede that produced four children, all baptized with the Chouteau name for propriety s sake. After the fall of Quebec and the surrender of Montreal, by 1760 New Orleans was France s last unconquered capital in mainland North America. Officials there knew that Great Britain was certain to win the French and Indian War and control all lands east of the Mississippi River including several French Illinois villages and the administrative capital at Fort de Chartres. Count Kerlérec, the Governor-General of Louisiana, had built that huge fortress and installed his brotherin-law, Major Pierre-Joseph Neyon de Villiers as Commandant of Illinois. Those two military heroes, who wore the coveted medal of the Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis, along with leading New Orleans merchants and Director-General d Abbadie, planned to build a new French regional capital on the west bank of the Mississippi to replace Fort de Chartres. The company of Maxent and Laclede received an official six-year monopoly on the furs of the Upper Mississippi and Missouri River valleys for privately funding several public projects at the new settlement. With a quarter share in that daring venture 1,200 miles upriver, Laclede promoted Indian trade alliances to obtain the furs that would alleviate an economic depression in New Orleans; provided a new home for the Illinois French who refused to live under a military occupation by British Protestants; and protected the trans-mississippi West from English invasion. Laclede headed upriver from New Orleans on August 10, 1763, with his teenaged stepson, Auguste Chouteau, while pro-french Indians were still battling British troops in Pontiac s War. The partnership of the affluent, intellectual 34-year-old European and the poor, barely-educated 14-year-old Louisiana Creole represented a complementary convergence of different backgrounds and varying generations that provided unbroken continuity in the successful development of St. Louis until Chouteau died sixty-five years later! Those entrepreneurs did not take other residents of New Orleans with them as potential settlers, since the ideal founding families of St. Louis already lived in Illinois veteran Canadians

18 and French Creoles acclimated to the region and used to daily interactions with African Americans, Indians, and metis in multicultural frontier communities. Reaching Illinois in early November after a voyage of eighty-five days, Laclede and Chouteau established a temporary home and company headquarters in the village adjoining Fort de Chartres. Just a few weeks later, in bone-chilling December weather, they explored the west bank of the Mississippi up to the mouth of the Missouri River, seeking an ideal site for Laclede s new settlement. Fifteen miles south of that muddy convergence, they spotted a great mound rising thirty-two feet above a twomile-long limestone bluff. That strategic, flood-free site near the confluence of America s two longest rivers (and close to the Illinois and Ohio Rivers, as well) was ideal for shipping heavy cargoes a thousand miles in every direction. That location also contained ample trees and abundant limestone for building, fresh water springs, and an extensive prairie for farming and pasturing livestock. Additional geological gifts nearby salt for preserving animal skins, lead for making musket balls, iron for forging tools, surface coal for fuel, extensive clay pits for brick-making, and huge caves for cold storage made Laclede s location the best on the continent for contented residents pursuing large-scale, longrange fur trading. Such incomparable natural advantages allegedly caused Laclede to declare that his town might eventually become one of the finest cities in America, with the commercial clout and central location for creating [other] settlements. The most indispensable resource, however, was human: talented and loyal Osage hunters eager to trade for desirable European products of metal, cloth, and glass. Laclede could not have started or sustained a fur trade without a critical commercial alliance with that cooperative native nation. Long renowned by French Canadians as the Masters of the Hunting Country west of the Mississippi River, some 10,000 Osages possessed a huge animal empire of 100,000 square miles; a superior fighting force of some 2,000 mounted warriors to defend it; and expertise in procuring and processing all of the marketable mammals most desired in Europe. Historian Kathleen DuVal observed that the Osages were far more successful than either France or Spain at building a mid-continental empire, which encompassed most of present-day Missouri and large portions of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Above: The Big or Great Mound La Grange de Terre ( barn of the earth ) photographed by St. Louisan Thomas M. Easterly in the 1860s before it was destroyed. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS. Below: Osage Warrior, painted from life in 1806 by Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin when this Indian visited President Jefferson in Washington, D.C. He wears a crown of vulture beaks and a deer-and-porcupine quill roach, but his other adornments were imported trade goods: the metal armband and brooch around his ear, Delft spotted beads, a long white hair pipe of French porcelain, black silk from Detroit, and red vermilion body paint from China. In addition, European razors, knives, and scissors would have allowed him to remove all body hair (including eyebrows), as was traditional with Osage warriors. COURTESY OF THE WINTERTHUR MUSEUM. C H A P T E R 1 1 7

19 Above: Laclede Landing at Present Site of St. Louis (detail), by Oscar Edward Berninghaus, c COURTESY OF THE SAINT LOUIS ART MUSEUM; GIFT OF AUGUST A. BUSCH, JR. Below: Vincent Voiture [posing as] Saint Louis, by French painter Philippe de Champaigne, mid-seventeenth-century. Poet Voiture portrayed Louis IX, featuring items associated with the thirteenth-century crusading king: royal crown, fleur-de-lis scepter, ermine skin mantle, and Jesus Christ s crown of thorns, remnants of which Louis allegedly brought from the Holy Land. COURTESY OF THE SAINT LOUIS ART MUSEUM; FRIENDS FUND (719:1961). Arkansas. Thomas Jefferson and other credible eyewitnesses described Osage warriors as most gigantic averaging about 6 6 in height. They were ruthless foes of rival tribes but reliable friends of the French, who made them free men able to make a living by providing European muskets over several decades. In 1725, an Osage chief was the honored guest of King Louis XV Onontio, the Great Father in France and his visit to the other side of the sun represented the mutual respect among devoted allies. The French and Indian War had curtailed shipments of new weapons, however, and the Osages welcomed Laclede because he could export their backlog of valuable furs to the best markets for guns and other premium products. That European gentleman with business acumen a rare founder of a colonial American city who was not a nobleman, missionary, military leader, or buckskin-wearing hunter succeeded in forging one of the longest, strongest, and most lucrative multi- H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 18

20 ethnic commercial alliances ever. Fur trading was the only frontier enterprise that united Indians and Europeans in a mutually-desired peaceful partnership. Colonial St. Louisans were richly rewarded for befriending the Osages, earning their trust, valuing their talents, supplying their needs, and protecting their lands, liberties, and life-ways from hostile competitors that threatened financial ruin for everyone. The English, Anglo-Americans, and Spanish nations have succeeded only in inspiring fear and alienation among Indians, wrote a Parisian visiting Missouri in 1800, while the French nurtured their affection. Their proximity to the Indians, the ease of communicating with them, [and] the need to live in their villages in order to trade had no small influence on the character of the colonists. Towns were the spearheads of the frontier, wrote historian Richard Wade, and the story of Western urbanism begins at St. Louis. But Laclede and Chouteau were successful city founders because they recognized that Western urbanism really began with Indian mound-builders and that Native American towns were the sustaining sources of economic development before Europeans ever arrived. When Chouteau and thirty laborers from Illinois began building St. Louis on Wednesday, February 15, 1764, they did not displace any resident Indians. But the Osages identified with the familiar, welcoming symbolism of the St. Louis site because of the many Mississippian mounds. The Osages were known as elevated mound people and lived on high hilltops at their capital of Marais des Cygnes ( Swamp of Swans ) in southwestern Missouri. Claiming cultural connections with ancient moundbuilding societies, the Osage Nation in 2009 purchased Sugar Loaf on Ohio Avenue the last surviving Indian mound in the city limits of St. Louis as the future site of an interpretive center about their heritage. The ambitious new town that was taking shape on a strategic section of the mighty Mississippi did not have a name for three months. While Chouteau s construction crew cleared the land, Laclede had stayed in Illinois protecting his merchandise and recruiting new settlers. But he returned in the Spring, and according to Chouteau s written recollections, on or near April 25, 1764 the 550th birthday of Saint Louis Laclede named his town in honor of that crusading medieval monarch. The forty-three-year reign of King Louis IX was a golden age of art and architecture, education and charity, but Pope Boniface VIII canonized him because he led two crusades in the Holy Land and died there on August 25, 1270 (his Feast Day). Laclede hoped to flatter the current King Louis XV by honoring his patron saint, even though the medieval monarch s killing of cultural aliens was incompatible with the goals of his namesake town in America. But Laclede wasted that self-serving compliment to the reigning French monarch because he had given western Louisiana, including the site of St. Louis, to his Bourbon cousin, King Carlos III of Spain, in November The transaction was so secret that not even royal officials in New Orleans knew of it for twenty-two months, and St. Louisans only learned about that shocking situation in December Realizing that the Kingdom of France did not now protect its countrymen on either side of the Mississippi River, the twice- orphaned Illinois French reconciled themselves to the fact that St. Louis was built International boundaries following the French and Indian War, showing St. Louis in an imperial setting. File: North America, created by Jon Platek in 2008 and reproduced under the free use policy of Wikimedia Commons. C H A P T E R 1 1 9

21 First St. Louis Courthouse, built in 1770 and used for a century; shown here in the 1890s at Third and Plum Streets. Typical of most buildings in eighteenth-century St. Louis was Colonial French vertical log construction clearly seen here. Logs were hewn flat and either set directly in the ground or placed on sills. The spaces between the timbers were filled with clay and grass (bouzillage) or rubble stone and clay (pierrotage). Flat boards could then be applied, but most residences would be plastered and whitewashed, giving a more refined appearance for town living than the crude, horizontal-log cabins of frontier Americans in a forest. FROM A PRINT IN THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. on a legal bluff more gigantic than the city s limestone one, and that they had to rely on one another to protect their property and livelihoods. New settlers continued to arrive steadily until late 1765, after Great Britain s Black Watch regiment had reached Fort de Chartres. For almost two years, dozens of French Illinois families had dismantled their houses, salvaging the boards, windows, and door frames, and everything else they could transport and crossed the international boundary line of the Mississippi River to begin new lives in St. Louis. They brought something much more valuable than building materials a heritage of multiethnic toleration living in racially-mixed societies. The sensible and clever Laclede was a pragmatic problem-solver who fashioned St. Louis into a true city by design, function, and significance, despite its small population. He laid out streets on a grid pattern like New Orleans, already conceiving his city as a thriving port serving a vast inland empire. By investing heavily in a grist mill and other buildings for the benefit of the community, Laclede enhanced the reputation of St. Louis as imaginatively conceived, innovatively developed, and immediately populated. But Laclede s greatest legacy was encouraging his colonists, who already lived on free riverfront home sites, to govern themselves. The first Spanish lieutenant governor would not take up permanent residency in St. Louis until late 1770, giving Laclede s colonists six years to design the society they desired without an intrusive national government, a meddlesome local bureaucracy, a coercive military, or judgmental priests. As perhaps the freest European population anywhere in North America, early St. Louisans enjoyed unprecedented liberties, self-governance, and financial success, without the need for a constitution, a legislature, an army, police, judges, juries, jails, or lawyers to live comfortably, safely, and compatibly in Indian Country. The customary laws of Paris, Catholic teachings, peer pressure from closeknit families, and Creole traditions of neighborliness and camaraderie restrained serious violence among liquor-loving residents who built billiard parlors many years before they constructed a church. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 20

22 S T. L O U I S S F O U N D I N G F A M I L I E S Beaugenou Becquet/Bequette Chancellier Chouteau Cotté Delin Dodier Gamache Hervieux Kierserau/Kiercerau dit ( known as ) Renaud Labrosse Laclede La Grain/La Grange Mainville dit Dechenes Marcheteau dit Desnoyers Martiqné/Martigny Mercier Picard Pichet Pothier Prunet dit La Giroflee Ride Rivière dit Bacuné Roi Salé dit La Joie Taillon/Tayon Laclede s colonists maintained good relations with, and were actually protected by, some of the most feared Indian warriors in the West, because they were business partners who rejected the punitive European heritage of military conquest and coerced conversion of native nations. Created solely to make money, St. Louis represented an admirable, alternative western frontier of tolerant trade and tender ties with friendly savages in a civilized wilderness more profitable than dangerous. Even the town s derogatory nickname of Pain Court ( meager bread ) became a badge of honor, since St. Louisans chose to cultivate good relations with Indians rather than to cultivate native lands that produced conflict and intruded on animal habitats. While farming gave the colonists little or no gain, commerce made them rich but also dependent upon Indian hunters for the type, size, condition, and timely delivery of fur harvests. French residents and Spanish rulers used to different monarchs decided to respect a single king the fur trade. As early as 1766, rival British merchants complained that Laclede s town already dominated the whole trade of the Missouri, of the Mississippi northwards, and of the Indian Nations near Lake Michigan far exceeding the profits expected by the New Orleans planners. Demonstrating the value of the Missouri Valley that the royal courts of Europe had discounted, the Osages and other Indians supplied Laclede with 625,000 pounds of furs between , including 215,000 pounds of shaved, brain-tanned deer leather expertly manufactured by Osage women and Statue of Laclede by Jonathan Scott Hartley, 1904, modeled on facial features of his nineteenth-century Chouteau descendants. Described by contemporaries as having a commanding presence, Laclede probably stood about 5 9 short for Bearn but a height that made him up to a foot taller than most of the French troops stationed at New Orleans in the mid-eighteenth century. PRINT FROM THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. C H A P T E R 1 2 1

23 Right: Portrait of York by Michael Haynes ( used with permission of the artist. William Clark s slave, York, made vital contributions to the Corps of Discovery and then spent several years in St. Louis. The author used this image to represent African Americans in colonial St. Louis, both slave and free, who worked in the fur trade as traders, voyageurs, or hunters. Opposite: Furs, Indian weapons, and European metal imports associated with French St. Louis s commercial alliances with native nations; author photograph of objects in his collection. On the front cloth are an Indian trade musket and an early version of the Missouri War Ax, both from the 1790s. 133,000 pounds of raw skins. Everyone knew that the Osages were the true bankers of the region, because their buck -skins served as St. Louis s currency for decades. Until the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the St. Louis fur trade averaged $220,000 per year in wholesale prices (half of the London retail price and equal to many millions today), with profit margins reaching 80 percent. The governor in New Orleans compared such vast wealth from furs to the gold and silver mines of Spanish America and declared that St. Louis was one of the most populous, extensive, well-managed, and respectable of all settlements that have been established. Spanish officials praised French St. Louis as the most modern settlement in all of Louisiana, and they were delighted to discover that collecting dead mammals was very advantageous in providing full employment; nurturing the affection of the natives; and preserving Public Security. A 1779 military census revealed that fur trading provided the sole livelihood for 67 percent of all St. Louis men 22 merchants, 17 traders, 84 boatmen, and 24 hunters not including a silversmith and a tailor who made items for Indians. Those who profited indirectly from the Indian trade included two bakers, two cobblers, a butcher, and a musician. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 22

24 The frequent presence of Osage hunterwarriors was nothing to fear, and since they preserved the peace and promoted the prosperity of their St. Louis partners, the young frontier town became famous as a most desirable refuge of all the French, especially those from traditional fur trading regions. As of 1780, 63 percent of adult males in the town had been born in Canada (137); 21 percent (46) originated in the Illinois Country, including native-born St. Louisans; and a surprising 13 percent (29 men) emigrated from France including wealthy, well-educated merchants known to Laclede. C H A P T E R 1 2 3

25 A C O L O R F U L C O L O N I A L C A P I T A L Americans today can appreciate the modern racial diversity in eighteenth-century St. Louis, inhabited by people of many hues, multiple heritages, and mixed bloodlines. In a 1787 Spanish census, analyzed by historian Peter K. Johnson, the small city contained 896 whites, 188 blacks, and 83 tan or colored mixed bloods. A F R I C A N A M E R I C A N S One or more highly-respected and talented black pilots skillfully navigated the boat that brought Laclede and Chouteau from New Orleans in 1763, and eight years later, their new settlement had at least 124 African American slaves (74 males, 50 females) totaling 25 percent of the population. St. Louisans adhered to the 1724 French Code Noir [ Black Code ], as liberalized by Spanish officials. Those slave laws were more humane than racial policies in most Anglo-American colonies. Masters were required to feed and clothe their slaves properly and to care for those who were old, infirm, or sick. Officials encouraged the Catholic conversion of blacks and enduring slave marriages. It was illegal to split up slave spouses and their young children in separate sales. Slaves could attain their freedom, after which they enjoyed the same rights and privileges of other residents. Slave tutors were automatically considered freemen. Seven African Americans were slain and thirteen captured defending St. Louis from the British-Indian attack in May By 1800 the town had 269 black slaves and 67 free blacks, up from 37 in only nine years. Free African Americans included Joseph Neptune; Esther, a former slave who received a Spanish land grant; and the famous Jeanette Forchet, who owned a house and farm and married two black men, including Valentin, a gunsmith and Indian trader. N A T I V E A M E R I C A N S Indians from twenty different cultures, including Osages, Pawnees, Sioux, Omahas, Mesquakis, and at least one Mohawk, also lived in colonial St. Louis. In 1770 Indians comprised about 17 percent of the town s population, with 69 (12 percent) being highlyvalued household slaves. In the late 1760s and early 1770s, 14 Native American slaves lived in the Laclede-Chouteau home alone. One of them, Therese, managed Madame Chouteau s household for forty-six years before being freed in According to Johnson, in the 1780s, about 10 percent of European households contained at least one Indian slave, and at least 15 white men had Indian wives. St. Louisans baptized 103 Native Americans in the 1770s alone, a third of all Indians baptized there until Historian Tanis Thorne has estimated that by 1800, at least one adult in 80 percent of St. Louis households may have had some Indian ancestry. As early as 1765, Laclede s thriving town also became the mid-continental center of Indian diplomacy. That coincided with the arrival of Captain Louis Saint Ange de Bellerive, the last French commander at Fort de Chartres, who transferred his flag and the last twenty royal marines to St. Louis after surrendering that stone citadel to British troops. A Montreal native and a close friend of Chief Pontiac, Saint Ange had vast experience negotiating with many native nations. As the only French commandant in St. Louis history, Saint Ange worked with Laclede to create a hospitable, centrallylocated site where red men could walk the white road in the clean earth of a friendly village not dirtied by bloodshed. In most years, thirty-two tribes from the Siouan plains, Caddoan prairies, and Algonquian lakes sent diplomatic delegations to St. Louis and stayed to shop, drink, and dance with residents H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 24

26 without any serious violence. In 1781, 130 tribes from both sides of the Mississippi gathered in that Indian Capital to discuss the dire consequences of the successful American Revolution. In 1769, Saint Ange further solidified the special, Indian-friendly spirit of St. Louis by retrieving the corpse of Chief Pontiac, who had been murdered across the river. He had him buried in a French officer s uniform coat under one of today s major downtown intersections. That popular legend can neither be confirmed nor refuted, but it has long symbolized yet another pro-indian connection among early St. Louisans, who like Pontiac, also hated, defied, and battled the British. In 1778, Laclede died suddenly and prematurely at the age of forty-nine. His fortune had diminished over the years, as he spent large sums improving his town and loaning money to residents. But he bequeathed a legacy of lifelong learning and talented leadership to his trusted stepson, Auguste Chouteau, and his only birth son, Jean Pierre Chouteau. With support from the Osages and two merchant in-laws from southwestern France Sylvestre Labbadie and John Cabanné the Chouteau brothers succeeded admirably as Indian traders and city fathers for decades to come. Auguste advised his accomplished descendants in the Royal Family of the Wilderness that the fur trade requires a complete knowledge of Indian customs, characters, habits, ways of living, [and] hunting, without which one will always fall from errors to errors. Trade Territory of St. Louis in the Late 18th Century, a map by James B. Musick in his St. Louis as a Fortified Town (self-published, 1941), between pp Author long deceased and copyright not renewed. C H A P T E R 1 2 5

27 H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 26

28 L A C L E D E S B O O K S H E L F Laclede imparted a legacy of cultural refinement to his little city, derived from his formative years when Enlightenment rationalism was a dominant influence in France. He was described as very well educated, and he used profits from dead animals to buy books to satisfy his curious mind. While living in St. Louis, he purchased 215 imported volumes in only fourteen years. His library included an impressive range of subjects: dictionaries in French, Spanish, and English; French, Spanish, and British histories; military codes and tactics; French, international, and maritime commerce; business finance and accounting; law and judicial studies; geography and geometry; theology and philosophy; anatomy, medicine, and surgery: engineering and hydrology; agronomy and botany; ancient histories of the Holy Land, Greece, and Rome; biographies of the Roman emperors; classic philosophical treatises by Bacon, Descartes, Locke, and Rousseau; political commentary by Addison and Steele; a surprisingly large number of plays and dramatic criticism; and a 1751 London edition of Benjamin Franklin s Experiments and Observations on Electricity! The Chouteau brothers faced the most serious threat to St. Louis just two years after Laclede s death. At the Battle of St. Louis on Friday, May 26, 1780, several hundred British-led Great Lakes Indians attacked the town of only 700 people. Suffering casualties of 7.5 percent (21 residents killed, 7 wounded, and 25 captured), St. Louisans drove off the jealous fur rivals to win the westernmost conflict of the American Revolution for Spain and its U.S. allies. That victory also prevented Great Britain from gaining control of the Mississippi River. With tempers flaring and spirits undaunted, some 147 French kin and neighbors, plus dozens of Indian allies, launched two successful revenge raids against British outposts along Lake Michigan in the winter of Following its wartime triumphs, St. Louis emerged stronger than ever, enjoying enhanced prestige and greater prosperity as a maturing regional capital. By its twenty-fifth birthday in 1789, St. Louis was the oldest permanent French town on its original site in Upper Louisiana, thanks to Laclede s ideal placement high above the river. The town of Ste. Genevieve had been destroyed in the Great Flood of 1785, which forced a total evacuation and rebuilding miles away. St. Louis was also the largest French town in Upper Louisiana, with a population of 1,168 (200 more than New Ste. Genevieve). Its residents were more wealthy than other colonists, living in 200 Houses, most of Stone, that were better built than [at] any Town on the Mississippi. Even Anglo-Americans described St. Louis as the handsomest and genteelist village in Upper Louisiana and perhaps the happiest on earth. Opposite: Vintage volumes and antique spectacles (Laclede wore glasses in his later years). PHOTOGRAPHED BY THE AUTHOR FROM OBJECTS IN HIS COLLECTION. Below: Troops of the Spanish Louisiana Regiment in St. Louis, 1804, an original painting by Michael Haynes ( and used with permission. The captain, sergeant, drummer, and fusilier (with a 1757 musket) shown here in uniforms almost identical to the way they had looked in 1769 as well as 1780, when 34 troops from this regiment helped militiamen and civilians defend St. Louis against a British and Indian attack in The Battle of St. Louis. C H A P T E R 1 2 7

29 Above: The Mansion of Auguste Chouteau (c ), the grandest early house in the West, a view engraved expressly for [Richard] Edwards s Great West and Her Commercial Metropolis, Embracing A Complete History of St. Louis (St. Louis, 1860), 534. Below: Bourbon St. Louis, with a French population but a Spanish commandant from 1770 to 1804, is represented by these two coins from the 1760s the larger one from France with the profile of King Louis XV, and the smaller one from Spain, issued by Carlos III. PHOTOGRAPHED BY THE AUTHOR FROM OBJECTS IN HIS COLLECTION. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 28 In terms of colonial French architecture, St. Louis by 1795 was older than its mother city of New Orleans, due to two huge fires and three hurricanes that recently destroyed over a thousand buildings in the southern capital. Preserving the style of former French Louisiana plantation homes was the magnificent mansion of Auguste Chouteau. In the 1790s, he had thoroughly remodeled and dramatically expanded the original stone home he had built for Laclede in That showpiece of merchant affluence occupied an entire block in St. Louis s city center, with large dimensions that were nearly identical to those of George Washington s impressive Mount Vernon. Chouteau s imposing castle served as a community hospitality center for visiting European nobles, Indian chiefs, and prominent American dignitaries for decades. The mansion had floors of black walnut; a crystal chandelier; a dining room with three large tables, 46 chairs, 40 tablecloths, and 42 pounds of sterling silver eating utensils; 11 landscape paintings; framed portraits of Napoleon; a 600-volume library; and a fancy clock with a bust of Voltaire on top. Auguste shared the Laclede family s affinity for that famous French philosopher, as well as his stepfather s commitment to living well. Chouteau was able to afford that expensive lifestyle because of vastly increased fur profits in the 1790s, which the Spanish Bourbon regime facilitated. In building the trading outpost of Fort Carondelet (named for the Spanish governor) exclusively for the Osages in southwestern Missouri, Auguste and Pierre curtailed Indian raids on white farms and averted a Spanish war against their Osage friends and relatives. As a reward, the Chouteaus received an eight-year royal monopoly on all Osage furs, which amounted to nearly 60 percent of the entire Missouri Valley trade annually. In order to provide Osage customers and St. Louis consumers with luxurious products from London, the Chouteaus shipped the most expensive furs up the Illinois River and Lake Michigan to Michilimackinac. From there, British merchants took them to Montreal s coffee house auctions.

30 Thanks to lax Spanish enforcement of smuggling laws, in 1794 alone the Chouteaus brought their Indian allies dozens of new muskets, 10,000 European-knapped gunflints, 2,160 knives, 2,160 awls, 4,300 rings, 70,000 trade beads, 670 virgin wool blankets, and 200 pounds of vermilion (mercuric sulfide red body pigment). St. Louisans enjoyed 2,000 pounds of Canadian maple sugar, 30 gallons of rum, 27 gallons of Madeira wine, 50 pounds of chocolate, 30 pounds of Chinese tea, 108 pairs of Moroccan leather shoes; silk stockings; and fancy cloth products made in England, Ireland, Russia, Holland, and India. Pierre Chouteau purchased a custom-made saddle from Sam Beazley of London, with tacking, stirrups, and his initials all in sterling silver. The Chouteau brothers were true internationalists well in advance of modern globalization. Those French Creoles living under a Spanish flag used a German agent in London to procure trade goods from Europe and Asia; had them shipped to Scottish, Irish, Jewish, English, and French merchants in Canada; transported those cargoes to St. Louis by Algonquian birch-bark canoes; and engaged traders and voyageurs from many ethnic origins to deliver imported merchandise to a vast variety of native nations up to a thousand miles from St. Louis. The success of the Chouteaus also stimulated explorations far up the Missouri River by envious St. Louis competitors, such as Jacques Clamorgan, Manuel Lisa, James Mackay, and John Evans. The late 1790s represented the zenith of Bourbon St. Louis s global commerce, as the wealth of the world poured into that tiny town suddenly grown to almost 2,500 residents (a 78 percent increase). Flush with desirable consumer goods but needing to buy food for its non-farming business elites, the capital city of Upper Louisiana resembled the hub of a large wheel, with spokes connecting it to several surrounding agricultural villages that provided sustenance. The international fur trade stimulated a flourishing, diversified regional economy involving 3,300 residents, who, F O R E I G N E L I T E S I N A F R O N T I E R C I T Y St. Louis was always remarkable, observed a nineteenth-century American, for the degree of gentility among the better sort of its inhabitants. Among European-born notables who settled in late eighteenth-century St. Louis were: Gabriel Cerre, a wealthy Montreal-born merchant with London connections. Jacques Ceran de St. Vrain, the merchant brother of the Spanish commandant. Charles de Hault de Lassus, a Flanders-born Frenchman, who was Spain s last Lieutenant Governor of St. Louis. Pierre Francois de Volsay, Paris-born army officer and member of the Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis. Father Pierre Joseph Didier, procurator of the Abbey Church of St. Denis, Paris. Louis Chauvet Dubreuil, French merchant son of a La Rochelle attorney. Charles Gratiot, Swiss-born French Huguenot trading with London and Canada. Joseph Hortiz, a well-educated Spanish native; secretary to lieutenant governors. Sylvestre Labbadie from Tarbes near Bearn, the richest St. Louis merchant by Marie Philippe Leduc, Paris-born officeholder with extensive legal expertise. Dr. Claude Mercier, a physician and surgeon from France. Charles Sanguinet, son of a Quebec notary and avid book collector. Dr. Antoine Francois Saugrain, a Paris surgeon related to Guillotine who knew Jefferson and Franklin and introduced smallpox vaccinations in the West. Antoine Soulard, a French navy veteran and the royal surveyor in Upper Louisiana. Benito Vasquez, an army adjutant and merchant from Galicia, Spain. Giuseppe Maria Francesco (Francis) Vigo, an Italian-born Spanish fur trader who helped fund the American Revolutionary expeditions of George Rogers Clark. in 1796, produced 75,000 bushels of maize, 35,000 bushels of wheat, 25,000 pounds of tobacco, 219,000 pounds of lead, and 6,000 bushels of salt, while pasturing 4,000 cattle and 600 horses. Laclede s original prediction that St. Louis s central position would stimulate other settlements had come true, and his foresight was reflected in the late twentieth-century motto of the Regional Chamber and Growth Association: St. Louis, Perfectly Centered, Remarkably Connected. St. Louis in 1796; detail of the map, Plan de la Ville de St. Louis Des Illinois, by Georges de Maillard de Bois Saint Lys to accompany the published journals of French General Victor Collot in that year. REPRODUCED WITH PICTORIAL EDITING FROM A 1907 PRINT IN THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. C H A P T E R 1 2 9

31 L A C L E D E S L A S T I N G L E G A C I E S He was an entrepreneur and an explorer who made business the priority of St. Louis He co-founded the Chouteau Dynasty that remained influential for many generations He commanded the expedition that founded St. Louis He selected an incomparably strategic town site, significant for commerce ever since He gave his town a name of fame, which has never changed He laid out a grid system of streets considered modern in 1764 He linked the destinies of New Orleans and St. Louis as river capitals He established a very successful, long-term fur trade for economic stability He was a master of Indian diplomacy, achieving a key and long-lasting Osage alliance He created a tolerant, enlightened Indian Capital for multi-tribal diplomacy He helped keep the British out of the trans-mississippi West He assisted Spanish officials, earning their trust by speaking their language He recruited the perfect settlers for a multicultural trading town He promoted unprecedented freedoms and self-governance among residents He recruited diverse immigrants, while making St. Louis a refuge of all the French He promoted French culture, civility, literacy, and affluent consumerism He made St. Louis a bookish, intellectual frontier city of great libraries and avid readers He invested a fortune in city buildings, amenities, merchandise, and loans to residents He encouraged confidence by his steady, consistent, and rational decision-making Walnut Armoire made in St. Louis, c to 1790, by Jean Baptiste Ortes (from Laclede s hometown of Bedous). PHOTOGRAPH BY CARY HORTON; COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS (OBJ: ). The highly successful boom town of buckskins disproved the Jeffersonians belief that primitive Indian hunting only afforded a precarious subsistence and could never support a sophisticated society. The alliance between astute merchants and accomplished Indian allies had made St. Louis the most prosperous, peaceful frontier city in America long before the Louisiana Purchase. That center of manners, urbanity, and elegance supported full employment and even cultivated the fine arts, as a Parisian intellectual noted. The affluence of St. Louis s consumer society in the last decade of the eighteenth century challenged the frontier stereotypes of crude cabins, deficient diets, and scarce schooling, as increasing numbers of distinguished Europeans, with excellent educations, expensive tastes, and enormous talents, moved to that remote little center of refinement and fashion funded by mammal skins. Increasing numbers of Anglo-American backwoodsmen also moved near the St. Louis area in the late 1700s, including Daniel Boone and his extended family. They came from a violent trans-appalachian frontier that contradicted the tolerant, Indian-friendly conduct of St. Louisans. Elite French families feared brawling Kentuckians, as too Numerous [and] too Lawless ever to be restrained loathing that plague of locusts determined to gain all the vast continent occupied by the Indians. But Anglo-Americans have always loved their frontier fighters. A hero-worshipping writer in 1829 characterized Boone as one of the prominent riflemen of the west, the daring sons of the forest, to whom danger was sport, hardship was pastime, death was nothing, and glory everything. Such mythmaking has never died. Historian R. Douglas Hurt recently wrote that Boone epitomized the frontiersman as an excellent hunter and trapper, who led western pioneers to a dangerous frontier and protected them with his rifle, courage, and leadership. But killing Indians was a cruel and uncreative solution to intercultural conflicts, compared to St. Louis s alternative frontier policies that generated lucrative exports in partnership with Indians, while never profiting from genocide. Laclede and other Catholic businessmen demonstrated all of the capitalistic achievements erroneously believed to be exclusive to the Protestant Ethic. They also shared the stereotypical frontier traits of Anglo-Americans self-reliance, individualism, and personal freedom without slaughtering their native neighbors. Rather than venerating buckskin-wearing baby-killers of the backwoods as national heroes, citizens in today s complex and increasingly dangerous multicultural world could learn some lessons from Laclede. He may have been the ideal frontiersman, because he promoted interethnic commerce while rejecting blood-thirsty prejudices that destroyed Indians and dispossessed them of their homelands. That talented, tolerant French explorer was more insightful, progressive, and compassionate than the American heroes who practiced wilderness savagery from sea to sea. While Americans then and now have typically ranked the success of our society based on its victories, colonial French St. Louisans took a more humane approach and judged a society by its victims. While Boone s brawn epitomized the heritage of rural Missouri, Laclede s brain created a civilized, non-violent, and economically advanced city in his century that remains a marvel of creativity and compassion to this day. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 30

32 The 1914 Statue of Laclede by George Julian Zolnay, photographed with the Civil Courts Building and The Bell Telephone Building in the background; no date. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS. C H A P T E R 1 3 1

33 Detail from the John Mitchell Map of 1755, one of several versions in the Library of Congress; pictorial editing of a reprint in the author s collection. That British cartographer anticipated the Paris treaties of 1763, 1783, and 1803 in which Greater Virginia expanded aggressively westward into French and Spanish territory according to its early seventeenth-century sea-to-sea royal charters. The time is not far distant when the uncultivated wilds of the interior part of the continent, which is now only inhabited by the tawny sons of the forest, will be exchanged for agriculture [and] turn those sterile wildernesses into rich, cultivated fields. American William Fisher, 1812 C H A P T E R 2 EXPLORING ST. LOUIS AS CAPITAL OF THE AMERICAN WEST On the evening of August 6, 1803, St. Louisans received sudden and shocking news when an American courier arrived from Vincennes and delivered a dispatch to Carlos Dehault Delassus, the last Spanish lieutenant governor of Upper Louisiana. It was a note from General William Henry Harrison, the Virginia-born governor of the Indiana Territory, announcing the entire cession of New Orleans and the whole of Louisiana to the United States. As darkness descended on that distressful evening, the Chouteau clan feared that their extensive fortune and expansive family had reached the twilight of their dominance under Bourbon administrators. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 32

34 The bitter disappointment of being sold to the Americans was considerably magnified because French St. Louisans had spent the previous nine months anticipating a golden age of cultural rebirth and expanded commerce under Emperor Napoleon. He had reclaimed the Louisiana territory from Spain in 1800, but his ambitious plans for a new French-American empire were dashed by a successful slave revolution in Haiti and war with Great Britain. Those St. Louisans who remembered being abandoned by France in 1763 especially resented Napoleon s insincere regret in not reuniting with those who have been Frenchmen. When U.S. officials replaced the national banners of Spain and France with the stars and stripes in the March 1804 Three Flags Ceremony, it seemed like a final, bitter surrender to Anglo-Americans. An eyewitness reported that the cheers of the [French] crowd were faint and few, as many, many of the people shed bitter tears of regret at being transferred to a strange government, with whose manners, habits, language, and laws they were not familiar. It was Captain Amos Stoddard, the first U.S. commandant in St. Louis not Napoleon who expressed his delight with St. Louis in 1804: The town contains about 200 houses, mostly very large and built of stone; it is elevated and healthy, and the people are rich and hospitable; they live in a style equal to those in the large seaport towns, and I find no want of education among them. Despite an anti-indian prejudice that refused to credit the Osages for St. Louis s success, Stoddard predicted that the city would soon become a star of no inconsiderable magnitude in the American constellation. And he was right. Even though American officials originally regarded New Orleans as the most desirable city in the Louisiana Purchase Territory, St. Louis would prove far more influential in developing the potential of that gift from Napoleon. The Louisiana Purchase was a transformative event that quickly revolutionized and completely traumatized French and Indian populations in the West. The acquisition and initial, partial exploration of those 828,000 square miles Left: Portion of the Town Layout in 1804, by Dr. Robert Moore of the National Park Service at the Gateway Arch. USED WITH PERMISSION. Below: Nineteenth-century portrait of Auguste Chouteau. COURTESY, MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS ( ). C H A P T E R 2 3 3

35 Meeting the Cajaux, June 8, 1804, painting by Michael Haynes ( and used with permission. As Lewis and Clark headed up the Missouri River, they passed several French fur convoys on their way to St. Louis in a variety of vessels, including the lashed together canoes seen here and another boat paddled by an Indian woman all loaded with animal skins from a thousand miles away. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 34 were accomplished by Virginians to benefit Virginia, which claimed sea-to-sea sovereignty via royal English charters to the Jamestown founders. Two centuries of westward expansion followed, as land-hungry Virginia frontiersmen invaded Indian homelands and created terrortories of terrible atrocities to procure the fresh, fertile lands needed to grow their soildestroying tobacco. By 1774, Spanish Louisiana was already called the Western Parts of Virginia, and after George Rogers Clark s invasion of British Illinois four years later, there was a Fort Jefferson on the Ohio River and a Randolph County (named for the family of Jefferson s mother) across from St. Louis. Despite old animosities and continuing misgivings, Auguste and Pierre Chouteau were determined to remain rich and relevant by demonstrating their usefulness to President Jefferson and his fellow Virginia Sovereigns of the Country who administered St. Louis. By 1803, Virginia was being called a new Rome. It was already the largest state in area (117,000 square miles) and population, with 514,000 whites and 346,000 black slaves, and its leading aristocratic revolutionaries were on their way to monopolizing the U.S. presidency for 32 of the first 36 years of the new nation. Accepting the reality that numerical superiority, military supremacy, and commercial indispensability had shifted from the Osages to the Americans, Laclede s heirs volunteered their services as city leaders, political advisors, multilingual diplomats, treaty negotiators, and liaisons with other French residents. The potential to exert greater influence on a grander scale convinced the pragmatic capitalist, Auguste Chouteau, to write his famous Narrative of the Founding of St. Louis in 1804 informing U.S. officials about the indispensable role his founding family should continue to play. According to historian Jay Gitlin, those French founders are still celebrated today, because they literally earned a place in the city they had created, allowing St. Louis to avoid the marginalization that was the fate of other non-anglo communities taken over by the United States.

36 The Lewis and Clark Expedition broke the ice with formerly resentful French merchants, who supplied the Corps of Discovery with several skilled boatmen, essential merchandise, valuable advice, and even maps of the Missouri River made a decade earlier. But St. Louisans did not condone the prejudicial attitudes and hostile actions of the Expedition commanders toward Indians that reflected Virginia s traditional frontier bellicosity. The Corps of Discovery killed two Indians and threatened countless others. Lewis and Clark expected Father Jefferson s dependent red children to Demean themselves towards our government and readily yield their exclusive friendship to those whose Power they Dread. Those commanders, who carried special surveyors compasses that Indians called land stealers, forged the future path of civilization that would all too soon receive the overflowing tide of our own population. The one million words that Lewis and Clark wrote in their travel journals encouraged generations of Americans to exploit a future white West after it was emptied of native populations and traditions that had made French St. Louis so successful. After traveling over 8,000 miles in twenty-eight months, the Corps of Discovery ended triumphantly at St. Louis on September 23, Acknowledging Laclede s ideal town location, Lewis and Clark made St. Louis the first capital of the American West and their new home. Lewis became territorial governor, while Clark was chief of Indian affairs, and together they altered the traditional trade and native relations of French St. Louis. Most of present-day Missouri was to be cleared of Indians to make room for voting American farmers, while fur trading beyond its borders was permitted for the time being with more stringent bureaucratic regulations. President Jefferson viewed Indian commerce as a coercive means to deprive native nations of their homelands. He planned to have good and influential Indians run into debt with white traders, forcing them to surrender tribal territories to eliminate those obligations. Once native territories were too small for productive hunting, Indian males would have to become civilized plow- farmers or starve. Historian Woody Holton observed that Jefferson s Empire of Liberty was designed to benefit whites, and there could be no empire without the extermination of Indians that blocked its path. Lewis and Clark s revolutionary policies for the Far West encouraged white trappers to harvest beavers in the Rocky Mountains stealing those valuable resources without sharing the profits with native hunters. The Corps commanders had discovered prime beaver pelts in those high altitudes of the U.S. West that finally matched the quality of Canadian ones in northern latitudes, and they created a beaver boom upon their return Beaver pelts in every size and color from the Fausz family collection. C H A P T E R 2 3 5

37 The expulsion of all Indians by 1830 from the new State of Missouri was represented in this illustration from Ballou s Pictorial newspaper of Boston on July 28, COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. to St. Louis. In 1807, Clark and Lewis s brother became partners with Manual Lisa, Pierre Chouteau, Sr., and other investors, in the new St. Louis Missouri Fur Company. Governor Lewis procured a $7,000 federal grant to fund one upriver trapping expedition, and that conflict of interest in using his public office to enhance the private profits of friends would ultimately doom the Osages. Even though Osage furs were still lucrative, deerskins could not compete with beaver pelts in profitability. As both explorers and administrators, Lewis and Clark made the Osages expendable, because their territory immense tracts of fine Country that were much more fertile than Virginia now had greater value than their trade. The Osages were victims of their own success in making French St. Louis a profitable town that proved so appealing to land-hungry Anglo-Americans. The native allies of Laclede and Chouteau generously shared their precious wisdom of the West with President Jefferson s fellow Virginians, who used that knowledge to undermine Osage hegemony and to diminish their legacy. Jefferson was determined to make the United States the supreme power beyond the Mississippi, but he could not risk an immediate confrontation with the H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 36

38 A M O T L E Y M I X O F M I G R A N T S While the Americans forced out native populations, the Louisiana Purchase encouraged an influx of new white residents from across the country, which perpetuated a different type of multiculturalism than colonial St. Louis. U.S. General James Wilkinson arrived at St. Louis in July 1805 as governor of Upper Louisiana. Theodore Roosevelt wrote that in all our history, there is no more despicable character. He was already controversial, having been implicated in army plots against General Mad Anthony Wayne and even George Washington and would survive several courts martial. In September 1805, Aaron Burr, Jefferson s former vice president, met with Wilkinson at St. Louis, allegedly to discuss the treasonous plot to create their own western empire. General Wilkinson s controversial and contentious tenure as governor ended in August 1806, after which it was revealed that he had been a well-paid Spanish spy for years and plotted to destroy the Lewis and Clark Expedition! Sacagawea came to St. Louis to visit her Shoshone-French son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau ( Pomp ), being raised by William Clark. Baptized by a Trappist monk in 1809, with Auguste Chouteau serving as his godfather, Pomp studied at the Catholic academy that evolved into Saint Louis University. At nineteen, he accompanied the Duke of Wurttemberg on his western travels and lived in Europe from 1823 to He spent the next four decades as a valued western guide, conversant in English, French, Spanish, German, and several native languages. Clark s slave, York, lived in St. Louis after his valuable contributions as the only African American member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Captain Joseph Conway, a friend of Daniel Boone, had fought Indians in Ohio, where he had been shot three times and scalped three times but killed seven warriors. Judge James Hawkins Peck from Tennessee literally delivered blind justice by conducting court while wearing a blindfold. Massachusetts-born fur trader Russell Farnham took the longest route to St. Louis, traveling from the Columbia River by way of the Bering Strait, St. Petersburg, Paris, and an Atlantic crossing, to deliver British bank drafts to John Jacob Astor in New York City before arriving here as a suspected British spy captured in the Great Lakes. great nation of the populous Osages. The president was respectful in his 1804 meeting with Osage chiefs the first Indians in the Louisiana Purchase Territory to visit him. But he grew more aggressive by 1806, after they had obeyed him by not retaliating against the vicious attacks of tribal enemies. Once the Osages began behaving like Quakers, the emboldened president demanded that they abandon their traditional homeland or else. Americans, he threatened, are strong, we are numerous as the stars in the heavens, and we are all gun-men who do not fear any nation. Indian artifacts representative of those in Clark s Indian Museum on Main Street, St. Louis. COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. C H A P T E R 2 3 7

39 U.S. government gifts to Indians. As Superintendent of Indian Affairs in St. Louis, William Clark chose this cotton fabric and other designs, as official gifts to native delegations. The tomahawk is marked USID (Indian Department) and was given to tribes as a treaty gift. Author s photograph of his artifacts. In 1808, Governor Lewis suddenly suspended trade with the Osages, falsely accusing them of killing white settlers. He threatened a war of extermination using their many Indian enemies unless they signed the controversial Treaty of Fort Osage. Several intimidated Osage chiefs ceded 52,480,000 acres of their traditional territory to the U.S. government, receiving only a fraction of a cent per acre. Having never warred with the Americans, the Osages were shocked to be the first western Indians dispossessed of their homelands and the only ones forced to abandon a still-profitable fur trade. In the Second Treaty of St. Louis in June 1825, Clark took the last 40,000 square miles of Osage lands and soon forced them to leave the state they had helped create. St. Louis under the Americans remained the center of Indian diplomacy in the West. An eyewitness in the 1820s described how Indians, a hundred or more at a time would promenade down our Main Street in Indian file, including bare-legged chiefs wearing U.S. army officer coats and military hats with plumes, while warriors, draped in Mackinaw blankets, each carried a flaming scarlet umbrella in one hand and a palm leaf fan in the other. They headed for William Clark s Indian Council Chamber and museum of Indian curiosities on North Main Street. The museum was described as the most complete collection of Native American artifacts and portraits in white hands anywhere in the United States that early. In 1825, the Marquis de Lafayette was very impressed by what he saw especially the grizzly claw necklace as were other European elites of the era who were fascinated by Native American cultures. Although the Indian items collected by Red- Headed Chief Clark honored indigenous cultures in one sense, his filing cabinets were filled with treaties documenting the 419,000,000 acres he wrested from the homelands of many western tribes. Clark s rapidly rising career symbolized the new opportunities for U.S. army officers in St. Louis. The town s strategic site made it an ideal launching point for new explorations. In 1805, Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike left there in an unsuccessful attempt to seek the source of the Mississippi River. With soldiers from Fort Bellefontaine, a U.S. army base north of St. Louis, Pike then led an expedition to the Arkansas and Red Rivers, eventually reaching the Rio Grande. A dozen years later, Major Stephen H. Long left from St. Louis to map present-day Kansas and Nebraska establishing a precedent by taking artists Samuel Seymour and Titian Peale to paint exquisite scenery that helped Americans to visualize the West. During the War of 1812 army personnel from Fort Bellefontaine protected the town from British and Indian invasion. In 1813 Clark led a successful raid on the pro-british Sauk and Fox stronghold at Prairie du Chien (Wisconsin) with 60 soldiers and 140 St. Louis H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 38

40 militiamen. Following the war, Clark, Auguste Chouteau, and Ninian Edwards of Illinois, negotiated new treaties with thousands of Indians from twenty-nine native nations assembled at Portage des Sioux. The necessity to document such federal Indian treaties with legal precision symbolized the increasing influence of American attorneys in a French town that never had any use for that profession. Legions of U.S. lawyers also thronged to St. Louis to litigate contested Spanish land grants, with a mostly negative impact on the French founding families. For at least half a century after the Louisiana Purchase, lawyering provided upward social mobility for Americans in Missouri, whose training in English common law, rather than the nowobsolete French civil law, gave them a distinct advantage in courtrooms and political campaigns. In 1808, Virginia-born Frederick Bates, a St. Louis judge and future Missouri governor, produced a 372-page Compilation of the Laws of the Territory of Louisiana a milestone of territorial maturity. It was printed in St. Louis by Irishman Joseph Charless, who, that same year, began publishing the Missouri Gazette and Louisiana Advertiser, the first newspaper in the West. Political institutions also reflected the maturation of St. Louis, which was officially incorporated as an American town in The first elected trustees represented a cultural confluence, as Auguste and Pierre Chouteau and brother-in-law Bernard Pratte served with Edward Hempstead (a Connecticut lawyer who married into the French Dubreuil family) and Alexander McNair (a former army officer from Pennsylvania). They established the first police patrol and set curfews for a diverse and potentially disruptive population that included Indians, bragging Mississippi boatmen, Canadian voyageurs, and rifle-toting Kentucky hunters. In 1815 old French elites formed the Little Junto dominated by the Chouteau brothers and their commercial kinsmen: Pratte, Charles Gratiot, John P. Cabanné, Sylvestre Labbadie, and Gregoire Sarpy. They sought to have their extensive Spanish land grants confirmed and favored fur A N O R N A M E N T E D C I T Y I N A N E W S T A T E In the year that statehood was achieved, St. Louis had 651 homes 232 built of stone or brick with 108 new dwellings constructed in the last six years alone. The 1821 St. Louis Directory and Register, compiled by John A. Paxton, recorded the current status of Missouri s commercial metropolis. Despite an economic recession from 1819 to 1823, the town featured: Thriving Catholic, Baptist, Episcopalian, Presbyterian, and Methodist congregations; Saint Louis College with 65 students using Bishop DuBourg s 8,000-book library; 10 common schools; 5 weekly newspapers, several printers, and a bookstore; a portrait-painter who would do credit to any country ; professional musicians who played at balls to encourage healthy dancing; 2 cordial distillers and candy-makers; 12 tailors, 3 hatters, 13 shoemakers, 5 jewelers, and at least one watch-maker; 4 hair-dressers, several perfumers, and a comb factory; 46 mercantile establishments trading with the distant parts of the Republic ; 27 attorneys; a hospital, 13 doctors, 3 midwives, and 3 druggists; 57 grocers and 4 bakers; 3 gunsmiths; 8 large inns/hotels, plus many boarding houses; 6 livery stables, 3 saddlemakers, 9 blacksmiths, and 3 coach builders; a ferry to Illinois and stages running to Edwardsville and Franklin; 2 brickyards, 2 potteries, a nail factory, a tannery, and 3 soap and candle manufacturers; 28 carpenters, 3 masons, 14 brick-layers, 13 furniture makers, and 10 house painters; 4 Coopers, Block, Pump, and Mast-makers ; 5 billiard parlors, each paying $100 in annual state and city taxes; one brewery of a quality equal to any in the western country ; 2 beer gardens for entertainment and recreation one atop an Indian mound, and a theatre at 72 North Main Street. trading over extensive farming. Those French town leaders were supported by General Clark and his nephew, John O Fallon, along with Hempstead and McNair, who were sympathetic to those priorities. Opponents of the Junto included John B. C. Lucas, Joseph Charless, Rufus Easton, William Russell, and David Barton, who supported American real estate speculators and increasing the number of immigrant farmers. Such political rivalries among local luminaries took on greater importance as statehood approached. Meeting in St. Louis s Mansion House Hotel, a constitutional convention produced a draft document by July With representation based on population, St. Louis dominated the proceedings with C H A P T E R 2 3 9

41 An 1820 Bank of Missouri $10 Note, signed by president Auguste Chouteau. It portrays Thomas Jefferson as a Roman emperor, but with French St. Louis s symbols of commerce, rather than the president s preference for agriculture. COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. 18 percent of the delegates, including: David Barton (who presided over the convention), Virginian Edward Bates (the future first attorney general), fur traders Pierre Chouteau, Jr., and Bernard Pratte, Alexander McNair (the state s first governor), General William Rector (U.S. army surveyor), banker Thomas Riddick, and John C. Sullivan (a justice of the county court). Eighteen years after the Louisiana Purchase, Missouri entered the Union as the twentyfourth state on August 10, 1821 the first one located entirely west of the Mississippi and also have a bilingual constitution in French and English. The new state had a population of 56,000 whites, mostly from Virginia and Kentucky, and 10,000 black slaves, representing 19 percent of the state s population and 15 percent of St. Louis s. Missouri would be the northernmost slave state in the West as mandated by the Missouri Compromise of 1820 sharing a southern border with Virginia and Kentucky at a latitude of 36 degrees, 30 minutes, as predicted by the Mitchell map of But Virginians had compromised the Bourbon culture of St. Louis long before statehood, making an Indian-friendly city into the capital of a white-dominated state cleared of Native Americans. That cultural victory was apparent when Missouri s new state capital and St. Louis s latest army base were both named for Jefferson in 1826, the year he died. By mid-century, St. Louisans universally praised the once-contentious Louisiana Purchase, regarding it as a Happy Annexation, without which, their city would be in everything at least a quarter century behind where we are now. Most of the old French families were reconciled with Americanization, widely praising Jefferson, whose pen gave freedom to the eastern half of our republic, and his diplomacy united it to the other half. Today, Missouri has more monuments honoring Jefferson, including his original tombstone on the Mizzou campus, than any state except Virginia. The past of Virginia had become the future of Missouri because, despite their different religions, languages, laws, and cultures, the French founders and American administrators shared two traditional socioeconomic goals: perpetuating race-based black slavery and profiting from all natural resources in the West. From 1804 to 1816, Virginians represented the largest group of Anglo-Americans H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 40

42 (30 percent) who migrated to Missouri, and three of the first four Missouri governors had been born in Virginia. Of the next seven governors down to 1857, two were Virginians, while the other five came from the Virginiainfluenced trans-appalachian frontier states of Kentucky and Tennessee. For many decades, the most prominent leaders throughout Missouri had all been born somewhere else. The most obvious result of Americanization in St. Louis, wrote historian James Neal Primm, was deplorable public behavior. There was a growing acceptance of increasing violence, as illustrated by the measly $500 fine levied against an 1840 murderer who had beaten a newspaper editor to death with an iron cane. Primm observed that such violence was not attributable to the wild frontier, since St. Louis was no longer the frontier it had been less violent when it was. From the 1820s to the 1840s, a growing number of gun shops opened in St. Louis after the removal of so-called hostile savages out of Missouri. On sale in St. Louis were a large variety of dueling pistols, pocket guns, desperate knives, sword canes, daggers, Bowie knives with pistol attached ( which will shoot and cut at the same time ), self-cocking revolving pistols that fired 6 times in only 4 seconds, and even small cannons for personal use. Ironically, the Hawken advertisement for firearms adjoined one for grave stones, and both businesses were located on Washington Avenue. Ads from the St. Louis Business Directory for COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. C H A P T E R 2 4 1

43 L I T I G I O U S L A W Y E R S D U E L I N G T O T H E D E A T H Deadly duels were extremely rare under the French and Spanish, and there had been no murders in St. Louis for forty years prior to the Louisiana Purchase, according to Primm. But American attorneys, influenced by the traditional dueling culture of the Old South, sought to defend their honor as civilized gentlemen by shooting other lawyers, often on Bloody Island in the middle of the Mississippi River. In 1810 the earliest notable duel involved attorney James A. Graham and Dr. Bernard G. Farrar of Kentucky a second who had to stand in for his cowardly brother-in-law when he failed to appear. Farrar mortally wounded the man he had no grievance against and then offered medical assistance. In 1817, only a year after arriving in St. Louis from Tennessee, future U.S. Senator Thomas Hart Benton killed lawyer Charles Lucas, son of his political rival, Judge J. B. C. Lucas. It was their second duel, after both men had been wounded three months earlier. The most spectacular duel on Bloody Island occurred in August 26, 1831, when Congressman Spencer Pettis faced off against U. S. Army Major Thomas Biddle. They stood only five feet apart and fired simultaneously. A large crowd on the riverbank heard the chilling result, both mortally wounded! Pettis died the next day at the age of 29, while Biddle succumbed two days later, aged 41. Senator Benton, a close friend of Pettis, wrote a stirring account of one of the most desperate encounters that had ever occurred in the country, an essay circulated in newspapers throughout the nation. John Smith T (identifying his Tennessee roots) claimed that he had killed 14 men in duels, including a nephew of former Vice President Aaron Burr. He was always acquitted and strolled St. Louis streets with four pistols, a rifle, and two knives. In addition to the standard pistols at ten paces, an 1845 duel was fought with swords, and in 1857, adversaries considered using rifles at sixty paces. A. B. Chambers and Thomas B. Hudson shot a total of six bullets at each other, missing every time, and ended their dispute without bloodshed. Duels continued until the Civil War, but they were outlawed in the 1865 state constitution a provision that remained until 1945! Changing Street Names from French to English a map by Musick in his St. Louis as a Fortified Town; copyright expired. In 1826, the St. Louis city council adopted a modern system of naming most downtown streets for trees (Walnut, Pine, Chestnut, etc.) like Philadelphia. Market Street and Washington Avenue were already too familiar to change, however. In 1822, the state legislature made St. Louis an official city with a mayor and 9 original aldermen. The city s population had increased 300 percent by 1818, and in the early 1820s, it had 5,500 residents, with another 4,200 people living on the outskirts. When Pennsylvania native, Dr. William Carr Lane, defeated both Auguste and Pierre Chouteau in successive elections for mayor of St. Louis in the mid-1820s, the 155 old French families realized that an ever-expanding population of foreigners would forever put them at a disadvantage at the polls. A 187 percent increase in immigrants between 1810 and 1820, and another 208 percent from 1820 to 1840, had diluted the French population and diminished the recognition of their past contributions among the new citizens. A visiting Parisian observed that the city s rich, esteemed French residents were H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 42

44 reclusive [and] irrelevant, clinging to slavery and their traditions. A Presbyterian geographer in 1834 claimed that the St. Louis French were a population of a very peculiar character. They were amiable and quiet and retained their own language, which was somewhat corrupted by living with Americans. French residents endured the changing names of their original streets and the tiresome mispronunciation of their native language. Leaving politics to the Americans, they seemed content with making money from their vast inventory of properties and hosting the most lavish balls and receptions in the city s largest, fanciest mansions. Hospitality had long been a French specialty, and in April 1825, the descendants of the founders threw the biggest party of all in welcoming the Marquis de Lafayette to St. Louis. Clark joined the Chouteau brothers as the official hosts who wined and dined him and his entourage, after the state legislature and Virginia-born governor declined to honor the old military hero who had helped America win its independence. Auguste Levasseur, Lafayette s secretary and chronicler of his Farewell Tour, wrote that the April ball was attended by the most brilliant and most numerous company, and he praised the luster of the decorations and the elegance of the ladies, which made us forget entirely that we were at the entrance of the wilderness. Lafayette s immensely popular visit contributed to the resurgence of pride and productivity in every sphere of traditional French influence from Catholicism to fur trading. Between 1818 and 1834, St. Louis became famous as the Rome of the West, constructing a church, a cathedral, and a university under inspired leadership. In 1818 the Right Reverend Louis William DuBourg, a Sulpician priest born in Santo Domingo and former president of Georgetown College, assumed his duties as the new Bishop of Louisiana. His critically important decision to make St. Louis his diocesan headquarters, rather than New Orleans, confirmed the city s position as the ideal gateway for Catholic missionaries to reach potential Indian converts in the Far West. DuBourg began the expensive and nevercompleted first brick Catholic church on Laclede s Church Lands and founded the St. Louis Academy, which evolved into Saint Louis University, the first college west of the Mississippi, in He also encouraged Jesuits to open the first Catholic school for Native American boys in the nation and recruited Grenoble-born Mother Rose Duchesne (now Saint Philippine) and five other French nuns French St. Louisans, like French Canadiens, were famous for their formal balls. This Dance in the Château St. Louis, Quebec was painted by George Heriot in COURTESY OF THE LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES OF CANADA, ACCESSION NO ; COPYRIGHT EXPIRED. C H A P T E R 2 4 3

45 Les Indiens Osages, one of two matching 1827 lithographs of original portraits by Parisian artist, Louis-Leopold Boilly. This shows three of the six Osages, most prominently the woman, Mohongo ( Sacred Sun ), who went to Europe in 1827 with St. Louis promoter, David Dulauney, and interpreter Paul Loise, a Chouteau metis. They performed popular native dances for French, Dutch, and German crowds and met King Charles X. But they were abandoned and stranded in France, until Lafayette and Bishop DuBourg paid for their passage home in That strong French connection continues today, as the Osage Nation selects young men and women to make a similar journey. COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. of the Society of the Sacred Heart. They founded a convent school in St. Charles the first free school for American and Creole girls west of the Mississippi according to Barbara O. Korner. She noted that the Society of the Sacred Heart was the only one of the six European orders that came to America prior to 1830 that survived. Its local legacy also included a similar school for French girls and a female Indian seminary, both based in Florissant, because property in downtown St. Louis was too expensive, having increased 500 percent in only two years. DuBourg s equally energetic successor and the first bishop of the Diocese of St. Louis was Joseph Rosati. His leadership helped St. Louisans forget the funding nightmare associated with the brick church and redirected community efforts to create a beautiful limestone cathedral worthy of a growing city of increasing fame. After three years of construction, his masterpiece was H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 44

46 completed in Known today as the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France, the Old Cathedral adjoining the National Park Service grounds of the Gateway Arch is undergoing extensive interior and exterior renovations that will make it a much-visited historic showpiece once again. Rosati s cathedral faced south, but almost everything else associated with St. Louis was focused on the West. The religious resurgence of the French community was accompanied by an even more impressive commercial revival. The elite Chouteau family had never stopped expanding its influence and affluence through marriages with prominent Americans and Catholic immigrants, while lowerclass Frenchmen worked for William Clark as U.S. Indian agents and interpreters of native languages. The early 1820s, however, brought revolutionary changes that dramatically expanded the scope and profitability of the western fur trade. Mexico gained its independence from Spain, which opened the Santa Fe silver trade to daring Missouri entrepreneurs, who enjoyed profits of 2,000 percent that helped fund fur trading. St. Louisans needed such capital to compete with the newly-merged old Canadian rivals the Hudson s Bay Company and the North West Company of Montreal which now invaded the northern plains of the United States searching for furs and Indian allies. And in 1822, too, Congress closed the government s subsidized nonprofit fur factories and stopped competing with private merchants. Exploiting those simultaneous, interconnected developments at the perfect time was William H. Ashley, Missouri s first lieutenant governor, general of the state militia, and a gunpowder manufacturer. The St. Louis fur trade was already contributing about $600,000 to the city s total annual commerce of $2,000,000. But the recent death of Manuel Lisa, the masterful fur magnate who pioneered combined trading and trapping expeditions up the Missouri River, created an opening for Ashley. In 1822, he partnered with Andrew Henry, a former Michilimackinac merchant, to dispatch white trappers into the Rockies to harvest beavers from Indian territories while avoiding hostile river tribes. Ashley s expedition to Green River, Wyoming, required 70 trappers, 160 pack mules, and $20,000 worth of merchandise to produce profits of $60,000 on 9,000 pounds of pelts. Left: The Old Cathedral, a year after its completion in 1834, showing the rectory on the right and an orphanage to the left. An 1835 lithograph by L. D. Pomarede. COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS. Below: The Old Rock House a stone fur warehouse built in 1818 by Spanish entrepreneur, Manuel Lisa, as it appeared in the mid-twentieth century before being dismantled to make way for the Gateway Arch. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE AT THE JEFFERSON NATIONAL EXPANSION MEMORIAL. C H A P T E R 2 4 5

47 Above: Trappers on the Prairie: Peace or War? Lithograph by Currier & Ives, COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. Below: Replica Medal of the Upper Missouri Outfit, dominated by Pierre Chouteau, Jr. COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. Predictably, Indians attacked white intruders stealing their resources, and by 1831, had killed at least 170 trappers. From 1823 to 1828, St. Louis companies lost $100,000 to Indian thefts of horses, mules, guns, traps, supplies, and pelts. Despite those losses, trapping was very profitable, netting $1.65 million in 1831 after expenses of $2.1 million, partly because trappers earned only $150-$200 per year for risking their lives. Ashley also created the rendezvous system, which kept mountain men in the West year-round without the need to build expensive permanent forts. He reaped a fortune on markups of 2,000 percent for essential supplies (and recreational liquor) needed by about 600 western trappers per year. In 1826, Ashley sold his successful company to fellow St. Louisans, where neighbors and even family members fought fiercely for supremacy in the fur trade. At least eight Chouteau kinsmen, for instance, served in four different fur companies, until Bernard Pratte s French Company of five Chouteau cousins drove the others out. In 1822 the American Fur Company (AFC) owned by the German immigrant, John Jacob Astor, established a Western Department in St. Louis. Historian Walter Stevens claimed that Astor was baffled by the Chouteaus well-established relationship with the Indians, and in 1834, he sold the Missouri River Outfit of the AFC to St. Louisans Pratte and his cousin, Pierre Chouteau, Jr. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 46

48 C O R E D I S C O V E R I E S B Y S T. L O U I S M O U N T A I N M E N Historian Howard Lamar observed that it was the fur trappers, rather than Lewis and Clark, who found the actual paths by which settlers could move themselves and their possessions to Oregon, California, and Utah. Although the following mountain men were born elsewhere, most lived in St. Louis and died in Missouri: S James Pierson Beckwith, inaccurately known as Beckwourth ( ?) was born a Virginia slave and became the most famous of several African American mountain men. He traveled in California, Colorado, and New Mexico, before living with Crow Indians as an adopted chief. His many adventures were recorded in a popular 1856 book. S Charles and William Bent operated Bent s Old Fort ( the Adobe Castle ) trading post in Colorado between with Ceran St. Vrain, the great-grandson of Laclede. S Benjamin Louis Eulalie de Bonneville ( ) was a U.S. army officer who failed as a fur merchant in the Far West but pioneered a heavy-wagon route across the Continental Divide in the 1830s and was immortalized in a book by Washington Irving. S Jim Bridger ( ), a Virginian, was among the first of Ashley s trappers in 1822, and in was the first white man to discover the Great Salt Lake and geysers of Yellowstone. He also established stagecoach and rail routes in Wyoming and Montana. S Robert Campbell ( ), a Northern Ireland immigrant, enjoyed a meteoric rise as a self-made mountain man and St. Louis merchant with partner William Sublette. Campbell invested in steamboats, railroads, real estate, the Merchants National Bank, and the Southern Hotel. Living in a mansion of Victorian splendor on fashionable Lucas Place, he entertained President Grant, General Sherman, and other notable leaders and helped negotiate Indian treaties. When he died in 1879, his $2,000,000 estate far eclipsed that of city patriarch, Auguste Chouteau. S John Colter ( ), a valued Virginia veteran of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, returned to the Far West in , becoming one of the first white beaver trappers in the Bighorn Basin and the Yellowstone Valley. S Andrew Henry ( ) was an innovative entrepreneur with the early St. Louis fur companies under Lisa and Ashley and a major proponent of using white trappers. S Wilson Price Hunt ( ) led a successful overland expedition from St. Louis to Astor s Fort Astoria in Oregon, pioneering a route through the Snake River Valley and parts of the later Oregon Trail. He sold Russian sealskins in China and exported rare Chinese goods to New York. S Jedediah Smith ( ) was a talented ex-ashley trapper who explored South Pass, Wyoming; Utah s Great Basin; the Oregon coast; and Sierra Nevada Mountains. He led the first American expedition to reach California from the southwest. S William Sublette ( ) began trapping with Ashley and helped develop the Overland Trail being the first to prove that wagons and cattle could be taken across the Great Plains, according to historian Mary Ellen Rowe. He was a successful business partner of Robert Campbell in St. Louis. The last mountain man rendezvous in 1840 signaled the end of the beaver boom, which, in only two decades, had attracted 3,000 trappers but alienated ten times that many western Indians. Many of the 150 forts and outposts built between 1822 and 1840 were named for prominent St. Louisans (using their first names like European royalty). And the most innovative of those entrepreneurs had one final trick up their fur sleeve switching to an Indian trade in buffalo hides after beaver pelts ceased to be profitable. The younger Chouteaus, in particular, prospered for more decades by selling sturdy, heavy bison leather from the Northern Plains to eastern industrial cities that needed belts to run factory machinery. In 1840, St. Louisans shipped 67,000 huge buffalo hides to their hometown and 110,000 more eight years later, along with the popular delicacy of 25,000 buffalo tongues. The deaths, only a decade apart, of very different but equally revered frontier leaders Auguste Chouteau and William Clark represented the creation of a composite western culture synonymous with nineteenth-century St. Louis. On Tuesday, February 24, 1829, the Missouri Republican reported that the venerable Chouteau, the co-founder and long-reigning Patriarch of St. Louis, had died that morning in his famous mansion along the riverfront that had shaped his career. He was the centerpiece in the influential, multicultural dynasty created by Laclede and Marie Therese Bourgeois Chouteau the oldest and most C H A P T E R 2 4 7

49 Nineteenth-century animal hide coat with Indian quill embroidery in Canadian metis style, perhaps owned by Auguste Chouteau. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS (OBJ ). H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 48 successful of her five children, 52 grandchildren, and 69 great-grandchildren when she died in A Frenchman in the 1830s observed that the Chouteau name remained a passport that commands safety and hospitality among all of the Indian nations of the United States, north and west, as two generations of family members had founded fur posts and future towns in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Montana. During his sixty-five-year residency along the Mississippi, Chouteau had survived the debts, doubts, and dangers of frontier fur trading, merging business ties with bloodlines, while St. Louis increased 2,000 percent in population and expanded its commerce over a larger territory than any other city in the Union. Auguste retired from active fur trading in 1816 and devoted the remainder of his life to civic service, philanthropy, nurturing his many merchant kin, and advising the U.S. government on Indian issues. When he died in 1829, he left an estate that included 21,500 acres of land and another 39,000 acres of debatable legality not counting developed city properties. He left $83,000 in IOUs, mortgages, and promissory notes from 800 people and over $17,000 worth of personal property, which included 600 books and 50 slaves, but only $32.12 in cash, which reflected a fur trader s traditional reliance on credit. Subsequent generations of Americans have found Chouteau s most precious possession to be his Narrative of the Founding of St. Louis making his city even more distinctive as one of only a handful in history to have an eyewitness document on its beginnings by a founder. William Clark outlived Chouteau by nine years and died a revered local celebrity and national hero on September 1, 1838, at the age of sixty-eight. The city s diverse citizenry honored him with a mile-long funeral procession. In addition to being co-commander of the famous, influential Corps of Discovery, Clark had served as brigadier general of Missouri s militia; territorial governor from 1813 to 1820; and head of U.S.- Indian affairs in the West between 1807 and 1838, under different titles. His Indian museum and cartographical expertise enhanced St. Louis s reputation as the capital of the American West. As a diplomat, he personally negotiated thirty-seven treaties that dispossessed Indians of their homelands and played some role in 20 percent of all 370 U.S. treaties with native nations. According to his biographer, Landon Y. Jones, the cruelties of Clark s time and the strengths of his character did not contradict one another. He was a man whose complexity encompassed both.

50 No country on earth, of equal extent, has so many advantages as the Valley of the Mississippi. The introduction of steam-boats into this vast region, watered by large rivers, has greatly increased the facilities for trade and emigration. Robert Baird, View of the Valley of the Mississippi, 1834 C H A P T E R 3 EXPLORING A STEAMBOAT CITY OF EXPANDING COMMERCE As Laclede and Chouteau intended, St. Louis was always the capital of a river empire, extending its influence via multiple tributaries from the Plains to Pittsburgh and the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. For decades, the city s waterfront had welcomed local log canoes (pirogues), large birch-bark canoes made by Canadian Indians, and a wide variety of flatboats, keelboats, rafts, barges, and other vessels. Between 1763 and 1816, human muscles powered watercraft for the days it took to travel the 1,200 miles upriver from New Orleans. But that all changed quite suddenly in 1817, when a small steam-powered paddle-wheeler, named Zebulon M. Pike, chugged into St. Louis to make startled residents aware of revolutionary technology that would alter their lives and livelihoods. In 1825 the traveling companion of the Marquis de Lafayette observed that the improved steamboats of that era could make the trip from New Orleans in a mere ten days, returning downstream in only five. Described in that year as the great warehouse for all the commerce west of the Mississippi, St. Louis was already building its own fleet of steamboats in a large facility. Paddle-wheelers made such an enormous impact on the region both immediate and long-lasting that a steamboat is still the prominent illustration on the official seal of St. Louis City. Nineteenth-century Mississippi River steamboats published in Alcee Fortier s History of Louisiana, vol. I (New York and Paris, 1904). C H A P T E R 3 4 9

51 St. Louis Levee, a mid-nineteenth century daguerreotype by Thomas M. Easterly. A contemporary St. Louisan wrote that a mile and a half of steamboats lying at the wharf of a city one thousand miles from the ocean, in the heart of the continent, is a spectacle which naturally inspires large views of commercial greatness. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS (17070). H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 50 The geographical realities of steamboat navigation on the Mississippi enhanced the value of Laclede s central site. According to historian Jeffrey Adler, it was unsafe for larger boats to operate above St. Louis, and it was unprofitable for smaller steamers to work the river below the town. As an ideallylocated reloading point, St. Louis truly became the Lion of the Valley that dominated the commerce of the region s waterways. The Mississippi split America in half, and St. Louis s strategic site made it the dominant interior river port for a century first as America s western-most of eastern cities and later as the eastern-most of the nation s western cities. From whatever direction St. Louis was viewed, it seemed destined to be the future seat of empire, wrote an observer in the 1820s, because no place in the world situated so far from the ocean, could match its commercial advantages. In the next decade, a visiting U.S. senator noted that St. Louis s gentlemen of fortune preferred the sound of steamers arriving or departing to the lowing of herds, as the region transitioned from the plodding pace of plows to the unprecedented speed of steampowered vehicles. St. Louis s rapid growth and rising stature were directly tied to the evolving size, speed, and sophistication of steamboats, which poured wealth and prosperity into her lap. Harnessing the latest technology to maximize its ideal location, St. Louis was being discussed as the future capital of a great nation and received the attention not only of our own inhabitants, but also those of foreign lands. Surpassing both New Orleans and Cincinnati in river traffic by the early 1840s, St. Louis shipped nearly 263,000 tons of merchandise and greatly expanded its work force. Twenty years later, St. Louisans owned 168 steamboats, more than the residents of any other interior port city, and they employed 3,500 men just in building or repairing them. In addition, there were jobs for large numbers of pilots, crewmen, deckhands, dockhands, and warehouse workers, many of them African Americans. In 1860 almost 3,500 riverboats, averaging 550 tons, called at the city, obscuring the wharf with a forest of chimneys. Counting 170 steamers jostling for access to the levee at one time, an observer thought they resembled huge white bears in a feeding frenzy.

52 Reflecting the prominence, pride, and prosperity that the Steamboat Age brought to St. Louis, residents erected a magnificent Greek Revival courthouse of monumental proportions between 1839 and Rising 192 feet high like a riverfront beacon on the crest of a hill, it was the city s tallest building from 1864 to 1894, after the Civil War addition of its huge iron dome, modeled after St. Peter s Basilica in Rome. With one columned entrance facing the river and another focused on the vast hinterland of future expansion, that big, beautiful building represented the dual focus of St. Louis in the mid-nineteenth century as both Queen of the River and Gateway to the West. As important as the Mississippi was, steamboats also increased the fame and fortune of St. Louis with trade and travel along the Missouri River. In 1831, St. Louisans demonstrated how a new invention could improve an old fur trade, when the steamer Yellow Stone (120 long x 20 wide) left the levee with 22 crewmen, 75 employees of the American Fur Company, and 1,000 gallons of whiskey on a successful maiden voyage to Fort Union (near today s North Dakota-Montana border). Two years later, that Fire Boat that walks on the Waters transported German Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied and Swiss artist Karl Bodmer deep into Indian Country, making St. Louis a tourist capital for a steady stream of European sightseers, who enhanced the city s reputation around the world. That same year, the United States designated St. Louis as an official port of entry, which provided federal funding for Robert E. Lee and other army engineers to clear river sandbars. The Old Courthouse in the mid-1840s, without the huge iron dome of the Civil War era. A NINETEENTH-CENTURY ENGRAVING IN THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. C H A P T E R 3 5 1

53 Karl Bodmer s 1848 lithograph portraying Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied visiting the Minitaree/Minatarre Indians at Fort Clark in COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS (41863). H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 52 The confluence of the continent s most notable commercial rivers attracted increasing hordes of investors and immigrants who boosted St. Louis from the nation s fortyfourth largest city in 1830 to sixth place by Farmers seeking western lands purchased them in St. Louis, while eastern merchants created prosperous futures even before Missouri entered the Union. Among the earliest businessmen from the East were St. Louis s first Jewish residents the three Polish Philipson brothers from Philadelphia. They invested in the fur trade, opened a store stocked with desirable merchandise from the Atlantic coast, and in 1815, founded the St. Louis Brewery, the city s second oldest. Following the example of Laclede, they brought culture to the city along with their capital. Joseph Philipson performed and taught music; Jacob was a tutor of English, German, and French; and Simon assembled a significant collection of 150 paintings and 100 prints, including works by Boticelli, da Vinci, Hals, Holbein, Murillo, Raphael, Rubens, and Titian! Many other Yankee merchants soon followed young, aggressive members of family firms in New York and New England who opened business outlets in the capital of western capital. They established about 75 percent of new companies in the 1840s, and by 1850, New Yorkers represented 36 percent of all St. Louis businessmen and New Englanders another 20 percent. More than fifty financial institutions were founded in less than thirty years to handle the 58 percent of city investments contributed by those easterners. The appropriately-named Boatmen s Bank opened in 1847 as the first savings bank west of the Mississippi. Insurance brokers also enjoyed rapid growth, since 550 very expensive steamboats were destroyed in accidents between 1820 and Thirty steamers owned by city residents sank in only four years in the Mississippi Graveyard between St. Louis and Cairo, Illinois. Among leading Yankee merchants were Daniel Page of Maine and his partner, Henry Bacon from Massachusetts, who invested in flour mills. Beginning in 1827, they built twenty-two others at a rate of nearly one per year, vaulting St. Louis into first place among U.S. cities in flour production. Hudson Bridge of New Hampshire made a fortune selling cotton, surplus army goods, stoves, and steel plows. Henry and Edgar Ames

54 from New York invested in meatpacking and grain elevators, while Connecticut-born William and Henry Belcher founded the country s largest sugar refinery. Oliver and Giles Filley, also from Connecticut, manufactured stoves that dominated the national market. In 1851, Samuel Cupples moved his woodenware factory from Cincinnati, and only twenty years later, St. Louis ruled the world in this trade. The furniture-making firm of Heslep and Taylor relocated from Pennsylvania in the early 1800s, and within a few decades, St. Louis had fifty such factories, generating $5.8 million in exports. By 1850, manufacturers who used the Mississippi to ship their products had increased the city s custom receipts 1,200 percent in a single decade. The assessed value of taxable property rose from $1.5 million in 1828 to $43 million by Profitable products stimulated the city s population growth at a rapid rate. The number of residents rose from 14,000 in 1837 to 78,000 by 1850 twice the population of Pittsburgh, which had been founded the same year. The Missouri Republican reported that 1,500 people arrived in some weeks, including 800 in one thirty-six-hour period! Chouteau s Pond, the city s earliest and much-loved recreation area, which was drained as a health risk following the 1849 cholera epidemic. Oil painting of 1844 by D. Barbier. COURTESY, MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS ( ). C H A P T E R 3 5 3

55 Interior of Chauncey L. Filley s Queensware Importing House, 108 Main Street, St. Louis, an illustration from Frank Leslie s Illustrated Newspaper, November 24, COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. With the city s population at least doubling with predictable regularity, one resident boasted that St. Louis had grown larger and changed more in only fifty years than England [had] in five hundred years after the Norman Conquest. But St. Louis faced a far greater challenge than medieval England, for it had to accommodate, and try to integrate, throngs of European immigrants whose cultures were neither French nor Anglo-American. As early as 1828, a welltraveled observer noted that very few towns in the United States, or the world have a more mixed population, with immigrants from all of the states [and] people from all quarters of the world. As a popular consumer reflection of such cultural diversity, the St. Louis Directory of 1840 ran advertisements for all kinds of German Goods, as well as French and American paper hangings. In 1850 nearly 16 percent of St. Louisans were Irish, 70 percent of whom were recent arrivals in the Potato Famine era. They were welcomed by Irish-Americans who had settled in St. Louis much earlier from other states not directly from the old country. Those original arrivals tended to be affluent, accomplished, and acculturated enough to surmount any prejudicial impediments to their careers. They included Alexander McNair (Missouri s first governor), John Mullanphy (the city s first millionaire), Joseph Charless (pioneering publisher), Sheriff James Rankin, and Benjamin and John O Fallon Irish Protestant merchants and Indian agents who were nephews of William Clark. Those and later residents demonstrated their cultural pride by organizing the city s first St. Patrick s Day celebration in 1820 and established a private relief agency to help distressed Irish Families. When former judge and mayor, Bryan Mullanphy (son of John) died in 1851, he left one-third of his estate to furnish relief to all poor emigrants coming to St. Louis the forerunner of the Travelers Aid Society. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 54

56 Eighteen German families were also in St. Louis by 1833, with some pre-dating the Louisiana Purchase. Only a decade after Gottfried Duden circulated enthusiastic reports about Missouri in 1827, 6,000 Germans were living in St. Louis, with 24,000 more engaged in farming and wine-making amid the Rhine-like landscapes of central Missouri. Among those Thirty-ers were conservative Lutherans from Saxony, who founded Concordia Seminary, Missouri s first coeducational college. In 1835, there were enough Germans in St. Louis to support a weekly newspaper, Anzeiger des Westens ( Information of the West ). Some 20,000 German Forty- Eighters political activists who had failed to revolutionize their country in that year arrived by the early 1850s to make a permanent impact on the city. Some of them resided in Belleville and other Illinois communities due to the expensive and scarce housing in St. Louis. The Missouri Republican in 1857 reported that Germans had inundated [the city] with breweries, beer houses, sausage shops, Swiss cheese and Holland herrings. We found it almost necessary to learn the German language before we could ride in an omnibus, or buy a pair of breeches, and absolutely necessary to drink beer at a Sunday concert. The Vauxhall Beer Garden was popular as early as 1823, and thirty years later, Uhrig s Cave attracted large crowds that mixed suds with songs, including operettas by Gilbert and Sullivan. Johann Adam Lemp opened the Western Brewery in 1840 to produce lager (aged) beer, mellowed in the cool caves under the city. His son pioneered the use of refrigerated railroad cars to distribute St. Louis beer nationally, as the Lemp Brewery became the largest one outside of New York with a single owner. At least forty other St. Louis breweries predated Anheuser-Busch, producing 190,000 barrels Old trunks symbolizing the wave of immigrants who came to St. Louis in the mid-nineteenth century. COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. C H A P T E R 3 5 5

57 Portrait of Constantin Blandowski by Carl Wimar,1861. Blandowski ( ) was a Polish soldier and noted fencer born along the Prussian border. He served in Algeria with the French Foreign Legion, the Polish Revolution of 1848, and both Sardinia s and Hungary s wars for independence from Austria, before arriving in St. Louis in the 1850s. As a captain in a company of German volunteers who captured Camp Jackson, he was wounded by civilian gunfire and died following the amputation of his leg. (Details from William C. Winter s The Civil War in St. Louis: A Guided Tour [1994], pp ). COURTESY, SAINT LOUIS ART MUSEUM; GIFT OF MRS. F. W. SCHNEIDER (179:1946). H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 56 per year before the Civil War, worth well over $1,000,000. In one six-month period in 1854, city residents consumed 18,000,000 glasses of beer thirteen years after St. Louisans had founded a Total Abstinence Society. By 1850, more than 20,000 Germans and 11,000 Irish comprised over 40 percent of the city s population. The large, sudden presence of so many foreigners with strange accents prompted a nativist backlash by anti-catholic, anti-immigrant Americanborn extremists in the Whig and Know- Nothing parties. The worst riot in the city s antebellum history occurred in August 1854 between nativists and Irish immigrants, resulting in 10 fatalities and 33 injuries, with 93 buildings damaged. When naturalized as voting citizens, most of those immigrants supported the Democratic Party, which elected two Irishmen and one German as mayors in three successive elections between 1847 and Despite facing common prejudices, the Scrubby Dutch in south city and Kerry Patch Irish in north city maintained separate neighborhoods; rarely cooperated to challenge hostile nativists; and often clashed over cultural differences and the competition for jobs.

58 Another group of immigrants in St. Louis has received much less attention than they deserved. In their recent book, When the Saints Came Marching In, Fred E. Woods and Thomas L. Farmer revealed that three to four thousand Mormons were living in St. Louis by 1849, with many establishing permanent roots. Despite Governor Lilburn W. Boggs s 1858 executive order to exterminate the Mormons, the Latter-day Saints found a safe haven of tolerance in St. Louis and steady employment as well. An official Mormon publication in 1855 observed that this city has been an asylum for our people from fifteen to twenty years. There is probably no city in the world where Latter-day Saints are more respected, and where they may sooner obtain an outfit for Utah. Historian James Neal Primm described mid-century St. Louis as a city in motion, with large numbers of people coming in and going out on a daily basis. A large group of St. Louisans went out to fight in the Mexican-American War, earning great distinction and generating future prosperity for their hometown. Jefferson Barracks mobilized U.S. soldiers and supplied support services, while local militia units with memorable names the St. Louis Legion, the Native American Rangers, and The Laclede Rangers were commanded by leading citizens, such as Colonel Robert Campbell and Major Meriwether Lewis Clark. St. Louis General Stephen Watts Kearny, commander of Jefferson Barracks, led his elite U.S. Dragoons in the capture of Santa Fe and the pacification of California, and he served as military governor of Mexico City. The war with Mexico reinforced St. Louisans traditional interest in the Southwest. Reputedly, some residents had smuggled nearly $3,000,000 in silver out of Santa Fe before the fighting began. No sooner had the war ended than gold was discovered in California, creating a rapid rush of prospective prospectors through the Gateway City. In 1849, alone, Marching St. Louis Militiamen on Market Street, a watercolor painting by Mat Hastings, COURTESY, MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS ( ). C H A P T E R 3 5 7

59 Emigrants Crossing the Plains, steel engraving by F. O.C. Darley, in William Cullen Bryant, ed., Picturesque America. The Land We Live In, vol. I (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1872). COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. an estimated 60,000 people arrived in St. Louis on their way to gold-fields or other western sites. City merchants provided whatever they needed, from shoes to saddles, and guns to grub and especially the famous Murphy Wagons made in town experiencing a more reliable rush of gold locally without risking their lives in California. About a third of those new arrivals chose to stay in St. Louis, and the influx of so many young, unmarried men lowered the average age of city residents to 21 by 1850, with males outnumbering adult women by nearly two to one. At mid-century, over 50 percent of St. Louis residents had lived here less than two years, and many of them would remain for only a couple more. St. Louis s hospitality industry capitalized on that constant mobility by operating 23 restaurants and 33 hotels in 1850 including the fashionable Planters House Hotel, where the famous punch was created. New Yorker Edgar Ames, who owned the luxurious Lindell Hotel, was passionate about work[ing] to beautify our city, both as a philanthropist and a businessman who realized that an attractive appearance appealed to tourists. New trends in public transportation kept pace, as twelve-passenger, horse-drawn carriages, known as omnibuses, served the citizens of St. Louis and strangers visiting the city. Many of those strangers never left, bringing new ideas and different customs in attempting to transform fluid St. Louis society to suit their goals. Ten percent of the Eastern Migration in the mid-nineteenth century consisted of doctors, lawyers, and ministers. Some of the most fervent New England Protestants hoped to make St. Louis a New Jerusalem by civilizing what a Massachusetts congressman called the wild men of the Missouri, who were plagued by savage Indians, foreigners, and papists. Far more tolerant, and a great boon to the city s intellectual progress, was the Reverend William Greenleaf Eliot. He was only twenty-three H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 58

60 when he arrived in 1834 to found the first Unitarian church west of the Mississippi. Ralph Waldo Emerson called him the Saint of the West, as a crusader for educational excellence, the abolition of slavery, women s rights, and the creation of a city art museum, among other cultural causes. Less spiritual Eastern capitalists hoped to make St. Louis a secular, profitable New York of the West. They succeeded to a degree, because the 300,000 people who migrated to California maintained a commercial connection with the welcoming Gateway City that many knew well. In 1858, John Butterfield s Overland Stage linked St. Louis with San Francisco, the largest town west of it, while the later Pony Express delivered mail between St. Louis and Sacramento. Although maps depict Independence, Missouri, as the embarking point for most of the major western trails to California, Oregon, Utah, and elsewhere, St. Louis was the true Mother of the West, before and after those massive treks across the Plains. Oil portrait of William Greenleaf Eliot, 1854, by Charlotte C. Eliot. COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS ( ). C H A P T E R 3 5 9

61 H O R R I F I C D I S A S T E R! By late 1855 the Pacific Railroad stretched to Jefferson City, and although far short of the California coast suggested by the company name, that achievement was worthy of a public celebration. On All Saints Day, November 1, 1855, some 600 prominent St. Louisans, including the mayor and aldermen, boarded a fourteen-car train for a festive, promotional trip to the state capital. But a pouring rain and a temporary, poorly-designed wooden trestle over the Gasconade River resulted in a terrible catastrophe. Eight miles west of Hermann, the bridge collapsed, catapulting the engine and most of the wooden cars into the river or onto its banks thirty-six feet below. Thirty-one passengers were killed, including politicians, pastors, railroad promoters and Henri Pierre Chouteau, scion of the city s founding family. At least 70 others were severely injured, and they suffered for two days until reaching professional medical treatment in St. Louis. Monday, November 5th was a day of public mourning in the city for what proved to be the worst train disaster in Missouri history. With few exceptions, natives and newcomers, alike, arrived in St. Louis having traveled on, or at least crossed, water, but the increasing allure of the Far West alerted St. Louisans of the need to develop railroads. No one saw the limitless potential of one city dominating both modes of transportation better than St. Louis s hometown Democratic Senator, Thomas Hart Benton. He was an early and influential national prophet for the profits promised by the Manifest Destiny of westward expansion. He dreamed of fulfilling the ancient goals of Columbus by accessing the wealth of Asia via modern rail links to the Pacific coast. In 1849 he captured the attention of a railroad planning conference at the courthouse by pointing to the West and proclaiming: There Lies India! Entrepreneurs found no incompatibility with investing in riverboats and railroads at the same time, for steel train wheels and wooden paddle-wheels both used steam efficiently and profitably to transport people and products. In 1849 the river-dredger, Captain Henry Shreve, promoted St. Louis s Pacific Railroad when he lived here. Joining him were Yankee capitalists, Hudson Bridge, Thomas Allen, and Henry Bacon, among others. In 1853, the locomotive St. Louis reached Franklin, Missouri, at a top speed of twenty-one miles per hour along the first rail line west of the Mississippi. Above: Portrait of Thomas Hart Benton in 1854, long-serving U.S. senator from St. Louis. Frontispiece engraving in his Thirty Years View, or A History of the Working of the American Government for Thirty Years, from 1820 to 1850, vol. I (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1854). Right: Although no illustrations of the Gasconade Train Disaster are known to exist, this is a nineteenth-century image of a similar railroad wreck in the author s collection. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 60

62 Daguerreotype of Henri Pierre Chouteau ( ), son of Auguste Chouteau, and his wife, Clemence Georgine Coursault. This was probably taken shortly before November 1855, when Henri died in the Gasconade Train Disaster. His death set in motion the transfer of his father s manuscript, Narrative of the Founding of St. Louis, to his younger brother, Gabriel, who donated it to the Mercantile Library, which published the first translation in COURTESY, MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS (40532). C H A P T E R 3 6 1

63 Detail of panoramic river lithograph, View of St. Louis, Missouri Our City, by A. Janicke & Co., published by Hagen and Pfau at the Anzeiger des Westens newspaper office, REPRODUCTION COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. By 1850 rapid transformations in all aspects of urban living made St. Louis the American Seville a bustling port of a huge inland empire, where grassy prairies substituted for ocean waves, and furs were the profitable equivalents of Spain s bullion from the New World. Like the original Seville, St. Louis looked westward for its fortune, and increasing numbers of European nobles toured the Grand Emporium of the Great West to experience the allure of exotic Indians and majestic landscapes. A Who s Who of foreign dignitaries drawn to the capital of frontier America included Prince Paul of Wurttemberg, Prince Maximilian of Wied-Neuwied, Duke Bernard of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, the Hungarian freedomfighter, Louis Kossuth, and Prince Napoleon, nephew of the famous French emperor. Many of those elite tourists sponsored early western artists to capture the grandeur of incomparable scenery before the days of photography. Painting, mapping, sketching, and photographing the West were among the great accomplishments in nineteenth-century America, observed historian Howard Lamar, and St. Louis hosted some of the greatest western artists, including: John J. Audubon, George Caleb Bingham, Karl Bodmer, George Catlin, Charles Deas, Chester Harding, Henry Lewis, John Casper Wild, and Carl Wimar. The paintings of Charles Russell, born in St. Louis in 1865, stimulated a revival of romantic depictions of the so-called Wild West after it no longer existed. With an annual economy worth millions, St. Louis soon resembled old Seville as a progressive center of cultural refinement, when successful capitalists became avid philanthropists of intellectual institutions. They founded the St. Louis Academy of Sciences, which had already published thirty volumes of research by Businessmen also endowed the Mercantile Library in 1846 as the first circulating library, documentary archive, and art gallery in the American West. For decades, it hosted lectures by eminent international literati celebrity writers such as Louis Agassiz, Henry Ward Beecher, Charles Dickens, Ralph Waldo Emerson, H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 62

64 Washington Irving, Francis Parkman, Harriet Beecher Stowe, William Thackeray, Mark Twain, Daniel Webster, and Oscar Wilde, who came to inspire a growing group of local intellectuals. In 1853, St. Louis opened the first public, tax-supported high school west of the Mississippi, fifteen years after the city provided free elementary education. Two decades later, Susan Blow became a national pioneer in establishing kindergartens. She joined William Torrey Harris, the much-praised superintendent of schools, and other members of the German-influenced St. Louis Movement and St. Louis Philosophical Society to make the city a national cultural center committed to educational progress. A growing number of St. Louisans considered free public education to be the basis of a republic s prosperity and the handmaid of virtue. The highlyregarded private Seminary founded by Eliot was dedicated to a well-educated citizenry, and it spawned nonsectarian Washington University in 1857 and Mary Institute two years later. That gave the city four colleges by mid-century, following Saint Louis University in 1832; Kemper College, the first Protestant institution for training physicians, in 1838; and Concordia Seminary of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, which had relocated to the city in Churches also played increasing roles in promoting the civility of urban life in the frontier West. Catholic congregations expanded from two in 1841 to eight by 1850, while Presbyterian churches increased from three to ten in those years. In 1850 there were two Baptist churches, five Episcopalian congregations, and seven Methodist chapels, plus two African-Methodist churches. In a single decade, German immigrants opened nine diverse Protestant churches, in addition to the sole Lutheran congregation of German residents also dominated the musical culture of St. Louis. In the 1840s, the talented Charles Balmer formed the Oratorio Society (the city s first male chorus), the Left: View of Lucas Place, a fashionable neighborhood in the mid-nineteenth century made famous by Robert Campbell s Victorian mansion (now the Campbell House Museum). Campbell defied the stereotype of mountain men who died violently, young and poor. Engraving from [Richard] Edwards s Great West and History of St. Louis (St. Louis, 1860). FRONTISPIECE COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. Below: Portraits of Charles and Jacob Kunkel, German pianists and composers in St. Louis, from the title page of their Triumphal March (St. Louis, 1868). COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. C H A P T E R 3 6 3

65 R E M E M B E R I N G T H E F O U N D E R S Opposite: A St. Louis city parade from an 1874 illustration in Harper s Weekly that closely matches the description of the 1847 celebration. COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. According to the Missouri Republican, residents had never witnessed such a turnout for the 1847 celebration of the city s founding. Amid flowers and flags hanging from every window and a military band playing the Marseillaise, the Most Honored Guest of the Day Pierre Chouteau arrived in a fancy carriage guarded by four mounted Indians, dressed in the full costume of the Plains tribes. That honor guard symbolized the presence of friendly Indians who had protected and partnered with Laclede. Passing by the reviewing stand, fronting the courthouse on Fourth Street, were representatives from every public and private, corporate and civic, organization, from firemen to school children, marching in a huge parade. Making a grand spectacle was a twenty-foot-long replica of the General Pike (the first steamboat to visit St. Louis in 1817). It was mounted on wheels and pulled by eight white horses. Following that was a replica of an eighteenth-century keelboat, named the Laclede. The Hibernian Charitable Society marched under a Harp of Erin banner. Its members all wore green sashes and played Irish tunes. Keeping with the theme of immigration, many other residents male and female, white and black, old and young wore costumes reflecting their diverse native cultures. When the Hunting Club marched by, the crowd cheered a horse with deer horns mounted on its head! The most popular floats were the five huge brewery wagons, each pulled by four horses of varying colors and hauling mammoth casks containing 18 barrels of beer. Riding on the Lemp Brewery float was a man dressed as the King of Flanders, inventor of beer, while the other breweries featured a good, round, portly representation of a hearty, jolly beer drinker. Not to be outdone, the Barrel-Makers Society wagon carried the largest cask of all holding 25 barrels of beer that coopers had constructed in only seven hours! The Parade of Schools featured students carrying a large banner depicting Minerva, Goddess of Wisdom, with the mottos: Knowledge is Power and Intelligence, Industry and Enterprise. After a long parade and an even longer historical oration by the scholarly Wilson Primm, prominent citizens conducted Pierre Chouteau to a Grand Banquet in the State Tobacco Warehouse. Tables were set for 1,200 diners, but only 400 showed up, since many thought the dinner would be too crowded. But there was no lack of enthusiasm among attendees, who drank over twenty toasts, including: To the Founders of St. Louis, for their wisdom in settling the site that was now the seat of empire! To Missouri, the largest of the American states in territory and the richest in natural resources. To the City of St. Louis What it shall become, may be conjectured from what it is. Those heavy-drinking diners who were still able to stand attended a Grand Ball at the Planters House Hotel. Its spacious ball room was filled to capacity, and happiness ran riot in the mazes of the dance, and thus the night was passed. Philharmonic Society, and the Polyhymnia Society all antecedent elements of the later St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1880 as only the second one in an American city. In 1837, Meriwether Lewis Clark designed the New St. Louis Theater the first in the country to have individual seats and a removable floor. Wyman s Hall, Bates s Theater, and The Olympic also became favorite venues for visiting entertainers. In 1835 the opera composer, John Howard Payne, drew large crowds; violinist Norwegian Old Bull came in 1845; and many St. Louisans attended the 1861 performances of African American pianist, Blind Tom, a ten-year-old prodigy. But few attractions could match the popular appeal of Jenny Lind, the Swedish Nightingale, whom P. T. Barnum brought to town in Offering less high-brow entertainment was Captain Jack s Floating Palace, with its large H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 64

66 steamboat theater and a museum packed with ancient artifacts and intriguing relics. The largest crowd ever assembled in St. Louis up to that point celebrated the first public anniversary of the city s founding on Monday, February 15, Such attention for an eighty-third city birthday seemed odd. But the thousands of citizens who thronged into streets and saloons, banquet halls and formal balls, to honor the French founders hoped to recapture some of the community cohesiveness of the colonial town that had faded with the huge migrations of diverse foreigners. Seeking a tangible reminder of 1764, revelers honored eighty-nine-year-old (Jean) Pierre Chouteau the last of St. Louis s original settlers (as a young child) and the only living resident whose eyes have looked upon the face of Laclede. Speaking in French, Chouteau recalled the purity, simplicity, and honesty of the original town. While Laclede was regarded as a common sire of all St. Louisans, no one publicly acknowledged that Pierre Chouteau was actually Laclede s only son, despite the widespread knowledge of that blood bond. Pierre, himself, said only that he had been acquainted with Monsieur Laclede. C H A P T E R 3 6 5

67 C H A R N E L H O U S E O F C H O L E R A After witnessing that grievous loss of life, St. Louis poet, Ethel Grey, wrote: Muffled and slowly the footsteps fall, With a dull and laboring tramp They carry the dead to the Charnel House, So cold and dark and damp. In single rows they lay the dead, Long files of corpses grim, Each ghostly face upturned is seen By the light of the torches dim. The Charnal House, in Sunset Gleams from the City of the Mounds (New York, 1852). Above: Mid-nineteenth-century bottle of Wm. Hall s Cholera Cure. COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S ARTIFACT COLLECTION. Opposite, top: Great Fire of the City on the 17th and 18th May 1849, lithograph by Julius Hutawa (1849), showing the downtown areas destroyed. COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS (888). Opposite, bottom: A Laclede Brick, of St. Louis, age unknown, one of several companies that made the city s clay pits, busy brickyards, and decorative architectural details famous for more than a century following the Great Fire of COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 66 That grand spectacle of parades and patriotic speeches would not be repeated anytime soon, because, only two years later, St. Louisans were preoccupied with present tragedies that took precedence over past triumphs. In 1849 the city endured simultaneous catastrophes that left residents more mournful than celebratory. A major epidemic of Asiatic Cholera raged for nine months, beginning slowly in January and peaking in July when 639 people died of that disease in a single week, 145 in one day including most likely old Pierre Chouteau. Semi-official death tolls ranged from 4,283 to 4,547, but some residents claimed that the Board of Health doesn t report one half of the cases. Large numbers of dead children may have been undercounted in the traumatic confusion to collect and dump corpses in a common trench as quickly as possible. Many would be reburied in the new Bellefontaine Cemetery, with little effort for a more accurate accounting. Since 3,268 Catholics, alone, were buried in 1849, a total minimum death toll of 5,500 (almost 8 percent of the population) was most likely. Some estimates of mortality range as high as 10 percent, but whatever the headcount, most historians agree that St. Louis suffered a greater mortality in 1849 than any other city in the nation. May 1849 would claim 431 cholera victims, but that tragic news was eclipsed in the middle of the month when a huge, devastating fire erupted among dozens of densely-packed steamboats along the levee, destroying 23 of them and 9 other vessels. High winds drove the flames into city streets, and over ten hours consumed 430 buildings in a fifteenblock area of the downtown core, from the Levee to Second Street, between Spruce and Locust. The central post office was lost, but the cathedral was spared by brave citizens who blew up nearby buildings to create firebreaks before the flames reached that sacred site. The heroic Irish fireman, Thomas Targee, died doing so one of only three fatalities. Total property losses amounted to $6,000,000 $502,000 for buildings, $600,000 for boats and cargoes, and $5,000,000 for merchandise in warehouses. The fire exacerbated the perennial lack of housing for the 88 percent of residents who rented in a tiny city of only 4.78 square miles (3,060 acres). The eminent German immigrant, Henry Boernstein, observed that the Great Fire had left the richest and busiest part [of St. Louis] in ashes and ruins, considerably outbidding the cholera in horror. Both the contagion and the conflagration left the unhappy city in grief and disbelief, with fewer citizens to recall now-obliterated old landmarks and dear friends. But residents rebounded with resilience from those twin tragedies with a progressive spirit and aggressive action. They constructed new buildings with fire-resistant cast iron exteriors and locally-made bricks, and increasing numbers of new structures such

68 as the six-story Barnum s Hotel in 1854 rose higher than ever to make more efficient use of restricted space. Officials drained the polluted Chouteau s Pond; improved sanitation and water quality; and created new medical facilities, fire-fighting capabilities, and quarantine policies. According to the noted German scientist, Dr. George Engelmann, his adopted city was the center of North America, if not the world. We burn one third of our steamboats, destroy one tenth of the wealth of our citizens in one night, kill one tenth by cholera only to show how much we can stand without succumbing. St. Louis survived those natural disasters, but human prejudices and political divisions over race relations drove it to the brink of succumbing in the next two decades. At mid-century, St. Louis had 2,636 African American slaves (3.4 percent of the city s population) and 1,400 free blacks (1.8 percent). The latter included a thriving middle class of African American entrepreneurs, such as Elizabeth Keckley (later dressmaker for Mrs. Lincoln), who operated successful businesses, owned property, and collected rents from blacks and whites alike. Cyprian Clamorgan, from an old mixed-race family of French C H A P T E R 3 6 7

69 Selling people at the courthouse, as depicted in the oil painting, The Last Sale of Slaves (c. 1880), by Thomas S. Noble. COURTESY, MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS ( ). H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 68 Caribbean Creoles, introduced those startling revelations to the public in his 1858 book, The Colored Aristocracy of St. Louis. The relatively mild type of householdservant slavery that had existed under the colonial French and Spanish became a more severe form of chattel slavery under the Americans. In his famous 1847 autobiography, William Wells Brown, a fugitive slave from St. Louis, wrote that the city did not look or function like a plantation, but the same omnipresent, oppressive social system prevailed. The city shared the prejudices of its Deep South trading partners and auctioned slaves on the courthouse steps. Evidence of the infamous slave pens that held such human inventory remained until 1963, when construction of Busch Stadium finally obliterated that scar on the downtown landscape. St. Louis slaves were prohibited from assembling in public, meeting at night, or drinking alcohol and received ten lashes on the bare back for each offense. White males over the age of eighteen were required to serve on community patrols to enforce those regulations. Fearing that slaves would be rebellious was an admission that African Americans and whites shared the same rational human desire for freedom, opportunity, and respect. In 1847 a wealthy St. Louis businessman offered a $200 reward for the capture and return of a slave couple he had owned for fifteen years. He seemed shocked that they were so discontented as to escape with their three children, aged 4, 6, and 12. The husband was of good address, carried an ivory headed cane, and probably arranged to reach Chicago by covered wagon. His wife and most of the children were described as bright and wearing some new clothing. Blacks, both slave and free, received assistance and

70 encouragement from Baptist minister John Berry Meachum, a former slave who founded St. Louis s first African American church in He operated a secret school for blacks, while his wife, Mary Meachum, was a conductor on the Underground Railroad, helping escaped slaves cross the Mississippi River to reach freedom in Illinois. The free blacks in St. Louis were only half-free. After being incorporated as a town in 1809, some of the earliest ordinances dealt with keeping blacks in line. State law prohibited free blacks from coming to settle in Missouri; learning to read and write; and assembling in groups. Due to their mobility and wider range of experiences, African Americans who had never been slaves were a greater concern for the white majority than slaves. German and Irish immigrants resented them as competitors for jobs, since they often worked for lower wages. But prominent citizens were more concerned with security issues. In March 1835 the state legislature required all free blacks in and surrounding St. Louis to obtain a license from the county court, and 145 did so fairly quickly, according to Christine Human Hughes. But on Halloween night of that year, Robert Wilkinson, a free black barber, who, ironically, worked at the Southern Hotel. Daguerreotype portrait by Thomas M. Easterly, c In the decades following McIntosh s murder, such middle-class African Americans had more to fear than most slaves because their economic independence and freedom of movement threatened rabid racists. COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS (17221). C H A P T E R 3 6 9

71 leading residents from diverse cultural backgrounds met to discuss more stringent controls over free blacks. William Clark, Pierre Chouteau, Sr., Pierre Chouteau, Jr., Sylvestre Labbadie, Henry Von Puhl, Dr. Samuel Wherry, William Ashley, and riflemaker Samuel Hawkins sought to expel free blacks who had not been born in St. Louis or no longer had family ties here. Just a few months later, on April 28, 1836, such seething prejudices erupted most publicly when a large white mob, including two mayors and other prominent politicians, participated in the revolting spectacle of a human bonfire. The victim was Francis McIntosh, a free mulatto steamboat steward, who, being threatened with death during an arbitrary arrest, had killed one constable and severely slashed another. Outraged citizens grabbed McIntosh from jail, chained him to a downtown tree, and burned him alive, cheering and jeering at his agony. The disfigured and roasted corpse remained as a gruesome warning to all blacks who dared to assault whites, and tourists for many years cut off slivers of the charred execution tree as grisly souvenirs. Most newspapers feared that such repulsive violence had damaged the fair fame of our town, but defended the lynch mob for preserving the peace amid the growing paranoia about Nat Turner s 1831 Virginia massacre of whites and northern abolitionist condemnations of slavery. Judge Luke Lawless (well named) found no individual guilty of murdering McIntosh, because so many people had participated. Community consensus against black violence seemed to justify even the most horrific white vigilantism. Elijah Lovejoy s St. Louis Observer joined the northern press in condemning the judge s monstrous leniency of a public atrocity. Hateful residents attacked the messenger who reminded them of their shame in a not-so-civilized city. Lovejoy moved to Alton for his own safety, but he was repeatedly attacked there, too, for his growing antislavery opinions. A mob murdered him in November Following those bloody tragedies, new Missouri laws prohibited the circulation of abolitionist publications and required black steamboat crews to be jailed until their vessels departed. Because St. Louis had earned a national reputation for barbarism and judicial malfeasance, city officials strictly adhered to due process in 1841, ensuring that a slave and three free blacks accused of murder received a competent defense in a fair trial. But after their convictions, a huge crowd, exaggerated as 75 percent of St. Louisans, thronged to witness their executions. A boat company advertised tickets for a passage to Duncan s Island to see the spectacle of Four Negroes Executed. The need for white citizens to instill fear and obedience in blacks then prompted a macabre display, for several days, of the heads of the four men in the front window of Corse s Drug Store at 69 North First Street. Historian Julie Winch wrote that city authorities were far from happy that a free community of color existed at all, and a St. Louis Anti-Abolition Society was founded in According to Adam Arenson, as a booming metropolis in a border state, St. Louis s demographic stew mirrored the nation s regional, political, and ethnic diversity as no other city did, making it a place of lively contradictions. Even the complex and divisive issue of race, however, had to have an unequivocal, eventual resolution. Otherwise, how could St. Louis, the cultured and affluent great heart of the Republic, claim to be a civilized city while treating its African American residents so brutally? In 1847, St. Louis was illuminated by gaslights for the first time, but that year was a dark one for the married city slaves, Dred and Harriet Scott, and their two daughters. They were suing for their freedom, since they had been taken from Missouri to live in Illinois and other free states where slavery was illegal. They were very brave to take on a racist system, especially considering the public violence of the previous decade. Entering a courtroom just a few steps from where slave sales were held symbolized the great odds against them. The Scotts lost their suit on a legal technicality, but a retrial freed them on January 12, 1850, only to have the Missouri Supreme Court overturn that H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 70

72 verdict two years later. The U.S. Supreme Court made its famous ruling on March 6, 1857, denying freedom for the Scotts and declaring that all African Americans, even if free, did not have the rights of U.S. citizens. Chief Justice Roger Taney s decision also nullified the Missouri Compromise of 1820 by ruling that Congress never had the authority to exclude slavery from any state or territory. Dred Scott and his family would be freed by a new owner two months later, but in the years ahead, racial politics heated up, since all of the West was now open to the legal, and virtually unlimited, spread of slavery. The Dred Scott Case focused national attention on St. Louis, where polarizing ideologies clashed in efforts to dominate city Oil portrait of Dred Scott by Louis Schultze (1888), based on the famous print published in Frank Leslie s Illustrated Newspaper, June 27, COURTESY, MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS ( ). C H A P T E R 3 7 1

73 Abolitionist map of Free and Slave states with Missouri in the middle revealing nineteenth-century propaganda in an old school textbook. COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 72 politics. On the eve of the Civil War, St. Louis was a populous metropolis of 160,000 people the sixth largest city in the United States, with annual manufactures worth $27 million, seventh highest in the nation. But St. Louis s central location, which had long given it an economic advantage, now became a political liability, as northern and southern, eastern and western, interests clashed there. As prolonged violence erupted in nearby Bleeding Kansas, and threats of secession grew, St. Louis s profitable river trade with the slave South seemed increasingly disreputable to the city s Yankee businessmen. Many moved their money and often their residences to the slave-free city of Chicago, which also offered new investment opportunities in railroad routes to northeastern states. By 1860 only 24 percent of entrepreneurs from New York and New England remained in St. Louis, and their investments in the city plummeted to a mere 13 percent. Liberal antislavery sentiments, however, continued to thrive among Eliot s abolitionist Unitarians and well-educated German radicals, who published 40 percent of the city s newspapers. Anti-secessionist St. Louisans embraced eastern influences that increasingly linked them to Illinois and other free states challenging Missouri s rural Little Dixie counties with slave populations of at least 25 percent. In 1861 the city s mayor was a Union, Anti-Black Republican, and while leading St. Louisans supported a variety of national political parties, most were moderates who wanted to expand economic opportunities for whites without promoting freedom for slaves. But they certainly did not want slavery to spread. As early as 1857, Benton disciples Gratz Brown and his cousin, Francis Preston ( Frank ) Blair, Jr., supported a very gradual emancipation of Missouri slaves, but above all, they wanted to keep the state in the Union. When they and Virginia-born Mayor John Wimer won elections that year, Brown proclaimed that St. Louis was now The Free City of the Valley of the Mississippi. In the 1860 presidential election, even supporters of Abraham Lincoln were divided into conservative and radical factions over racial issues. He won the city 9,483 votes to 8,538 for the moderate Illinois Democrat, Stephen Douglas. But St. Louis voters overwhelmingly rejected Southern extremism, casting only 544 votes for the pro-slavery Southern Democrat, John C. Breckinridge of Kentucky. Arenson observed that St. Louis [was] the largest city in a slave state to vote for Lincoln, and its citizens also reelected

74 President Lincoln s Cabinet in early 1861, with Postmaster-General Montgomery Blair (top left), and Attorney General Edward Bates (top center) representing twenty percent with St. Louis connections. Engraving from Horace Greeley, The American Conflict: A History of the Great Rebellion (Hartford, 1866). C H A P T E R 3 7 3

75 A Confederate envelope retrieved after the capture of Camp Jackson on May 10, The letter inside was dated the day before and included secessionist sentiments of the writer, perhaps Captain George West, a Minute Man of the Missouri Guard, to his brother. COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS (D4592). H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 74 him in 1864 with support comparable to that of Philadelphia. Blair s older brother, Montgomery, had been one of Dred Scott s lawyers and would soon join Lincoln s cabinet, while Brown became a U.S. senator in St. Louisan Edward Bates served as Lincoln s attorney general in his first term, while his brother-in-law, Hamilton Gamble, helped keep Missouri in the Union as acting governor from 1861 to When Lincoln took office in March 1861, seven Southern states had already seceded, and a special state convention met at the Mercantile Library to determine whether Missouri should stay in the Union. It would for now, by a vote of 70 to 23, because secession was considered too radical a choice to make that early. However, Missouri s new Southern-leaning, pro-slavery governor, Claiborne Fox Jackson, rejected President Lincoln s call for state troops to defend the Union, and Jefferson City took control of the police in St. Louis City to block antislavery activity. St. Louisans were hardly united, however, and they organized rival pro- and anti-slavery militias that reflected their cultural diversity. Rich French families, lower-class Irishmen, and farmers from Little Dixie organized as a state militia of Minute Men to oppose a tyrannical federal government and raised secessionist flags above the courthouse and the old Berthold Mansion of plantation architecture. Frank Blair countered those pro-southern forces by recruiting large numbers of German St. Louisans into the Blair Rangers, the Black Rifles, and especially the Wide Awakes free-soil militiamen increasingly on the lookout for secessionists. With his Washington connections, Blair s 4,000 militiamen, almost all Germans, had been mustered in as U.S. soldiers under a new commander of the St. Louis Arsenal, Colonel Nathaniel Lyon. Supported by Lincoln, Lyon circumvented the authority of General William S. Harney, who had whipped one of his female slaves to death and was considered too sympathetic to the Confederacy s need for armaments. As tensions mounted, both pro- and antisecessionists focused on the St. Louis Arsenal. Founded in 1827, it was the largest military storehouse in the slave states by 1860, with many cannons, 60,000 muskets, 1.5 million cartridges, and 90,000 pounds of gunpowder that would be invaluable for starting or thwarting rebellion. In March 1861, the Missouri Militia under General Daniel M. Frost of St. Louis established Camp Jackson at the intersection of Grand Boulevard and Olive Street, where heavy cannons could bombard the Arsenal. He had an estimated force of 1,000 men, including 300 strongly secessionist Minute Men. When a steamboat arrived with howitzers and siege cannons captured by Confederates from the federal arsenal at Baton Rouge, few doubts remained that se-cesh officials in Jefferson City intended to seize the St. Louis Arsenal. But Colonel Lyon was prepared. In late April, he secretly shipped most of his munitions across the river to Alton, in pro-union Illinois. And in early May, he disguised himself as a woman, using a thick veil to hide his heavy beard, to spy on Camp Jackson. On Friday, May 10, 1861, Lyon successfully attacked Frost s garrison with 6,000 troops the vast majority being German Home Guard volunteers led by Blair, Henry Boernstein, Franz Sigel, and others. Surprised and overwhelmed

76 by superior numbers, General Frost surrendered Camp Jackson without a fight or a single casualty. But as Lyon marched hundreds of prisoners into crowded city streets, a huge, angry mob jeered the Damned Dutch, pelted them with rocks, and fired pistols into their ranks. Lyon s men suffered four killed and ten wounded, while three of the secessionists they were guarding also died. His troops responded with random gunfire that killed 30 civilians including one woman and five children while as many as 50 other citizens suffered wounds. That civil(ian) war in the streets of St. Louis cast a dark veil over an otherwise glorious day for the Union cause. The carnage on what pro-southerners called Black Friday was witnessed by future Union generals Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman, who would see far worse atrocities to come. The Camp Jackson Affair was the only battle fought in St. Louis during the Civil War, while the rest of Missouri experienced another 1,161 engagements. Lyon, promoted to general, captured Jefferson City and Boonville, driving the secessionist state government into exile before he was killed at the Battle of Wilson s Creek in August The support he had received from Free Soil Germans, Yankee abolitionists, and other anti-confederate citizens gave credit to St. Louis as a liberal Union stronghold. Lyon s initiative prevented Camp Jackson troops from expelling all free blacks from St. Louis, as intended by the governor s racist police board. Instead, Major-General John C. Frémont, Senator Benton s son-in-law, took command of the city and quickly issued an August 1861 proclamation freeing its slaves. Although that emancipation was short-lived, given Lincoln s priority to keep the key border state of Missouri in the Union, Fremont successfully imposed martial law in the city. That quelled most Confederate sympathizers by incarcerating traitors and spies in the Gratiot Street Prison, however unjustly. As Lincoln s city on the Mississippi, St. Louis was invaluable to the northern cause in the West. It became the Arsenal of the Union, supplying 40 percent of all bullets to federal troops. At nearby Carondelet (soon to be annexed), the talented, self-taught engineer, James B. Eads, constructed the iron-clad gunboats Carondelet, St. Louis, Louisville, Pittsburg, and the larger, better-armed Benton. Those innovative vessels played prominent roles in General Grant s attacks on rebel river forts, eventually leading to the fall of Vicksburg. Dividing the Confederacy ultimately made that former St. Louis resident the most successful Union commander in the East, as well as the West. The Eads Boatyard in Carondelet, showing the construction of Union gunboats; from a nineteenth-century publication, The Soldier in Our Civil War. COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. C H A P T E R 3 7 5

77 On top is an amputation saw, with razorsharp edge on one side for cutting flesh and a serrated edge for cutting bone. Below are small, portable surgical instruments made by A. M. Leslie & Company, St. Louis, and owned by Dr. O. D. Fitzgerald of Ozark County, Missouri. CIVIL WAR MEDICAL EQUIPMENT FROM THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. Four thousand soldiers from St. Louis died on both sides in the Civil War, but their city achieved great fame and a lasting legacy as a humane refuge free of the chaos and cruelty that gripped the rest of the state. Confederate guerrilla cavalrymen under William Quantrill and Bloody Bill Anderson shot, and sometimes scalped, unarmed Union soldiers. In retaliation, federal troops attacked civilians merely suspected of Southern sympathies and expelled some 20,000 residents from Little Dixie counties. Many ragged refugees found their way to St. Louis homeless slaveowners, a thousand or so German farmers whom General Sigel saved from death by ruthless outlaws, and African Americans, slave and free, from every location. St. Louis was the most compassionate and accommodating of all slave cities in the wartime treatment of blacks. By 1863, the number of Missouri slaves had declined 35 percent, to about 74,000, since a large number had escaped to the promised land of Lincoln s capital in the West. St. Louis s African American population tripled during the Civil War, approaching 10,000 by The city provided farm plots for ex-slaves to grow crops and generously funded the Freedmen s Relief Society. African American refugees were housed, fed, and even schooled at Benton Barracks, along Natural Bridge Road, which was also a recruitment and training center for Colored Infantry. Before the war s end, some 8,000 Missouri blacks enlisted in the Union Army to fight for the liberation of other African Americans. Freedom truly triumphed when Missouri became the first slave state to abolish slavery. It passed an emancipation act in St. Louis on January 11, 1865, by a vote of 65-4, almost a year before the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified. To impart lasting value to that freedom, St. Louis created five Colored Schools for 1,600 students, naming them for famous black heroes including Haitian slave revolutionaries, Toussaint L Ouverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines, and American astronomer Benjamin Banneker. Sumner High School, honoring the notable abolitionist politician, opened in 1875 as the first public secondary school for African Americans in the West. By 1900, Missouri had the largest percentage of black elementary school students in the South a hopeful sign that a formerly enslaved population would enjoy unprecedented opportunities for equality in the new century. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 76

78 Another humanitarian contribution of St. Louis was providing medical treatment to wounded soldiers of both sides during the Civil War. Eliot joined businessman James G. Yeatman and many others in founding the Western Sanitary Commission. Staffing a 2,500-bed hospital at Jefferson Barracks and funding fourteen other medical facilities, the Commission had treated over 60,000 soldiers by May 1864, with an admirable mortality rate lower than 10 percent. St. Louisans were truly concerned about hospitalized soldiers, and city newspapers published weekly lists of those who had died. Typical was the first week of November 1862, in which 73 of the 74 deaths among 25 Confederate and 49 Union troops occurred from disease (measles, dysentery, typhoid fever, and pneumonia), rather than wounds. Venerable Jefferson Barracks, which will turn 200 in 2026, is the place from the Civil War that best symbolizes St. Louis s special role in that conflict. Some 200 senior officers who had been stationed there fought in the war, and its national cemetery that opened in Above: An Ordinance Abolishing Slavery in Missouri, lithograph by Theodore Schrader, COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS (21818). Left: Jefferson Barracks, an 1866 lithograph by Gast, Moeller and Company. COURTESY OF MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS (24694). C H A P T E R 3 7 7

79 Right: Title page of Our Nation s Hero, a song honoring Ulysses S. Grant, with lyrics by Miss Ida Schott Taylor and music by Henry M. Butler, published by Balmer and Weber in St. Louis, COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. Opposite: Pottery Booth at the Mississippi Valley Sanitary Fair at St. Louis, Stereographic photograph (half view) by J. A. Scholten. Shown next to the man with his back to the camera is Mrs. Adaline Couzins, an early local leader for female political equality. COURTESY OF MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS (51041). H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S reunited many of them from among the 16,000 burials. While the base hospital offered help and hope for wounded troops, former St. Louis army officers, Grant and Lee, also chose compassion over carnage by negotiating an end to the horrific slaughter. St. Louis philanthropists expanded the reach of their generosity by distributing more than $4.5 million outside of the city to care for soldiers and needy civilians throughout the nation. Residents raised about $600,000 alone at the city s Mississippi Valley Sanitary Fair of That unprecedented three-week exposition attracted thousands of attendees including many African Americans who, in a notable departure from segregationist traditions, were served refreshments without prejudice. St. Louis women who had been inspired by work in Western Sanitary Commission hospitals emerged as political activists for female rights in the postwar period. According to historian Lee Ann White, in 1867 Virginia Minor was the first person to take a public stand for woman suffrage in the state, becoming a leading advocate in St. Louis from 1879 to Equally passionate was Mrs. Adaline Couzins, who served as a Civil War nurse for the Ladies Union Aid Society of St. Louis and was wounded at the siege of Vicksburg. She founded the Female Guardian Home of St. Louis while campaigning for female suffrage. Her precocious daughter, Phoebe Couzins, was a Civil War nurse, the second American woman to earn a law degree in the nation, and the first female to serve as a U.S. marshal. At the American Equal Rights Association convention in May 1869, she delivered a rousing speech advocating the vote for white and black women, because they were as deserving of legal equality as black men. Couzins remained an outspoken suffragist until her death in Following the Civil War, St. Louis s humanitarian citizens continued to resolve social crises without governmental assistance. In 1879 the St. Louis riverfront became the temporary home to more than 6,000 ex-slaves, known as Exodusters, who fled the South to begin new lives as free farmers in Kansas. Black churches provided them with shelter and charitable assistance. Lincoln s city on the Mississippi also played prominent roles in national politics in the postwar period. Grant, the hometown hero, served two terms as the Republican president from 1869 to 1877, while another St. Louis resident, Carl Schurz the first German immigrant to serve in the U.S. Senate opposed his Radical Reconstruction policies as leader of the new Liberal Republican movement. Several St. Louisans also advocated sweeping reforms of the state constitution, highlighting the traditional tensions between urban intellectuals and rural conservatives. As Wendell Phillips wrote in 1870, if Missouri would back up St. Louis with a liberal policy [it] would soon become one of the great cities of the world.

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81 One asked one s self whether this extravagance [the World s Fair] reflected the Past or imagined the Future; whether it was a creation of the old America or a promise of the new one. [O]ne seemed to see almost an adequate motive for power; almost a scheme for progress. Henry Adams, The Education of Henry Adams, 1907 C H A P T E R 4 EXPLORING THE WORLD S FAIR CITY IN A RAILROAD ERA Train print from a nineteenthcentury newspaper. COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. Between 1870 and 1920, St. Louis became a modern industrial metropolis a rapidly expanding, technologically-sophisticated large city increasingly defined by its railroads, rather than its steamboats. River traffic did not end immediately or completely, however. St. Louis quickly restored its disrupted commerce with the Deep South soon after the Civil War, and in 1878, the steamer Charles P. Chouteau set a Mississippi River record by transporting 7,818 bales of cotton, weighing some 2.5 million pounds, in a single trip. But the 737,000 tons of goods that reached the city by water in 1874 dropped to only 629,000 tons in less than a decade. Twelve city companies owned 155 steamboats that continued to call at St. Louis after 1884, but the trend was to build bloated floating palaces for entertainment, rather than sleek, efficient commercial craft. One giant boat was 350 feet long and 101 feet wide, while a rival steamer had smokestacks 75 feet tall and side-wheels four stories high. Ironically the need for speed on the water, symbolized by the Robert E. Lee s 1870 record-setting time of three days, eighteen hours, and fourteen minutes to cover the 1,200 miles from New Orleans, hastened the evolution of ever-faster trains. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 80

82 Once the Civil War ended, the energy of the nation was unleashed on westward expansion, thanks to congressional legislation that encouraged homesteading and the construction of railroads. The new Age of Locomotives transformed western landscapes with unbelievable speed; the first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869 while the last surviving member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition was still alive! St. Louis had to act quickly to join that fast-moving transportation revolution or be left behind. Adventurous city entrepreneurs had invested in early railroads since the 1830s, and they were not long deterred by the shocking Gasconade Train Disaster of The renamed Missouri Pacific Railroad stretched to Sedalia by 1860, and it soon had tracks running to Pilot Knob, Macon, Hannibal, and St. Joseph. But the most lucrative routes had to connect to major eastern cities, and that required a bridge across the Mississippi a daunting economic and engineering challenge for a city that still loved its steamboats. The St. Louis and Illinois Bridge Company was incorporated in 1864 with $1,000,000 in initial funding, but it was already too late. Chicago trains had been crossing the Mississippi River at Rock Island, Illinois, since the mid-1850s. Secure from the slavery controversies that southern St. Louis faced, Chicago benefited from a farming boom in northern Illinois and nearby Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Train tycoons in New York and Boston assisted those farmers in reaching lucrative eastern markets by funding rail lines to Chicago. No matter what St. Louis s capitalists did, they could not overcome the insurmountable geographical reality that had created an increasingly dominant rival gateway to the West. Nineteenth-century photograph of an overloaded cotton steamer. COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. C H A P T E R 4 8 1

83 Pont de Saint-Louis by H. Clerget and M. McAllister, a nineteenth-century print of the Eads Bridge circulated in France. COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 82 Not even the big, beautiful, and brilliantlydesigned bridge of James Eads, which cost $10,000,000 and opened on July 4, 1874, could slow Chicago s momentum. That formidable steel and iron structure stretched 2,000 feet across the Mississippi, 55 feet above the high-water mark at mid-channel, and fourteen workers had died from decompression anchoring it into bedrock below 25 feet of water and 80 feet of sand. That marvel of technological innovation achieved worldwide fame and has been an iconic St. Louis landmark ever since. But decades of delaying lawsuits between competing riverboat and railroad investors diminished its commercial impact at the time, leading to almost immediate bankruptcy. Bridge traffic increased St. Louis s rail freight from 3,000,000 tons in 1874 to almost 7,000,000 just nine years later. But Chicago had a large lead it never relinquished. That Midwestern urban competition has remained a distracting obsession in St. Louis ever since, but it was most intense in the half century after Among city leaders, the rivalry with Chicago led to both an excessive sense of inferiority and overly-exuberant expressions of superiority to compensate, often simultaneously! In two decades, wrote historian and shameless booster, Walter Stevens, no other American city adapt[ed] itself so quickly to such radical changes, as St. Louis moved forward with no loss of prestige to grasp new opportunities. But there was lost prestige and revenue and to cure their city s damaged pride, some St. Louis officials resorted to cheating. The Census of 1870 showed that Chicago s population had increased 166 percent in one decade, but St. Louis waited to see the total for its rival and then topped it by 12,000 fictitious people. St. Louis boosters trumpeted the news that their city of 312,963 was now the fourth largest in the United States, but an official investigation found those manipulated headcounts to be a worthless fraud. It was impossible to have gained 150,000 new residents in a single decade, and St. Louis had a nasty shock in the Census of 1880, which added only 40,000 people

84 dropping it to an accurate sixth place among American cities. Such fraud and deception, observed Arenson, made St. Louis the butt of Gilded Age humor and led some prominent residents to disassociate themselves from the embarrassed city. Despite, or because of, that scandal, a growing number of vocal locals initiated decades of exaggerated boasts about St. Louis. In 1870, the bombastic Logan Reavis published St. Louis: The Future Great City of the World, in which he argued that the national capital should be a dynamic commercial city at an ideal latitude in the center of America. In repeated editions over many years, he continued to argue that St. Louis was already the undisputed metropolis of the Mississippi Valley, having grown from small beginnings to gigantic proportions and was certainly capitalworthy as one of the greatest, wealthiest, and most prosperous cities in the country. Other St. Louisans promoted a Million Population Club, which projected a city population of at least 2,000,000 residents by 1890 and up to 12,000,000 by 1930! Not even the lowest estimate ever came close to being reached, but the city s population did increase 29 percent between and by an additional 27 percent in Detail of the illustration, Some Citizens of the Future Great City of St. Louis, published in the Every Saturday issue of October 28, Reavis appears at the top right margin. C H A P T E R 4 8 3

85 Below: Diagram of St. Louis City Limit Extensions and Population Growth, from Official Program of the Centennial of the Incorporation of St. Louis, October 3-9, 1909 (St. Louis, 1909). Opposite: Final stages in the destruction of the Great Mound. Daguerreotype, c. 1869, by Thomas M. Easterly. Giddy with a building boom that required the extension of downtown streets, St. Louisans destroyed the largest Indian mound, rendering that marvelous ancient landmark into fill dirt for the sake of progress erecting equally expendable modern buildings. COURTESY, MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS (17087). The 1880 Census was the first to separate St. Louis City s population of 350,518 from St. Louis County s 31,888. The Missouri Constitution of 1875 authorized a division that would establish separate governments for each entity and define their boundaries. The controversial split with the county in 1876 tripled the area of the city to square miles (39,276 acres), with 19 miles of north-south river frontage but less than seven miles stretching to the west. Those tiny boundaries have long been considered a crippling deterrent to development. But in 1876 residents were optimistic about how much larger their city was than before. It had annexed the Village of North St. Louis in 1844 and experienced a growing population and booming prosperity in a mere 4.5 square miles until Even with the 1871 annexation of Carondelet, St. Louis occupied only 17 square miles by 1875, so increasing its size 3.5 times in a single year seemed like a very generous windfall, giving the city plenty of room for expansion. Moreover, many St. Louisans relished the distinction of being one of a very few completely independent cities, free from county legislation, in the entire nation. Because those living outside the city had increased 410 percent from 1840 to 1850, St. Louisans wished to avoid the expense of administering a huge, rural county of 558 square miles, which would dilute tax revenues for urban needs. By separating, proponents expected a lower tax rate, improved city services, and the acquisition of valuable county properties within the new city limits especially the magnificent courthouse. There were risks either way, and the difficult task of composing ballot language required fifty-two planning meetings. Close election results led to charges of voter fraud, until a special commission finally ruled (some said arbitrarily) that the city-county divorce had passed by 1,253 votes and a home-rule city charter by 3,221 ballots. In a Gilded Age enamored of the Quantitative Ethic, in which bigger was better and more was better, St. Louisans invested heavily in a late nineteenth-century building boom worthy of a national capital, even if the prospects for that ambitious move were fading fast. St. Louis promoters forged ahead with internal optimism and external publicity to compensate for their wounded pride in not even being the economic and population capital of the Midwest. The city had not constructed a H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 84

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87 Above: The Exposition Building, from James Cox, St. Louis Through a Camera (St. Louis, 1893). COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. Below: View of the Chamber of Commerce Building, from the New York Daily Graphic, January 21, COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. major public building since the U.S. Custom House and Main Post Office opened in 1859, so the end of the Civil War provided an unrivaled opportunity to splurge on architectural and technological gems that expanded the city upward and outward. The 1871 Four Courts Building and City Jail was one of the handsomest pieces of architecture in the West, made of cream sandstone and modeled after the Palace of the Louvre. Occupying an entire city block bounded by Spruce and Clark and Eleventh and Twelfth Streets, it contained several criminal courtrooms, a grand jury chamber, and offices of the circuit attorney, chief of police, city marshal, and sheriff. That building also H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 86

88 housed the Central Police Station, a gallows, a jail with a modern shell of iron (where visitors could gawk at the inmates), and the City Morgue (where bodies of unidentified dead persons are exposed for three days ). The basement had a Calaboose for offenders rounded up in the Hoodlum Wagon for minor offenses: fast driving of carriages; placing bells or anything else on horses that could frighten them; public drunkenness; swimming in the river; serenading in the street; prostitution; indecent behavior near a church; or possession of deadly weapons, including slingshots. In 1874, the Merchants Exchange/Chamber of Commerce Building opened on Third Street and was immediately touted as the finest structure in the world devoted to business. Costing $1.5 million, that six-story edifice housed the Merchants Exchange Hall, a beautiful 221 foot by 62 foot room with a 60 foot high ceiling, trimmed with walnut and mahogany. It was a popular location for many public events, including the Veiled Prophet s Ball. Another business building the Cotton Exchange Building on Main and Walnut opened nine years later. Constructed of stone and pressed brick, that five-story structure cost $150,000 and was considered the finest such exchange in the country. In September 1884, the city opened the St. Louis Exposition Building and Music Hall, one of the largest such structures in the United States. Constructed of stone, 600 tons of iron, and 9,000,000 pressed bricks at a cost of $750,000, it occupied two city blocks between Olive and St. Charles along Thirteen and Fourteenth Streets. The building provided 280,000 square feet of exhibit space and had nine entrances to handle large crowds. Its Music Hall of 5,000 seats was cooled by fresh air sent into the building by an immense fan in the basement. View of the Post-Office and Custom House Building, from the New York Daily Graphic, January 21, COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. C H A P T E R 4 8 7

89 H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 88

90 In 1890, the $3,000,000 Merchants Terminal Bridge became the city s second railroad bridge, with a center span of 523 feet. By then, no steamboats could compete with St. Louis s 18 railroads running an average of 200 passenger trains, carrying over 20,000 people plus 184 freight trains daily, with links to 25,000 miles of tracks in all directions. The 1875 Railroad Depot at Poplar and Twelfth rendered obsolete in only fifteen years was replaced in 1894 by the massive Union Station, where 32 rail lines converged. Modeled after a castle in southern France, the masterpiece of architect Theodore C. Link cost $6.5 million and was the largest and most modern such facility in the world, twice the size of Boston s main railroad terminal. Farther down Market Street, the massive City Hall in French Revival Renaissance style similar to the Hotel de Ville of Paris opened in 1904 (not in time for the World s Fair). Private entrepreneurs also constructed fourteen major buildings, costing $8,000,000, by The Security Building and the Equitable Building each reached heights of ten stories. But the most innovative skyscraper was Louis Sullivan s gorgeous Wainwright Building of 1891, still regarded as an architectural masterpiece. The Chamber of Commerce claimed that St. Louis had erected more buildings in 1891 than any other city on the continent and offers the safest and best investment to be found in any other large city in the world. The number of building permits issued by the city revealed both quantitative and qualitative progress in only fifteen years: Opposite: Union Station as it appeared in a 1904 photograph by A. W. Sanders. REPRODUCTION FROM THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. Above: Skyscrapers, from Cox, St. Louis Through a Camera (1893). COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION Total Built Cost Brick or Stone Frame ,825 $3.5 million 1, , million 1, , million 2,976 1,459 C H A P T E R 4 8 9

91 Newspaper boy and businessman; print of early twentieth-century St. Louis street scene. COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 90

92 W H O A C T U A L L Y B U I L T S T. L O U I S? St. Louis in the late nineteenth century was praised as a vast and busy workshop, where the products of industry are not only bought, sold and handled, but were actually made here. Business tycoons and political leaders receive all of the credit for the productivity of industrialization, overshadowing the indispensable contributions of the men, women and child laborers of every age and race who actually performed the dirty, dangerous tasks that created modern cities. The success of steamboat commerce over many generations depended upon thousands of black roustabouts who did the heavy lifting along the St. Louis levee. Praise for the renowned Eads Bridge obscures the many workers who died in building it. In the early twentieth century, the United States had the highest rate of industrial accidents on the planet, with workplaces killing 11,000 employees and injuring (often maiming) another 1.4 million in 1917 alone. In the Gilded Age of rapid industrial expansion, the richest one percent of Americans owned fifty percent of the nation s wealth. In contrast, St. Louis s 70,000 adult male factory workers earned an average annual wage of only $635, compared to the yearly salary of $1,000 for the policemen who arrested strikers. The 13,500 women older than fifteen who worked in manufacturing were only paid an annual average wage of $268, while 2,300 child factory workers averaged a meager $168 for twelve months of work. Like other large industrial cities, St. Louis had not served the poor well for decades, amid wage cuts, chronic hunger and unemployment. In contrast to the mansions of economic elites situated far from the inner city, unskilled workers lived in overcrowded, unhealthy, and crime-ridden tenements or shanties in Clabber Alley, Wildcat Chute, Happy Hollow, and other blighted neighborhoods, where smoky air, impure water, poor sanitation, and deficient diets shortened lives. Black levee workers portrayed in a late nineteenth-century Scribner s Magazine article on St. Louis steamboats; from the author s collection. C H A P T E R 4 9 1

93 F A S H I O N A B L E M A N S I O N S This page and opposite: Author s composite of fashionable mansions, from James Cox, St. Louis the Carnival City of America, in Frank Leslie s Popular Monthly, XXXIII No. 6 (June 1892).. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 92

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95 T H E P L E A S A N T D I S T R A C T I O N S O F S P O R T S In the early twentieth century, most Americans associated the popular ditty, First in Shoes, First in Booze, but Last in the American League, with St. Louis s famous beer, its world-leading manufacture of footwear, and the hapless St. Louis Browns baseball team, which finished at or near the bottom of the American League twenty-six times in fifty years. But as the previous Brown Stockings, under the ownership of beer baron Chris Von der Ahe, the original team won four successive pennants from 1885 to St. Louis was the center of the baseball world in 1886, when the Spink brothers founded The Sporting News here, the Brown Stockings won the pennant, and the St. Louis Stars were champions of the Negro League. First in Shoes, First in Booze, and Last in the American League visualizing that famous slogan with early twentieth-century items photographed by the author from his collection: a woman s high-top boot from the famous Brown Shoe Company, a bottle of Columbia Weiss Beer, with ceramic stopper, and a replica cap of the old St. Louis Browns Baseball Team. St. Louis s population in 1890 reached 451,770 an increase of 100,000 in a single decade to make it the fifth ranking U.S. city. It was now 3.5 times larger than any other Missouri municipality and had eclipsed the populations of much older cities, such as Boston and Baltimore; bested its Ohio River rival, Cincinnati; and dwarfed its mother city of New Orleans. St. Louis now had 250,000 more residents than Washington, D.C., which defiant boosters loved to advertise. But with severely constricted boundaries, St. Louis would never catch Chicago, now the second largest city in America. It had recovered remarkably quickly from the devastating fire of 1871, which had destroyed 13,500 buildings, worth $186,000,000, and left about 100,000 citizens homeless. By 1890, however, St. Louis s northern rival had over 1,000,000 residents living in 182 square miles 120 of them recently annexed from surrounding suburbs. Nonetheless, St. Louis was doing quite well in a much smaller space. By 1892, it had become a vigorous and progressive modern city cosmopolitan in every sense of the word, according to contemporaries. Boosters claimed that in only three decades, its manufacturing output showed a greater increase than any other city in America : Year Factories Capital Invested Workers Value of Products (millions) (millions) ,126 $ ,737 $ ,984 $ ,825 $ ,148 $141 82,911 $229 H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 94

96 But the desperate discontent of industrial laborers became evident in the Great Railroad Strike of 1877, as some 40,000 workers across the country protested layoffs and drastic wage reductions. According to Primm, for four days in late July, St. Louis was the scene of the first true general strike in the nation s history. Some 5,000 workers seized railroad facilities and stopped all freight traffic; pledged solidarity with black levee workers; and marched through a downtown of shuttered stores as a brass band played the Marseillaise, evoking haunting memories of the bloody French Revolution. The strikers ruled the city temporarily, forcing the closure of nearly every manufacturing plant, large or small. But wishing to avoid the fatalities that had occurred in Chicago and other cities, 73 strikers surrendered peacefully to a large police force on July 26, thus ending the strike without realizing their goals. Despite its problems of class inequality, St. Louis s commercial expansion made contributions, literally and figuratively, to a sophisticated civic culture. Pierre Laclede would have marveled at the intellectual achievements of his city in Having pioneered public secondary education west of the Mississippi, the city four decades later was acknowledged to have the best public-school system in the United States, as readers across the country learned in Frank Leslie s Popular Monthly. St. Louis operated 106 public schools, employing 1,254 teachers, who instructed 60,000 students. There were also 85 parochial schools, 35 academies and colleges, 15 libraries, a new art museum, 61 artists, 225 music teachers, and 150 book printers. Residents kept abreast of current affairs in the city s 37 newspapers, and alert, humane citizens supported a wide variety of public facilities to care for orphans, the poor, the blind, the elderly, and the insane in 47 different asylums, plus two female night refuges for abused or abandoned women. St. Louis was also home to 800 physicians serving in 23 hospitals. Citizens supported charities as members of 850 civic organizations and fraternal societies. In 1892, St. Louisans worshipped in 51 Roman Catholic churches (up eight since 1884), as well as in 33 Presbyterian churches, 23 Congregational, 23 Methodist, 22 African American, 18 miscellaneous (including a Chinese Sunday School ), 17 Baptist, 15 German Evangelical, 14 German Lutheran, 13 Episcopalian, three Unitarian, and two Mormon, plus 9 Hebrew synagogues (up four since 1884). Residents who liked sweets patronized 325 bakeries and 165 confectioners, while smokers had 442 different cigar makers to choose from. There were over 1,400 clothiers of all types, from tailors and dressmakers to wholesale merchants and retail stores. The city could accommodate 16,000 visitors a day in 60 hotels and 166 boarding houses, and meals were served in 70 restaurants, 7 beer gardens, and 1,333 saloons. St. Louis s 27 breweries produced 56 million gallons of beer in 1891, up from only 14 million in 1871, with the total volume over those fifteen years exceeding 587,000,000 gallons. Business and political leaders before 1900 enhanced the urban experience with environmental and cultural improvements that are still beloved by St. Louisans. Joining earlier recreational areas Lafayette Park (1851), Missouri Botanical Garden (1859), and Tower Grove Park (1868) on June 24, 1876, the 1,380-acre Forest Park opened one day before Custer s defeat at the Battle of the Little Custer s Last Fight, an 1896 chromolithograph, forty-two inches by thirty-six inches, by F. Otto Becker. Anheuser-Busch, LLC. Used with permission of Anheuser-Busch, LLC. All rights reserved. Adolphus Busch distributed this wildly inaccurate view of the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn to advertise the Budweiser brand, which was introduced the same year. This popular illustration represented masterful marketing and was reputedly displayed in thousands of taverns nationwide. C H A P T E R 4 9 5

97 H E N R Y S H A W : P L A N T I N G A L I V I N G L E G A C Y Henry Shaw Mausoleum in the Missouri Botanical Garden, from the Library of Congress online collection. Free use through Wikimedia Commons as the work product of a federal employee. Like Robert Campbell, Henry Shaw ( ) was born in the British Isles, emigrated to St. Louis as a teenager, made a fortune in the western fur trade, and invested heavily in his adopted city to make it a more beautiful and cultured place for generations. Born in Sheffield, the English city renowned for its cutlery, Shaw partnered with his father and factory-owning uncle to import the knives and axes that were indispensable to Indians and mountain men. Not surprisingly, he also invested in a steamboat named Thames to remind him of his birth country. But Shaw became an American citizen on July 4, 1843, and soon after enhanced Tower Grove Park, surrounding his impressive Italianate country house with fountains, statuary, and gardens. A generous philanthropist, he consulted with the famous Royal Kew Gardens of London, botany professor Asa Gray of Harvard, and Dr. George Engelmann, a noted German scientist in St. Louis, to create the incomparable Missouri Botanical Garden and to endow plant research in the School of Botany at Washington University. Bighorn. Ironically, the city most famous for daring adventures in the western wilderness provided residents with a tamer taste of natural beauty free of attacks from Indians or grizzly bears in a public space larger than New York s Central Park. On the first summer day, wrote James Cox in 1893, the luxurious electric and cable street cars running to Forest Park carried no less than 105,000 passengers, while the cars running to Tower Grove, Lafayette and other parks were all over-crowded. Long before Lindbergh s flight, the Spirit of St. Louis was best reflected in the city s superb historic hospitality from hosting Indians in the colonial era to entertaining masses of affluent tourists in the railroad age. By 1892, St. Louis was nationally known as a prominent and popular Carnival City, offering many year-round attractions to visitors from near and far. While some committed boosters still believed that St. Louis will one day become the greatest H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 96

98 commercial center on the face of the earth, most residents thought that being the undisputed industrial, financial, commercial, and population capital of the Show Me State was good enough to generate some Come See Us publicity throughout the Midwest. A broad appeal was made to seeker(s) after pleasure temporary tourists rather than corporate tycoons wanting to buy buildings. St. Louis offered fine hotels and theaters, elegant public and private edifices, fairs and expositions, festivals and pageants, picturesque parks, well-paved, tree-shaded streets, a transit system that was the best in the world, and a thousand other advantages that will draw to the city such crowds of visitors as will in time repay the cost of the embellishments. As booster James Cox observed in 1892, the city has for many years been famous for its Annual Fair, for its Exposition, for its brilliant street illuminations, and for its magnificent Veiled Prophet parade. Those attractions have drawn hundreds of thousands of people to visit every fall, and its progressive citizens have decided for 1893 to eclipse every former effort in the annual festivities, and will illuminate the streets with electricity and miles of gas lit arches and pyramids. The first Veiled Prophet Pageant debuted in 1878, and only six years later, was attracting 500,000 people, who attended a massive public parade with elaborate floats and fireworks, while sponsors and local elites held a formal ball, where one of their debutante daughters was crowned queen. In 1884, the city began sponsoring a more public St. Louis Exposition each September, which featured a grand street pageant and a massive trade association display of local products. Above: Fairgrounds Park during the annual fair in 1871, from Every Saturday issue of October 14, 1871; print in the author s collection. The Agricultural and Mechanical Fair, which St. Louisans held annually from 1856 to 1902, gained a worldwide reputation as the greatest exhibition of its character on the continent and convinced city leaders that they could pull off a world s fair. After all, the Prince of Wales in 1860 was impressed when he visited, and Fairgrounds Park at Grand Avenue and Natural Bridge Road only grew grander in future years eventually encompassing 143 acres, with a mile-long race track and an amphitheater that seated 100,000 people. Left: Veiled Prophet Poster of COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. C H A P T E R 4 9 7

99 Washington Avenue, c ORIGINAL PRINT COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 98 St. Louis also built several large facilities for hosting major conventions, which became popular with national political parties for nominating presidential candidates. In 1876, Democrats met at the Merchants Exchange Building to choose Samuel J. Tilden; in 1888, Democrats returned, meeting this time at the new Exposition Hall, selecting Grover Cleveland for reelection; in 1904, Democrats came to the Coliseum to pick Alton B. Parker; and in 1916, that building again hosted the Democratic Party, which nominated Woodrow Wilson, amid protests by women seeking the vote. In the summer of 1896, the city established a precedent by accommodating conventions that chose both the winning nominee (Republican William McKinley) and the losing one (William Jennings Bryan), who ran for the People s Party as well as the Bi-Metallic Party. At the end of 1892, James Cox published a nationally syndicated article and a wellillustrated photo album promoting the superior attractions of St. Louis. And at the same time, Sylvester Waterhouse, a Washington University history professor, published a short pamphlet that predicted a great future for the city. Their timing was impeccable, coming just before the onset of the Depression of and at the beginning of the campaign by local boosters to have St. Louis host a world s fair. More than a decade of planning was required to make the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition and Olympic Games a reality. A decade before, at the peak of their civic enthusiasm, St. Louis officials had applied to host the Columbian Exposition in 1892 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus s first voyage to the Western Hemisphere. Italian St. Louisans from La Montagna ( The Hill ) had been celebrating their national hero annually since But Chicagoans began lobbying for the 1892 fair in 1885, and they became so obnoxiously boastful that a New York journalist called Chicago the windy city (as in hot air ), which had nothing to do with breezes from Lake Michigan. Congressional approval and federal funding were granted to Chicago in 1890, but soon after, St. Louis became the leading candidate to host a world s fair commemorating the Louisiana Purchase beating out New Orleans for that honor. (St. Louis also got later revenge against Chicago when Olympic officials cancelled the Games there and moved them to the Gateway City.) At the forefront of St. Louis s fair planners and promoters was Charles Pierre Chouteau, great-grandson of Pierre Laclede. He helped former St. Louis mayor and Missouri governor, David R. Francis, and other civic leaders

100 to raise $10,000,000 locally and $15,000,000 altogether the latter being the exact amount paid to Napoleon in 1803 for the Louisiana Purchase Territory. Even before the Columbian Exposition opened in 1893 (a year late), Horace H. Morgan published a book in St. Louis that provided a detailed preview of the Chicago fair. That served as a template of sorts for the 1904 fair, and it was no accident that both global expositions had similar ornate architecture, temporary plaster construction, and a fascination with fountains, basins, electric lights, popular carnival entertainments, and a huge Ferris Wheel. And during the Columbian Exposition, the Autumnal Festivities Association of St. Louis did some crowd-poaching. In widely-circulated ads, those attending the World s Fair [were invited] to secure transportation reading via St. Louis, in order that a few days may be spent here either going to, or returning from, the Fair in Chicago. St. Louis enticed prospective tourists by appealing to all seekers after the new, the beautiful, the grand, and the picturesque. From May to December 1904, St. Louis s Louisiana Purchase Exposition and Olympic Games received the national and international attention that the city had long craved being the ultimate tourist attraction before the Gateway Arch was built. And some 620,000 St. Louisans did not squander the opportunity to showcase a most inviting city. They were willing and able to welcome P R O G R E S S C A M E A T A P R I C E St. Louisans were shocked and ashamed in 1904 when Lincoln Steffens, the famous muckraking journalist, published his expose, The Shame of the Cities. Not since the negative publicity of the Whiskey Ring crooks in the 1870s had city residents faced such sobering revelations. According to Steffens, the corruption of St. Louis came from the top the best citizens whose appetite for boodle (bribes) and the Big Cinch (illegal collusion of power-brokers) had made city and state politics dishonest and incompetent over several decades. Public spirit became private spirit, public enterprise became private greed, he wrote, and everything the city owned was for sale by the officers elected by the people. Traitors to the trust of citizens had done more damage to the prestige and progress of St. Louis than the Depression of , which the city had survived as the fourth largest industrial center in the U.S. But public utilities and construction projects all cost more due to expensive kick-backs and bribes which tore at the urban core just when the World s Fair City was advertising its beauty and efficiency. The Big Cinch was evident in the 1900 transit strike, as angry, poorly-paid workers assaulted scab trolley drivers, cut electric wires, and even dynamited tracks, while clashes with armed company goons left three dead and fourteen wounded citizens. Tackling rampant corruption was Holy Joe Folk, the Democrat circuit attorney, whose reform agenda was supported by Mayor Rolla Wells and newspaper editors, Joseph Pulitzer and W. M. Reedy. Folk s aggressive attacks on corrupt politicians and their business cronies produced thirty-nine indictments, many convictions, and positive publicity in addressing Steffens s criticisms. As governor from , Folk promoted modern regulations that made Missourians safer, better educated, and empowered to keep politics honest and more responsive, while Mayor Wells created a New St. Louis that was finally worthy of being a fair city. the world because St. Louis had welcomed them from every corner of the globe. Twenty percent of St. Louisans were foreign born, and another 42 percent had foreign-born parents, while only 32 percent of residents The Grand Cascade of the 1904 World s Fair. ORIGINAL PRINT COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. C H A P T E R 4 9 9

101 Map of the 1904 fairgrounds of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 100

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104 were native Caucasians with U.S.-born parents and only 6.4 percent native African Americans with U.S.-born parents. Germans led the category of second generation ethnics with 53 percent (fourth highest in the U.S.), while those of Irish descent represented 17.5 percent of city residents (fifth nationally). Since 1870, 6,000 English, 5,000 Russian Jews, 3,000 Poles, 2,700 Swiss, 2,600 Bohemians, 1,800 Austrians, and 1,300 Canadians (more than at any time since the eighteenth century) had moved into the city. More recent immigrants had come from Sweden, France, Italy, and Scotland (at least 1,000 each), as well as former residents of Africa, Australia, Central America, Finland, India, and the Atlantic and Pacific islands. The 1904 World s Fair was an incomparably massive, magical, and memorable celebration, with something to appeal to everyone. Its 1,270 acres were fifty-nine times larger than London s famous Crystal Palace Exposition of 1851; five times more extensive than Philadelphia s Centennial Exposition of 1876; and exceeded the size of Chicago s fair by 233 acres. Fortyfive states and U.S. territories, plus 43 foreign nations, constructed exhibit pavilions. The twelve huge themed palaces had 5,000,000 square feet of interior space, while outside exhibits totaled over 6,000,000 square feet. The Fair also featured the Inside Inn, the first hotel operated by the famous Statler chain; an on-site hospital; a restaurant that could seat 5,000 people at a time; 1,200 statues; 15 miles of track in a scenic railroad; 448 concessionaires in the mile-long entertainment area known as the Ten Million Dollar Pike; and 70 miles of paved walkways connecting everything. Education was a major theme, which attracted 10,000 teachers from around the world. Like other expositions of the era, St. Louis celebrated the Progress, Power, Prosperity, and Prominence of sophisticated, industrialized Europeans and Americans when compared to the world s primitive dark-hued peoples. St. Louisans had long forgotten their ancestors original opposition to the Louisiana Purchase, as they praised the benefits of Manifest Destiny from U.S. territorial expansion in the mid-nineteenth century to the current passion for international imperialism. The Fair appealed to self-confident, affluent whites who accepted the racial inequality inherent in Jefferson s Empire of Liberty and embraced the more recent myth of Anglo-Saxon superiority then in vogue. As the Reverend Josiah Strong stated in his 1890 book, Our Country, the genius of superior Aryans, who now dominated one-third of the Earth, was based on their Christianity; constitutional democracy; capitalism, and admirable aggression in pushing into new countries. That Methodist minister justified imperialistic conquests in Asia and Africa by assuming that it was God s plan to people the world with better material. Given that ideology, Fair-goers were surprised to see the Apache war-chief, Geronimo, the indomitable guerrilla who had reluctantly surrendered his last thirty-six followers in 1886 even when surrounded by 5,000 U.S. troops. He was temporarily released from prison to attend the Exposition because he now symbolized the pacified Indian and behaved accordingly. Whether he was sincere or not, the old and infirm celebrity Geronimo seemingly embraced capitalism by selling autographs and photographs, posing in an automobile, and even riding the huge Ferris Wheel. After viewing the anthropological zoo of so-called savage native peoples with primitive lifeways, the aged Apache rebel allegedly declared that many of them needed to learn how to dress and how to behave. Only about one percent of Exposition attendees were African Americans. The prevalence of segregated restaurants and the absence of exhibits about black progress made them feel unwelcome. A Negro Day or Emancipation Day, scheduled for August 1, 1904, when Booker T. Washington was to deliver an address, was canceled to placate white exhibiters and attendees from the Deep South. The Fair did employ large numbers of African Americans, and some black St. Louisans were pleasantly surprised that racial discrimination was not worse. The first Olympic Games held in the United States (only the third of the modern era) attracted 651 athletes 645 men and six Opposite: French Poster Advertising the St. Louis 1904 Exposition, 1903 color lithograph by Czech artist, Alphonse Mucha. Circulated in France, this poster stimulated tourism by focusing on French St. Louis s historic association with Indians. COURTESY OF THE SAINT LOUIS ART MUSEUM; GIFT OF ALICE P. FRANCIS IN MEMORY OF HER GRANDFATHER, DAVID R. FRANCIS, PRESIDENT OF THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION (40:1969). Below: Silver Olympic medal from REPRODUCTION COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. C H A P T E R

105 women (all archers) from 12 nations. They competed in 18 sports between August 29 and September 3. Americans comprised 523 of the competitors and won 239 of the medals (78 gold, 82 silver, and 79 bronze); Germans won 13 medals, the second largest number. The St. Louis Olympics is most remembered for its oddities: a talented gymnast with a wooden leg, who won 6 medals (3 golds) in one day; an all-mohawk Indian lacrosse team; and a marathon won by a runner who received two doses of rat poison, brandy, and raw eggs during the race and beat a disqualified cheat who rode in a car for ten miles! More significantly, the St. Louis Games featured the first African Americans hurdler George Poage and highjumper Joseph Stadler ever to compete, and win medals, in any Olympics. Hosting a World s Fair and the Olympic Games simultaneously was an unprecedented achievement for any city and has never happened since. Together, those events drew an official total of 19.7 million attendees, but that figure included only 12.8 million paid admissions and did not exclude employees who re-entered the fairgrounds each day. After exhaustive research, however, historian James Gilbert recently concluded that only 4,000,000 one-time different patrons attended the St. Louis Exposition. (He also reduced the totals for the 1893 Chicago Fair from a claimed 27 million attendees to only 5.5 million). While historians must challenge the self-serving totals supplied by sponsors (the man in charge of Fair publicity was called the Director of Exploitation ), repeat visitors who were not employees or even St. Louis residents should be counted, since there were far too many attractions to see and things to do in a single day. Although critical about details, Gilbert s book, Whose Fair?, concluded that the Louisiana Purchase Exposition was the largest world s fair ever held and provided an an immense and exhilarating experience for the city of St. Louis. The patrician New England historian, Henry Adams, was less complimentary. He came to the Fair ten years after his last visit to St. Louis and found everything new in the city except its reeking smoke. He thought the Exposition to be an acutely interesting creation of a third-rate town that lacked history, education, unity, or art, but doing what London, Paris, or New York would have shrunk from attempting. St. Louis threw away thirty or forty million dollars on a pageant as ephemeral as a stage flat, he wrote, and by holding that extravaganza in Forest Park, the city had turned its back on the noblest work of nature the Mississippi River. Investments were far from wasted, however, since the Fair produced a profit of $600,000 that the city used to construct the Jefferson H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 104

106 Memorial Building as the home of the Missouri Historical Society; transform the Palace of Fine Arts into the Saint Louis Art Museum; build the World s Fair Pavilion where the State of Missouri Building had stood; and cast the bronze Statue of Saint Louis. After the Fair was dismantled, the city also planted 75,000 new trees and shrubs and made other improvements in Forest Park. In addition, the Exposition s massive and much-admired birdcage was later purchased from the Smithsonian Institution and remains a distinctive feature of the Saint Louis Zoo. The Fair also pumped millions of dollars into the local economy through wages, sales, the construction of twelve new hotels, and investments in city infrastructure, such as making Lindell, Skinker, and Kingshighway wellpaved modern streets. St. Louis finally cleaned up its infamous brown, gritty water which Mark Twain quipped was too thick to drink and too shallow to plow not for the health of longsuffering residents but to make the many Exposition fountains and other water features look better! But of all the legacies of that special season in the sun, the most beloved and enduring was the popular song, Meet Me in St. Louis. View of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Grounds from the Ferris Wheel, STEREOGRAPH PRINT IN THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. C H A P T E R

107 Above: Line of automobiles along Chestnut Avenue near Ninth Street as photographed in COURTESY OF THE SWEKOSKY COLLECTION, MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS. Right: Vintage 1907 ad for the St. Louis brand automobile. COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 106

108 St. Louis is a city that outgrew its past, and added half a million to its population after its early reason for existence had almost vanished. WPA Guide to the Show Me State, 1941 C H A P T E R 5 EXPLORING URBAN CHALLENGES IN AN AUTOMOBILE AGE The Louisiana Purchase Exposition was a chronological mid-point between the optimism of booming growth in the 1800s and the pessimism of looming crises in the late twentieth century. In 1904 the automobile age had barely arrived, and the slow, primitive car that carried one runner around the Olympic marathon course could not compare with sophisticated vehicles transformed by transportation technology in the following decades. The increasing speeds of each new model symbolized the rapid pace of social changes, as traditional norms faded as fast as the mythical fantasies of the World s Fair. St. Louisans created a monster in 1904, temporarily believing that their city was better than it was. But the World s Fair represented only a brief compensatory overconfidence of citizens with a prolonged inferiority complex. The Louisiana Purchase Exposition overshadowed almost everything that followed it and those shadows were dark, indeed, making each new urban initiative seem puny and petty by comparison. Memories of the 1904 Exposition grew more grandiose and misleading over time, as the city s future crises prompted comforting nostalgia for the good old days, increasing exasperation with the present. Politicians and city planners committed to the City Beautiful Movement and subsequent Model City initiatives soon realized that a few fake plaster buildings on a mere 1,200-acre fairground could not be translated into realistic, sustainable solutions to the complex problems of a large modern metropolis. C H A P T E R

109 Opposite: Poster (printed broadside) advertising the Pageant and Masque of St. Louis in Forest Park, May 28-31, COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS (AO ). S T. L O U I S A N S O N T H E T I T A N I C The shocking reports of the Titanic disaster on April 15, 1912 had many Americans searching newspapers for information on local deaths among the 1,500 victims. Fortunately, no St. Lousians were among the fatalities, although a Daniel Keane of Limerick, Ireland, drowned on his way to visit the city. Residents who survived that harrowing ordeal included these passengers, all traveling in first class: Mr. Spencer Victor Silverthorne, aged 35 Miss Georgette Alexandra Madill, 16 Miss Elizabeth Walton Allen, 29 Mrs. Elisabeth Walton Robert (nee McMillan), 43 Miss Emilie Kreuchen, 29, maid of Mrs. Robert Smitten by spectacle, St. Louisans hosted other celebratory events related to the city s history in the decade after 1904, often as an antidote of fantasy to harsh realities. In October 1909, the city commemorated the centennial of its incorporation as a town, presenting multiple events during One Hundred Years in a Week. More than $85,000 in private donations funded parades, a grand illumination, a multicultural ball, children s activities on Art Hill, the public dedication of the new Municipal Courts Building, plane flights by Glenn Curtiss, balloon ascensions, a water pageant featuring several U.S. Navy torpedo boats, and a huge banquet for four hundred mayors from thirty states. Organizers hoped to use the Centennial cerebration as a lever for the extension of the city s reputation, and by displaying over 1,000 cars the most ever assembled in the Mississippi Valley that reputation was now focused on modernity as much as history. Only five years later, St. Louisans in 1914 celebrated the city s 150th anniversary. There had been no recognition of the St. Louis Centennial in 1864, due to the Civil War, so boosters sought to throw the biggest birthday bash ever. They had much to celebrate. The 1910 census confirmed that St. Louis remained the nation s fourth largest city, having increased its population over 19 percent for a total of 687,029. Some 590,000 residents were gainfully employed, and every category of workers had risen dramatically (31 percent for children, 42 percent for women, and 24 percent for adult males). In a single decade, industrial investments had increased 15 percent to $269 million, and the value of manufactured products ($430 million) had grown by 79 percent. Such prosperity contributed to the success of several expensive and grandiose events in the 1914 commemoration. Nearly 8,000 residents performed in two huge dramatic productions on Art Hill for audiences that totaled 455,000 in only five May evenings. A Pageant, written by Thomas Wood Stevens, was a historical play that chronicled the area s evolution from ancient Cahokia to the Civil War. In a more mystical Masque by east coast playwright Percy MacKaye, poetic dialogue between Louis IX, a character called Cahokia, and other cast members focused more on the city s recent history and future prospects. The script emphasized how a new League of Cities in the Progressive Era could overcome the evil influence of Gold if citizens cooperated in promoting beauty and order, democratic reforms and humane institutions. But that play also recognized the inevitability of urban decline: We, too, like Cahokia, shall lie down, /And this our city be a silent mound. While some St. Louisans were optimistic about transforming the sordid world into delightful dreams, the absence of blacks in speaking parts and promotional materials undermined Brother with Brother idealism. The only lasting impact of those sesquicentennial dramas was the creation of the Municipal Opera (MUNY) in 1919 as a permanent, popular outdoor theater experience on summer evenings in the park. However, racism lasted far longer. African Americans were not welcome at MUNY performances until 1954 and the recentlydeceased Pelagie Green Wren, a descendant of Jacques Clamorgan, became the first black dancer at the MUNY only in The years that followed the idealistic public performances in 1914 tested the private prejudices of St. Louisans with regard to a revolution in race relations. Economic depression and Jim Crow oppression in the Deep South created the Great Black Migration in the early twentieth century. St. Louis was a favorite destination of fleeing H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 108

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111 Above: Team photograph of the St. Louis Stars, 1928 World Champions of the National Negro Baseball League. Photograph by L. H. Beckman, COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS (22514). Opposite: Cover of sheet music for the Tuskegee March, 1906, by Professor William Blue, whose fifty-piece Shrine Band performed concerts in the St. Louis area. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF DR. JOHN A. WRIGHT AND USED WITH HIS PERMISSION. African Americans, because it was the first major industrial metropolis they encountered traveling up the Mississippi, midway between the farms of the Deep South and the factories of the Far North. As the historic Union city located closest to Dixie, as well as a Jim Crow region farthest from the real South, St. Louis represented an agonizing disparity between its idealistic aspirations of the Civil War and pessimistic realities as of World War I. The city s polite racism avoided the worst white supremacist violence and allowed integrated libraries and streetcars, but few other places, including schools. African Americans could vote for city officeholders, but not marry whites. Black St. Louisans increased from 35,000 in 1900 to 80,000 by 1920, as African Americans doubled their percentage of the population to 9 percent by that latter date. In 1920, St. Louis had the eighth largest black population in the nation, and a decade later, the percentage of African Americans in the city reached 11.5 outnumbering foreignborn Caucasians for the first time. Increasing numbers of black migrants from different areas enriched St. Louis culture with new musical traditions, such as ragtime, jazz, blues, and later swing, that made the city famous. Old slave rhythms from cotton fields mingled with steamboat songs and creative piano playing to showcase the talents of Scott Joplin, Tom Turpin, Blind Boone, Joe Jordan, Louis Chauvin, Charlie Warfield, Roosevelt Sykes, Henry Townsend, and other entertainers. W. C. Handy s St. Louis Blues and Bill Dooley s Frankie Killed Johnnie were early musical hits nationwide. Charles Turpin s Booker T. Washington Theater on Market Street featured famous performances by Eubie Blake, Ethel Waters, Bessie Smith, and young St. Louisan, Josephine Baker, before she became a leading act at Les Folies Bergere in Paris. In James Weldon Johnson s 1908 song, Lift Every Voice and Sing, he expressed the optimism of fellow African Americans in the early stages of the Black Migration: Sing a song full of the faith that the dark Past has taught us;/sing a song full of the hope that the Present has brought us. Such optimistic sentiments, however, did not reflect the despair of unfulfilled equality for blacks over the next century. The severe lack of available, affordable, and adequate housing, exacerbated by institutionalized racial segregation, became a perennial problem for H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 110

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113 Anti-Segregationist Voting Flyer, COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 112 throngs of African Americans over many generations. As early as 1911 white responses to the negro invasion led to zoning ordinances and collusions of exclusion by realtors and landlords. Historian Clarence Lang wrote that artificially restrictive housing patterns created a Black Archipelago islands of vibrant black social life surrounded by seas of white racism and hostility. The situation worsened in 1916, when St. Louis became the first city in the nation to pass a housing segregation ordnance through initiative petition and direct vote. The segregationists won 52,220 to 17,877 to further restrict blacks to only three areas of the city s worst housing, even though 23 of 28 aldermen opposed the law. The U.S. Supreme Court struck it down, but restrictive covenants and private prejudices continued, leading to the creation of the Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis. Housing restrictions paled in comparison to the headline-grabbing massacre in East St. Louis. In 1917 that nearby Illinois community experienced the most serious race riot of the century worse than 17 other acts of wholesale violence in the U.S. from 1915 to White mobs slaughtered at least 100 people, almost all African Americans, and injured another 500 victims, young and old alike. Entire neighborhoods were ravaged, with 312 buildings destroyed. According to Ann Morris, fires lit the night sky with a terrible glow as thousands [of black survivors] fled across the bridges to St. Louis, where city officials and the Red Cross provided help.

114 World War I Red Cross Poster, COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. While Americans had failed to solve interracial violence at home, they joined an overseas war in 1917 to curtail international violence abroad. Just as they had helped relieve the suffering of East St. Louis refugees, St. Louisans revealed their compassion in record-setting World War I food drives to help save starving Europeans. City residents managed to channel their patriotism in constructive ways, although there were some incidents of non-lethal hostility against citizens of German heritage. St. Louisans lost 1,075 of their sons in the Great War, and city officials quickly planned to honor them with a permanent monument. But it took funding by the New Deal before the Soldiers Memorial on Chestnut Street finally opened in A monument across the street marks C H A P T E R

115 T H E H E A L T H O F T H E C I T Y Boosters in 1893 had declared that St. Louis was the healthiest large city in America, citing a below-average death rate of 21 people per thousand. But by 1900 fewer than 23 percent of St. Louisans owned their own residences, and the poorest households averaged seven people crammed into ramshackle, squalid tenements. They suffered disproportionately from tuberculosis, pneumonia, and other lung diseases exacerbated by the city s perpetually smoky air from burning high-sulfur coal. According to historian Robbi Courtaway, in 1924 a new smoke detector at Shaw s Garden revealed that each St. Louisan inhaled fifteen table-spoons of soot every five days as a result of the soft coal used in most home furnaces and factories. After smoke killed off the finest collection of evergreens in the United States [1923], Garden officials [bought] land in Gray s Summit on which they built eight greenhouses for the garden s precious orchids. Citizens had to wait longer than those flowers, and downtown smoke worsened every year until it was abated by law in Right: Black Tuesday, November 11, 1939, when air pollution obscured the Civil Courts Building at mid-day. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS (14586). Opposite: In troubled times, St. Louisans opened the massive and magnificent Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis in 1917, after seven years of construction. As the mother church of the archdiocese, the New Cathedral occupied an entire city block on Lindell Boulevard, far from the riverfront, and broke with both French and American architectural traditions. Its 83,000 square feet of world-class mosaics made the cathedral a virtual art museum for non-believers and Catholics alike. Before the Gateway Arch became the world s fourth most visited tourist site, souvenir pennants advertised the cathedral, the Central Branch of the Public Library, and the Nathan Frank Band Stand in Forest Park as the three must see attractions in St. Louis. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE FAUSZ FAMILY. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 114

116 the site where St. Louis veterans founded the American Legion on May 8, 1919, and a nearby wall honors the city s dead from several wars. The war was barely over when the devastating Spanish Influenza Epidemic struck the city in It killed 40,000,000 people worldwide and 675,000 in America, but because St. Louis was the only city to institute community-wide business closures quickly enough, the city enjoyed an enviably small death toll. Of the 32,000 residents who caught the flu, only 2,000 died, thanks to city-wide quarantines initiated by the talented health commissioner, Dr. Max C. Starkloff, with strong support from Mayor Henry Kiel. Significant changes came fast in postwar St. Louis. The many local women who had staged demonstrations for female voting rights from the post-civil War era to the 1916 Democratic convention here finally achieved their goal. After seventy years of struggle, the Nineteenth Amendment was C H A P T E R

117 ratified in Building upon that victory for the full rights of citizenship, local women s organizations became more politically influential, in the tradition of St. Louis s pioneering female activists. A pamphlet, entitled An Aid to the Woman Voter in Missouri, was co-sponsored by the Missouri Federation of Women s Clubs, Women s Christian Temperance Union, Missouri Women s Council of Defense, the Lady Maccabees, P.E.O., Missouri Equal Suffrage Association, the St. Louis Equal Suffrage Association, the St. Louis Equal Suffrage League, and the St. Louis Business Women s Suffrage League. There was barely time to celebrate the female franchise, however, when Prohibition cast a dark shadow over the region. The Missouri Temperance Society had been headquartered in St. Louis for many decades, but neither pro- nor anti-alcohol supporters were prepared for the massive socio-economic changes that accompanied the enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment in January The immediate impact of outlawing the manufacture, sale, and distribution of alcoholic beverages was devastating in St. Louis, which ranked fourth nationally in beer sales. The Anheuser-Busch Brewery occupied 150 buildings over seventy blocks in St. Louis prior to Prohibition, but the annual loss of $140 million to the local economy put 55,000 brewery and saloon jobs in jeopardy causing a H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 116

118 regional recession a decade before the Great Depression. Robbi Courtaway estimated that in 1919, local brewery workers received total wages in excess of $4 million, which a decade later, had fallen to less than $900,000. While a thousand beer companies went bankrupt (and some brewery owners killed themselves), Anheuser-Busch downsized and diversified to remain open and keep some 2,000 workers on its payroll. For thirteen years, wrote William Knoedelseder, the iconic brewery survived by making rail cars, truck bodies, refrigeration cabinets, ice cream, a nonalcoholic form of Budweiser, a malt-based soft drink called Bevo, barley malt syrup, and baker s yeast. Equally disruptive was the related rise in crime, as citizens from every class sought to skirt the law in order to enjoy or manufacture illegal alcoholic beverages. On New Year s Eve, 1922, over 2,000 wealthy St. Louisans were enjoying an expensive evening at the new Chase Hotel, when police burst into the ballroom searching for liquor violations. The genteel crowd of prominent citizens assaulted the officers with a variety of projectiles, and police gunfire wounded three patrons. National notoriety followed, as a front page headline in the New York Times on January 2, 1923 reported that Bullets, Chairs and Tableware Fly in Riot As St. Louisans Run Dry Squad Out of Hotel! Detail of a Charleston Dance Competition in front of City Hall, November 13, 1925, before they were banned as a health risk. FILE PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH AND THE MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS (1603). C H A P T E R

119 Violent criminal bootleggers in area gangs, such as Egan s Rats, the Cuckoos, and at least four others, made that incident pale in comparison, while the alwaysvicious Ku Klux Klan eagerly exploited anti-alcohol laws as an excuse to increase their traditional prejudicial attacks on blacks, Jews, and Catholics. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 118

120 Temporarily distracting St. Louisans from rampant crime, police raids, payroll reductions, and other problems with Prohibition was the world-famous 1927 flight of Charles Lindbergh in a plane named The Spirit of St. Louis. He was the first solo pilot to cross the Atlantic in a nonstop flight, covering the 3,614 miles between New York City and Paris in 33 hours, 30 minutes, and 30 seconds. But his journey really started here. Lindbergh grew up in Minnesota, within the limits of Laclede s original fur trade grant, and the twenty-five year-old flier reversed the itinerary of our city founder, who had traveled from France to America at the same age. Lindbergh honed his talents at Lambert Field the 170-acre cornfield that Major Albert Bond Lambert purchased in 1920 with profits from his Listerine mouthwash. Due to its central location, Lambert Field quickly became, in the words of Lindbergh s biographer, A. Scott Berg, the logical intersection for the nation s air traffic in the most exciting age of exploration in four hundred years. Opposite, clockwise starting from the top: Anheuser-Busch Brewery in 1909, from the Official Program of the Centennial of the Incorporation of St. Louis Celebration, October 3-9, 1909, compiled by Walter B. Stevens (St. Louis, 1909). Federal agents conduct a Prohibition raid on December 6, 1922, on South Third Street, destroying two stills in an apartment building capable of producing 500 gallons of whiskey per day. FILE PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. Prescription for Medicinal Alcohol during Prohibition; from the author s collection. Physicians were legally allowed to prescribe alcoholic beverages for over thirty ailments, including poisoning, post-operative pain, senility, insomnia, and even baldness! Left: Charles Lindbergh beside his famous plane at Lambert Field on May 11, 1927, after arriving from San Diego and before flying to New York to begin his historic flight across the Atlantic. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS (5423). C H A P T E R

121 F O U L W I N D S Lindbergh exploited favorable winds in his famous flight, but foul winds ravaged St. Louis four months after he had safely landed at Paris. A massive tornado on September 29, 1927, cut a wide swath through the central city, killing 76 and injuring more than 1,500, while destroying or damaging many buildings in 300 blocks. It was the sixth tornado to hit St. Louis since 1852, but was not as severe as the May 1896 cyclone that claimed 306 lives in South City and destroyed the main hospital. Another tornado on February 10, 1959, followed the path of the 1927 one, killing 21, injuring over 200, and displacing more than 3,000 families. February 1917 price list for raw furs issued by the United States Fur Company, 210 North First Street, St. Louis. Note values of house cats at the bottom. ORIGINAL DOCUMENT IN THE FAUSZ FAMILY COLLECTION OF FUR TRADE MEMORABILIA. Lindbergh solidified St. Louis s reputation as the City of Flight. Its citizens had been fascinated by balloon races in 1836, 1859, and 1907, and Glenn Curtiss chose St. Louis to fly the first airplane west of the Mississippi in The next year, Teddy Roosevelt became the first president to take an airplane ride when he visited the city. St. Louis s International Air Race in 1923 drew over 100,000 spectators to see Curtiss set a world speed record of 243 miles per hour to win the Pulitzer Trophy. The true Spirit of St. Louis behind the painted letters was reflected in the nine local entrepreneurs who risked their resources to purchase a plane for the ultimate explorer of the early twentieth century. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 120

122 T H E P A S T W A S P R E S E N T F O R T H E F U T U R E O F F U R S The fur trade was one industry that actually prospered during the Great Depression, as millions of small mammal pelts trapped by rural families were mailed to St. Louis for much-needed cash. Long after generations of St. Louis traders and trappers left their names on maps throughout the Fur West, the city s oldest industry continued to contribute to the local and national economy well into the mid-twentieth century. By leveraging Laclede s ideal central location, city caves used for cold storage, and new transportation links by rail and air, St. Louis ranked with London and New York as the top three world market centers for fur sales. Under the leadership of Philip Bond Fouke III and experienced fur processors from the Fouke Company of London, St. Louis s International Fur Exchange (IFE) dominated the grading, dressing, dyeing, and marketing of Alaskan sealskins for decades. Annual auctions of all mammal species produced sales of $5.3 million in 1916, rising to $35 million only four years later. The New International Fur Exchange Building, constructed in 1920 at Fourth and Market (now the Drury Plaza Hotel), further enhanced St. Louis s reputation as a global fur capital which now marketed skins from Russia, China, Canada, India, Persia, Australia, and New Zealand, as well as the U.S. Until the late 1950s, 75 companies in the Gateway City controlled 65 percent of the American market, receiving more furs from a 600-mile radius than all other cities in the United States combined. When Lindbergh rewarded their faith so spectacularly, the city became more than a gateway to the west. It came to symbolize the portal to the future, wrote Berg. Lindbergh made a triumphant return to St. Louis on June 17, Half a million residents cheered him in a 7-mile downtown parade. He was honored at a banquet for 1,300 people and performed aerial stunts over Forest Park for 100,000 cheering fans before placing a wreath on the statue of Saint Louis. Lindbergh donated many artifacts associated with his famous flight to the Missouri History Museum, while city officials agreed to build a municipal airport at Lambert Field, which he visited in April Not even Lindbergh s popular appearances, however, could solve the severe problems associated with Prohibition and the Great Depression. Between 1929 and 1933, the value of manufactured goods in St. Louis fell 56 percent, and in the latter year, 30 percent of all residents (some 116,000 people) were unemployed. Blacks suffered more, with a jobless rate that reached 80 percent. Those figures were worse than the national average, refuting the myth that St. Louis suffered less than other cities in the Depression. Some 5,000 homeless St. Louisans lived in the nation s largest Hooverville a town of driftwood and scrap lumber shacks located between the river and the railroad tracks while the city fed 10 percent of the population in soup kitchens, preparing 36,000 meals in August 1932 alone. Happy days returned in early 1933, when the taps reopened. The master of marketing, Anheuser-Busch publicly paraded its stunning new Clydesdales for the first time, as they pulled an old beer wagon that delivered Budweiser to President Roosevelt in the A Hooverville shack at river s edge, November FILE PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. C H A P T E R

123 White House. By 1938 St. Louis s premier brewery was producing 2,000,000 barrels a year, exceeding its pre-prohibition volume, and sales had increased 173 percent. But that temporary return of prosperity in one industry could not begin to address more deeply-rooted socio-economic problems associated with racial prejudice. Deliberate racist decisions, rather than accidental circumstances, confined blacks to a few restricted neighborhoods and prevented their migration to white communities. In the Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States, historian Kenneth T. Jackson revealed that local realtors and federal mortgage agencies in the 1930s considered H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 122

124 race a major factor in ranking residential areas. Ladue received the highest rating because it was highly restricted, occupied by capitalists and other wealthy families, without a single foreigner or negro. The lowest-ranked areas consisted of overcrowded working-class white tenements, 60 percent of which did not have indoor toilets and the best black homes in segregated neighborhoods. Prejudiced inspectors regarded even new and well-maintained houses of African Americans as having little or no value due to the colored element now controlling the district. The FHA granted 500 percent more mortgages to new county residences than older city properties from 1934 to Most African American residences were concentrated in a few segregated areas, most notably in Elleardsville The Ville north of the Central West End. That self-sufficient community contained all classes and every type of black-owned businesses, such as the very successful Poro College of Annie Malone, a millionaire entrepreneur who marketed hair care products throughout the nation, trained and hired many African Americans, and funded several charities. Also critical to the success of Ville residents was the venerable and valuable Sumner High School, which educated notable leaders, both local and national. Henry Givens, Jr., former president of Harris-Stowe University, wrote that Sumner was one of the greatest high schools in the nation! The school had black teachers who had graduated from Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, some with Ph.D. degrees. But because segregation blocked them from becoming college instructors, we had scholars teaching us in high school! In her 2011 book, Groping for Democracy: African American Social Welfare Reform in St. Louis, UMSL history professor Priscilla Dowden-White emphasized the dynamic black leaders from 1910 to 1949 who promoted the common good of the community as a whole by advocating justice, neighborliness, and fair play for residents from all classes. They used the Urban League, the Community Council, and the League of Women Voters to secure reforms in public policy that promoted social welfare before the more politically-focused national Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Pragmatic black activists accepted the location of Homer G. Phillips Hospital, which operated in The Ville from 1937 to 1979, rather than to oppose that placement for its segregationist symbolism, because medical services and physician training were desperately needed by black residents. But Clarence Lang s Grassroots at the Gateway found that African American politicians later pursued competing agendas based on class differences, as the politics of black middleclass respectability, often contingent on the white gaze, collided with a black workingclass politics of self-respect autonomous from both white approval and black middleclass assent. Opposite, top: Budweiser beer wagon pulled by Clydesdales for the first time in public on the way to the White House in 1933, symbolizing the end of Prohibition. ANHEUSER-BUSCH, LLC. USED WITH PERMISSION OF ANHEUSER-BUSCH, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Opposite, bottom: Famous entrepreneur Annie Malone (tenth from right) and friends in front of Poro College on April 25, PHOTOGRAPH BY W. C. PERSONS; COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS (21271). Below: Homer Phillips Hospital (now apartments for retirees) in The Ville. FAUSZ FAMILY PHOTOGRAPH, C H A P T E R

125 H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 124

126 World War II brought massive, urgent changes to St. Louis. The new normal in everyday life included overcrowded housing, frequent blackouts and curfews, food rationing, war-bond sales, rubber- and scrapmetal collections, factories operating twentyfour hours a day, trains and river craft running at full capacity, and packed schools holding double shifts of teaching. The community pulled together, with citizens volunteering as 5,300 air-raid wardens, 5,500 auxiliary firemen and policemen, and 3,373 first aid workers, while another 32,000 served in other roles, according to historian Betty Burnet. The city s admirable array of heavy industries was indispensable in the global crusade to combat fascism, with 296 companies a record 75 percent of all St. Louis manufacturers engaged in defense work, which far exceeded the national average. The McDonnell Corporation, based in St. Louis since 1939, contributed excellent war planes; the International Shoe Company produced 35,000 pairs of boots per day; and the St. Louis Ordnance District manufactured more medium-sized bombs than any other city. Five thousand St. Louisans worked on the Manhattan Project that created the atom bombs, including Dr. Arthur Holly Compton and other scientists from Mallinckrodt and Monsanto. The cyclotron at Washington University was essential for nuclear research, while the John Nooter Boiler Works made the huge tanks that produced life-saving penicillin B, developed by Dr. Edward A. Doisy of Saint Louis University. Opposite: Woman machinist at the Curtiss- Wright aircraft plant at Lambert Field. PHOTOGRAPH BY F. DALE SMITH, ; COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS (34371). Below: Navy Day Parade in downtown St. Louis on October 4, The U.S. only had a total of forty tanks in 1940, and several of St. Louis s heavy industries worked overtime to make vehicles, munitions, and airplanes to achieve victory in WWII. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF HANNGE COLLECTION AND THE MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS (1151). C H A P T E R

127 Above: Doolittle Headline in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, May 20, COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. Below: Huge rally of some 9,000 African Americans at Kiel Auditorium in August 1942 to protest the lack of defense jobs for blacks (only one in forty-five hires). FILE PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. Ironically, many St. Louis companies did not take full advantage of even more talented employees anxious to contribute to the war effort. The 8,000 local African Americans who worked in defense industries represented only a tiny fraction of all positions available. In August 1942 some 9,000 blacks held a massive meeting to lobby for more warrelated employment, declaring that Winning Democracy for the Negro Is Winning the War for Democracy. Federal policies eventually alleviated segregated hiring, which helped advance civil rights in postwar America. Immediately after Pearl Harbor, almost 81,000 St. Louis men, aged 18 to 44, registered for the draft. Too many St. Louisans never returned. The nearest thing to an official tally of city residents killed in World War II are the 2,753 names inscribed at the Court of Honor across from the Soldiers Memorial Building. A genealogy website lists 1,636 deaths (911 killed in action) of city residents who served only in the army and air force. Several noted pilots from the City of Flight died in the war, including Lieutenant Commander Edward H. Butch O Hare, a Medal of Honor recipient for whom Chicago s major airport is named; Captain Eliott Vandeventer, winner of the Distinguished Flying Cross; and Captain Wendell Oliver Pruitt, a much-decorated ace of the Tuskegee Airmen. They were inspired H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 126

128 T R I U M P H A N T C A R D I N A L S As another welcome distraction from the grim news of war, the St. Louis Cardinals and the St. Louis Browns, which shared Sportsman s Park as their home field, battled for baseball supremacy in the Trolley World Series of The Cardinals won in six games, adding to their championships with the popular Gas House Gang in 1931 and The Cardinals also won the Series in 1942 and By 1953 both the Browns and the Cardinals came to a critical crossroads. The Browns were sold to Baltimore, becoming the Orioles, while beer baron August A. Gussie Busch, Jr., purchased the Cardinals and stabilized the franchise. For many decades, three iconic organizations the Cardinals, Anheuser-Busch Brewery, and KMOX radio station made the redbirds a local treasure and a national brand. KMOX auspiciously began its baseball broadcasts with the Cardinals victory in the 1926 World Series the city s first championship since The hero was an aging, hard-drinking pitcher, Grover Cleveland Alexander, who won two games and saved a third. KMOX s 50,000-watt signal reached most of the continent at night, making the Cardinals the broadcasting Gateway to West (and South), with legions of fans in distant states. Opening game of the 1944 all-st. Louis World Series at Sportsman s Park, home field for both the Cardinals and the Browns. COURTESY OF THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH; FILE PHOTOGRAPH, OCTOBER 8, by the daring 1942 bomber raid on Japan by local hero, Colonel James Doolittle, who survived the war. St. Louis was perhaps the only U.S. city to lose its mayor (Republican William D. Becker) in a warrelated incident. On August 1, 1943, he and nine other civilians were killed at Lambert Field in the crash of a new glider they were testing. Returning veterans in 1945 encountered a rapidly changing city that would never be the same. The G.I. Bill and new employment opportunities lured many city residents into the county, seeking large single-family homes, with lawns and garages, on onceremote farmlands. Suburbanization had begun two decades before, as Kenneth Jackson noted, when automobile registrations rose C H A P T E R

129 by more than 150 percent, and outlying areas of the nation s 96 largest cities grew twice as fast as the core communities. That trickle of urban depopulation became a flood in the postwar period, as White Flight would cause St. Louis City to lose over half of its population and suffer a 60 percent decline in business between 1950 and St. Louis City had only 15,348 new housing starts between 1950 and 1970, while St. Louis County had 102,298. Jobs in the city declined from 366,524 to 231,765 in those decades, while the county enjoyed an increase from 156,526 to 384,409. Progress came at a price. The removal of derelict warehouses and other structures (some deemed architecturally significant ) destroyed what remained of the original colonial French city after the Great Fire of Just as bad as bulldozing was burying irreplaceable and rare archaeological remains under tons of earth needed to support the 900-ton Gateway Arch. That emptiness left a vacancy of vibrancy before the soaring steel was in place. The completion of the Gateway Arch took three decades. Mayor Bernard F. Dickmann and the leading local booster, Luther Ely Smith, got a bond issue passed and secured federal New Deal funding to clear the riverfront, but WWII halted progress. The architectural competition of the 1950s selected Eero Saarinen s daring modernist design, and unprecedentedly complex construction challenges delayed completion of the nation s tallest monument until the mid-1960s. COURTESY, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE AT THE JEFFERSON NATIONAL EXPANSION MEMORIAL (V ). H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 128

130 Although African Americans comprised nearly 18 percent of the city s population in 1950, they were prevented from joining the migration to suburbia or even moving into St. Louis s race-restricted neighborhoods. In the 1940s nearly 380 housing covenants still blocked blacks from living in most of the city, confining them to a ghettoized donut hole of escalating poverty and decaying property. Historian John A. Wright claimed that in 1950, the 95,000 blacks moving to St Louis would find only 100 new homes available for them. The Shelley family at 4600 Labadie Avenue challenged restricted housing, and when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled favorably on Shelley v. Kraemer in 1948, it ended segregationist covenants in nineteen states. Missouri, however, did not enact a fair housing law until 1972, and some prejudicial policies continued. According to Colin Gordon s Mapping Decline: St. Louis and the Fate of the American City, restricted housing made St. Louis hyper-segregated. It was ranked as the eighteenth most racially-segregated city in the U.S. by 1960 and became the patron saint of the nation s urban crisis when it was declared the tenth worst racially-divided urban area in In 1970, African Americans comprised 40 percent of the city s population, with average incomes that were only 60 percent as large as a typical white household. Thus, St. Louis remained one of the nation s most segregated cities to the present, based on color and/or class prejudices. Meet Me in St Louis movie poster showing Judy Garland and Margaret O Brien; lithograph from Loew s Incorporated, Near the end of World War II, many grieving local families took comfort in this nostalgic movie, based on Sally Benson s 1942 memoir of the same name. The film, like her book, evoked memories of the joyous World s Fair in happier times. COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS (21652). C H A P T E R

131 Above: Tenements in the Mill Creek Valley, near Leonard Avenue; FILE PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. Below: Black professionals protest at Jefferson Bank, October 10, FILE PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. Opposite: Black children peer from dilapidated public housing in the Mill Creek Valley, c FILE PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. Black protesters from several civil rights organizations increasingly confronted those postwar crises with demonstrations in restaurants, department stores, theaters, and other businesses. As pressure and publicity increased, Saint Louis University in 1944 became the first Missouri college to integrate its student body. Joseph Elmer Ritter, St. Louis s dynamic Catholic Archbishop from 1946 to 1967 (elevated to Cardinal in 1961), enrolled black women at Webster University in 1946 and received national acclaim for desegregating all archdiocesan high schools and parish schools in 1947, seven years before the famous U.S. Supreme Court s Brown decision. In 1952, Washington University admitted its first African American students. On August 30, 1963, local leaders of CORE (the Congress of Racial Equality) skipped the March on Washington and Martin Luther King, Jr. s famous I Have a Dream Speech to begin a seven-month protest at the Jefferson Bank and Trust Company on Washington Avenue. Seeking employment for blacks, nineteen protesters were arrested, receiving a combined sentence of over eight years in jail and $11,000 in fines. But their demonstrations produced results, and most of the protest leaders became celebrities and consultants for justice in a variety of professional positions. When the Gateway Arch was under construction, it came to symbolize not only the nineteenth-century homesteaders who passed through St. Louis on their way west, but also twentieth-century black pioneers for employment equality who were determined to stay in St. Louis and improve the city. In a daring and dramatic demonstration on July 14, 1964, Percy Green II and Richard Daly chained themselves to one of the high legs of the Arch to protest the lack of black contractors and union workers on the federally-funded project. They received national attention and achieved reforms that conformed to the civil rights acts of Six African American aldermen (out of twenty-nine) also achieved a city public accommodations law in 1961 that ended H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 130

132 job discrimination on local projects four years before the state legislature acted. Other signs of progress included the election of Alderman William L. Clay as Missouri s first black Congressman in 1968, and, after 1993, two consecutive electoral victories of African Americans as mayor of St. Louis. In addition, blacks have served the city as police chief, circuit court clerk, city comptroller, and chairman of the Democratic Committee. C H A P T E R

133 Pruitt-Igoe Housing Complex after completion, February 8, PHOTOGRAPH BY TED MCCREA. COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS (22148). H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 132 But the contentious issue of segregated housing remained unsolved for several decades. Mayors Bernard Dickmann, Joseph Darst, and Raymond Tucker launched ambitious urban renewal projects in the 1940s and 1950s, using generous federal funding to address neighborhood blight. The city cleared some 454 acres of slums in the Mill Creek Valley, creating a devastated area known as Hiroshima Flats. On that bombed-like landscape, some of the best architects in the country erected the Pruitt-Igoe Complex of 33

134 eleven-story buildings in Eleven years later, National Geographic author Robert Paul Jordan praised such destruction and construction for the rejuvenation of a dying city. He boasted that by 1970 St. Louis will have torn down and rebuilt a fifth of its 61 square miles at a cost of more than a billion dollars. Once regarded as the best-designed public housing project, Pruitt-Igoe was demolished in 1976, after it had disillusioned residents by concentrating crime and poverty in rather drab concrete towers with no supportive community spirit or even adequate maintenance. According to Gordon, such massive, impersonal projects almost always made things worse. [B]oth the diagnosis (blight) and its prescription (urban renewal) were shaped by and compromised by the same prejudices that had created the condition in the first place. Bulldozing heavily populated neighborhoods to build commercial skyscrapers revealed that racial segregation was a core goal from the outset. Even the most progressive efforts destroyed more units than they created and displaced more families of ordinary means than they accommodated. Over time, redevelopment trumped rehabilitation, and new housing became less a goal of urban renewal. Above: African American protester in front of the Dozier School, June 10, PHOTOGRAPH BY LESTER LINCK AND USED COURTESY OF THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. C H A P T E R

135 Busch Stadium II and the Gateway Arch, as photographed on September 21, A sense of excitement energized the entire metropolitan area, as those two monumental and long-anticipated projects were completed about the same time. Almost thirty years after a riverfront park was envisioned, the Gateway Arch was finished in October 1965, although the entire Jefferson National Expansion Memorial complex would not welcome tourists until The stadium, with architectural details inspired by the Arch, was ready for the 1966 baseball season. PHOTOGRAPH BY TED MCCREA. COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS (22147). H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 134 Living conditions for St. Louis City s blacks would improve after the federal Fair Housing Act of 1968 prohibited discriminatory zoning based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. But that, too, had unintended consequences by eroding successful, traditional African American neighborhoods. Taking advantage of new, unrestricted housing options, many of the most affluent and accomplished black residents moved out of The Ville and other racially-cohesive communities. Left behind were disproportionally disadvantaged people with less support political, economic, and even personal. Class divisions replaced monolithic racism, as concentrated poverty in selected areas resulted in decaying properties, declining schools, disappearing jobs, and increasing disillusionment. The principle of neighborhood schools lowered educational expectations and outcomes in areas with the worst incomes, and not even federal laws could compete with such territorial tyranny. Black-on-black crime further destabilized neighborhoods. As the Reverend Earl E. Nance, Sr., pastor of the Greater Mount Carmel Baptist Church, noted, African Americans were not responsible for the way other folks treat us, but we are responsible for how we treat others. In the midst of historic changes, the Bicentennial of the founding of St. Louis was officially celebrated over two years, 1964 to It was the grandest commemoration ever, since St. Louisans had little to celebrate in 1939, when the city turned 175 years old in the midst of the Great Depression. At that time, a local newspaper article proclaimed that the city s founding date could not be determined and revealed the erroneous biases of the 1930s: In 1760 the wilderness stretched north from New Orleans to Canada, [where] a few savages stamped around. A French fort was built at Chartres to keep off the Spanish from Santa Fe, [but] the rest of the Mississippi country was like the Congo in Africa!

136 President Lyndon Johnson kicked off the official birthday celebration on February 14, 1964 (the wrong date) with an optimistic public address. As the Gateway to the West, he stated, Saint Louis became one of the finest and most important cities in the world. But at the very summit of her glory, the blight that was to deface dozens of American cities struck Saint Louis. The incredible vitality of this proud queen of Mid-America began to erode. In conclusion, the president declared to city residents: You faced a hard choice and you made it. The people of Saint Louis chose progress not decay. A new spirit of Saint Louis was born. And today you look forward to the future with new pride and new confidence. Also making history was McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, Missouri s largest employer, with 35,000 workers constructing the world s most sophisticated supersonic fighters that the military relied on in the Vietnam War. The engineering explorers at that corporation also made St. Louis the gateway to the galaxy by constructing the successful Mercury and Gemini space vehicles that propelled American astronauts into space and to ultimately land on the moon. Above: Official anniversary license plate. LICENSE PLATE IN AUTHOR S COLLECTION. Left: President John F. Kennedy viewing the Mercury space capsule in St. Louis on February 23, The McDonnell-Douglas Corporation, which made notable airplanes, also played a significant role in NASA s space program to land Americans on the moon. WIKIMEDIA COMMONS; PHOTOGRAPH IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN AS A WORK PRODUCT OF A FEDERAL EMPLOYEE. C H A P T E R

137 Gaslight Square on the evening of July 29, The three-block entertainment district lit by gas street lamps featured thirty-five music clubs, bars, and restaurants. Its equally rapid rise and fall symbolized the vulnerability of a new craze when beset by crime and changing generational trends in popular entertainment. FILE PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. Stars also appeared closer to home, as the Cardinals gave an additional boost to the confidence and pride of St. Louisans in the Bicentennial year by winning the 1964 World Series their first championship in eighteen years. They added another one in Applauding the Bicentennial, the November 1965 issue of National Geographic Magazine published sixty-four pages on St. Louis, beginning with the headline: New spirit soars in Mid-America s proud old city. Author Robert Paul Jordan praised the city s unique history in carving the trans-mississippi West into 22 new states and credited Joseph Pulitzer s 1949 Progress or Decay challenge for stimulating ambitious urban renewal. Jordan s remarks, accompanied by superb photos, focused on new and future developments: the beautiful Aloe Plaza, slum removal, the $30,000,000 Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, new interstate highways, and Saint Louis University s $53,000,000 campus expansion that helped revitalize the city. Summarizing his positive impressions of the Bicentennial headed by Gussie Busch, Jordan observed that the city s birthday party really amounts to a family affair, with the whole metropolis participating in literally thousands of events, small and large. Black members of the city family, however, did not share in such Bicentennial boosterism, being in no mood to celebrate racial prejudice and the other harsh realities of second-class citizenship. In 1964, St. Louis s population stood at 711,000, down from almost 857,000 in 1950, and the city would experience its greatest economic decline between 1970 and 1990, when manufacturing jobs fell by 82,000 and its poverty rate rose to 24 percent. Although suburbanization enticed residents to move out of St. Louis and cost the city its traditional stature as the engine of the regional economy, the explosive growth of the greater metropolitan area on former farmlands improved the lives of everyone. In Fall 1963, the University of Missouri- St. Louis (UMSL) greeted its first 673 students, who crowded into the sole campus building the old Bellerive Country Clubhouse. In only six years, with three new buildings, enrollment swelled to 10,000, with increasing numbers of African Americans, revealing that Saint Louis University and Washington University could not have accommodated so many students seeking an affordable education. Both UMSL, which now has over 62,000 alumni living in the metro area, and nearby Lambert International Airport demonstrated that their expansive growth in North St. Louis County could not have occurred in the spacestrapped city. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 136

138 S T. L O U I S S L O N G E S T S E R V I N G M O D E R N M A Y O R S Not surprisingly, most of the mayors who served at least eight consecutive years brought the greatest changes to St. Louis, including: Rolla Wells Democrat ( ) Henry Kiel Republican ( ) Bernard F. Dickmann Democrat ( ) Raymond Tucker Democrat ( ) Alfonso Cervantes Democrat ( ) Vincent C. Schoemehl Democrat ( ) Francis G. Slay Democrat (2001-present), won record fourth election in 2013 A decade ago, the Metrolink light rail system brought the inner city and the outer suburbs closer together with an efficient new transportation option. In its first two months, 1,000,000 passengers rode the initial 14 miles of track. Today, Metrolink has an annual ridership of 17,000,000 along 46 miles of routes in two states. The Main Terminal Building at Lambert International Airport. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE FAUSZ FAMILY, C H A P T E R

139 The children of Dr. John A. Wright enjoy the combination of statuary, fountains, beautiful buildings, and surprisingly serene surroundings (at times) in a downtown plaza that is all too often taken for granted. In the 1980s, Mayor Vincent Schoemehl, an UMSL graduate, launched another building initiative to renew both the city s infrastructure and the spirits of its citizens. He joined a long list of progressive Democratic politicians, allied with business leaders in Civic Progress since the 1950s, to realize the illusive World s Fair dream of building a Model City, both beautiful and productive, that would stand the test of time. Bond issue after bond issue revealed the willingness of citizens to invest in a brighter future, but a repetitious pattern of destruction and construction in a nevercompleted cityscape eroded much of that confidence in addressing decline. City leaders sought bold solutions to stem urban blight and suburban flight, choosing activism over apathy. But not all such explorations succeed, and historians can provide hindsight to explain why. Too frequently, planners, politicians, and promoters proceeded without a complete or deep understanding of the city s heritage. A case in point was the expensive relocation in 1969 of the Spanish Pavilion and the replica ship, Santa Maria from the 1964 New York World s Fair. Although St. Louis was Spain s eighteenthcentury capital of Upper Louisiana, that was 250 years after Columbus sailed into the Caribbean, and few residents saw the H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 138

140 relevance of having the Santa Maria docked along the Mississippi. Due to a lack of interest, the Pavilion went bankrupt in its first year. The creative re-use of the iconic Union Station as an indoor mall in 1985 was more successful for a time. But like the architecturally-innovative St. Louis Centre (another indoor mall), shoppers proved to be fickle. Novelty, alone, attracts initial crowds, but long-term customer loyalty invariably declines among bargain-hunters, even in more conveniently-located suburban shopping malls with better parking facilities. Fickle owners, rather than indifferent fans, doomed several of the city s professional sports franchises, such as the NBA Hawks, NFL Cardinals, and a variety of soccer teams. The St. Louis Hawks bolted to Atlanta in 1968 after a dozen seasons, in which they won the NBA championship in 1958 and reached the finals three other years including their last one here. From 1960 to 1988, the football Cardinals ( Big Red ) developed a fan following, despite mostly mediocre records and only one division title (in 1974). But ownership moved the team to Phoenix and renamed it the Arizona Cardinals, while negotiations were proceeding for a new stadium here. A dedicated football facility finally arrived to popular acclaim in 1993 to support the new St. Louis Rams franchise. Now known as the Edward Jones Dome, that indoor stadium became famous as the home of the Greatest Show on Turf from 1999 to Quarterback Kurt Warner threw 41 touchdowns, and the team scored 526 points on the way to winning Super Bowl XXXIV in They lost the championship two years later on a late field goal by the New England Patriots and have never matched those successes. St. Louisans have had a love affair with amateur soccer since the 1880s. A Christian Brothers College High School team won the silver medal in the 1904 Olympic Games, and Saint Louis University is the national leader with 47 NCAA tournament appearances and 10 soccer championships. Six different amateur teams from St. Louis won the U.S. Open Cup between 1920 and 1957, and five city players were on the American team that defeated England to win the 1950 World Cup. Twenty St. Louisans have been inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame, but a long list of professional soccer franchises outdoor, indoor, and women s have come and gone without financial success. The St. Louis Blues was one of the National Hockey League expansion franchises in 1967, and the team has a secure, if not always abundant, fan base despite frequent changes in ownership and arena sites. The Blues reached the Stanley Cup Finals in each of their first three seasons ( ), a spectacular debut, but remains the only expansion team not to have won the championship. A fan favorite, the Hall of Famer Brett Hull, recently rejoined the organization as a vice president. The unprecedented success and popularity of the St. Louis Cardinals make it hard for other professional teams to match the enthusiasm and loyalty of their fans. In general, St. Louis has better sports facilities than the quality of the teams that play in them. At the height of his success as the Rams Super Bowl quarterback, Kurt Warner marketed cereal to raise funds for his First Things First Foundation, as well as other charities. USED WITH PERMISSION, COURTESY OF THAT ORGANIZATION IN COOPERATION WITH PRIORITY SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT AND TY BALLOU OF PLB SPORTS, INC. C H A P T E R

141 Exhibition soccer match between Real Madrid and Inter Milan in the Edward Jones Dome, August 10, Such soccer matches, including one featuring the Bosnian national team, have become increasingly popular and attract large crowds. PHOTOGRAPH BY STEPHANIE S. CORDLE; COURTESY OF THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 140

142 C H A P T E R

143 There is only one thing which St. Louis cannot do, and that is, fail. James Cox, St. Louis: The Carnival City, 1892 E P I L O G U E INSPIRING COMMUNITY SPIRIT IN THE NEW MILLENNIUM Photographic blow-up of 1907 City medallions. COURTESY OF THE AUTHOR S COLLECTION. When St Louis s population plummeted to 450,000 in the 1980 census the lowest since 1890 America s formerly fourth-ranked city had fallen over twenty places. In 1988, native St. Louis novelist, Jonathan Franzen, wrote in The Twenty-Seventh City that the Era of the Parking Lot typified a barren and desperate downtown. The local prophets were defensive. Where once they d expected supremacy, they now took heart at any sign of survival. Franzen asked the key question: What becomes of a city no living person can remember, of an age whose passing no one survives to regret? H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 142

144 The human life cycle typically lasts about eighty years, so studying history is the only means of appreciating a distant past that no one alive actually experienced. A knowledge of the good ideas or big mistakes from earlier eras provides context for the present and may help improve the future. Realizing who or what came before is an essential component of citizenship for each generation. Laclede s only son, Pierre Chouteau, wrote in 1847, that honors rendered to the dead serve to excite the living to emulate their virtues and their worth. A century later, native St. Louis poet, Loyd Haberly, expressed a similar sentiment in his book, The City of the Sainted King: Though nothing lives forever And nothing lasts for long, Yet the eternal river Of life runs clear and strong. Within our loins are nations, What we sow, they will reap, Building on all foundations That we lay firm and deep. Each event in St. Louis history is part of a continuing saga, building on what has gone before, local author Ann Morris observed in History can inspire us to undertake impossible dreams by passing on to future generations stories of heroes, great and small. A 1909 Globe-Democrat editorial stated that every generation is too prone to think that all wisdom will die with them. But if future citizens smile at our rude and crude ways of doing things, they may also wonder at our achievement. That becomes impossible, however, if the deeds of past leaders, both noble and nefarious, are forgotten or fabricated. A readers poll conducted by the Post-Dispatch in January 2000 sought to identify the Most Influential St. Louisans of the 20th Century, decade by decade. Wealthy beer barons topped the list for two different decades Adolphus Busch (for ), long after his greatest contributions, and his grandson, August A. Gussie Busch, Jr., (for ), whose service as the Cardinals owner paled in comparison to significant political leaders. Lindbergh was the top vote-getter for the decade, even though he was not a St. Louisan and remained in town to pick up a free plane. Stan Musial was not a native, either, and he seems an odd choice for a decade that produced so many national military heroes in World War II. Voters deficient in chronology picked James Smith McDonnell as the most illustrious The 2011 World Series Victory Parade in front of the latest Busch Stadium on October 30, PHOTOGRAPH BY HUY MACH. COURTESY OF THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. E P I L O G U E 1 4 3

145 In Loving Memory of All Young People Who Die from Violence, a bronze statue by sculptor Rudolph Torrini (1997), located on the grounds of SSM Cardinal Glennon Children s Hospital. This is a moving tribute to nine-year-old Christopher Harris, who was murdered in a June 1991 gun battle on a city street. The interior of the statue is filled with melted handguns. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE FAUSZ FAMILY, non-st. Louisan for the 1930s, even though he did not open his aircraft company here until 1939 and achieved his greatest acclaim years later. Zoo director and TV personality Marlin Perkins (for ), Robert Hyland, general manager of radio station KMOX ( ), real estate developer Leon Strauss ( ), who renovated the Fabulous Fox Theatre in 1982, and the Reverend Lawrence Biondi, president of Saint Louis University ( ), seem trivial choices of current celebrities whose name-recognition in recent newspaper headlines prevented an accurate assessment of broader historical significance. That poll was a popularity contest that reflected such ignorance of the past as to minimize St. Louis s authentic historic stature. Without memory, there can be no history, which depends on accurate recollections passed down through successive generations. In recent years, St. Louisans with more historical perspective have reevaluated how successful the World s Fair and the Bicentennial were, considering the failed projects and fading hopes that followed those celebrations. It would be hard to match the optimistic mood of the 1964 celebration, when the Gateway Arch and a new baseball stadium with its own unique arches were nearing completion only a few blocks apart. Progress was a tangible reality, as a building boom transformed the downtown core of an old city. The optimism of 1964, however, did not survive a series of national crises to come. In the past fifty years, local confidence in a bright future was deflated by escalating carnage in Vietnam, destructive race riots in major cities, assassinations of prominent leaders, the Watergate scandal, Iranian hostagetaking, oil embargoes, the shocking attacks on 9/11, simultaneous wars in the Middle East, a rash of school shootings, increasing street violence, and several economic recessions, with the latest being the most severe. And, unlike 1964, today it is much more difficult and expensive to have all citizens share equally and equitably in progress and prosperity, including a quality public education. The Census results in 2010 revealed that St. Louis s population had reached a new low of only 318,000, as America s former 4th largest city fell to 58th place. Since St. Louis has lost half a million people in only sixty years, residents may be more subdued in celebrating the 250th anniversary. The current H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 144

146 recession has worsened racial disparities in St. Louis, lowering white household income by 7 percent, but black households by 17 percent. In 2013 median income in white households exceeded the national average by $3,000 and was 110 percent higher than black households, which fell $5,000 short of the national average for African Americans. In July 2013, the city had a total unemployment rate of 10.8 percent (3.4 percent higher than the state s) but 13 percent of blacks were jobless, twice the figure for whites. Based on those statistics, St. Louis ranked among the twenty most segregated major U.S. cities and was the 9th lowest for black income mobility. Poverty and joblessness, personal disillusionment and social alienation, are wellknown preconditions for violent crime, but for decades St. Louis City has failed to correct those root causes of its major crisis, which continues to tarnish its national reputation. Problem-plagued schools of class and racial inequality remain a ticking time bomb as incubators of violence, because they inhibit realistic opportunities for new generations to enjoy a better life as contributing citizens. The proactive inspiration of students is far cheaper and more productive than reactive incarcerations, which only perpetuate and exacerbate violence. Creating great schools is far wiser and more humane than erecting glamorous skyscrapers and sports stadiums, since crime threatens expensive investments even in affluent neighborhoods. As George Bernard Shaw observed, for though the rich end of town can avoid living with the poor, it cannot avoid dying with it when the plague comes. Rather than enticing out-of-town sports fans to stay for a weekend, city leaders should redirect their priorities and rescue the neediest residents who spend their entire lives here. St. Louis could achieve international acclaim by revitalizing its oncefamous city school system, perhaps in new partnerships with the area s creative companies and famous universities. A quality education has always been the antidote to alienation and animosity, as students gain a deeper appreciation of themselves in developing their talents. James H. Buford, former head of the local Urban League, advised young people to live your life so that whatever you ve done leaves an example and a legacy for others to follow. The well-educated civil rights activist, Percy Green, urged students to develop a thirst for knowledge, in order to be aware of what is happening around them. And then, of course, they need to challenge authority to gain insight until civic leaders earn the respect of those they are directing. Such sentiments echo the thoughts of nineteenth-century St. Louisan, Carl Schurz, whose words were chiseled on the Kiel Opera House in 1934 and remain on the newly-renovated Peabody Opera House: Democratic government will be the more successful the more the public opinion ruling it is enlightened and inspired by full and thorough discussion. The greatest danger threatening democratic institutions comes from those influences which tend to stifle or demoralize discussion. The great diversity of St. Louisans could produce a great destiny with a promising future for the city if people of varied backgrounds worked together to solve common problems through multiple perspectives. In 1991, Henry Louis Gates observed that our society won t survive without the values of tolerance. The challenge facing America will be the shaping of a truly common public culture, one responsive to the long-silenced cultures of color. If we relinquish the ideal of America as a plural nation, we ve abandoned the very experiment America represents. St. Louisans of many hues and multiple heritages today can fully appreciate the enlightened leadership of Laclede and his colonists. The early French settlers are relevant again, because those entrepreneurial explorers of global commerce enjoyed financial success in complex dealings with people of different colors, cultures, and countries and shared profits with Indians, who were the most alien of all. The celebration of ethnic diversity behind great deeds is ever present on Delmar Avenue recently named One of the 10 Great Streets in America by the American E P I L O G U E 1 4 5

147 The star of Chuck Berry along the Walk of Fame. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE FAUSZ FAMILY. Planning Association. There, the St. Louis Walk of Fame honors 140 creative stars who have enriched our lives in a variety of successful careers. Beginning in 1988 with legendary Chuck Berry as the first honoree, the Walk of Fame has highlighted the significant accomplishments of truly remarkable St. Louisans that should inspire future generations of explorers in every field. Among them are 45 entertainers, ranging from Josephine Baker to Kevin Kline, Scott Joplin to Nelly; ten noted architects; five favorite broadcasters; 22 sports heroes; scientific researchers and prominent educators; and nearly 20 legends of literature. St. Louis has an enviable heritage of world-famous authors who achieved renown elsewhere, such as Maya Angelou, William Burroughs, T. S. Eliot, and Tennessee Williams, but the future promises great works from local writers with no intention of leaving. Businessman Joe Edwards, proprietor of the famous Blueberry Hill since 1972 and founder of several other successful enterprises, created the Walk of Fame. He believed that a greater appreciation for local history and inspiring biographies would enhance community pride and generate profits in the celebrated Delmar Loop that he was most responsible for rejuvenating. He joins other entrepreneurial explorers who continue to improve St. Louis with their visions. Among H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 146

148 them was the late Bob Cassilly, who built the innovative City Museum with discarded materials and artistic creativity and now attracts some 600,000 paying visitors a year. Demonstrating the remarkable revitalization of the old city on a much larger scale have been thousands of Bosnian immigrants who achieved prosperity and stability in the Bevo Mill neighborhood the past two decades. Now numbering 70,000 in the metro area equivalent to one-fifth of the city s population the Bosnians are inspiring and successful urban explorers who have discovered ways to rebuild lives in restored The century-old Bevo Mill landmark. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF ANDREW WEIL OF LANDMARKS ASSOCIATION AND USED WITH HIS PERMISSION. E P I L O G U E 1 4 7

149 neighborhoods with flourishing enterprises, despite tragedies in their homeland and language barriers here. Their distinctive culture has provided the cohesion in a community that has transformed St. Louis since They publish the only Bosnian language newspaper in the United States; founded a Bosnian Chamber of Commerce in 2009 with 65 member businesses (the first opened in 1997); and even hosted the president of Bosnia in The historic Bevo Mill, erected during World War I to reflect the charm of Old Europe, is a fitting symbol of the many Bosnians who live around it new immigrants from an ancient culture who blend modern lifestyles with traditional values. Even with the massive Bosnian migration, St. Louis still ranks a dismal 24th among the 25 largest U.S. metropolitan areas in the percentage of immigrants in the total population. The St. Louis Mosaic Project, however, is trying to recruit more foreign-born entrepreneurs, who will energize the region with creative ideas; establish businesses that hire residents, old and new; and help occupy some of the 35,000 vacant houses in the city the second-highest percentage among 81 U.S. cities with at least 100,000 people. A youthful generation of native-born urban homesteaders has also been exploring city life in recent years. Of the 88,000 people who work in the business district nearest the river, an increasing number roughly 14,000 are also living there, giving the old city a new vibrancy in the evening hours. In 2010, the median age for St. Louis City residents was 34, with 24 percent being 19 or younger and 40 percent aged Many of the new downtown dwellers are environmentally progressive anti-suburbanites concerned with the carbon footprints of air-polluting cars, so they walk or bike to work and nearby entertainment venues. Loft-living St. Louisans in a flyover city are taking cues from innovative, upscale neighborhoods on both coasts. The Mercantile Exchange/Laurel Apartment complex on Washington Avenue, for example, integrates grand traditional architecture with ultra-modern amenities, including access to cars rented by the hour and a movie theater that serves gourmet meals. In a recent front-page story in the Post- Dispatch, entitled Eight Miles of Progress, reporter Tim Bryant found that the long central corridor stretching from the Arch to the Delmar Loop between Lindell Boulevard and Forest Park Avenue was where St. Louis succeeds as a city. Some 60,000 people reside there (a 10 percent increase since 2000), who, like earlier generations, believe that cities are good places to live. One of the most prominent and prosperous companies in that corridor is Cortex, a technology and bioscience research hub founded in 2002 by a consortium of Washington University, UMSL, SLU, BJC Healthcare, and the Missouri Botanical Garden. It has invested $155 million in midtown infrastructure and plans another $186 million to create a total of 2,400 well-paying high tech jobs over the next five years. The Cortex Research Park became better known locally when IKEA announced that it would open one of its popular retail stores there by Even though St. Louis has retained only half of the 18 Fortune 500 company headquarters that were here in 1980, Express Scripts Holding achieved the highest ranking for a local firm in two decades, moving from 60th place to 24th in a single year. It will build a new $56,000,000 office complex and add 1,500 employees in the near future. Monsanto, ranked 206th, plans to add $400,000,000 worth of expanded research facilities and some 700 new hires. In 2011, the area s Gross Metro Product (GMP) was $133 billion 21st highest in the United States and St. Louis had the largest concentration of elite financial management companies of any U.S. city outside of New York. The busy barge traffic on the Mississippi River maintains St. Louis s rank as the nation s second largest inland port by tonnage. Currently, health care leads all area industries with 34,000 employees, compared with 21,000 jobs in manufacturing. But in 2013, the Post-Dispatch reported that the job search site Dice.com this year ranked St. Louis as the fastest-growing tech job market in the nation. Native St. Louis entrepreneurs with international reputations Jack Dorsey, creator of Twitter, and Jim McKelvey, H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 148

150 co-developer with Dorsey of Square (which enables hand-held electronic devices to facilitate mobile payments) are seeking ways to train more tech-savvy St. Louisans for employment in such growth industries. Already paying higher salaries in the information technology field than most other American cities, St. Louis has been recruiting future job-creators among innovative entrepreneurs. Some thirty-five startup companies in the last two years have received $50,000 Arch Grants in a local initiative to attract new firms and high-paying jobs to the area. Occupying office space in the Railway Exchange Building and receiving advice from seasoned business professionals, such companies promise exciting collaborations that will bring the vitality of cutting-edge research to the St. Louis region. Similarly, SixThirty, a local accelerator program that provides $100,000 startup grants to technology companies, has attracted new entrepreneurs to the city. Many other attributes make St. Louis the vibrant, vital core of some three million people in the nation s 19th largest metropolitan area, living among 79 city neighborhoods, a hundred municipalities, and several rural counties in two states. While a few suburbs may have better shopping and gaudier homes, none of them has the impressive history and multicultural heritage of The City. St. Louis is indispensable as the undisputed, centrally-located capital of the region, dominating the economy, professional sports, and every type of entertainment. Most of those who moved out of the city still remain in the region, enjoying the best of both worlds. Suburbs are places to sleep, while the city is the place to party with the most diverse and intriguing people in eastern Missouri. Former residents regularly return to experience everything the suburbs lack, including major league baseball, football, and hockey, superb restaurants, outstanding entertainers, holiday celebrations, historic neighborhoods, and free world-class cultural institutions in the Zoo-Museum District. Almost monthly, St. Louis City sponsors parades or festivals focused on the ethnic diversity of its citizens, 48 percent of whom are African Americans, 3.6 percent Hispanics, 2.3 percent Asians, and 43 percent Caucasians. Of the latter, 15 percent have German ancestry, 9 percent Irish, 3.7 percent Italian, and 2.4 French. In 2013, the city offered these wide-ranging activities for Labor Day weekend alone: LouFest, featuring thirty bands on three stages in Forest Park Big Muddy Blues Festival on Laclede s Landing The annual Japanese Festival at the Missouri Botanical Garden St. Nicholas Greek Festival, along Forest Park Boulevard The annual Polish Festival on St. Louis Avenue The Greater St. Louis Hispanic Festival at Kiener Plaza Art fairs at the Schlafly micro-breweries And the City s annual Labor Day Parade along Market Street. Fifteenth annual Komen Race for the Cure of Breast Cancer, June 15, PHOTOGRAPH BY STEPHANIE S. CORDLE, COURTESY OF THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. E P I L O G U E 1 4 9

151 Art Hill in Forest Park showing the huge crowd viewing a performance of the Pageant and Masque of St. Louis, PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM, ST. LOUIS (29560). H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 150

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153 Gone but not forgotten, the popular S. S. Admiral excursion boat is moored in front of the old levee warehouses and railroad tracks prior to the demolition of 486 buildings over thirty-nine city blocks that began on October 9, As the world s largest inland excursion steamer, the five-deck Admiral was 375 feet long and 92 feet wide, drawing only eight feet of water when fully loaded with over 4,000 passengers, but outlived its usefulness in the new millennium. COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE AT THE JEFFERSON NATIONAL EXPANSION MEMORIAL (VPRI ). H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 152 Despite the variety of backgrounds and beliefs in the city s population, there are certain traditions common to our civic culture. It is inconceivable that St. Louisans would celebrate Mardi Gras anywhere but in Soulard; take out-of-town visitors anywhere but the Gateway Arch, Old Courthouse, and Anheuser-Busch Brewery; or enjoy a wide range of recreational and cultural activities in Forest Park. That beautiful 138-year-old, 1,293-acre park is the heart of our city. Attracting over 12,000,000 visitors a year since it was substantially revitalized in a $125 million makeover a decade ago, Forest Park was honored in 2013 as one of the nation s Top 10 Great Public Spaces by the American Planning Association. A laudable partnership between the city and the supportive citizens of Forest Park Forever will establish a $10 million endowment to fund future maintenance. McCune Gill must have had Forest Park in mind when he wrote in his 1952 book, The St. Louis Story, that places have souls, the same as individuals, and their legacies become virtually immortal if they represent the spirit of the people. Following are some of those special spirited locales that serve as the social glue binding our community together with shared traditions and cherished memories: R E M E M B E R I N G A V A N I S H E D S T. L O U I S Cities are always changing, but rarely as quickly, dramatically, or as intentionally as St. Louis did in the mid-twentieth century. In 2002, architectural historian James Kornwolf observed that St. Louis achieved the unique, if dubious, status in North America of entirely obliterating its original urban core in one fell swoop when it demolished old riverfront buildings to build the Gateway Arch. The Laclede s Landing development saved a few old warehouses in better shape for more popular uses, while the Admiral survived as a symbol of waterfront fun into the new millennium. But willful demolition, as in the case of the beloved Arena, is often more regretted than accidental destruction, like the fire that burned down the Highlands amusement park. In 1957 the removal of the beautiful, venerable Merchants Exchange Building led to the creation of Landmarks Association to protect and preserve other historic structures.

154 A M O D E R N B U I L D I N G B O O M When Missouri became a state in 1821, St. Louis already had 651 homes 232 built of stone or brick with 108 new dwellings constructed in the previous six years alone. Anyone who doubted its meteoric rise as a commercial and industrial metropolis for the rest of that century should remember Mark Twain s observations. He first saw St. Louis in 1853, as a lad of seventeen, and recalled thirty years later that he could have bought it [then] for six million dollars, and it was the mistake of my life that I did not do it. N O T A B L E T R E N D S I N D O W N T O W N A R C H I T E C T U R E O F T H E L A S T C E N T U R Y S Municipal Courts Building, completed in 1911, next to City Hall, an equally massive limestone Beaux-Arts creation of local architect Isaac Taylor reflective of the then-current City Beautiful Movement; S St. Louis Public Library, another masterpiece by Cass Gilbert (who also designed the Saint Louis Art Museum), was opened in 1912 at a cost of $2 million and renovated a century later after a two-year $70 million restoration. S Skyscrapers have dominated the cityscape beyond the riverfront since 1914, when 230-foot-tall Union Station was eclipsed by the Railway Exchange Building, then the world s largest office building at 277 feet. But only a dozen years later, the Southwestern Bell Building of 399 feet surpassed it and was St. Louis s tallest office skyscraper until Topping it by a mere two feet was the Laclede Gas Building, which dominated the skyline only briefly between 1969 and S Although no structure could or would have eclipsed the 630-foot tall Gateway Arch the highest monument in the United States its completion in 1965 inspired ever-higher buildings in the private sector. Historians Selwyn K. Troen and Glen E. Holt also noted that the Arch stimulated almost $503,000,000 in construction between 1965 and The era of the behemoth skyscrapers began in 1976, when One U.S. Bank Plaza reached 484 feet, only to be surpassed by One AT&T Center within a decade. The height of that building remained supreme for thirteen years, until One Metropolitan Square opened at 593 feet in 2000 and remains the city s tallest building. Far shorter is the beautiful Thomas F. Eagleton U.S. Courthouse of 2000, which, at a height of 557 feet, is still the second tallest judicial building on earth. S Another distinction of recent St. Louis architecture was realized with the completion of the new National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Building in It is the largest governmental archive west of the District of Columbia and contains over 600,000 cubic feet of fifty million U.S. military service records. Even though St. Louis City recently received a prestigious World Leadership Award for Urban Renewal, has all of that destruction and construction, both public and private, improved the lives of citizens? That continues to be debated. But no city can stand still or remain complacent, and St. Louis would not have a nationally recognizable media image without the Gateway Arch. Regarding the value of urban renewal for the poorest citizens, Mayor Schoemehl in 1985 said: It was cruel to pretend that the construction boom would break the grip of poverty when it would not. All that the city could do was to try to leverage the opportunities into further opportunities and try to skew some of those benefits toward some of the most needy. E P I L O G U E 1 5 3

155 Above: Some of the many beautifully restored homes in the Lafayette Square area. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE FAUSZ FAMILY, Opposite: Crown Candy Kitchen, founded in 1913 by Harry Karandzieff, an immigrant from Macedonia, is now in the third generation of family ownership. Offering traditional food and soda fountain specialties, it is a popular anchor business in Old North St. Louis, the promising project of local preservationists since PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE FAUSZ FAMILY, H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 154 P R E S E R V I N G T H E P A S T Having experienced such massive alterations of the cityscape, St. Louisans are now particularly protective of traditional neighborhoods. Spanning generations are the beautifully-restored residences in Lafayette Square, Soulard, and other locations with special character, unique features, and the added appeal of walkability. The eclectic variety of Cherokee Street shops and the creative re-use of buildings along Tower Grove Avenue with the fashionable new wine bar, Olio, housed in a 1930s gas station reveal ambitious entrepreneurs who see the advantages of entertaining customers. St. Louis needs to promote itself as a tourist mecca for architectural aficionados who would appreciate our many masterpieces from different eras: the Chatillon-DeMenil and Campbell House mansions of the nineteenth century; the Old Courthouse, recently restored; the massive Eads Bridge; Theodore Link s incomparable Union Station; Louis Sullivan s still-impressive Wainwright Building; Cass Gilbert s beautiful Art Museum and Central Public Library, Eero Saarinen s huge but graceful Gateway Arch; Minoru Yamasaki s much-praised Main Terminal of Lambert International Airport; and Sir David Chipperfield s innovative East Building of the Saint Louis Art Museum, opened in Another, even more delectable, means of appreciating the local past is to eat traditional specialty foods developed and devoured over many generations. Even though St. Louis offers

156 gourmet dining by noted chefs, natives still crave frozen custard concretes from Ted Drewes, wonderful Italian cuisine on The Hill, the weekly Cocktail Museum at The Royale, craft beers at Schlafly s and newer neighborhood micro-breweries, Imo s St. Louis style pizza, hamburgers at Blueberry Hill, toasted ravioli at Lombardo s, and old-fashioned milkshakes and homemade Easter chocolates at Crown Candy Kitchen. E P I L O G U E 1 5 5

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158 Top, left: Balloon Glow in Forest Park, September 14, 2012, prior to the fortieth annual Great Forest Park Balloon Race the next day. That popular event regularly attracts crowds of 100,000 people. PHOTOGRAPH BY ERIK M. LUNSFORD; COURTESY OF THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. Opposite, bottom left: Photograph of the Spherical Balloon Races at Aero Club Grounds, from Walter B. Stevens, ed., St. Louis: One Hundred Years in a Week Celebration of the Centennial of Incorporation (St. Louis Centennial Association, 1909). St. Louisans embrace selected elements of heritage that they personally remember but ignore a fuller and more meaningful history that requires some research to appreciate. Locals celebrated the 40th anniversary of the St. Louis balloon race in 2012, without realizing that the city s fascination with them began much earlier in the mid-1800s and had become a local tradition when this photograph was taken in H O N O R I N G T R A D I T I O N Left: The legacy of the Rome of the West remained strong when Pope John Paul II made a popular, thirty-one-hour visit to St. Louis in January 1999, during which he celebrated Mass for 104,000 people. SOUVENIR MEDALLION COURTESY OF LOGO-MASTERS, INC., OF ST. LOUIS. E P I L O G U E 1 5 7

159 A P P R E C I A T I N G T H E A R T S St. Louisans also demonstrated their passion for living by strongly supporting artistic endeavors. Music of all kinds is still enjoyed in blues bistros, arena rock concerts, riverfront shows, and symphony halls. With the opening of the renovated and renamed Peabody Opera House, Market Street is again the site of worldclass stage shows for large audiences in sumptuous surroundings. All of the creative arts have been revitalized, as well, in the rejuvenated Grand Center Historic District in Midtown St. Louis, offering several popular institutions housed in architectural gems from every era of the twentieth century. They include the Fox Theatre, H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 158

160 Powell Symphony Hall, The Contemporary Art Museum Saint Louis, Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, Sheldon Concert Hall and Galleries, St. Louis Black Repertory Theater Company, Grand Center Arts Academy and its rehabbed Sun Theater, KETC the PBS television station, and UMSL-owned KWMU, a National Public Radio station, which recently relocated from that campus. Opening at a different downtown location in 2014 will be the first National Blues Museum, thanks to $6 million from Pinnacle Entertainment, a casino operation that represents the region s newest industry. Another enterprise that will enrich our cultural environment is the new International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum. Gala Opening Night of the new Peabody Opera House on September 19, 2011, following a $79 million renovation of the old Kiel Auditorium. PHOTOGRAPH BY EMILY RASINSKI; COURTESY OF THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. E P I L O G U E 1 5 9

161 T H E M U S I A L M A G I C Stan Musial receiving the Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in the East Room of the White House on February 15, OFFICIAL PHOTOGRAPH BY PETER SOUZA; FREE USE ALLOWED UNDER WIKIMEDIA COMMONS AS THE WORK PRODUCT OF A FEDERAL EMPLOYEE. The greatest Cardinal ushered in an era of sustained success, wrote the Post-Dispatch on January 20, But it was his kindness and approachability that made him an enduring civic treasure. The affable, unconceited Stan Musial was a perfect fit for an unpretentious, baseball-crazy city that appreciated natural talent and maximum effort. Although he was born elsewhere, he loved St. Louis and never left, preferring local affection over the national attention he would have received in a larger, more lucrative media market. Here, being nice was most appreciated as one of the traditional hometown values of the Midwest. St. Louisans embraced Musial as a humble hero a person who inspired people to live better lives, or at least to make them feel better about their lives. While few mortals could match the incredible statistics he compiled between Pearl Harbor and President Kennedy s assassination, all of us can follow his example of spreading some joy to others. The greatness and graciousness of Stan the Man Musial epitomized the best Spirit of St. Louis. Our city will remain a better place long into the future, if those who meet friends under the bronze Musial Statue remember that in life, too, he always brought us together. ( R E ) S E A R C H I N G F O R A B E T T E R F U T U R E Laclede s intellectual legacy remains stronger than ever in the twenty-first century. It is reflected in our major research universities and universally-respected medical facilities that have produced several Nobel Laureates, the Baby Tooth Research Project on Radioactivity, the Human Genome Project, and the Masters and Johnson studies on human sexuality, among other contributions. The Missouri History Museum Archives and Research Center, the Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and other public and private libraries in the area make our city the global center of research on the American West. In addition, Washington University owns several of Thomas Jefferson s books, and Saint Louis University houses the largest collection of Vatican manuscripts in the Western Hemisphere. When the renovated Museum of Western Expansion at the Gateway Arch reopens in 2016, it will represent the most up-to-date educational exhibits on the American West. C O N T R I B U T I N G T O C I T I Z E N S H I P A N D C H A R I T I E S St. Louisans have long been described as compassionate and caring citizens with old fashioned hometown values, expressed by their generous support of many worthy causes. During the Great Depression in 1935, 71 percent of voting St. Louisans approved a $7.5 million bond issue to support a national memorial along the riverfront. Again, in 2013, voters agreed to a 3/16 cent sales tax that will raise $780 million to fund parks and an extensive makeover of the Gateway Arch grounds. Statistics from 2010 also revealed that St. Louisans per capita rate of online charitable contributions and volunteerism were among the highest of all major U.S. cities. In 2011, 60,000 local runners set a national record for participation in the Komen Race for the Cure of breast cancer. St Louis City was also the first U.S. community to honor returning vets of the Iraq War on February 4, 2012, as reported by NBC Nightly News. The H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 160

162 acclaimed humanitarianism of St. Louis native, Dr. Thomas Anthony Dooley III, in Southeast Asia has inspired his fellow citizens, such as the Reverend Larry Rice of the New Life Evangelistic Center, to help the disadvantaged here at home. Countless citizens worked for weeks to hold back the record-high flood waters in 1993 and assist the victims of that massive tragedy, as St. Louisans have always done for every tornado, earthquake, or other natural disaster. The same community-wide compassion resulted in a public outpouring of sympathy and respect when Stan Musial died in January Stan was the ultimate embodiment of the St. Louis Cardinals the city s most beloved institution. That franchise is the most successful in National League history, having won eleven World Series championships. But the Cardinals have lost eight other championships, and that, too, is worth remembering. Outspent by many other teams, the scrappy, underdog Cardinals have been the ultimate explorers in the search for success even with limited resources, and that resonates with a large fan-base that is not affluent. In a sort of apprentice system that recalls older mountain men training the younger in the keys to survival, the Cardinals recruit, train, and promote largely from within the organization, which places a premium on the special redbird way, referring to how players conduct themselves on and off the field to deserve the respect of passionate fans. All three Busch Stadiums have been places where warm people met on hot summer nights. In July 2013, Will Leitch ranked all of the major league baseball parks and declared that the current Busch Stadium was #7 due to its general warm vibe. He confessed that he would rather be there than just about anywhere else in the world. The 250th anniversary provides the best opportunity in the twenty-first century for the entire community to determine the identity and destiny of St. Louis. But we must first address the city s long-standing inferiority complex, which began in the nineteenth-century competition with Chicago for railroad supremacy and continues today in using Tax Increment Funding as a defensive measure to keep lucrative local companies in town. St. Louis has the urban equivalent of low self-esteem, because officials have spent decades tearing down beloved buildings, while citizens have been tearing down the city s reputation. Residents rarely boast but do bristle at every criticism from either coast and are amazed when a non-midwesterner actually appreciates their politeness and friendliness. Aaron Perlut, who co-launched the Rally St. Louis website in 2012, reflected the low level of boosterism in his blog, St. Louis Doesn t Suck. Borrowing the motto of Cahokia, Illinois, St. Louisans should have Pride in the Past and Faith in the Future. The two are linked, because a true appreciation of St. Louis as a special place worth praising must begin with a thorough, accurate knowledge of its history by enthusiastic residents who respect its achievements, while recognizing its deficiencies. In 2006, Richard Rosenfeld, UMSL criminology professor, wrote that St. Louis s best chance for a bright future depends on forging creative connections with the past. In his 2010 book, Beyond Preservation, Andrew Hurley agreed that we must study history to know what worked and what failed, what was admirable and what was reprehensible in the past, in order to devise innovative ways of adapting existing infrastructures to new conditions so as not to create a rupture between past and present. For two-and-a-half centuries, St. Louis has prospered from the confluence of rivers and the convergence of cultures, taking the lead in new commercial trends and always adapting to changing times. Ever since an exploring French businessman founded our city, a focus on transactions has helped our leaders adjust to transitions. Today, St. Louis is one of a very few premier Legacy cities, and is often compared to Boston for its significant contributions to American history across the centuries, as well as the current quality of life in its historic neighborhoods. Few cities have had as colorful a history as St. Louis, wrote three respected historians in Missouri: The Heart of the Nation (2004), E P I L O G U E 1 6 1

163 Opposite: Fireworks from Fair St. Louis light up the night sky on July 3, 2010, above the iconic, popular Gateway Arch and Old Courthouse. PHOTOGRAPH BY DAWN MAJORS; COURTESY OF THE ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. and today it remains one of the most interesting and distinctive of American cities. The nationwide name-recognition of St. Louis is the main reason that suburban residents continue to use the city as their postal address. In 1909, the St. Louis Republic stated that in the development of the United States, magnitude has been the dominant thought of its people. But Laclede pictured the city to grow on his selected site as something more and something better than merely big. He intended to establish a settlement which might become thereafter one of the finest cities in America. By rejecting the old Quantitative Ethic, which has depressed St. Louisans with a drop in population nearly impossible to reverse in the era of interstate highways, residents should embrace a Qualitative Ethic represented by a smaller, less crowded, and more livable, city, with the room and resources to improve their lives. The city is definitely finer because it is not bigger. It has all the facilities of a major city skyscrapers, international corporations, and a prestigious professional baseball team (fortunately founded when it was much larger) but provides a moderately-sized population with rare opportunities for home ownership and one of the lowest costs of urban living in the nation. All St. Louisans are similar to a retired couple of emptynesters, living in a large comfortable house designed for many more people. Most city residents are spared the rat-race pace of daily living, as well as the hellish commutes found in major metropolises on both coasts and in Chicago, too. City dwellers regard St. Louis as half-full, rather than half-empty, with its greater livability contributing to its lovability. St. Louisans have the patience to practice their famous politeness and to laugh at things considered silly in less enjoyable cities such as the 2011 World Series rally squirrel that scampered across home plate at Busch Stadium. At the end of his Lion of the Valley, James Neal Primm wrote that St. Louisans could claim to have turned things around in the 1980s, and they looked ahead to the next decade with more confidence than they had ten years earlier. That proved to be too optimistic, of course, but now there is a growing momentum for a true renaissance positive, progressive improvements embodied by the term metromorphosis, which was coined by UMSL professors Brady Baybeck and E. Terrence Jones in their 2004 book. Currently, high-level discussions are taking place among city and county officials about a possible future Great Reconciliation, and two organizations STL: World Class City and Better Together see many positive developments from such a merger. With a substantial portion of the U.S. population living within a 500-mile radius of St. Louis, it can be America s Carnival City again. It has the infrastructure and the attractions to please tourists, but the attitudes of residents must reflect a new optimism as they welcome visitors. As a city of explorers, St. Louis has always accepted the risks of searching for the new and different. Often such discoveries are not made or fully exploited, and the ways those disappointments are handled become discoveries themselves. Almost a century ago, Albert Ahern wrote a poem to honor The Trappers of North America, and this stanza seems most appropriate as an anniversary tribute for the old fur trade capital that has never stopped exploring for two-anda-half centuries: It isn t the size of the cabin you ve built, Nor what you have won in pelts or fame, The thing that counts is the right to say: I have kept the faith I have played the game. For all you have been, and for all you can become, St. Louis Happy 250th Birthday! H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 162

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165 City House and Jazz Bistro, among many venues in the popular Grand Center Entertainment District. OCTOBER 2010 PHOTOGRAPH BY OLIVER C. SLICER, WHO RELEASED IT INTO THE PUBLIC DOMAIN THROUGH WIKIMEDIA COMMONS. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 164

166 SHARING THE HERITAGE H i s t o r i c p r o f i l e s o f b u s i n e s s e s, o r g a n i z a t i o n s, a n d f a m i l i e s t h a t h a v e c o n t r i b u t e d t o t h e d e v e l o p m e n t a n d e c o n o m i c b a s e o f S t. L o u i s Quality of Life The Marketplace Building a Greater St. Louis S H A R I N G T H E H E R I T A G E 1 6 5

167 The World Chess Hall of Fame, which relocated to the St. Louis area in PHOTOGRAPH BY SARAH CARMODY. PUBLISHED COURTESY OF THAT ORGANIZATION. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 166

168 QUALITY OF LIFE H e a l t h c a r e p r o v i d e r s, f o u n d a t i o n s, u n i v e r s i t i e s, a n d o t h e r i n s t i t u t i o n s t h a t c o n t r i b u t e t o t h e q u a l i t y o f l i f e i n S t. L o u i s Lindenwood University Washington University in St. Louis SSM Health Care The University of Missouri-St. Louis St. Louis Mercantile Library and UMSL Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center Bi-State Development Agency Archdiocese of St. Louis St. Louis Community College Webster University St. Luke s Hospital JCI American Red Cross The Muny Fontbonne University World Affairs Council of St. Louis BJC HealthCare Delta Dental of Missouri Maryville University The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Ascension Missouri Botanical Garden Saint Louis Science Center Saint Louis Zoo Mathews-Dickey Boys & Girls Club Harris-Stowe State University Greater Saint Louis Community Foundation St. Mary of Victories Church (1843) Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet Central Bureau of the Catholic Central Verein of America Commemoration Committee for the Battle of Fort San Carlos Mercy Health Missouri Humanities Council St. Louis Public Library SPECIAL THANKS TO Max Kaiser, Jr. St. Andrew s Resources for Seniors System Webster University Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 1 6 7

169 LINDENWOOD UNIVERSITY Few schools anywhere have compiled a history as exciting or inspiring as Lindenwood University, a dynamic four-year liberal arts institution dedicated to excellence in higher education. Founded in 1827, Lindenwood took its name from the beautiful Linden trees that shade the historic 500-acre campus in St. Charles, a growing community just west of St. Louis. Lindenwood University offers more than 120 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 16,000 students from throughout the United States and ninety countries around the world. The faculty, staff and administration at Lindenwood are committed to an integrative liberal arts curriculum that focuses on the talents, interests and future of our students. In 1827, George and Mary moved to land he had purchased some years earlier near St. Charles in order to be near Mary s family. Mary immediately began teaching the young women of St. Charles while George cleared the land and established a homestead. The Sibley s property was named Linden Wood because of the many Linden (or basswood) trees that grew on the land. The Sibleys were strong supporters of education for women: they began their school at a time when formal education for women was uncommon in the United States. Mary commented that, Our country will never prosper unless the people get knowledge. In his writings, George said, Woman is the most important sex; and if but half of our race can be educated, let it be woman instead of man. Woman forms our character: she is with us through life; she nurses us in infancy; she watches us in sickness, soothes us in distress, and cheers us in the melancholy of old age. Left: George Sibley Before moving to St. Charles with his wife, Sibley served as the head official that traded with Indians at Fort Osage near current day Kansas City, Missouri. His descriptions of the Indians in that region were among the first by an American. Later, Sibley led the group that surveyed the route that later became known as the Santa Fe Trail, c PAINTING BY CHESTER HARDING. Right: Mary Easton Sibley Mary Sibley built a lifelong reputation for caring about the education of women and the underprivileged. Throughout her life she was active in charitable activities in St. Louis and St. Charles. Sibley s father was the second attorney general for the state of Missouri, as well as the first postmaster general for the city of St. Louis, c PAINTING BY CHESTER HARDING. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 168 Lindenwood was conceived by the husband and wife team of George Sibley and Mary Easton Sibley, who were dedicated to improving the life of the underserved. Prior to founding Lindenwood, George ran a government trading post for the Native Americans who lived close to Fort Osage, near present day Kansas City, Missouri. Mary began teaching the children of those living at the post, as well as the area s Native American children. After the fort closed around 1822, George headed the commission that surveyed what later became known as the Santa Fe Trail. The school was small, and the challenges were great during the early days, but a member of the board of directors during the 1840s, Samuel Watson, generously supported Lindenwood by donating as much as $20,000 and ninety-two acres of land, a tremendous contribution during that era. It was through Watson s gifts that Lindenwood was able to

170 weather a period of political turmoil in the nation and low enrollment at the college. Because of her belief that all segments of society should be educated, Mary attempted to organize a school for local slave children in The attempt failed because slave owners feared that educated slaves might lead a rebellion. The famous abolitionist, Elijah Lovejoy, visited St. Charles often and would preach sermons at the local Presbyterian Church denouncing slavery. During one visit, Lovejoy infuriated local slave owners to the point that they threatened to lynch him. Lovejoy fled to Lindenwood, where the Sibleys lent him a horse on which he escaped the mob. George and Mary turned the school over to the Presbyterian Church in 1856, a year in which there was intense controversy over the issue of slavery. Shortly after the Civil War, Lindenwood went through a period of infighting among its board of directors. After the war had ended, the board was divided over its loyalty to the United States. The squabble ended up before the Missouri Supreme Court, which granted control of the college to the Northern Presbyterian Church, which supported the union. After the Presbyterian Church settled the issues dividing the board of directors, growth at Lindenwood proceeded at a much more orderly pace for the next six decades. During the period of , benefactors James and Margaret Butler gave much of their fortune to the college and significant changes began to occur. The Reverend John Roemer was persuaded to leave his congregation in St. Louis to head Lindenwood. Under Roemer s guidance, Lindenwood became a four-year college, gained regional accreditation, began an extensive building program and quadrupled the student body. The school also enhanced its academic reputation during this period by attracting to its faculty a large number of graduates from Ivy League schools. As Lindenwood s academic reputation grew, the school was promoted as the Wellesley of the West. Franc McCluer became president of Lindenwood in 1947, and his leadership and amiable personality helped the college nearly double enrollment, increase classroom space and further enhance its reputation as a quality institution. Between Roemer and McCluer, Lindenwood enjoyed nearly fifty years of stable and wise leadership. Above: One of the earliest existing advertisements for Lindenwood is this 1839 broadside. During the early history of the college, Lindenwood was known as a finishing school for women. By the late 1800s, students had the option of participating in studies comparable to those of men; by 1914 Lindenwood was fully accredited. Left: Built in 1856, Sibley Hall was the first of many brick buildings constructed over the next 150+ years. As Lindenwood grew, Sibley Hall received additions in 1881 and 1886 to accommodate the need for more space. The signature columns to the front of the building were added in Sibley Hall is still being used today. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 1 6 9

171 Top: Evans Commons in 2011, Lindenwood opened its new 119,000 square foot student center. The building includes a food court, laundry facilities, student mailboxes, student government offices, basketball courts, an elevated track and an exercise facility. Center: Continuing a long tradition of promoting the arts, in 2008, The J. Scheidegger Center for Fine and Performing Arts was opened. Within the Scheidegger Center are found classrooms, a 1,200 seat Broadway style theater, the 200 seat Emerson Black Box Theater, the Boyle Family Gallery, and the Charter Communications HD Television Studio. Bottom: The 2012 LU footballhomecoming Lindenwood s football team is just one of the many successful sports programs that the university makes available to students. Half of Lindenwood s sports, in 2013, will finish the transition into NCAA division II play. The nation was undergoing a tumultuous period of social change after McCluer left in As baby-boomers neared college age, they were less inclined to attend private, single-sex institutions such as Lindenwood, thus creating a difficult transition period as enrollment declined sharply and the school s endowment shrunk. To counter these problems, Lindenwood became a coeducational institution in 1969, a decision that was not immediately embraced by all the students. Many of the women who attended Lindenwood at the time, as well as many alumni, were upset by the decision and protested by burning an effigy of the president because they were not consulted about the change. In time, however, the students adjusted to the coed status, and campus life returned to normal. Under the leadership of President William C. Spencer, the college established one of the first accelerated learning programs in the United States in Called The Lindenwood College of Individualized Education, the initiative helped stabilize student enrollment during the 1970s. The school s endowment, which continued to diminish through the 1980s, began to change when President Dennis Spellmann took charge in 1990 and shifted the school s direction. Spellmann realized he could turn around the institution s financial situation by increasing revenue flow through building additional dormitories and filling them with students enticed by attractive financial aid packages. Spellmann also increased the emphasis on the school s sports programs, feeling this would help boost Lindenwood s appeal to students. Dr. James Evans became president in 2007 and continued Lindenwood s tradition of expansion and innovation. Through Evans leadership, the school has continued to grow in enrollment, campus improvements and endowment. Lindenwood has shifted its area of greatest growth from the original campus in St. Charles to a daughter campus in Belleville, Illinois. In addition, Lindenwood has continued to build on its fine academic reputation, instituted doctoral programs and increased the percentage of faculty with terminal degrees to eighty-one percent. Also, half of LU s sports programs have moved to NCAA s Division II. Lindenwood University is now involved in a bold campus expansion plan that blends old traditions with new and will provide the facilities to carry the school well into the future. This expansion has already produced the grand 138,000 square foot J. Scheidegger Center for the Arts; eight new 180 bed residence H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 170

172 halls; the Evans Commons, a 119,000 square foot student center that includes a second dining hall, multipurpose courts, a suspended jogging track, a workout facility, recreation rooms and plenty of room for student relaxation; the University Student- Athlete Center, a 43,000 square foot building with an academic success center, locker rooms for NCAA sports programs, athletic training facilities, coaches offices and a new Champion s Room; and a new main entry gate near the southeast corner of the campus at the intersection of First Capitol Drive and Kingshighway. Additional growth has included the renovation and expansion of Harmon Hall, which now houses the university s School of Business and Entrepreneurship. Nine classrooms and several seminar halls, breakout rooms, the Dunseth Auditorium and office space have been added. The existing interior was updated and remodeled, and a new facade was added to the entire building. In the immediate future, Lindenwood plans to continue developing its Belleville, Illinois, campus in a way that will establish it as one of the highest quality liberal arts colleges in the Midwest. In St. Charles County, the university plans to increase student and curricular growth by opening a new School of Nursing and Allied Health Services and offering a BSN completion program, an MSN in Nursing and various other allied health programs. Lindenwood plans to add to the attractiveness of college life by working with a commercial partner to create a new retail center or campus town in St. Charles. This center will include the city s new post office, a supermarket, a hotel, restaurants and additional dormitories for students. Lindenwood strives to be the preeminent representative of a new category in higher education the teaching university. A teaching university does not aspire to be the research university that populates the mainstream of higher education. Rather, it stands for teaching excellence and fiscal responsibility and seeks foremost to be accessible and affordable to students. Lindenwood University is known nationally and internationally for innovation, entrepreneurship and extraordinary dedication to students. It believes that education is a way to personal freedom and responsibility, which are the keystones of any democracy. Lindenwood s liberal arts heritage dates back 186 years, and in that time the university has learned how to educate in a way that helps each student become an enlightened, principled citizen of a global community. Lindenwood is an independent institution firmly rooted in Judeo-Christian values. Those values include belief in an ordered, purposeful universe, the dignity of work, the worth and integrity of the individual, the obligations and privileges of citizenship and the primacy of truth. George and Mary would hardly recognize the little women s college they established in 1827 in the middle of the wilderness, but they would take pride in the way Lindenwood has grown by emphasizing its founding principles and developing valuescentered programs that meet the needs of today s students. Additional information is available on the Internet at Commencement ceremony in 2012 since its beginning, Lindenwood has produced more than 40,000 graduates. In recent years, nearly 2,500 well rounded, responsible citizens have annually graduated with degrees from Lindenwood University. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 1 7 1

173 WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS Above: In 1899, after holding a national design competition, Washington University selected the Philadelphia firm Cope & Stewardson to design a new Collegiate Gothic campus. The original concept was illustrated by Hughson Hawley. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE WUSTL ARCHIVES. Below: Washington University s original campus was in downtown St. Louis. Academic Hall, the first building completed, opened for classes in PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE WUSTL ARCHIVES. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 172 Washington University in St. Louis was founded by St. Louisans to serve the educational needs of St. Louis. It began on February 22, 1853, when Missouri Governor Sterling Price signed a charter into law establishing Eliot Seminary. The charter was the work of St. Louis merchant and State Senator Wayman Crow, who had named the new educational venture after his friend, cofounder and Pastor William Greenleaf Eliot, Jr. But Eliot declined to have the entity named for himself and insisted that the school be nonsectarian. After a series of early name changes, the name Washington University was settled on because the charter was signed on George Washington s birthday. The charter was amended to reflect the name change in Initially, the university was located in downtown St. Louis and began offering a range of academic, practical, and scientific options. Its first academic building at Seventeenth and Washington was completed in The Collegiate Department, the forerunner of the College of Arts & Sciences opened in 1858 and graduated its first class of five students in Programs were added in engineering, law, fine arts, manual training, and medicine. Eliot, Jr., became the university s third chancellor in Campus life was thriving; Student Life, which is still publishing today, became the student-run publication in By the 1880s and 1890s, the university occupied three city blocks as well as two buildings nearby. But smoke from burning coal cast a pall on the already-aged structures, and families of means had moved farther west for space and open air, signaling the need for a change. By 1894 the board of directors had acquired a 103 acre site on the western limits of the city, beyond Tom Skinker s Road. (The board later added fifty acres, shifting the boundary south to Forsyth and west to Big Bend.) In 1895 the board employed Olmsted, Olmsted, and Eliot, the premier landscape architects in the country, to develop a preliminary plan for the site. The firm recommended a monumental main building, facing east toward Forest Park, with a series of quadrangles behind it for the new campus, which became known as the Hilltop Campus. Fortuitously, in 1895, the board of directors named St. Louis businessman Robert S. Brookings as its new president, a role he would serve in for the next thirty-three years, transforming the university. Brookings promptly raised funds for the first six buildings. In 1899 the university launched a design competition with six prominent architecture firms submitting detailed block plans and elevations. A jury unanimously selected the plan of Philadelphia firm Cope and Stewardson, which proposed Collegiate Gothic-style buildings, cloistered quadrangles, and flexible spaces. The cornerstone for the first building, Busch Hall, was laid in 1900, quickly followed by the cornerstone laying for University (now Brookings) Hall and the other seven buildings in the pioneer group. Still, the university needed more funding. Ever resourceful, Brookings took advantage of the plans to hold the 1904 St. Louis World s Fair officially the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in adjacent Forest Park and leased the Hilltop Campus buildings to the Fair.

174 Left: Seigle Hall, an interdisciplinary learning center, houses the departments of Economics, Political Science, and Education, as well as additional space for the law school. The LEED-certified building was designed by Kallman, McKinnell and Wood Architects. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF DAVID KILPER/ WUSTL PHOTOS. The university was the site for two other events in 1904: the Olympic Games, the third Olympiad held in the modern era and the first in the Western Hemisphere, and the Congress of Arts and Sciences, in which 500 scholars gathered to discuss human knowledge and progress. Finally, the university was able to move into its new quarters. A chapel service on January 30, 1905, inaugurated the academic use of the new campus, and classes began that day. In 1908, when David F. Houston arrived as the university s fifth chancellor, he gave a key address before the Commercial Club of St. Louis. In his address, titled A University for the Southwest, Houston outlined his vision for Washington University still largely a regional school as a great national university with special ties to the South and West. In 1910, Brookings turned his attention to the Medical Department of Washington University, formed through the 1891 acquisition of St. Louis Medical College, which merged in 1899 with Missouri Medical College. Abraham Flexner, a Johns Hopkins graduate who had undertaken an independent quality assessment of 155 medical schools in the United States and Canada, wrote of his visit to Washington University that he found the school a little better than the worst I had seen elsewhere, but absolutely inadequate in every essential respect. Shocked, Brookings and Chancellor Houston asked the board of directors to appoint a reorganization committee. The committee recruited a stellar group of faculty, which formed a governing group known as the Executive Faculty. The university formed an affiliation with Barnes Hospital and St. Louis Children s Hospital, which were relocating to Kingshighway, and promised to build a first-class medical school on property adjacent to the hospitals. In each hospital, the staff was to consist exclusively of medical school faculty. By the time of the medical school s dedication in 1915, Brookings had established one of the best medical schools in the country. On the Hilltop Campus, the law school and the School of Fine Arts arrived from downtown in 1909; Architecture separated from Engineering in 1910; and the School of Commerce and Finance debuted in Academic programs grew and student life flourished until the arrival of World War I in Students and faculty left for the front, and military trainees took their place on campus. The war s end brought an era of prosperity and swelling student enrollment, in part because of returning veterans but also because a university education was within reach for more families. With this influx of students, the Hilltop Campus became overcrowded, signaling a need for new construction. In the 1920s, Arts and Sciences became the College of Liberal Arts; a School of Graduate Studies opened, as did the university s first summer school, and in 1927, the George Warren Brown Department of Social Work. Also in Below: James D. Lightbody receives the trophy for winning the eighty-meter run at the 1904 Olympics. Track and field events for the 1904 Games were held on Washington University s Francis Field. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI HISTORICAL SOCIETY, ST. LOUIS. Bottom: Brauer Hall and Green Hall, both LEED Gold certified, house a variety of engineering departments and programs. They also serve as home to the International Center for Advanced Renewable Energy and Sustainability (I-CARES), an organization promoting interdisciplinary research in the areas of renewable energy, biofuels, and environmental practices. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF JOE ANGELES/ WUSTL PHOTOS. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 1 7 3

175 Above: Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton, center, announces that the 2008 vice presidential debate will be held at Washington University. The university has hosted three internationally televised presidential debates and one vice presidential debate since PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF JOE ANGELES/ WUSTL PHOTOS. Opposite, top: The Center for Advanced Medicine on the Washington University Medical Campus is home to the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center, as well as more than 750 Washington University physicians and surgeons who provide multidisciplinary care. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF ROBERT J. BOSTON/ WUSTL SCHOOL OF MEDICINE. Opposite, bottom: BJC Institute of Health on the Washington University Medical Campus houses laboratories and support facilities to rapidly translate research findings into advances in medical treatment. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF ROBERT J. BOSTON/ WUSTL SCHOOL OF MEDICINE. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S , Arthur Holly Compton was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for work done while at the university, the first of twenty-three Nobel laureates to date affiliated with the university. Brookings resignation as board president in 1928 marked the end of an era of vision and extraordinary service. It also brought a time of concern and financial difficulty in the wake of the 1929 stock-market crash. America entered World War II on December 7, The war again changed the university as students began to enlist. Army students in critical fields arrived for training, and Engineering signed up students in record numbers. Army contracts also improved the university s finances. With the end of the war and the return of Compton as the university s ninth chancellor in 1946, student enrollment again began to grow and academic buildings began to rise. By 1952 the College of Liberal Arts became the last academic unit to admit minorities, finally bringing segregation to an end at the university. In 1953, Ethan A. H. Shepley, a lawyer and well-respected St. Louisan, became chancellor and began strategic preparation for a three year, $20 million Second Century Campaign. Among the changes funded by the campaign were new residence halls on the south forty section of the Hilltop Campus, reflecting Shepley s goal of transforming Washington University from a streetcar college to one with a national student body. In the 1960s, Chancellor Eliot oversaw expansion of faculty, students, and grant support and led efforts to offer interdisciplinary programs. However, under Eliot s watch, protests over issues of civil rights and the Vietnam War that occurred nationwide the time Eliot called the troubles culminated with the burning of the Air Force ROTC building on the Hilltop Campus. Providing Eliot with counsel and support during the troubles was a young cardiologist and vice chancellor for medical affairs at the School of Medicine, William H. Danforth. When Eliot retired in 1971, Danforth was the universal choice as thirteenth chancellor. Like university cofounders Crow and Eliot and longtime board President Brookings, Danforth had a transformative influence. In his address on Founders Day 1972, the new chancellor conveyed a native son s empathy for his city and said, I believe that Washington University is one of this community s contributions to mankind. (In 1976 the board of trustees made Washington University in St. Louis the school s official name, distinguishing it from the other U.S. higher education institutions with Washington as part of their name.) During his twenty-four years as chancellor, Danforth in partnership with his wife, Elizabeth Ibby Gray Danforth built a student-centered culture, recruited outstanding faculty, brought in research grants that solidified the university s stature as a national research university, and enhanced academic programs. A priority was stabilizing the university s finances, often with challenge grants from the Danforth Foundation. In 1978, he created the Commission on the Future of Washington University ten task forces chaired by trustees, each assigned to a school or major unit that came up with nearly 200 recommendations to strengthen the university. Their work led to the Alliance for Washington University Campaign, which raised a then-record $630.5 million.

176 Accomplishments during Danforth s chancellorship included 70 new faculty chairs; a $1.72 billion endowment; dozens of new buildings; triple the number of gift-supported scholarships; 60,000 students who graduated; and 11 Nobel Prizes, 2 Pulitzer Prizes, and 2 Poets Laureate. He continued to serve the university as chairman of the board of trustees, then vice chair and now as chancellor emeritus. Today s Washington University in St. Louis is both local and global under the leadership of Mark S. Wrighton, chancellor since In the academic year, the university had a $2.4 billion operating budget and a $5.7 billion endowment. It received $550.7 million in research support and awarded 3,924 degrees. For the undergraduate class that entered the university in fall 2013, it received more than 30,000 applications for 1,600 spots in the freshman class, and more than ninety percent of undergraduates were from outside the state of Missouri. It is increasingly diverse about forty percent of the student body is nonwhite, multicultural or international. Nearly 14,000 students are enrolled, with about half of them pursuing graduate studies. Comprehensive undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs are offered through Arts & Sciences (the College of Arts & Sciences, the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, and University College), George Warren Brown School of Social Work, School of Engineering & Applied Science, Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts (College of Architecture, Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design, and College and Graduate School of Art), School of Law, School of Medicine, Olin Business School, and the Institute for Public Health. Through the McDonnell International Scholars Academy, Chancellor Wrighton has built signature academic and research programs with premier universities in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, South America, Australia, and Africa. Current students and faculty come from more than 100 countries of the world. In the Wrighton era, more than forty new buildings have risen on the Danforth and Medical campuses, and the university has added other properties, such as the North Campus in St. Louis City and the 560 Music Center in University City. In 2012, Chancellor Wrighton wrote: A great university has great responsibilities to its students and to the society it serves. Together, we will educate and inspire the next generation of leaders. Our faculty and students will make significant improvements to improving human health. We will help to overcome poverty and contribute to a sustainable environment. Together, the people of Washington University will provide leadership to enhance the quality of life for all. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 1 7 5

177 Above: The founding sisters of the Sisters of St. Mary included, (clockwise, starting on lower left), Sister M. Elizabeth Becker, Sister M. Francis Reuter, Mother Mary Odilia Berger, Sister M. Magdalen Fuerst and Sister M. Odilia Schneider. PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF THE FRANCISCAN SISTERS OF MARY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Below: Mount St. Rose Throat and Chest Hospital, which was located in St. Louis County near the Mississippi River, opened in 1900 to care for people with tuberculosis. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF SSM HEALTH CARE. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 176 SSM HEALTH CARE SSM Health Care began when five Catholic sisters traveled from Germany in November 1872 to start a new life caring for the sick in America. Growing religious persecution in Europe influenced their choice to venture so far from home. When they arrived in St. Louis, Missouri, they could not speak a word of English and had only $5 among them. From this humble beginning, the sisters built an organization that has continued to provide for those in need and promote good health for more than 140 years. Today, SSM Health Care is a nationally recognized, Catholic not-for-profit health system serving four Midwestern states. A 2013 merger with Dean Health Systems in Wisconsin transformed SSM Health Care into one of the largest integrated delivery networks in the country. An integrated delivery network includes many multidisciplinary providers along the full continuum of patient care who work together to deliver the specific care that a patient needs, when they need it, and in the most appropriate setting. Founded by the Franciscan Sisters of Mary, SSM Health Care continues to be a force for good in the communities it serves. The organization s heritage of faith, compassion and healing began with the selfless devotion of the five founding sisters who weathered an arduous ocean crossing to New York City to meet the health care needs of those in a strange, new land. Upon arrival, they boarded a train for East St. Louis, crossed the frigid Mississippi River by ferry, and took shelter with the Ursuline Sisters. After a few weeks, they found an apartment in a tenement across the street from St. Mary of Victories Church, near the riverfront. By virtue of their proximity to and worship at the church, the young congregation of sisters became known as the Sisters of St. Mary. Living conditions were deplorable during the early days of the congregation. The tenements were overcrowded, food and water were often contaminated, raw sewage collected in open gutters, and carcasses from slaughterhouses rotted in the streets. Even the air was filled with soot, making it difficult to breathe. These conditions provided the perfect environment for breeding deadly diseases, such as cholera and diphtheria. Soon after their arrival, the sisters were faced with a challenge caring for victims of a smallpox epidemic that swept across St. Louis and eventually claimed 1,500 lives. The sisters proved resilient. Led by Mother Mary Odilia Berger, the young congregation helped meet the tremendous health needs of those living in the nineteenth century tenements. While other sisters tended to the sick, Mother Odilia transported supplies to the sisters in a basket she carried. The basket was also used to gather donations of money, food or medicine along the way. When Mother Odilia came upon someone in need, she never hesitated to give that person something from her basket.

178 It is said that one day while the sisters were out, a man came to their apartment begging for something to eat. Although the only thing in the kitchen was a loaf of bread, Mother Odilia gave it to the man, firmly believing that God would provide food for the sisters. Later that day, a child knocked at the door bearing a pan of rolls freshly baked by her mother. In 1877, the sisters opened their first hospital St. Mary s Infirmary in St. Louis one of the few hospitals offering care to the poor and to immigrants. For those who were unable to pay, the sisters simply registered the patient under the account Our Dear Lord s in their early ledgers, signifying that the Lord would provide for their care. As the years passed, the sisters increased their knowledge and skills, adopted new technology and established additional hospitals. They believed their ministry was to bring the healing presence of God and the love revealed through Jesus Christ to their sisters and brothers, especially those most in need. In 1894, seven Sisters of St. Mary, who were committed to a Franciscan way of life and were guided by Mary Augustine Giesen, formed a new community named the Sisters of St. Francis of Maryville, Missouri. The Maryville sisters opened their first hospital, St. Francis Hospital, in Both congregations continued to distinguish themselves as gracious, hospitable and committed women. They met the needs of the times, especially the needs of those who could not afford the basic necessities of life. Toward the turn of the twentieth century, tuberculosis was increasingly common. Out of fear of infecting other patients with the debilitating, contagious and often deadly disease, doctors were reluctant to admit people with tuberculosis into hospitals. In 1898, Sister Mary Helen Kyle convinced the St. Louis congregation to open a hospital specifically for those suffering from the feared disease. However, there was no money for the venture and Sister Mary Helen was told she would have to raise the funds herself. She and another sister took to the streets to beg for money. After their first day, they had raised a grand total of sixty-five cents. Undaunted, the sisters continued to beg, and slowly, the fund grew. After a year, a home located far from the dirty city air was purchased for $12,000. The money collected by Sister Mary Helen was used as a down payment on the purchase, and Mount St. Rose Throat and Chest Hospital opened in Sadly, one of the first patients in the new hospital was Sister Mary Helen, who would eventually die of tuberculosis in In 1933, the Sisters of St. Mary opened a nursing school for African Americans and converted St. Mary s Infirmary into the first Catholic hospital for African Americans in the United States. The Infirmary also served as a place where African-American physicians and nurses could practice their profession. Throughout their histories, both the Sisters of St. Mary and Sisters of St. Francis became leaders in establishing hospitals and advancing health education. As hands-on healers, managers, researchers and inventors, the sisters of both congregations were compassionate leaders in health care administration and nursing education. Above: St. Mary s Infirmary opened in May 1877 in St. Louis. It was the first hospital opened by the Sisters of St. Mary, who immigrated to the United States in November PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE FRANCISCAN SISTERS OF MARY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Below: In 1933, St. Mary s Infirmary in St. Louis became the first Catholic hospital for African Americans in the nation. It also was a place for African-American physicians and nurses to train and practice their profession. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE FRANCISCAN SISTERS OF MARY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 1 7 7

179 Above: In 2002, SSM Health Care became the first health care winner of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF SSM HEALTH CARE. Below: Sister Mary Jean Ryan, FSM, was the first president/ceo of SSM Health Care. She served at the helm of the organization for twenty-five years and continues as board chair. In 2011, William P. Thompson succeeded her as president/ceo of the organization. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF SSM HEALTH CARE. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 178 Following the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, both congregations began reconnecting as they planned for the future. By the early 1980s, they felt called to a shared future and began serious conversations to deepen their relationship. A vote in 1985 began the process of reunifying the two congregations as the Franciscan Sisters of Mary. The many hospitals started by the sisters were united in 1986 as SSM Health Care, and in 1987, the reunification of the congregations was finalized. Today, SSM Health Care includes 18 hospitals, more than 60 outpatient locations, about 175 physician clinic locations, regional home care and hospice services, a health plan, a pharmacy benefits management company and two long-term care centers. SSM Health Care operates with annual revenue of $5 billion and employs nearly 30,000 people, including 1,300 physicians. It is one of the largest employers in the communities it serves. In 2002, SSM Health Care became the first health care organization in the nation to win the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, given annually by the U.S. Department of Commerce to high-performing, high-quality organizations. SSM Health Care is headquartered in St. Louis, with hospitals and care facilities located in Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma and Wisconsin. The St. Louis metro area has the largest concentration of SSM hospitals, including: SSM Cardinal Glennon Children s Medical Center, St. Louis SSM DePaul Health Center, Bridgeton SSM St. Clare Health Center, Fenton SSM St. Joseph Health Center, St. Charles SSM St. Joseph Health Center Wentzville SSM St. Joseph Hospital West, Lake Saint Louis SSM St. Mary s Health Center, Richmond Heights Also located in St. Louis are four SSM Urgent Care Centers, along with multiple outpatient care sites and physician clinic locations. SSM Integrated Health Technologies and SSM Home Care are also based in St. Louis and partner with local operations throughout the system.

180 In mid-missouri, SSM Health Care operates nine clinics and two hospitals St. Mary s Health Center in Jefferson City and Audrain Medical Center in Mexico. In addition, SSM Health Care owns and operates St. Francis Hospital & Health Services in Maryville, which serves residents in a nine-county rural region that reaches into Iowa. Wisconsin is home to three SSM hospitals located in Madison, Janesville and Baraboo and to SSM s Dean Health Systems, which includes a physician group, a health plan, a pharmacy benefits company and an accountable care organization with St. Mary s Hospital in Madison. In Illinois, SSM Health Care jointly sponsors St. Mary s Good Samaritan, Inc., in Centralia and Mount Vernon. In Oklahoma, SSM operates St. Anthony Hospital and Bone and Joint Hospital at St. Anthony in Oklahoma City, St. Anthony Shawnee Hospital in Shawnee, and two St. Anthony Healthplexes. The year 2013 was full of important milestones for SSM Health Care. It began with the opening of the replacement hospital for Good Samaritan Regional Health Center in Mount Vernon, Illinois. By spring, SSM Health Care added its eighteenth hospital with the purchase of Audrain Medical Center in Mexico, Missouri. In summer, the final beam was put in place for the next replacement hospital, which will open in Jefferson City in the fall of Today, SSM Health Care is well-positioned to meet the health care needs of people in the twenty-first century who value convenient access to high-quality, affordable care. SSM Health Care is led by President and CEO William P. Thompson. He succeeded Sister Mary Jean Ryan, FSM, who served as president for twenty-five years until becoming chair of the board of SSM Health Care in SSM Health Care honors its rich heritage and the spirit of its founding sisters in a mission statement created by SSM Health Care employees: Through our exceptional health care services, we reveal the healing presence of God. Above: In 2013, SSM Health Care St. Louis won its fourth consecutive Best Place to Work recognition from the St. Louis Business Journal. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF SSM HEALTH CARE. Below: In 2013, Dean Health Systems merged into SSM Health Care. To commemorate the event, SSM Health Care President and CEO William P. Thompson, donned a Dean logo tie and visited with employees at many of the Madison, Wisconsin clinic locations. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF SSM HEALTH CARE. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 1 7 9

181 THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI- ST. LOUIS UMSL initially held classes in neighboring storefronts. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 180 The University of Missouri-St. Louis is the largest research university located in Missouri s most populous and economically important region. It provides excellent learning experiences and leadership opportunities to a diverse student body whose influence on the region upon graduation is immense. No other university brings more to bear on the social and economic advancement of the region than UMSL, which is fitting for a campus created just for that purpose. In 1958 residents of the Normandy School District passed a bond issue to purchase the Bellerive Country Club as its membership had decided to relocate. The district and its residents determined in the early 1960s that the best course of action was luring a higher education institution to the site as a means of offering more opportunities to St. Louis area residents and stabilizing nearby neighborhoods. During this period, the University of Missouri headed by President Elmer Ellis was exploring the possibility of campuses in Kansas City and St. Louis. The university ultimately decided the Bellerive site was ideal for a St. Louis area campus. So a deal was struck. Normandy would transfer ownership of the 128 acre country club for a nominal fee. In return, the university would establish a campus on the Bellerive site. State lawmakers, unanimously in the Senate and on a vote of in the House, passed legislation making the land transfer legal. Governor John Dalton quickly signed the legislation into law. So, in 1963, the University of Missouri-St. Louis opened on the grounds of a closed golf course in Normandy, Missouri. It had one building, a handful of faculty and fewer than 700 students. Classes were initially held in the former clubhouse and nearby storefronts along Natural Bridge Road. At its dedication, Ellis said UMSL was beginning with a strong liberal arts curriculum foundation, but added, What our successors in another generation will see to build [UMSL] into, only time can tell. Ellis would be impressed. Today, UMSL is spread across 350 acres of rolling hills in suburban St. Louis County adjacent to two Interstate highways and five minutes from Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. The campus has seventy academic and general-purpose buildings as well as a variety of student residence halls, condominiums and apartments. UMSL has developed a business park that houses the world headquarters of Express Scripts Inc. and operates two business incubators concentrating on life sciences and information technology. It has also opened a building in Grand Center the arts and entertainment district in St. Louis that houses classes and St. Louis Public Radio. UMSL has 1,500 faculty, 1,200 staff, 10 schools and colleges and a $200 million annual budget. More than ninety-six percent

182 of tenure and tenure-track faculty hold doctoral or terminal degrees in their respective fields and edit or have articles routinely published in a variety of nationally renowned academic journals. Several of the university s ninety-one degrees and programs have attained national recognition for quality, including biology, criminology, education, information systems, international business, nursing, optometry, psychology, public policy and tropical ecology. The UMSL faculty as a whole was ranked seventh nationally among universities with fewer than fifteen doctoral programs in the Academic Analytic s Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index behind Boston College and Georgetown University. UMSL enrolls nearly 17,000 students from 48 states and more than 100 countries, with 40,000 additional students participating in non-credit continuing education programs. Despite its international flavor, the UMSL student body comes primarily from, and reflects the diversity of, the region. More than 1,200 students live on campus and 175 students participate in one of eleven NCAA Division II sports programs. While UMSL graduates have taken leadership roles nationally and internationally, their influence remains centered in the St. Louis region. No university has more alumni in the St. Louis region. More than seventy percent of UMSL s 87,500 graduates live and work in the region supporting the unofficial campus tagline We Educate St. Louis. Above: UMSL today has seventy academic and general use buildings and enrolls nearly 17,000 students. Below: UMSL graduates more than 3,000 students a year most of whom remain in the region long after commencement. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 1 8 1

183 ST. LOUIS MERCANTILE LIBRARY AND UMSL Below: Founded in 1846, the St. Louis Mercantile Library is the oldest library west of the Mississippi River. Bottom: As a unit of the University of Missouri-St. Louis, students and researchers have gained greater access to the vast collections of the St. Louis Mercantile Library. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 182 The St. Louis Mercantile Library can look back on its heritage as the oldest library in continuing existence west of the Mississippi River with confidence in its important role in the future. Founded in 1846 by business leaders for the public good, the Mercantile was the city s first viable art museum, the city s first theater, an early college of sorts and a home for the city s earliest scientific and other learned societies. The Mercantile quickly evolved into a huge collection of books on every subject early universities used its law and medical book collections. Soldiers like the young William T. Sherman studied the tactics of Alexander and Napoleon in its stacks. Journalists such as Joseph Pulitzer read omnivorously in the library s holdings to learn the craft of writing. Authors like Kate Chopin, Sara Teasdale and Eugene Field studied the classics in the Mercantile. In the process, the Mercantile s holdings kept enlarging, and today, the many lesserknown holdings in art, manuscripts, photos and prints make the collections a kind of bibliographic laboratory for the history of reading and learning in America. The library was a great forum, an athenaeum, for the city. Its theater boasted many successful performances by Jenny Lind, Lola Montez and the initial seasons of the world-famous St. Louis Symphony. The library s lecture hall hosted Oscar Wilde, William Thackeray, Susan Anthony, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Herman Melville, as well as homegrown talents like Mark Twain. In serious times the library s halls rang with tumultuous speeches such as Senator Thomas Hart Benton s exhortation on Westward the Star of Empire, an impassioned speech on the development of the transcontinental railroad. The library became a bulwark for the Union in the 1860s, a place where the Emancipation Proclamation was read and ratified by the Missouri Legislature. Clearly, the Mercantile Library has lived its share of great historical events. Celebrating its 150th anniversary in 1996, members of the Mercantile decided to transfer its collections and assets to become part of the University of Missouri-St. Louis. The Mercantile s collections have grown and are now housed in a modern, secure, climatecontrolled facility on UMSL s campus in suburban St. Louis County. The relationship with UMSL has greatly increased public access, use and visibility of the Mercantile s art treasures and its historic collections that focus on the history, development and growth of the St. Louis region and the American West. Not only did it open the Mercantile s treasures to UMSL s students and faculty, but also the electronic conversion of the Mercantile s catalog records now allows access to researchers around the state, the nation and the world. Together, UMSL and the Mercantile are preserving the past for the future.

184 BLANCHE M. TOUHILL PERFORMING ARTS CENTER As university laboratories go, the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center at the University of Missouri-St. Louis is spectacular. Designed by world-renowned architectural firm, I. M. Pei, the Touhill is the region s best venue for patrons and performers. The facility serves as an academic laboratory for UMSL students in classes in the College of Fine Arts and Communication. Theater, music and dance students have the opportunity to learn and perform in the very same space that hosts some of the most talented and recognizable professional performers in their fields. The Touhill offers quality arts and entertainment from across the spectrum of the performing arts genres attracting nearly 1 million visitors since it opened in The 1,600 seat Anheuser-Busch Hall provides a breathtaking backdrop for big-name national acts, as well as locally produced attractions. The E. Desmond and Mary Ann Lee Theater is a versatile stage space that fits 350 patrons for national and local productions as well. Hundreds of UMSL s music and theater students take the big stage for music and dance concerts, musicals and plays, or to build sets and design lighting. They also use the smaller Lee Theater for more intimate music and stage performances. On any given day during the week, busloads of school children arrive at The Touhill. Some of them perform on stage. Others get to experience a symphony, opera, musical or dance performance for the first time often from one of UMSL s myriad presenting partners. The Arianna String Quartet and Modern American Dance Company, for example, have residence status with UMSL, meaning The Touhill serves as their performance home. Both are popular with external audiences and with students who learn from the groups professional performers. Among external groups that perform regularly at The Touhill are Ambassadors of Harmony, Jazz St. Louis, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Saint Louis Ballet, St. Louis Jazz Orchestra and Dance St. Louis. The ongoing relationship benefits patrons as well as the performers, who reach a diverse audience in a unique setting. The beauty and majesty of the Touhill enhances each of our presentations and thrills artists and audiences alike, said Michael Uthoff, artistic and executive director of Dance St. Louis. Now a decade old, The Touhill is achieving its goals of enhancing UMSL s performance programs and making world-class cultural performances accessible to new audiences particularly individuals living in north St. Louis County. The Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center at UMSL has become a tangible symbol of the power of the arts in the lives of its students and the community that continues to support it. Above: The Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center is a superior public performance venue as well as a unique student-learning laboratory. Below: UMSL students perform and practice their craft in the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 1 8 3

185 BI-STATE DEVELOPMENT AGENCY Below: MetroBus, wrapped for 2012 Fair Saint Louis, is driven in the Veiled Prophet Parade in Downtown St. Louis. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF LEE HARRIS. Bottom: MetroLink marked its twentieth anniversary in July PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF LEE HARRIS. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 184 Bi-State Development Agency (BSDA) is a multifaceted agency that includes public transit operations and transit oriented development as well as business enterprises related to aviation and tourism. Metro, the public transit system for the St. Louis region, is currently the best known division. Metro includes the 46-mile MetroLink light rail system; a MetroBus fleet of approximately 400 vehicles which serves 75 routes and more than 7,400 bus stops in St. Louis City, St. Louis County and St. Clair County, Illinois; and Metro Call-A-Ride, which primarily serves the elderly and disabled with a fleet of 121 vans. BSDA owns and operates St. Louis Downtown Airport and its surrounding industrial business park located in Cahokia and Sauget, Illinois. Additionally, BSDA operates the Gateway Arch trams, ticketing center and parking facility in a unique partnership with the National Park Service. BSDA also owns and operates excursion boats on the Mississippi Riverfront as part of its tourism operations. BSDA was established in 1949 through an Interstate compact between Missouri and Illinois. Legislation establishing the compact was ratified by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Harry S. Truman. The agency employs approximately 2,400 persons and is governed by a 10 member Board of Commissioners comprised of 5 members from Missouri and 5 from Illinois. BSDA is neither governmental nor private. It has no taxing authority, but as a quasi-public agency, it is authorized to issue revenue bonds, collect fees and receive funds from federal, state and private agencies. While the agency may be best known for its public transit services, its overall mission is to drive economic development on both sides of the Mississippi River, said BSDA President and CEO John M. Nations. The organization has broad powers that enable us to cross local, county and state boundaries to plan, construct, maintain, own and operate services and entities crucial to the economic vitality of the region like bridges, tunnels, airports and terminal facilities, and to plan and establish policies for other critical infrastructure for the region. During its first years of operation the agency focused on regional challenges, including commissioning a comprehensive plan for development of the Missouri-Illinois Metropolitan District, which outlined major needs of the region and recommended solutions. The agency also conducted a study of water pollution on the Mississippi River, a study of sewer problems in St. Louis County, which led to the establishment of the Metropolitan Sewer District, and an area-wide survey of highways and expressways in Missouri and Illinois, which became one of the first instances of coordinated interstate highway planning. BSDA continues to play a role as a leader in regional infrastructure planning, financing and development and is currently involved in several projects that may prove beneficial to the region in the future. These projects include evaluating the potential for a new MetroLink station as the mobility hub for the rapidly growing Cortex area in the Central West End of St. Louis; working with regional leaders on High Speed Rail connectivity from St. Louis to Chicago; and strategizing with area leadership on formation of a Regional Freight District to support and grow the region s logistics and freight industries.

186 In the 1960s the St. Louis region s public transit system was operated by 15 private companies that were all plagued with financial and reliability issues. A study commissioned by the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County recommended a unified, region wide approach to public transportation and BSDA was called on to provide the solution to this critical regional challenge. In 1963 the agency issued bonds and purchased those 15 private transit companies to create the first St. Louis regional transit agency. More than fifty years later MetroBus leads the transit industry with improved efficiencies that provide maximum return on public investment entrusted to the agency. In addition to the wise stewardship of public funds, the MetroBus predictive maintenance program is viewed as a model to transit agencies around the world for its success in significantly stretching the life of transit service vehicles and improving reliability by increasing the number of miles between bus breakdowns. In recent years, MetroBus has been nationally recognized for record ridership. During the 1970s, BSDA was one of the first transit agencies in the nation to operate wheelchair lift-equipped buses in regular service. In 1987, BSDA introduced Call-A-Ride, a curb-to-curb service designed to ensure accessibility for customers with disabilities. Today, Call-A-Ride transports approximately 600,000 passengers a year. Plans for a light rail transit system for the region finally started to become reality in 1988 when a full funding agreement for MetroLink was signed in a ceremony on top of the Gateway Arch parking facility. This agreement symbolized a commitment by the federal government to fund construction of MetroLink, and by Metro to design, build and operate the system in cooperation with the jurisdictions served by BSDA. The original seventeen-mile MetroLink alignment opened in July 1993 with sixteen stations and began operating between the North Hanley Station in Missouri and the Fifth and Missouri Station in East St. Louis, Illinois. Less than a year later, MetroLink s Lambert Airport Terminal #1 Station and the East Riverfront Station opened. During a visit to St. Louis on June 24, 1994, President Bill Clinton rode MetroLink from the airport to Union Station, becoming the first U.S. president in office to ever ride an American light rail system. The Lambert Airport Terminal #2 Station was added in MetroLink quickly became one of the greatest success stories in the agency s history as the region chose MetroLink as a viable option for getting to work, school and special events. MetroLink ridership more than doubled in January 1999 during a historic visit to St. Louis by Pope John Paul II. Above: St. Louis Downtown Airport, located only three miles from Downtown St. Louis, conveniently serves corporate business travelers, sports teams, and elected officials, as well as aviation enthusiasts. Left: President Bill Clinton rode MetroLink from Lambert-St. Louis International Airport to Union Station on June 24, Below: Metro Call-A-Ride operator helps a customer board in January 2014 after the St. Louis region was hit with more than a foot of snow. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF LEE HARRIS. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 1 8 5

187 Above: Gateway Arch Riverboats cruise the mighty Mississippi River at St. Louis. Below: Metro transit operates MetroLink, MetroBus, and Metro Call-A-Ride services. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF LEE HARRIS. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 186 In 2001, MetroLink expanded and began operating on the 17.4 mile St. Clair County MetroLink extension to serve eight new MetroLink stations and seven Metro Park- Ride lots from Fifth & Missouri in East St. Louis to Southwestern Illinois College in Belleville. MetroLink service extended further into Illinois in 2003 with a 3.5 mile extension from Southwestern Illinois College to Scott Air Force Base. In 2006, Metro opened the eight-mile Cross County MetroLink Extension, expanding service from the Forest Park-DeBaliviere Station southward to Shrewsbury, Missouri. Today, the forty-six mile MetroLink system ranks near the top of the industry for its on-time performance of ninety-seven percent, and is an essential component of a transit system admired around the world for its efficiencies. In addition the areas around the MetroLink stations are continuing to experience significant private investment. Since 2011, more than $1.8 billion in public and private development has been built, is now under construction, or planned within a half-mile of MetroLink stations. The East-West Gateway Council of Governments collaborated with BSDA to develop a thirty year long-range regional transit plan known as Moving Transit Forward. The plan, which was completed in 2010, is based on a comprehensive look at expansion options, market research consideration of new, existing and future transit technologies, and a detailed funding plan that outlines the critical role of local, state and federal support. The oldest excursion boat company on the Mississippi River began operation in 1891 as Streckfus Steamers and has called St. Louis its home port since The name was later changed to Gateway Riverboat Cruises, and in 2001, BSDA purchased the company along with its riverboats, the Becky Thatcher and the Tom Sawyer. BSDA has been operating them since then as Gateway Arch Riverboats, an extension of the educational venues of the Gateway Arch to share the rich history of the region and the Mississippi River.

188 The construction of the Gateway Arch presented unique design, construction and funding challenges, and as a result, BSDA was asked to provide solutions for funding and operations. It financed construction of the tram system through the sale of $3.3 million in revenue bonds. The Arch was completed in 1965 and the tram system opened to the public in 1967, carrying visitors 630 feet to the top of the Gateway Arch in cable-drawn pods. BSDA continues to operate the trams to this day. In 1983, at the request of regional leaders, BSDA issued $8.4 million in bonds for a 1,224 car parking facility to serve visitors to the Gateway Arch and other riverfront attractions. The garage opened in 1986 and the bonds were paid off in December BSDA employees have worked seamlessly with the National Park Service since the partnership began in 1962 to expand the Gateway Arch tram ride attraction into an internationally recognized, multifaceted attraction destination, which includes a museum, two movie theaters, bike rentals, riverboat cruises and sightseeing rides from the nation s only floating heliport. Nearly one million visitors from every corner of the world take a trip to the top of the Gateway Arch at the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial for a chance to see thirty miles in every direction, after experiencing 200 years of westward expansion history in the museum below. Before the Gateway Arch the iconic symbol on the St. Louis Riverfront was the historic Eads Bridge, which opened in 1874 and is now a partnership between BSDA and the City of St. Louis. BSDA is using a federal grant, through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, to restore the national landmark, which was the first steel structure bridge project in the United States. Extensive rehabilitation of the bridge s support structure and rail deck is underway and expected to be completed by the end of MetroLink trains cross the bridge over the Mississippi River nearly 300 times a day, and along with the vehicular deck on the bridge, provide a critical connection for the region. In the early 1960s area leaders recognized a need to develop reliever airports for Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, and BSDA was asked to help solve this regional challenge. In 1964, BSDA purchased Parks Metropolitan Airport, which had ceased operation. BSDA reopened it in 1965 as Bi-State Parks Airport. In 1999 the facility was renamed St. Louis Downtown Airport to emphasize its three-mile proximity to downtown St. Louis. The airport is now the third busiest in Illinois, behind O Hare and Midway Airports in Chicago, and the second busiest airport in the bi-state region. In 2012 the Illinois Department of Transportation reported that the airport and surrounding industrial business park contribute $584 million in annual economic benefit to the local economy. The reconstruction of the airport s primary runway was completed in 2011 to handle aircraft weighing up to 200,000 pounds such as the Airbus 320 and the Boeing 757. Since 2013 the airport has seen a significant increase in the number of large charter planes bringing professional sports teams and others to St. Louis. Every day the Bi-State Development Agency contributes in many different ways to help keep the St. Louis region moving. The ownership of the historic Eads Bridge is a partnership between Bi-State Development Agency and the City of St. Louis. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF LEE HARRIS. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 1 8 7

189 ARCHDIOCESE OF ST. LOUIS St. Louis history is closely intertwined with the Catholic Church in Missouri and, for the most part, it is the Church and Her faithful who have led the city during its 250 year history. Without the influence of the pioneer priests, religious and lay Catholics who labored to spread the Gospel, assimilate the Church into its new society, and tend to the needs of all St. Louisans, the city would not be the culturally rich place it is today. or Old Cathedral. French Catholics from Illinois began to populate the St. Louis settlement after the British gained control of the territory east of the Mississippi, necessitating the construction of the first permanent church building in The church was granted the status of a canonical parish in 1776, but it was not until the arrival in 1818 of William L. V. DuBourg, bishop of the Diocese of Louisiana and the Two Floridas, that the story of the established church in the St. Louis area begins. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 188 The Rome of the West a moniker the Catholic Church in St. Louis has long held is unlike many early American cities, which were strongly English and Protestant. St. Louis was founded by French Catholics, developed by Catholics of many ethnic origins, and has never lost its distinctive Catholic character. Almost every corner of the city is an exhibit of the impact of the Church on civic life in St. Louis. When Pierre Laclede began planning the village named for St. Louis IX in 1764, he dedicated the square next to his home for a church, which would become the site of one of the city s most significant landmarks, the Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France Education and social service have been main concerns for St. Louis Catholics since DuBourg s arrival, and the bishop s early contributions are still felt by modern residents. Prior to coming to St. Louis, DuBourg recruited large groups of men and women religious to establish schools, hospitals and charitable institutions, and many of these orders still have representatives in the region. One of DuBourg s first acts was to establish St. Louis College, the first institute of higher education west of the Mississippi. He followed this with establishment of the first Catholic seminary in the West in 1822, choosing as its president the future Bishop Joseph Rosati. DuBourg also brought the Jesuits to the area, including the legendary Peter de Smet to establish an Indian school and seminary. The Religious of the Sacred Heart, led by the future St. Rose Philippine Duchesne, came to establish schools, convents and orphanages. Bishop DuBourg resigned his post in 1826 to return to France. The bishopric of Louisiana was soon split in two, and the Diocese of St. Louis was officially established.

190 Dubourg s successor, Joseph Rosati, was installed as bishop in 1827 and chose to remain in St. Louis. Among Rosati s many accomplishments was the completion and dedication of the Cathedral of Saint Louis, King of France in The Old Cathedral remains the oldest building in the city and was the only structure left intact in the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. Rosati continued DuBourg s practice of bringing religious orders to St. Louis to establish schools and social welfare institutions. These included the Daughters of Charity, who founded St. Louis Mullanphy hospital, the first hospital west of the Mississippi. Today, the hospital is known as DePaul Hospital. Following Rosati s death in 1843, Peter Richard Kenrick succeeded as the second bishop of St. Louis. Because of its growing population, the Diocese of St. Louis was elevated to the rank of archdiocese in 1847, making it the third ecclesiastical province to be erected in the United States. The city of St. Louis suffered through devastating cholera epidemics and a destructive fire during this period, and the city s Catholic population, which numbered around 25,000, was not spared the effects of these disasters. The Church ensured that those who suffered from disease or lost their homes in the fire had a chance to recover their health and property. The St. Vincent DePaul Society, which opened its first U.S. chapter in St. Louis in 1845, was quick to assist victims with basic needs. Religious orders continued their care for the struggling population. During the divisive Civil War, Archbishop Kenrick instructed his clergy and lay faithful that neutrality was his official approach, and he never publicly expressed his views on slavery. Kenrick was a skillful shepherd to his flock, and sixteen new dioceses were created during his nearly fifty years as archbishop. Parish life thrived during his leadership and St. Louis Catholicism truly came into its own. Kenrick died in 1896 at the age of eighty-nine and was succeeded by John Kain of West Virginia. Shortly after Archbishop Kain s installation, St. Louis was hit by a tornado that killed over 130 people and damaged hundreds of buildings, including several Catholic churches. Despite the tragedy, Kain was able to implement a directive that each parish establish an elementary school. In addition, Kain chose the site of Lindell Boulevard and Newstead Avenue as the future home of the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis (known as the New Cathedral. ) Archbishop Kain died in 1903 and was succeeded by John Joseph Glennon, who was destined to serve the archdiocese for forty-three years. His reign coincided with one of the strongest and most vibrant periods in St. Louis history. The 1904 World s Fair in St. Louis was a pivotal event in the city s history, bringing growth and a level of prestige to the city it had never before experienced. The Church was also growing, and in 1908 Glennon laid the cornerstone for what would become the Cathedral Basilica at Lindell and Newstead. In addition, Glennon presided over construction of the new Kenrick Seminary and inaugurated the archdiocesan high school system. Religious orders continued to establish healthcare and charitable institutions during this era, and outstanding clergymen such as Father Timothy Dempsey established rooming houses and food pantries for impoverished Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 1 8 9

191 citizens. Lay Catholics also founded social action organizations such as the National Catholic Women s Union to help those in need. In 1912 these efforts culminated in the establishment of Catholic Charities of St. Louis. Archbishop Glennon served the archdiocese during the trying times of World War I, the Great Depression, and World War II. He was named a cardinal by Pope Pius XII in February of 1946, and died in March of the same year. He was succeeded by Joseph Elmer Ritter. One of Ritter s first acts as archbishop was to declare the end of racial segregation in parochial schools. This came eight years before the U.S. Supreme Court would take similar action in regard to public schools. Growth in St. Louis exploded during the post-war economic boom, and Ritter established an average of three parishes per year in St. Louis city and county. A total of sixty parishes were opened during his tenure. Ritter also developed what is now known as the Annual Catholic Appeal, which remains a primary source of financial support for many archdiocesan educational and charitable activities. Ritter was elevated to the College of Cardinals in 1961 and played a significant role in the Second Vatican Council. On August 24, 1964, at Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis, Ritter celebrated the world s first authorized Mass in English. John Joseph Carberry succeeded Ritter in 1968 during one of the most turbulent times in both ecclesiastical and American history. Carberry led the archdiocese through unprecedented social and political upheaval and gently guided his flock through the post- Vatican II era. When the U.S. Supreme Court decided in favor of legalized abortion in Roe versus Wade, Carberry issued a pastoral letter concerning the rights of unborn children and established the first archdiocesan Pro-Life Committee in the nation. Cardinal Carberry s successor, John Lawrence May took his post in 1980 and guided the archdiocese through a rapidly changing social and cultural environment. Archbishop May strongly supported desegregation of public schools and, in the spirit of ecumenism, encouraged collaboration among Christian denominations. May presided over the long-awaited completion of the Cathedral Basilica of what would become Saint Louis, which contains the largest collection of mosaic art in the world. May died in 1994 and Justin Francis Rigali was named seventh archbishop of St. Louis. Rigali presided over perhaps the most significant event in the history of the archdiocese, the visit of Pope John Paul II to the city in Rigali was appointed Archbishop of Philadelphia and elevated to the College of Cardinals in 2003, and Raymond Leo Burke was installed as his replacement. Burke became known for his steadfast approach to Church teachings and his strong stance on life issues. He was elevated to the College of Cardinals in 2010 and named Cardinal Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura. The current archbishop, Robert James Carlson, has served since His priorities have included the revival of Catholic education through the Mission Advancement Initiative as well as the issue of religious freedom in response to the HHS mandate. As the Catholic Church in St. Louis moves toward the future, she continues to reflect on her great history and the efforts of the dedicated men and women who have improved the spiritual and material welfare of St. Louis citizens. The Archdiocese of St. Louis is called by our Lord Jesus Christ to be His Church and live His Gospel. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 190

192 St. Louis Community College expands minds and changes lives every day. A premier provider of higher education and workforce training in the St. Louis metropolitan area, STLCC has served more than 1.2 million students since its founding in STLCC is the largest community college system in Missouri and the second largest institution of higher education in Missouri. The college serves an area of more than 700 square miles that includes St. Louis City, St. Louis County, and portions of Franklin and Jefferson Counties. More than 81,000 individuals annually enroll in traditional college programs as well as continuing education and performanceenhancing programs sponsored by employers. STLCC s four campuses Florissant Valley, Forest Park, Meramec and Wildwood are shaped by their urban and suburban communities. STLCC also has education centers in south St. Louis County and north St. Louis City. With environmental stewardship as an integral part of STLCC s mission, the Wildwood campus was the first higher education facility in the area to earn the U.S. Green Building Council s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) gold certification and was the first higher education institution to provide charging stations for electric vehicles. The William J. Harrison Education Center in north St. Louis was the first educational facility in St. Louis City to earn LEED gold certification. The Workforce Solutions Group of St. Louis Community College, housed at the STLCC Corporate College in Bridgeton, leverages education for growth in the knowledge economy by offering programs and services designed to advance people, businesses and communities. The Center for Workforce Innovation at the Florissant Valley campus also delivers programs and services focused on workforce needs, including advanced manufacturing at the college s Aerospace Institute. The college supports Centers of Excellence in plant and life sciences, digital arts and visual technology, emerging and advanced information technology, and engineering and manufacturing. These centers were developed to provide advanced technology training on state-of-the-art equipment for high-wage jobs in high-demand occupations. STLCC offers more than 100 degree and certificate programs and has more than 300 transfer agreements with secondary and other higher education institutions. In addition to traditional academic curricula, the college continues to expand programs in nursing and allied health disciplines, as well as science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). This includes programs in health information technology, biotechnology, cyber security, and other areas of specialization. Approximately 1,800 STLCC students transfer to Missouri four-year colleges and universities each year. Nearly ninety percent of all STLCC graduates remain in the region. Through innovative partnerships and state-of-the-art programs, STLCC is a vital element of the local, regional and state economy. The total economic impact of St. Louis Community College is more than $2.5 billion annually. ST. LOUIS COMMUNITY COLLEGE Left: The college s culinary arts program is industry recognized and is housed in a facility named after the program s founder, the late Jack C. Miller. Right: St. Louis Community College was the first institution of its kind in the Midwest to offer a biotechnology program. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 1 9 1

193 WEBSTER UNIVERSITY Right: At Webster, students have access to classes taught in English by faculty from around the world. The university has campuses in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 192 Webster University is the only Tier 1, private, nonprofit university with campus locations around the world including metropolitan, military, online and corporate, as well as American-style traditional campuses in North America, Europe, Asia and Africa. How it evolved to this point is a story almost 100 years in the making, beginning with its founding in St. Louis in Its path to becoming a leader in international education is a fascinating one that required a pioneering spirit, determined perseverance, entrepreneurial courage and nearly a century of devoted and dynamic faculty members teaching students who were driven to become highly educated members of a global society. The Sisters of Loretto, a Catholic religious order founded in 1812, established a college for women at a time when such a mission was considered progressive, when American women had yet to attain even the right to vote. Originally named Loretto College, the school was one of the first Catholic women s colleges west of the Mississippi River. The college opened with more teachers than students; eight Sisters of Loretto taught classes for the five students who became the first graduating class in From that small beginning grew Webster University, a private, nonprofit university offering undergraduate and graduate education to students at campus locations across the United States and around the world. The first signal of Webster s future global orientation occurred in 1919 when two French students enrolled. In the following two decades, nearly 200 faculty members and students went abroad or came to Webster, primarily from Asia, Europe and South America. The school s name was changed to Webster College in 1924 to avoid confusion with Loretto Academy, another Loretto school in St. Louis. Webster received its first accreditation from the North Central Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools that same year. After surviving the worldwide economic depression of the 1930s, Webster enjoyed consistent growth throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Student enrollment climbed and the campus expanded beyond Webster Hall and Loretto Hall, the school s two original buildings. The 1960s brought an era of change. The first two male students enrolled in 1962, although the list of available classes for men remained limited. Six years later, however, the school became fully coeducational with no restrictions. A grant from the Ford Foundation allowed Webster to launch the innovative Master of Arts in Teaching program in 1963, which reached teaching professionals who could not afford to abandon their everyday work. It was Webster s first venture into offering evening classes for full-time professionals.

194 Left: Webster s students are locally committed, while taking full advantage of the opportunities afforded them by their global colleagues. Webster faculty, staff and alumni are equipped to work well with people of all cultures and be successful in their chosen careers anywhere in the world. Facing changing societal demographics and economic times of 1967, the Sisters of Loretto transferred ownership of the school from the Catholic Church to a lay board of directors the first in the nation to do so. The directors made sure Webster survived, thrived and stayed true to its mission of serving the underserved with higher education options. The lay board remains in place today, operating Webster as a private, nonprofit university. The popularity of the evening programs in St. Louis prompted the college to expand its offerings across the state. In 1966, Webster offered its first courses outside of St. Louis at a campus in Kansas City. Classes were taught in the evening by practicing professionals, and Webster became the ideal choice for those who were seeking a college education but were unable to put their careers on hold. Today, Webster has campus locations in metropolitan areas across the United States. The Webster model caught the attention of the federal government and, in 1974, the U.S. Department of Defense invited Webster to become the first college to open an extended campus program at a military installation Fort Sheridan near Chicago. Today, Webster operates on nearly forty military installations across the United States. Webster opened its first international campus in 1978 in Geneva, where there was high demand for American-style education. The popularity of the Geneva program led to the establishment of other European campuses in Vienna, Leiden, in the Netherlands, and London. More recently, campus locations have been added in China and Thailand, and a new campus opened in Accra, Ghana, in Webster has moved far beyond its initial role as a small women s liberal arts college and is now a comprehensive, innovative institution of higher education. The school was renamed Webster University in 1983 to reflect this status. Defining moments since have included establishing five schools and colleges in the early 1990s; offering online programs beginning in 1999; acquiring the St. Louis Symphony Community Music School in 2001; opening Missouri s first Confucius Institute in 2008; opening signature library and classroom buildings in 2003 and 2012; and establishing over a dozen new domestic and international partnerships in Below: Every Webster University student is connected to the Emerson Library, one of many outstanding facilities on the home campus in St. Louis. Technology seamlessly enables graduate and undergraduate students in St. Louis and at military, online, and international and metropolitan campus locations access to the finest resources in the world of academe. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 1 9 3

195 Right: Every May, degree candidates from around the world gather at The Muny in St. Louis historic Forest Park for Webster s spectacular commencement ceremony. Students come from 100 countries and represent diverse cultures, ages and socioeconomic backgrounds, as they are transformed for global citizenship and individual excellence. Below: Webster and the U.S. Department of Defense have worked together for forty years to provide graduate level programs at military installations and other locations throughout the country. Webster University has more than 25,000 military alumni, including several generals at the Pentagon and Joint Chiefs of Staff. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 194 Today, Webster enrolls more than 22,000 students worldwide and counts more than 163,000 living alumni, including more than 200 active duty and retired generals and admirals. Students come from all fifty states and 148 nations. Although the university operates in nearly sixty cities on three continents around the world, the home campus in the St. Louis suburb of Webster Groves remains its largest. More than 9,400 students study at the forty-seven acre campus, and the worldwide curriculum and global academic and operational excellence are directed from the home campus. As it approaches its centennial, Webster University s vision is to be a premier U.S.-based international university setting a distinct standard for global education. This vision is built on a foundation of excellence in teaching and is enhanced by an international perspective that fosters dialogue, respect and understanding across boundaries and between people. Webster remains firmly rooted in St. Louis and is dedicated to academic excellence and innovation in higher education, meeting students needs in an ever-changing world by incorporating an international perspective throughout the curriculum. This approach serves its mission of transforming students for global citizenship and individual excellence, in a century that demands both. For additional information about Webster University, visit

196 ST. LUKE S HOSPITAL For nearly 150 years, St. Luke s Hospital has provided quality, compassionate patient care, a broad range of services, and a strong commitment to the community. The hospital s mission has always been to improve the quality of life for its patients and the community. The hospital was organized in 1865 by a group of Episcopal Church leaders and physicians who were concerned about the lack of medical care in the growing city of St. Louis. The group was inspired by Bishop Cicero Hawks and led by Reverend J. P. Cannon, a medical doctor from Memphis. The founders named the hospital in honor of St. Luke, the patron saint of physicians, and they chose the eight-pointed Maltese Cross as the symbol of the new hospital. The first St. Luke s was a twenty-five room infirmary at Thirteenth and Lamme Streets, near the present day Interstate 55 and Russell Boulevard. The first patient was admitted on February 28, The infirmary had a medical staff of only eight physicians, and family and friends provided nursing care. The new medical facility faced its first challenge just a few months later when a cholera epidemic swept through the city. The hospital s board of directors decided that all cholera patients should receive treatment free of charge. With the support of the Episcopal Church and the community, St. Luke s Hospital managed to continue caring for patients during this time. St. Luke s grew steadily over the next four decades and moved several times to larger facilities. During this period, the hospital established a School of Nursing and introduced the latest medical services to the community. In 1904 the year of the St. Louis World s Fair St. Luke s moved to a new three story building on Delmar Boulevard on the city s growing western edge. Despite challenges, the hospital continued to grow through the Depression years of the 1930s and the war years of the 1940s, providing high quality, compassionate care to a growing population. In 1948 the Presbyterian churches in the St. Louis area joined the Episcopalians in the sponsorship of St. Luke s. This dual sponsorship reinforced the hospital s mission as a ministry dedicated to witnessing the healing presence of Christ in the world. Today, the hospital s main campus is located in Chesterfield. St. Luke s provides care in more than sixty specialty areas from more than twenty locations across the greater St. Louis area. We continue to seek out new technology and treatments to stay on the leading edge of healthcare, said Gary Olson, St. Luke s Hospital president and CEO. Through the dedicated efforts of an exceptional team of caregivers and support staff, we are able to further our mission of improving the quality of life for our patients and the community. Above: St. Luke s Hospital, with its main campus located in Chesterfield, provides care in more than sixty specialty areas from more than twenty locations across the greater St. Louis area. Below: An exceptional team of caregivers and support staff furthers St. Luke s mission of improving the quality of life for its patients and the community. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 1 9 5

197 JCI Above: Henry Giessenbier, Jr., with fellow active citizens in St. Louis, Below: Henry Giessenbier, Jr., formed the Young Men s Progressive Civic Association in 1915, which later became JCI (Junior Chamber International). H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 196 Born in St. Louis JCI (Junior Chamber International) celebrates a century of active citizenship, JCI, founded in St. Louis, Missouri, began with the premise that youth should not be a barrier to personal development, participation or service in community affairs. Staying true to its foundation, JCI s Mission is, to provide development opportunities that empower young people to create positive change. From its humble beginnings as a dance club in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1915, the organization has grown from a concept to an international movement. JCI offers young active citizens worldwide the opportunity to engage with community members from all sectors of society to address community challenges and work together toward developing sustainable impact. In 1910, Henry Giessenbier, Jr., founded the Herculaneum Dance Club with the aim of supplying social elevation for its members. By 1914 the Herculaneum Dance Club merged with six other dance clubs to form the Federation of Dance Clubs. However, Giessenbier soon yearned to be a part of something more engaging. He then began inviting community leaders to speak at Federation meetings on current issues. The Federation met at the Mission Inn, formerly located at the corner of Grand and Magnolia Avenues in St. Louis. During a Federation meeting in the summer of 1915, Giessenbier was moved by the words of a local political leader, H. N. Morgan, who spoke of the need to involve young men in public affairs with the aim of developing strong community leaders. After a series of meetings with Morgan, Giessenbier formulated a plan for an organization of young men to study and analyze civic and business problems and provide opportunities to participate in civic activities. On October 13, 1915, at the Mission Inn in St. Louis, thirty-two young men formed the Young Men s Progressive Civic Association (YMPCA) with Giessenbier as the first elected president. The group quickly became involved in St. Louis civic affairs and won respect for effectively addressing community challenges. In less than six months, the membership grew from thirty-two to 750. During the early years, YMPCA gained support, but none more valuable than the president of the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce, Clarence H. Howard. In his inaugural address, Howard called for a group capable of training and educating young men in public affairs. The very next day, Giessenbier and Andrew Mungenast contacted Howard to speak with him about the goals of YMPCA. Howard soon secured the old art museum at Nineteenth and Locust Streets to serve as the YMPCA headquarters. YMPCA soon became known as the Junior Citizens, J. C. for short. The organization gained greater influence in the community and attracted nationwide attention for its many achievements. In 1918 the J. C. s affiliated with the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce. The name officially became the Junior Chamber of Commerce to reflect the affiliation. After service abroad in World War I, Giessenbier spearheaded a meeting of twentynine clubs from around the country, where a plan for a national organization formed. Giessenbier was elected first president of the national organization, the U.S. Junior Chamber, or U.S. Jaycees. At his inauguration, Giessenbier outlined a platform of community service and educational programs that remains the core of the organization. During the 1920s and 1930s, the Junior Chamber grew not only in size, but also in scope, creating several national programs.

198 Projects included the 50 Million Voters Campaign to increase national voter registration, Americanism in response to the threat of communism, the Ten Outstanding Young Men Award, recognizing personal accomplishment in professional and civic matters, and a conservation program which spawned the National Wildlife Federation. Regionally, the Jaycee members supported the early startup efforts of the downtown Jefferson National Expansion Memorial project, which began in 1939, culminating with the completion of the Gateway Arch on the St. Louis Riverfront more than twenty-five years later. This acclaimed modern urban renewal project received many national and international awards for its architect, the late Eero Saarinen, its contractor, McDonald Construction Co., and other firms involved in its large scope. The recent City-Arch-River Project, planning and constructing a major public park over the central downtown Interstate highway to complete the esthetics and ambience of the Gateway Arch Park, is also supported by the St. Louis Jaycees nearly seventy years after the initial Jefferson National Expansion Memorial groundbreaking. In 1944, Junior Chamber International (JCI) was founded. JCI now boasts members in more than 120 countries around the globe. In 1947 the National Headquarters moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, and was soon joined by the JCI headquarters in Between the years of 1955 and 1969, JCI was headquartered in Miami Beach, Florida, and then moved to Coral Gables, Florida, for the next thirty-three years. In 2002 the JCI World Headquarters moved back to St. Louis, where the movement began. In 2011 the National Headquarters joined JCI and both are now located in Chesterfield, a western suburb of St. Louis. Above: The historic first meeting in Mexico City, Mexico, where JCI (Junior Chamber International) was formed. The first National Organizations forming JCI were Costa Rica, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and the United States, Below: The Mission Inn, St. Louis, Missouri, USA, the birthplace of the JCI movement. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 1 9 7

199 Above: The JCI World Headquarters was inaugurated on June 23, Pictured from left to right, 2003 JCI President Bruce Rector, 2004 JCI President Fernando Sanchez-Arias, Chesterfield Mayor John Nations and JCI Foundation Chairperson Sonny Yu. Below: Delegates and JCI members at the JCI Conference of the Americas in Curitba, Brazil. Delegates participated in an eight-part community project educating the community about and taking action to advance the Millennium Development Goals, The evolving organization has undergone many changes throughout its 100 years. In the wake of a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, the Jaycee Women Auxiliary group disbanded and women were allowed to become active U.S. Jaycee members, rising to leadership and officer roles. The St. Louis Jaycees Birthplace Chapter has hosted two female presidents in recent years, reflective of the overall trend of women holding leadership positions throughout the organization across the world illustrating the promise of talented, trained younger leadership for the nation and world. As an organization started by young people, JCI now boasts nearly 200,000 active members between the ages of eighteen and forty, with many more alumni and past members. JCI members are engaged and dedicated to creating impact in their communities, forming a vibrant global network of young active citizens. Committed to creating positive change, JCI members run impactful projects with a common goal of creating a sustainable impact. Just like JCI s founder, today JCI members take responsibility for local issues, and find targeted, sustainable solutions that benefit their communities and the world. Guided by the passion to lead the world in a new direction, JCI members have the courage to address the critical challenges of our time, involving all sectors of society. Solutions that ensure healthy communities, drive economic empowerment, and secure a sustainable world. In 2015 the St. Louis Jaycees and JCI will be welcoming members and supporters from around the world to St. Louis where the JCI movement started, honoring the 100 year anniversary. To learn more how you can become part of this exciting international momentum toward impact, visit and locate a JCI Local Organization in your community. The JCI World Headquarters is located on Olive Boulevard (at the I-40/Clarkson-Olive exit) in Chesterfield, Missouri. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 198

200 Charles Litterest was stunned as he watched his home burn on a bitterly cold January evening. He, his wife, son and grandson fled the house with the clothes on their backs and shoes on their feet. Sitting in his truck, watching firefighters battle the blaze, Litterest was paralyzed with disbelief and uncertainty until the Red Cross arrived. Volunteers provided comfort, direction and immediate assistance with food, shelter and clothing. In the days that followed, Litterest worked with his insurance company and St. Louis Red Cross volunteers on a plan for his future. Every day the American Red Cross provides shelter, food and emotional support to victims of disasters like this. The Red Cross also supplies forty percent of the nation s blood; teaches skills that save lives; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. Clara Barton, who founded the Red Cross in 1881, visited St. Louis in 1884 to provide disaster relief following spring flooding along the Mississippi. She ordered a boatload of supplies and headed down the treacherous floodwaters, distributing badly needed provisions from St. Louis to Cairo, Illinois. The St. Louis Chapter of the Red Cross was officially chartered in 1917 with the escalation of World War I. During World War II, some 2,500 Red Cross volunteers produced 14,000 Prisoners of War packets daily. Today the St. Louis Red Cross supports more than 1,600 military families annually, from the moment members enlist through their lives as veterans. Roughly three times a day, St. Louis Red Cross volunteers respond to local disasters, most often home fires; volunteers teach lifesaving First Aid, CPR to nearly 45,000 residents every year. Area residents annually download nearly 30,000 free Red Cross mobile apps for immediate help in a crisis. The Red Cross Missouri-Illinois Blood Services Region operates ten blood donation centers and hosts more than 3,000 blood drives each year in the Greater St. Louis Region, receiving hundreds of thousands of blood and platelet donations. To carry out its mission to prevent and alleviate human suffering in the face of emergencies, the St. Louis Chapter mobilizes the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors. Less than one percent of the region s annual budget comes from government, and volunteers make up more than ninety percent of the Red Cross workforce. Because of this volunteer workforce, the Red Cross is able to invest ninety-one cents of every dollar donated in services. In 2011 four area Red Cross chapters merged to become the Greater St. Louis Region. Today the region serves the City of St. Louis and sixty-six surrounding counties in Missouri and Illinois. AMERICAN RED CROSS Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 1 9 9

201 THE MUNY Top: The new fans, installed for The Muny s 2013 season, have a twenty foot span. Above: At each performance, The Muny would set aside about 1,500 free seats, a grand tradition that continues today. The photograph is from H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 200 The Muny is America s oldest and largest outdoor musical theatre. Since 1919, it has produced season after season of world-class entertainment, all in the same beautiful location in the heart of Forest Park. No other live theatre in the country, indoor or outdoor, can claim so long and unbroken a history. The Muny has prospered through Prohibition, the Great Depression, World War II, the Cold War, hippies, yuppies, tweets, and texts. The history of outdoor musical theatre in Forest Park may be said to have begun during the 1904 World s Fair. However, it was not until 1914, the 150th anniversary of St. Louis founding, that Forest Park would be home to another spectacular theatrical event. The Pageant and Masque was performed on Art Hill that year, featuring a cast of 7,000 St. Louisans. Hundreds of thousands attended, and the venture was a resounding success. Two years later, the world was celebrating the tercentenary of Shakespeare s death, and St. Louis joined in with an alfresco production of As You Like It. This, too, was well attended and well reviewed, but of more lasting significance, it was performed on the site of today s Muny. The year 1917 saw the grand opera Aida presented in the same natural amphitheater to honor a convention of the World Advertising Federation. By 1919 it was decided that outdoor musical extravaganzas in Forest Park should become an annual event. On March 6, 1919, plans were set in motion to present six light operas, beginning in June. Things began to move quickly. Stars were engaged from New York, and actors and musicians were hired locally. Ticket prices were set at twenty-five cents to a top price of one dollar. For each performance almost 1,500 seats were set aside as free, a tradition that continues to this day. The Muny s birth certificate was issued on June 10, 1919, when the Municipal Theatre Association attained official status with a pro forma decree of incorporation. On Monday, June 16 at exactly 8:25 p.m., The Star-Spangled Banner rang through Forest Park on the first Muny opening night. The operetta was Robin Hood, and it marked the beginning of what has been called a living tradition. The first years of The Muny were not always blue skies, but even when the cast was singing in the rain, it was evident that St. Louis loved and supported grand musical theatre under the stars. The initial seasons of the fledgling theatre were rocky, but with the help of friends like Mayor Henry Kiel, The Muny flourished. Almost immediately, technical improvements were made to enhance the audience s enjoyment of the show.

202 The inaugural season required that performers have truly remarkable vocal capabilities, as absolutely no amplification was available. In 1920, a sounding board, which better directed the sound, was installed. In 1923 a modern sound system was initiated, consisting of five bull horn-like speakers strung over the stage. Today, microphones are wireless and the actors wear them throughout the show. The Muny s sound equipment is leased each season, assuring state-of-the-art technology, and is regulated from a sound board that resembles the deck of the starship Enterprise. musical requires many set changes, frequently threedimensional pieces. They are now designed by the same men and women who design for Broadway productions, and for theatres around the world. What has not changed is that they are still painted by hand by St. Louis artists, who are skilled in the highly-specialized techniques necessary for such large scale designs. The titles of the shows have changed since 1919, and the faces of the performers. But the heart of The Muny has remained the same throughout the decades. One of the proudest Muny traditions is its unparalleled orchestra. In an era when so many theatres substitute digitally produced music for live, The Muny proudly hires a full contingent of professional musicians for each production, the exact number depending upon the requirements of the score. They are the men and women who help keep Forest Park alive with the sound of music. Above: Installation of The Muny s turntable, Left: Great praise for performance of Aida, A S H O R T L I S T O F M O M E N T S T H A T C O U L D O N L Y H A P P E N A T T H E M U N Y Lighting, too, evolved through the decades. In that first season, lighting equipment consisted of two telephone poles borrowed from Bell Telephone. Dimmers were improvised with water barrels filled with salt water, and the electrical switchboard was left over from the Pageant and Masque. Today, The Muny s lighting system consists of about five hundred instruments, and is run by a computer programmed by a world-class board operator. Five spotlights, directed by five lighting technicians, catch every nuance of movement, and focus the audience s attention with dramatic precision. In 1919 the sets were designed by local architects and painted by local artists. These were generally flats or framed expanses of muslin, nailed to the floor. A modern Muny A B-25 bomber flew over the audience for a production of South Pacific. A real helicopter added a chilling touch of reality during Miss Saigon. The Muny has featured swimming pools (Wish You Were Here), ice rinks (Cinderella on Ice), hot air balloons (Around The World In 80 Days), a trolley car (Meet Me In St. Louis), the Wells Fargo Wagon (The Music Man), and full-sized basketball games (Wish You Were Here). The Muny has employed three real camels for its production of Disney s Aladdin, real horses for Oklahoma!, and a baby elephant for Kismet. When producing The Music Man, The Muny typically engages a live marching band, consisting of nearly two hundred pieces. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 2 0 1

203 Above: The Muny on a summer night. Below: A full Muny audience under a full moon. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 202 T H E M U N Y B Y T H E N U M B E R S Since its inception, nearly 52 million people have enjoyed a night at The Muny. Roughly 9 million people have seen a show from the free seats or through community service tickets. The average size of a Broadway theatre is about 1,200 seats. Every night of the summer The Muny gives away almost 1,500 free seats more than would fill an entire Broadway theatre. Each week, the Muny construction crew uses enough lumber to build a house. The working area of The Muny stage is 90 feet deep and 100 feet wide. The Majestic theatre, a large Broadway house, has a stage that is 40 feet 10 inches deep, and 47 feet 10 inches wide. The Muny s footprint in Forest Park is over six acres. The new fans, installed for The Muny s 2013 season, have a twenty foot span. It would be close to impossible to list all of the big-name performers who have starred at The Muny through the years. Past Muny stars include W. C. Fields, Archie Leach (Cary Grant), Irene Dunne, Betty Grable, Vincent Price, Bob Hope, Ethel Merman, Pearl Bailey, Joel Grey, Debbie Reynolds, Mickey Rooney, Angela Lansbury, Gene Kelly, Bernadette Peters, Sonny & Cher, Betty White, Liza Minnelli, Robert Goulet, Cab Calloway, Yul Brynner, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Carol Burnett, Rock Hudson, Zero Mostel, Carol Channing, Howard Keel, John Travolta, and Jennifer Holliday. Looking toward the future, in 2018 The Muny will produce its hundredth summer in Forest Park. The Muny, a nonprofit 501-(c)3 organization, is proud to celebrate a century of creating exceptional musical theatre, accessible to all.

204 Fontbonne University conducted its first St. Louis classes ninety years ago, but its history goes much deeper and is irrevocably intertwined with that of its founders, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, an order founded in France in The sisters, whose American community dates from 1836, were dedicated to the discovery, understanding, preservation and dissemination of truth, and dreamed of opening a college for women. Ground was broken for the Fontbonne College campus in 1924, although the first class actually began studies in 1923 at the CSJ s Carondelet location. The land on which Fontbonne is built was part of the 1904 World s Fair and the original buildings included administration, science, fine arts, gymnasium and boiler house. Students moved to the new campus on Founder s Day, October 15, Fontbonne s main campus remains in the same location at 6800 Wydown Boulevard. The university also operates a site in Brentwood, where evening and on-line programs are coordinated and taught. Since its founding, Fontbonne University has grown in terms of enrollment, experienced faculty, relevant academic programs and services for students. The original class of nine women grew to seventy-six after only one year. The school became coeducational in 1973 and the first graduate degree was approved two years later. Significant global outreach was achieved in 1996 when Fontbonne signed educational agreements with universities in Taiwan and Thailand, beginning a new era of international education. Fontbonne s OPTIONS program became one of the premier adult education models in the St. Louis area in the 1990s. Fontbonne changed its status from college to university in Today, Fontbonne has 236 faculty members, nearly 400 total employees, more than 2,000 students and an alumni base of nearly 18,000. The university offers 47 undergraduate majors, 28 minors and 20 graduate programs in traditional as well as evening and on-line formats. Undergraduate majors include internationally known programs in deaf education and speech-language pathology (also offered at the master s level) as well as popular programs such as cyber security, dietetics, social work, education and performing arts. Prominent master s programs include education/special education, fine arts, nonprofit management, and instructional design and technology. The university is also home to the one-of-a-kind Dedicated Semester of innovative academic endeavors each fall that engages both campus and community in an in-depth study of a major theme such as Judaism and Its Cultures, Goals for World Change, Immigrant Experiences, Happiness: Traditions and Tensions, The Disability Experience: Quest for Empowerment, Foodology, and Sustainability. In keeping with the traditions and values of its founders, the Fontbonne community embraces a culture of service. Fontbonne Day, an annual, universitywide day of service, sends faculty, staff, students and administration into locations across the St. Louis metro area. Fontbonne also sponsors local, national and international service trips for students throughout the year. Community outreach and service learning are interwoven into classes and events throughout the campus. Looking to the future, Fontbonne University strives to develop modern, relevant programs to stay ahead of a rapidly advancing society. As always, in everything, Fontbonne University continues striving to educate leaders to serve a world in need. Additional information is available on the Internet at FONTBONNE UNIVERSITY Above: In 1928 one of Fontbonne University s inaugural classes celebrates commencement on the front lawn of the school s campus. Below: In 2012 a group of students gathers on the steps of Ryan Hall, one of five original buildings at Fontbonne University, which still stands at the center of the university s campus today. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 2 0 3

205 WORLD AFFAIRS COUNCIL OF ST. LOUIS Right: An international visitor group from Brazil working on racial integration meet with the great-granddaughter of Dred and Harriet Scott in front of her ancestors statue. Below: World Affairs Council of St. Louis Gala left to right, Dr. William H. Danforth, chairman, and Dr. James C. Carrington, president of the Danforth Plant Science Center accept the International Humanitarian of the Year award from Deepak Kant Vyas, president of the Council. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 204 The World Affairs Council of St. Louis is dedicated to connecting citizens of the region with the world. Its mission is to promote understanding and engagement, develop relationships and inspire leadership in world affairs. Originally known as the Council on World Affairs, the organization was formed in 1948 by J. S. McDonnell, founder of McDonnell Douglas Corporation, and a group of civic leaders to help overcome the isolationist attitudes of American citizens following World War II. The Council s mission was to present programs directed toward improved international understanding. The Council is a member of a Washington-based national association, the World Affairs Councils of America, and is one of nearly a hundred independent Councils that comprise the oldest and largest organization in the country promoting citizen diplomacy and improving global understanding. Other key leaders in the Council s early days were John Francis Bannon of Saint Louis University, Arthur Holly Compton of Washington University, Leo C. Fuller and Sidney R. Baer of Stix Baer & Fuller Co., J. Lionberger Davis of Boatmen s Bank, Morton J. May, of the May Company, David R. Calhoun of Saint Louis Union Trust and other prominent citizens. Larry Carp, an attorney who studied in Paris and Geneva and worked for the United Nations and the State Department before moving to St. Louis, remembers well the Council s early efforts to host foreign visitors and provide a forum for businessmen, academics and civic leaders with international interests. Prominent guest speakers over the years have included President George W. Bush, Secretaries of State Alexander Haig and Henry Kissinger, Senator Stuart Symington, Soviet leader Anatoly Gromyko, journalist Dan Rather, Charles, Prince of Wales, and two Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral William Crowe and Air Force General Ron Fogleman. Helen Moran was the Council s first executive director. Hired in 1963, at a salary of $350 per month, she served the Council until the late 1980s with excellent programming that built a strong membership. Today, the Council sponsors twelve to fifteen programs per year, all open to the public. Ambassador Forums, held three to four times per year, are a series of programs that bring ambassadors from strategic countries around the world to St. Louis for a major evening event, meetings with local and state leaders, and discussions with interested business organizations.

206 The Great Decisions Series consists of eight moderated discussions on current foreign policy topics selected and documented by the Foreign Policy Association. The series, over eight successive weeks, is widely attended by citizens in the region who wish to stay informed on topics of vital interest. For the past eleven years, the Council has sponsored Academic WorldQuest, the only international knowledge competition in the region that invites all area public and private high schools to field teams to take part in the competition. The winning team receives an all-expenses paid trip to Washington, D.C., to represent St. Louis in a national competition. The Council presents the International Humanitarian of the Year Award annually to an individual or organization in the region that has done extraordinary work to favorably impact a global humanitarian crisis. Recent recipients have included Dr. Patricia Wolff, whose Meds & Food for Kids organization has saved the lives of more than 65,000 children in Haiti; the Danforth Plant Science Center for its success in improving the human condition through crop research that centers on feeding the hungry; and the U.S. Transportation Command at Scott Air Force Base for its massive efforts in delivering aid to victims of the Haiti earthquake, the Japan earthquake and tsunami, and the Pakistan flood. For more than forty years, the Council has been the regional host for the International Visitor Leadership Program, the State Department s premier professional exchange program. This exchange seeks to build mutual understanding between the U.S. and other nations through short-term visits to the U.S. for current and emerging foreign leaders. More than 200 of these visitors come to St. Louis each year. The Council enjoys a large number of volunteer hosts; an example being Frankie Freemen, a distinguished lawyer and civil rights advocate, now in her nineties, who continues to be actively involved with our visitors. In February 2014 the Council will sponsor its twenty-third Annual Chinese New Year Celebration. The Council was one of the first non-chinese organizations to celebrate this day in a major way. It was initiated by Jean Emory (Mrs. William), while Newell S. Knight, Jr., was president, and continues to fund a major portion of our community outreach. The St. Louis Council was recognized in 2009 by the World Affairs Councils of America for being the most dynamic midsize council in the nation. This award is given annually for extraordinary innovation, growth, outreach and impact. The Council derives all its funding from memberships, programs, fundraising, grants and gifts. The Council is governed by a president, an executive committee, and a board of directors. Under the leadership of Executive Director Robert A. Fischer, the number of organization members has increased from thirty-seven in 2002 to sixty currently. Combining individual and organization members, the Council currently has an active roster of over 700 people. Above: Performers from the St. Louis Modern Chinese School entertain guests at the annual Chinese New Year Celebration. Bellow: A team of four high school students contemplates the answer to a question at Academic WorldQuest, an annual international knowledge competition. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 2 0 5

207 BJC HEALTHCARE Massive changes forecast for the U.S. healthcare industry during the late 1980s galvanized St. Louis multiple independent hospitals to adopt new ways of providing care. For the visionary leaders behind the development of BJC HealthCare, the pathway to success was clear: ensure sustainability through unity and together continue to create healthy futures for the people of St. Louis and surrounding regions. The twelve hospitals, five service organizations and multiple community health locations that make up today s BJC HealthCare deliver a full range of healthcare services to urban, suburban and rural communities primarily in the greater St. Louis, southern Illinois and mid- Missouri regions. Services include inpatient and outpatient care, primary care, community health and wellness, workplace health, home health, community mental health, rehabilitation, long-term care and hospice. BJC also provides more care to the poor and uninsured than any other hospital or healthcare organization in Missouri. In 2012 more than 160,000 patients and families were able to focus on the care of their loved ones when they received financial assistance to cover all or part of their healthcare services, which totaled more than $123 million in charity care. BJC is the largest healthcare provider in the St. Louis area, and one of the largest nonprofit healthcare delivery organizations in the country. With more than 27,000 employees and 4,422 physicians, BJC is the metropolitan area s largest employer. In 2012, BJC reported $3.8 billion in net revenues, 150,000 hospital admissions, 220,000 home health visits and 500,000 emergency department visits. BJC traces its roots to 1993, with the merger of Barnes Hospital and The Jewish Hospital of St. Louis with Christian Health Services, which operated seven hospitals in Missouri and Illinois. Each of these medical facilities was highly successful at the time of the merger. However, reductions in Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, an oversupply of hospital beds in the region and other issues seemed to threaten their long-term viability. By uniting, Barnes, Jewish and Christian founded in 1914, 1902 and 1903 respectively could sustain their long-standing reputations for excellence in medical treatment and care while maximizing efficiency and reducing costs. In 1994 two more medical institutions joined BJC. Missouri Baptist Medical Center, founded in 1913, gave the organization an expanded presence in west St. Louis County as well as Missouri Baptist Sullivan Hospital in Sullivan, Missouri. St. Louis Children s Hospital, established in 1879, enriched BJC with a premier facility for the care of children. Other hospitals that are part of BJC HealthCare are Barnes-Jewish West County Hospital, Barnes-Jewish St. Peters Hospital, Alton Memorial Hospital, Progress West Hospital and Parkland Health Center. Boone Hospital Center is owned by Boone County and operated under a lease arrangement with BJC. The Rehabilitation Institute of St. Louis is a partnership with HealthSouth Corporation. Two of BJC s hospitals, Barnes-Jewish Hospital and St. Louis Children s Hospital, have formal affiliations with Washington University School of Medicine, which is consistently ranked among the top medical schools in the country. The School of Medicine, founded in 1891, is known internationally for research in neuroscience, genetics, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and other areas. It has contributed to many groundbreaking discoveries and has been associated with seventeen Nobel Laureates. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 206

208 BJC is one of the leading supporters of healthcare education in the region. During 2012, BJC contributed $135.2 million toward the training of more than 11,586 students. By supporting medical research, BJC ensures the future of healthcare and provided $24 million in research funding in Barnes-Jewish and Children s hospitals have anchored the city s Central West End with a medical complex since A $320 million renovation and expansion, completed in 2001, brought significant improvements to the campus, including the consolidation of outpatient care in the Center for Advanced Medicine, the Charles F. Knight Emergency and Trauma Center, and the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center, a National Cancer Institutedesignated comprehensive cancer center for treatment and research. Today the planning for renovation and new construction with the Campus Renewal Project is a long-term vision to renew the medical center campus on Kingshighway Boulevard, encompassing BJC s Barnes-Jewish Hospital and St. Louis Children s Hospital along with Washington University School of Medicine. Additional private inpatient rooms are a key component of the overall project. Building and expansion could be seen at many BJC hospitals over the past ten years. Since 2007, Missouri Baptist Medical Center has added two new patient pavilions with private patient rooms, a new emergency department, cancer center, cardiac recovery floor and surgery center. In 2010, Alton Memorial Hospital completed a major bed tower expansion with seventy-six state-of-the-art private rooms. In 2011, Boone Hospital Center completed the largest-ever expansion with a new seven-story patient bed tower that houses 128 private patient rooms. Between 2003 and 2012, Missouri Baptist Sullivan completely rebuilt the hospital, adding a new emergency department, new childbirth wing, critical care beds, cardiac rehab services, a cancer center and a wound care center. Community outreach plays a vital role in BJC s commitment to meeting the health needs of patients throughout the region. In 2012, BJC and its member hospitals and health service organizations provided more than 633,000 individual community health services. BJC sponsors youth programs, including immunizations and check-ups, and partners with schools in developing curricula and educational programs. BJC also offers a continuum of care to older adults through retirement communities and long-term care facilities. The OASIS program offers educational and volunteer opportunities and other assistance to senior citizens and has touched the lives of more than 720,000 individuals since In October 2012, BJC partnered with CoxHealth of Springfield, Missouri; Memorial Health System of Springfield, Illinois; and Saint Luke s Health System of Kansas City, Missouri, to create The BJC Collaborative to achieve even higher quality care for the patients served by the independent not-forprofit healthcare organizations. Blessing Health System in Quincy, Illinois, and Southern Illinois Healthcare in Carbondale, Illinois, joined The Collaborative in While remaining independent, Collaborative members are focused on implementing clinical programs and services to improve access to and quality of healthcare for patients, lowering healthcare costs and achieving cost savings. BJC HealthCare works towards enhancing the lives of all ages every day and helps people realize the possibilities of a healthy future. BJC takes pride in making medicine better for our patients, families and communities. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 2 0 7

209 DELTA DENTAL OF MISSOURI Above: Current location taken in Right: David Haynes, current president and CEO, taken in 2011 in current building lobby on Gravois Road. Below: Thirty-fifth anniversary photograph taken at the Delmar office building in Delta Dental of Missouri is the state s dental benefits leader, with 1.5 million members in more than 1,800 companies, both large and small. Ninety-five percent of practicing dentists in Missouri participate in one or both of Delta Dental s networks: Delta Dental PPO SM Network and Delta Dental Premier Network. However, when the organization was first organized in 1958 as Missouri Dental Service, few expected it would grow to serve so many members. Many, including dentists, predicted it would fail. The organization got its start after dentists approached health insurance companies and tried unsuccessfully to persuade them to offer a dental insurance product. They were informed by the underwriters that because of the nature of the procedures, it was impossible to do. Meanwhile, a group of dentists on the West Coast decided they would bypass the insurance companies and form a pre-paid dental coverage program on their own. This led to the formation of the first nonprofit dental service company Washington Dental Service. Using this approach as a model, Missouri Dental Service was founded a few years later to address the oral health crisis that was unfolding in this state due to a lack of access to care. Dr. Joseph Hagan of Crystal City, Missouri, was the founder and president of the Missouri Dental Service Board of Directors. Dr. Hagan persuaded James Edsel Judd, a dental health educator for the State of Missouri, to become the organization s executive director. The office secretary was Marge Contryman. This team signed the first participating dentists in the St. Louis area and secured Midvale Dental Lab as the first dental insured group. Judd eventually became president and CEO of the company, a position since held by Joseph P. Hopkins, Steven P. Gaal and David W. Haynes. The organization s first offices were located above a men s clothing store on High Street in Jefferson City, Missouri. The offices consisted of a tiny nine square foot room that had been used by the clothing store s seamstress, plus three other small rooms located at the back of the building. With little revenue and only lukewarm support from the state s dentists, times were tough for the organization in its early H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 208

210 days. Judd, the executive director, traveled throughout the state to visit with local dental societies and groups of dentists. When I told them about our plans for Missouri Dental Services, I endured giggles and even outright laughter from the dental professionals, he recalls. Their intent was not to make fun of me; they just could not believe what we were trying to accomplish. Since Judd could not afford an apartment in Jefferson City, the small offices became his home away from home. A communal bathroom down the hall provided a sink and cold running water, and Judd budgeted $1.50 per day for food, which he cooked on an old waffle iron. There was no refrigerator. I don t know how I survived, Judd later commented. I never once went to a movie, restaurant or lounge. I just had no money. I would leave Jefferson City about noon every Friday, drive 155 miles to Lancaster, Missouri, spend the weekend with my family, and be back in the office at 10 a.m. Monday morning. My normal workday was hours for the next few years. The programs offered by Missouri Dental Service gradually began to catch on. Based on an operating agreement with Blue Cross of St. Louis and the acquisition of a large client base there, the company decided to open a second office in St. Louis, renting space from Blue Cross. It was during this period that Pam Clyde (Martin) was hired to help process claims. She later became manager of the department and now serves as senior vice president and COO of Delta Dental of Missouri. Pam Clyde Martin is, without question, one of the most influential persons involved in the early development of Missouri Dental Service, says Judd. In 1977, Delta Dental moved all its operations to St. Louis to a location near Westport Plaza and later purchased a building at 8390 Delmar in As the organization continued to grow, the name was changed to Delta Dental Plan of Missouri in In 1988, Delta Dental became independent from Blue Cross and Blue Shield. As part of the national Delta Dental Plans Association, Delta Dental of Missouri offers dental and vision benefits in Missouri and South Carolina. Recognized as the leading dental benefits provider in the nation, Delta Dental s two networks Delta Dental PPO SM Network and Delta Dental Premier Network offers the largest proprietary network of participating dentists. Clients benefit from Delta Dental s unique two-tiered approach to dentist networks as they work to provide better access, better protection and better savings. Nationally, Delta Dental s effective discounts lead the industry in network savings for clients and members. Delta Dental of Missouri is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization with a social mission to improve oral health in the communities it serves. The company proudly supports the Delta Dental Land of Smiles educational touring theater program, Delta Dental Health Theater Give Kids A Smile, and Missouri Missions of Mercy, as well as a scholarship program for dental hygiene students. As a nonprofit organization with a social mission, Delta Dental of Missouri has a responsibility to return excess profits to the community. That sense of duty runs deep throughout the company s culture not as an obligation, but as a privilege. The company s commitment to improving oral health drives its leadership to do more each year in the ultimate quest to eradicate chronic oral disease and improve the overall health of the communities it serves. Above: Land of Smiles Program with Tooth Wizard and PlaqueMan. Educational outreach program to elementary schools across Missouri. Below: Pam Clyde (Martin) c. 1980, then manager of claims processing. Now senior vice president and chief operating officer of Delta Dental of Missouri. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 2 0 9

211 MARYVILLE UNIVERSITY A gathering place: students congregate outside the Gander dining hall on the campus of Maryville University. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 210 Founded in 1872, Maryville University is a respected St. Louis tradition in higher education and recognized as one of the outstanding private universities in the Midwest. Maryville provides excellent academic and professional programs through the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Education, the College of Health Professions, the John E. Simon School of Business and the School of Adult and Online Education. As the City of St. Louis celebrates its 250th birthday in 2014, Maryville University s enrollment exceeds 5,000 students in more than 75 undergraduate, master s and doctoral programs. The school was founded as Maryville Academy by the Religious of the Sacred Heart, an order established in France by women dedicated to excellence in education. Mother Rose Philippine Duchesne, a pioneer in the field of education, founded the American branch of the Religious of the Sacred Heart. She established numerous schools around St. Louis, including the one that eventually became Maryville Academy a school for young women located in South St. Louis. This later evolved into a junior college, and became a four-year college in The institution s visionary grasp of the growth potential of West St. Louis County sparked its purchase in the late 1950s of 290 acres adjacent to U.S. 40, now I-64, and Woods Mill Road. The dedication of the new campus on this site in 1961 marked the beginning of Maryville s mission as a community-focused institution grounded in the liberal arts. The University became coeducational in Governance of Maryville was turned over to a lay Board of Trustees in The institution became Maryville University of Saint Louis in The heritage bequeathed to the University by the Religious of the Sacred Heart still remains, within a non-sectarian context. This includes a commitment to the education of the whole person through programs designed to meet the needs of traditional and adult students. Throughout the day, evening, weekend, online and blended learning formats, Maryville emphasizes a rigorous education delivered by highly qualified faculty who also serve as dedicated mentors and advisers. A number of key leaders and benefactors have contributed to the long success of Maryville University. Among the most notable are the late philanthropist and longtime Maryville trustee John E. Simon and his wife, Adaline. Both the John E. and Adaline Simon Athletic Center and the John E. Simon School of Business are named in honor of their generous support. A generous gift in 2010 from two St. Louis philanthropists, the late Maryville trustee Earl E. Walker and his wife, Myrtle, paved the way for construction in 2013 of a new home for Maryville s College of Health Professions. Named in their honor, Myrtle E. and Earl E. Walker Hall will feature state-ofthe-art facilities for classrooms, laboratories, meeting spaces and more. The Walker Scottish Rite Clinic for Childhood Language Disorders, co-founded by Earl Walker, is a key part of the building. Also housed in the building will be a studio and office suite for Kids Rock Cancer, a free music therapy outreach program for children battling cancer and other blood disorders.

212 In 2013, Rawlings Sporting Goods Company, Inc., named the Rawlings Sport Business Management program, the first such naming partnership in the nation. Later that same year, a generous gift from Mercy Health named Maryville University s Catherine McAuley School of Nursing. Maryville University has seen tremendous growth under the leadership of President Mark Lombardi, the school s tenth leader. Lombardi s innovative leadership has sparked significant achievements, including record enrollments, record fundraising, new construction and facilities improvements, increased international participation, increased diversity among students and reclassification to the National Universities category in U.S. News & World Report. Maryville enjoys a growing national reputation and was named by U.S. News & World Report as the No. 1 Overperforming University in the nation in both 2012 and In addition, Forbes and Kiplinger s Personal Finance magazines consistently rank Maryville on their Best Colleges lists. Since 1981, when Maryville University pioneered flexible adult education, thousands of adults have earned degrees and advanced their careers while maintaining a satisfying work-life balance. With enrollment growing by 30 percent since 2007, the student body at Maryville represents 46 states and 30 countries and includes 2,800 undergraduate and 2,300 graduate students. In 2014, Maryville employed 671 full- and part-time faculty and staff. More than 17,000 of Maryville s 21,000 alumni live and work in the St. Louis region. The University constantly strives to expand and develop partnerships that provide strong leadership in the St. Louis region. Collaborating with corporations, businesses and other organizations, Maryville presents ongoing, engaging programs for the community such as Maryville Talks Books, Maryville Talks Innovation, Maryville Talks Women and Leadership and others. Since 1998, Maryville has presented the St. Louis Speakers Series at Powell Symphony Hall, a prestigious forum for national and international leaders in government, business, the arts and more. Guided by a comprehensive strategic plan, Maryville University is poised to continue the rich tradition of excellence, visionary growth and thoughtful expansion evident throughout the institution s history. Maryville University, led by President Mark Lombardi, was named by U.S. News & World Report as the No. 1 Overperforming University in the country in 2012 and PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF SARAH CROWDER/ LADUE NEWS. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 2 1 1

213 THE LUTHERAN CHURCH MISSOURI SYNOD Top: Historic Trinity Lutheran Church is the oldest Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) congregation west of the Mississippi River. Founded in St. Louis in 1839 by 600 immigrants from Saxony, Germany, Trinity quickly grew to become an influential Protestant congregation in the area. Its second pastor, the Reverend Dr. C. F. W. Walther, helped found the LCMS and Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and served as the first president of the church body and the seminary. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF ERIK LUNSFORD AND LCMS COMMUNICATIONS. Above: The Reverend Johann F. Buenger, an early Lutheran Church Missouri Synod pastor, responded generously to the Lord s call to serve his neighbors in need. Buenger founded St. Louis first Protestant hospital in 1847, which became known as Lutheran Hospital; established a convalescent home that evolved into St. Louis-based Lutheran Senior Services, now one of the nation s largest senior-living networks; and founded an orphanage after the Civil War that eventually grew into what is known today as Lutheran Family and Children s Services of Missouri, which provides counseling, human-care and relief services. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF CONCORDIA HISTORICAL INSTITUTE. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 212 The St. Louis-based Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) is a biblical, confessional, witness-oriented Christian denomination with 2.2 million members in 6,151 congregations. Through acts of witness and mercy, the church carries out its mission to make known the love of Christ by word and deed within its churches, communities and the world. The LCMS was officially founded in 1847, but its roots run much deeper. In , a small group of Saxon and other German immigrants arrived in the United States seeking the freedom to practice and follow confessional Lutheranism. These immigrants arrived in the Port of New Orleans and made their way upriver to St. Louis before returning south to Perry County, Missouri, where they settled and eventually helped to establish the LCMS. On April 26, 1847, twelve pastors representing fourteen congregations from Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Michigan, New York and Ohio signed the church body s constitution at First Saint Paul Lutheran Church in Chicago. The first president of the Synod was the Reverend Dr. C. F. W. Walther, a young pastor who had joined the Saxon Germans who immigrated to the U.S. in At the age of twenty-seven, he became the leader of the group that settled in Perry County. Dr. Walther presided over the new Synod and led the church s growth during a period of great migration of German immigrants. He served as president of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, and as editor of Der Lutheraner, a leading magazine of the day that reached confessional Lutherans across the country. While serving as the Synod s first president, he was appointed by the mayor and city council of St. Louis to help care for residents during the city s deadly cholera epidemic in He also served as a pastoral leader during the city s devastating fire in that same year. Today, Dr. Walther is revered as a leading Lutheran theologian of his time and is fondly known as the Father of the Missouri Synod. The LCMS was blessed with many outstanding leaders who helped the church grow during its early years. In 1847, the Reverend Johann Friedrich Buenger founded St. Louis first Protestant hospital, which became known as Lutheran Hospital. He also established a convalescent home that evolved into St. Louisbased Lutheran Senior Services, now one of the nation s fifteen largest senior-living networks. Reverend Buenger also opened his home to children orphaned during the Civil War. This led to a modest orphanage in Des Peres, Missouri, which eventually grew into what is known today as Lutheran Family and Children s Services of Missouri. This statewide social ministry serves more than 22,000 individuals and families with counseling, adoption, foster care, mentoring and disaster-relief services. The LCMS founded Concordia Publishing House on South Jefferson Avenue in St. Louis in 1869 to produce Bibles, worship and doctrinal materials, periodicals, gifts and books, including the Arch Books series, one of the most successful series of Christian children s books in the country. Today, Concordia Publishing House continues to serve the people of the church and share the Gospel in communities around the world.

214 Twelve Missouri Synod laymen joined together in 1917 to form the Lutheran Laymen s League to ease the Synod s financial needs. They went on to fund the Synod s first pension plan for pastors and teachers and support the church s pioneer efforts in Christian broadcasting. KFUO, a Lutheran radio station, first went on the air in 1924 and still broadcasts the saving message of Jesus Christ from studios in St. Louis. LCMS women, who have a rich legacy of helping individuals in need, joined together to form the Lutheran Women s Missionary League (LWML) in Since then, the LWML has raised millions of dollars and served untold numbers of hours in support of the church at home and around the world. Concordia Seminary, the church s first seminary, was founded in 1839 and moved to St. Louis in Still in operation, the seminary has trained thousands of pastors and deaconesses for service to the church. Today, a second seminary, located in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and ten colleges and universities also operate under the auspices of the LCMS, and its congregations operate one of the largest parochial school systems in America. Since 2004 the LCMS has awarded millions through domestic and international grants for emergency response and disaster relief in the wake of such events as the tsunami in Asia; Hurricane Katrina; the earthquakes in Japan, Haiti and Chile; Superstorm Sandy and Typhoon Haiyan. The LCMS is in full doctrinal fellowship with thirty-four other confessional Lutheran church bodies worldwide and is a founding partner of Lutheran Services in America, an affiliation of 300 social-ministry organizations. The church also partners with Lutheran World Relief in serving communities living in poverty overseas and with Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service in advocating for and ministering to immigrants, asylees and refugees to the United States. The church s headquarters are in Kirkwood, Missouri, in a two-building campus known as the LCMS International Center. Concordia Historical Institute, the Synod s official archives based at Concordia Seminary, holds more than 2.5 million documents and 7,500 artifacts tracing Lutheran history in the U.S. and the world. The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod ranks as one of the largest U.S. Christian denominations and represents one of the largest nonprofit organizations in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Left: The Reverend Dr. Walter A. Maier a religious broadcast pioneer and Lutheran Church Missouri Synod pastor speaks with passion on KFUO Radio, which he helped found in St. Louis in KFUO is still broadcasting today, earning it distinction as the world s longest continuously operating Christian radio station. Maier was the first speaker for The Lutheran Hour still on the air which debuted in 1929 on KFUO. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF CONCORDIA HISTORICAL INSTITUTE. Below: The Reverend Dr. Matthew C. Harrison (center) presides at the altar in the Chapel of St. Timothy and St. Titus at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, during his installation as president of The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod in September Harrison, who was first elected in 2010 and re-elected to a second three-year term in 2013, is the thirteenth man to serve as president of the church body. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF MICHAEL SCHUERMANN AND LCMS COMMUNICATIONS. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 2 1 3

215 ASCENSION Bottom, left: Alexian Brothers Hospital, St. Louis, in This building replaced the Simonds Mansion that the Alexian Brothers had turned into their first St. Louis hospital in PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF ALEXIAN BROTHERS PROVINCIAL ARCHIVES. Bottom, right: The Daughters of Charity, a historical sponsor of Ascension, opened their first St. Louis hospital in a three room log cabin at Fourth and Spruce Streets downtown in By the 1940s, when they were operating DePaul Hospital on North Kingshighway Boulevard in St. Louis, the congregation had begun its transition to sponsoring a national healthcare system, with its hospitals sharing services in an effort to make operations more efficient. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE DAUGHTERS OF CHARITY ARCHIVE. From the beginning, a vision of new frontiers has animated those who call St. Louis home. Ascension which, at its founding in 1999, established the country s largest Catholic and nonprofit healthcare system here certainly embraces this local legacy, as its Health Ministries work vigorously nationwide to lead the transformation of healthcare. Ascension s commitment to serve has roots in St. Louis that stretch back nearly 200 years, to the city s early days. The Daughters of Charity trace their roots to seventeenth century France, where they provided care for the poor in their homes and later in hospitals, orphanages and schools. Their foundation in the United States dates to 1850 when the Emmitsburg, Maryland, Sisters of Charity, founded in 1809 by St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, joined the Daughters of Charity. The Sisters first journeyed to frontier St. Louis in 1828, sent from Emmitsburg to provide medical care to settlers. By the end of the decade they had established the first hospital west of the Mississippi in a three room log cabin. The Daughters would eventually expand across the country, working in existing hospitals and opening new ones. By the 1940s, the Daughters had begun sharing services among their facilities, bringing greater efficiency to their ministry. This laid the groundwork for what would become the Daughters of Charity National Health System, based in St. Louis, which by 1999 had grown to approximately eighty hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare facilities in fifteen states. Other branches of Ascension s history of healing in the St. Louis area grow from the religious congregations that would one day become the ministry s founding sponsors, connected through their Christ-centered commitment to serve all persons, with special attention to those who are poor and vulnerable. Some came together in 1999, while others joined Ascension later. Two early historical sponsors of Ascension the Sisters of St. Joseph of Nazareth (now part of the Congregation of St. Joseph) and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet share a common foundation with roots in seventeenth century France, where their original ministries included hospitals, orphanages and institutes for the deaf. In 1836, Bishop Joseph Rosati invited the Sisters to St. Louis to teach the deaf. Eight Sisters were sent to begin the ministry and establish a motherhouse for the order in the United States. Initially, they opened two facilities one in Carondelet, the other in Cahokia, Illinois. By 1860 the congregation had become independent of its French roots, and soon after, other communities were formed throughout the Midwest including two (in Nazareth, Michigan, and Wichita, Kansas) that sponsored health ministries. Eventually, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Nazareth (a founding sponsor of Ascension) would grow their health system to encompass four regional systems operating more than thirty hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare facilities throughout lower Michigan. Meanwhile, by 1981, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet brought thirteen healthcare institutions together as one organization that would ultimately become St. Louis-based Carondelet Health System, which joined Ascension in H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 214

216 Since their arrival in St. Louis in 1870, the Congregation of the Alexian Brothers has also made an important mark on local healthcare. Its initial hospital had twenty beds, and by 1874 it expanded to open the city s first psychiatric division. Like the religious women who preceded them, the Brothers healthcare ministry often extended beyond acute care settings into related work such as nursing homes and clinics. Their groundbreaking PACE (Program of Allinclusive Care for the Elderly) effort in St. Louis became the first such program in the country to receive permanent funding from Medicare in When Alexian Brothers Health System joined Ascension in 2012, its operations in four states included hospitals, clinics, senior living facilities, rehabilitation services and community-based programming for the elderly. A spirit of innovation was always at the heart of these healing ministries deeply rooted in St. Louis history. The religious women and men who ran them often had to invent ways to address the needs of the people and communities they served. This same spirit is alive at Ascension today, as it works to develop bold approaches for sustaining and expanding a thriving, vibrant Catholic health presence throughout the United States and beyond. One recent fruit of this commitment: the decision in 2010 to create a non-congregational Public Juridic Person as the sole sponsor of Ascension. Under this sponsorship model, religious and laypeople share responsibility for the ministry s ongoing leadership and success. Most recently, Ascension welcomed the Marian Health System, sponsored by the Sisters of the Sorrowful Mother, into Ascension Health in Today, from its base in the St. Louis area with more than 630 associates, Ascension supports the efforts of 150,000 associates nationwide that are transforming healthcare, finding new ways to provide person-centered, holistic care that is safe and reliable across the care continuum. Ascension s Health Ministries operate more than 1,900 sites of care in twentythree states and the District of Columbia. In 2013, Ascension provided nearly $1.5 billion in care of persons living in poverty and community benefit programs, had total operating revenue of $17 billion and total assets of $30 billion. Building on its legacy of healing, Ascension is a national leader, delivering on its promise to provide Healthcare That Works, Healthcare That Is Safe, and Healthcare That Leaves No One Behind, For Life. Ascension is energetically taking up the call to look beyond current operations, in order to advocate for and create a compelling vision of what healthcare might become over the next 250 years. Above: A Brother Supervisor and hospital interns work in the laboratory at Alexian Brothers Hospital, St. Louis, in PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF ALEXIAN BROTHERS PROVINCIAL ARCHIVES. Below: Rooted in the loving ministry of Jesus as healer, Ascension s historical sponsors have a long history of providing healthcare services to those in need. This photograph from the Daughters of Charity Archive shows Sisters caring for a patient at DePaul Hospital on North Kingshighway Boulevard in the late 1960s. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 2 1 5

217 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN Right: Henry Shaw ( ). Below: The statue of Juno in the Kresko Family Victorian Garden. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 216 Founded in 1859 the Missouri Botanical Garden is one of the nation s oldest botanical gardens and operates today as a world leading center in botanical research and science education, conservation, and horticultural display. Guided by its mission statement To discover and share knowledge about plants and their environment in order to preserve and enrich life. the Garden today is a National Historic Landmark and a literal oasis within the city of St. Louis. Henry Shaw, founder of the Garden, came to St. Louis from his native England as a young man in Determined to make his name in business he opened a general store selling hardware and cutlery. As St. Louis grew, Shaw s business expanded to include investments in agricultural commodities, mining, real estate and furs. Shaw s fortune grew along with the city itself; he retired from the business of his general store a wealthy man at the end of 1839 just shy of his fortieth birthday. He began purchasing real estate and in 1842 bought nearly 760 acres outside the city limits of the time. He travelled abroad over the next ten years visiting some of the finest public and private gardens and parks in all of Europe and in 1851 upon his last trip abroad the idea of establishing a botanical garden in his adopted home city of St. Louis came to fruition. In the years to follow word began to spread that Shaw was developing the grounds around his then rural country estate, which became known as Tower Grove. In 1856, he corresponded with William J. Hooker, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, just outside of London, who suggested that Shaw contact fellow St. Louis local physician and botanist Dr. George Engelmann who persuaded Shaw to include the scientific study of plants including a library and herbarium in his plan for the Garden. Shaw also gained the support of noted Harvard botanist Asa Gray with whom Engelmann had already discussed Shaw s efforts. Today the Missouri Botanical Garden features seventy-nine acres of beautiful horticultural displays. More than 4,800 trees live on the grounds, including some unusual varieties and a few stately specimens dating back to the nineteenth century when Shaw planted them. Outstanding displays include the Chinese Garden, English Woodland Garden, Ottoman Garden and Victorian District. The Japanese Garden also known as Seiwa-en covers fourteen acres, making it the largest Japanese strolling garden in North America. The Climatron, a stunning conservatory first opened in 1960, has become a lasting symbol for the Garden. A geodesic domed structure inspired by the futuristic designs of R. Buckminster Fuller, the Climatron covers more than a half-acre and is a year round,

218 ever-changing impressive display that features a vibrant tropical rainforest. The adjoining Shoenberg Temperate House is home to a multitude of Mediterranean species; this spacious conservatory displays plants unique to the temperate regions of the world. In applied horticulture the Garden features the William T. Kemper Center for Home Gardening, the nation s most comprehensive resource center for gardening information including twentythree residential-scale demonstration gardens. Other historic structures and conservatories at the Garden feature designs of famed St. Louis architect George I. Barnett. These include Tower Grove House built in 1849, which served as Shaw s country home and focal point from which the Garden first grew, the Museum, the Linnean House, and Shaw s Townhouse that was moved from downtown St. Louis to the Garden after his death in Today, Shaw lies in state on Garden grounds in his granite mausoleum located in the Victorian District. In addition, the Garden family includes two other properties outside St. Louis city limits. The 2,400 acre Shaw Nature Reserve in Gray Summit, Missouri, was established in 1925 to protect the Missouri Botanical Garden s plant collection from smoke pollution. Today it has become a premier educational habitat restoration site featuring seasonal events, native wildflowers, and miles of hiking trails. The Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House, located in Chesterfield s Faust Park, was established in 1995 to increase awareness of the natural habitat in which butterflies thrive. Significant resources are invested at the Garden in developing and sharing new discoveries in plant science and using that knowledge to help better understand ecosystems here and around the world. Classes and educational opportunities are available for every age group and experience level and the Garden is host to various volunteer opportunities and supports educational outreach to school children of all ages. The Garden strives to inspire and educate all about the benefits of being good environmental stewards through responsible use of natural resources by promoting sustainability for the betterment of society and for the protection of the planet. From the Orchid Show in February, the Wednesday summer nights of the Whitaker Music Festival, the Japanese Festival on Labor Day weekend, to the Gardenland Express holiday flower and train show there is something happening at the Garden for all any time of the year. Located at 4344 Shaw Boulevard in St. Louis, the Missouri Botanical Garden is easily accessible throughout the entire metropolitan area. Visit the website at for an online calendar of events. Above: Climatron and lily pools featuring Angel Musicians sculptures by Carl Milles. Below: Zigzag bridge in the Japanese Garden or Seiwa En meaning Garden of pure, clear harmony and peace. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 2 1 7

219 SAINT LOUIS SCIENCE CENTER With a mission to ignite and sustain lifelong science and technology learning, the Saint Louis Science Center serves as an informal learning environment for science, a resource for current science issues and a playground for imagination. Making learning accessible to all members of the community through free admission, the Science Center welcomes more than 900,000 visitors annually. The Saint Louis Science Center traces its roots to the Academy of Science of St. Louis founded in In 1959 the Academy created the Museum of Science and Natural History in Clayton s Oak Knoll Park. In 1984 the Museum acquired the James S. McDonnell Planetarium from the City of St. Louis. After an extensive renovation of the iconic 1963 structure, it reopened in 1985 as the Saint Louis Science Center. In 1991, following a community-wide campaign, the Science Center s landmark highway-spanning campus opened connecting the Planetarium in Forest Park to the main building on Oakland Avenue. Today, the Saint Louis Science Center is one of the top twenty science centers in the United States and the world as ranked by the Association of Science-Technology Centers. It is recognized as one of America s Top 25 Most Visited Museums by Forbes Traveler magazine and as one of the nation s 10 Best Science Centers for Families by Parents magazine. We just celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the Planetarium, and it s amazing to think about the changes in science and technology from 1963 to now, let alone think about the changes over the last 250 years since Laclede and Chouteau established the settlement that became St. Louis, said President and CEO Bert Vescolani. We live in a world overflowing with information, ideas and innovations. The Science Center plays a vital role in this ever-changing landscape by helping people connect with science, technology, engineering and math. Each day, explorers travel through space in the James S. McDonnell Planetarium, one of the nation s leading space educational facilities. Originally developed in the context of Sputnik and the space race, the Planetarium consistently delivers dynamic experiences in astronomy, space science and aviation. One of its most amazing features, the Zeiss Planetarium Model IX, projects 9,000 stars onto an eighty foot dome creating a brilliant star field. The Boeing Space Station offers two floors of exhibits that demonstrate what it is like to live and work in space and explore the future of space travel. The Planetarium s lobby displays two spacecraft the Mercury and Gemini built in St. Louis by McDonnell Aircraft. The Planetarium s iconic shape, designed by internationally renowned architect Gyo Obato, is one of the most recognized architectural treasures in St. Louis. Visitors to the Saint Louis Science Center experience hands-on science learning through more than 700 interactive exhibits. They can see Earth during the dinosaur era in the Ecology and Environment Gallery, extract DNA in the Life Science Lab, program robots in Cyberville SM and complete a miniature Gateway Arch in Structures. Boeing Hall, which opened in 2011, is a LEED -certified, H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 218

220 13,000 square foot exhibition space allowing the Science Center to present traveling exhibitions and special events. EVie, the Electric Vehicle, travels the region with interactive exhibits on energy and the environment from her home base at the Science Center. The fascinating Energizer Ball Machine in the Emerson Lobby is an example of the Science Center s world-class exhibits. The Science Center s OMNIMAX Theater offers the ultimate in film experience. Visitors sit under a five story, seventy-nine foot diameter tilted, domed screen taking in breathtaking images from a 70mm film projection system. The IMAX technology has the largest film frame in motion picture history ten times the size of a standard 35mm frame. Combined with 15,000 watts and six channels of digital surround sound, it is an immersive film experience like no other. The Saint Louis Science Center offers educational programs for learners of all ages, both on site and off site. The Taylor Community Science Resource Center, at the corner of Kingshighway and Manchester, serves as the home base for the Science Center s successful public, school, and community outreach programs, offering classroom, meeting, and laboratory space while housing a collection of nearly 100,000 artifacts. The Taylor Center also houses the Science Center s signature youth development program, Youth Exploring Science (YES). This collaboration with numerous community organizations encourages teens with multiple risk factors to set and achieve educational and career goals. School programs, camp-ins, summer camps, and scout events get young visitors excited about doing science. First Fridays, the Science Center s monthly evening program, gives adults an opportunity to explore the geekier side of life through engaging presentations, pub-style trivia, LASERIUM shows and screenings of classic science fiction movies introduced by a local scientist. The Saint Louis Science Center offers opportunities for people of all ages to connect with science. For more information, including directions, hours of operation and current events, please visit slsc.org. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 2 1 9

221 SAINT LOUIS ZOO Above: Workers pose for a photograph during construction of 1904 World s Fair Flight Cage. PHOTOGRAPHY FROM SAINT LOUIS ZOO ARCHIVES, COURTESY OF THE RONVIK FAMILY. Bottom, left: In this iconic image, Miss Jim, the elephant acquired for the Saint Louis Zoo by collecting pennies from hundreds of school children, is out for a stroll on Zoo grounds. The elephant was an institution at the Zoo from her arrival in 1916 until her death in PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF SAINT LOUIS ZOO ARCHIVES. Bottom, right: Zoo s First Elephant House was built in PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF SAINT LOUIS ZOO ARCHIVES. The Saint Louis Zoo has educated, entertained and earned a place in the hearts of Saint Louisans for generations. Home to 600 species and 19,800 animals, many of them rare and endangered, the Zoo is one of the few free zoos in the nation. It has been named number one zoo by Zagat Survey s U.S. Family Travel Guide in association with Parenting magazine. The Zoo, which annually attracts three million visitors, is an engine for regional growth, with an annual economic impact of more than $200 million. A giant elliptical bird cage, built in 1904 for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, eventually became the first Saint Louis Zoo exhibit. Locals were so proud of the cage that at the close of the World s Fair, it was purchased as a permanent feature of the city s Forest Park. This purchase prompted the 1910 formation of the Saint Louis Zoological Society. Society members recognized the need to enlist public participation in a local zoo, and the citizens of St. Louis responded with enthusiasm donating bear cubs, tigers, antelopes even a camel. The City of St. Louis set aside seventy-seven acres within the nearly 1,300 acre Forest Park, and a state law was passed ruling that the zoo shall be forever free. In 1915 the Society asked city residents to join the crusade to approve a mill tax of one-fifth of a penny. With the 1916 approval of this tax, St. Louis became the first city in the world to support its Zoo through public taxes. Now these tax revenues cover a third of the Zoo s budget. Also in 1916, a collection of pennies from school children allowed the Society to acquire its first elephant. The creation of an elephant house followed as did a basin for sea lions and a lion house. Several other historic buildings were constructed during the 1920s and 1930s, including the still-used bird, primate and reptile houses and an antelope exhibit. One of the most notable early exhibits was the open and moated Bear Grottos a natural, unbarred visual display that became a model for other zoos. In the following decades, the Zoo continued to grow in animal exhibits, attendance and national acclaim under George P. Vierheller, who served as director from 1922 until 1962, when he was succeeded by Marlin Perkins. Perkins gained international fame through his Mutual of Omaha s Wild Kingdom television program. However, it was the Zoo s sixth director, Charles H. Hoessle, who brought the Zoo to its modern-day standards in terms H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 220

222 of wildlife education, animal management, animal health and research. A year after Perkins took the reins, Zoo and community leaders drove a golden spike into the ground on August 30, 1963, to mark the first ride of the Zoo s train now the Emerson Zooline Railroad. The nation s largest miniature rail line, this six-locomotive train has carried nearly 35 million riders since that first trip. The 1970s marked the creation of a taxsupported Zoo Museum District, supporting local cultural institutions, including the Zoo. In 1983 the citizens of St. Louis City and County agreed to raise the district tax rate. These years also marked the openings of Big Cat Country and Jungle of the Apes and unprecedented growth for the Zoo s education program now one of the nation s largest. In the 1990s, the Zoo added the Endangered Species Research Center & Veterinary Hospital and the Emerson Children s Zoo and began the first phase of River s Edge, which allows visitors to journey along a mythical waterway seeing everything from elephants to cheetahs. In 2000, Monsanto Insectarium opened with more than 100 species of invertebrates and a walk-through geodesic dome filled with butterflies. Since 2002, under the leadership of the Zoo s current President and CEO Jeffrey P. Bonner, Ph.D., the Zoo has expanded River s Edge habitats, opened a new penguin and puffin exhibit that gives visitors a close-up experience with the birds and become a leader in international conservation with the establishment of its WildCare Institute. That institute brought the Zoo s conservation initiatives under a single organization of twelve centers focused on creating a sustainable future for wildlife and people around the world. This period also marked the creation of the Donn & Marilyn Lipton Fragile Forest, a new home for orangutans, chimps and gorillas, and the William R. Orthwein, Jr., and Laura Rand Orthwein Animal Nutrition Center, which provides top-notch dietary care for Zoo animals. In 2012 the Zoo opened its awardwinning Sea Lion Sound, where visitors can walk through an underwater tunnel into the sea lions habitat or enjoy the First Bank Sea Lion Show at an open-air arena. Also in 2012, Zoo attendance hit an all-time high of 3.5 million, and the Zoo purchased the 13.5-acre former Forest Park Hospital site across Highway 64 from the Zoo. It adds fourteen percent more land to the Zoo, giving it room to grow. With more exhibits planned for painted dogs and polar, Andean, Malayan sun and grizzly bears, the Saint Louis Zoo is living up to its excellent reputation as a worldclass conservation organization. Thanks to enlightened volunteer and staff leadership and strong community and donor support, the Zoo s 100 plus years have been marked by extraordinary growth and achievement. For more information visit Above: Phil, the Gorilla. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF SAINT LOUIS ZOO ARCHIVES. Below: Sea Lion Sound opened in summer PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF DAVID MERRITT, SAINT LOUIS ZOO. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 2 2 1

223 MATHEWS- DICKEY BOYS & GIRLS CLUB Above: Vice President of Public Relations and Special Events Barbara A. Washington with members of the organization s Girls Program during the Christmastime All Over The World celebration of the annual Sheer Elegance Fashion Show. Right: President, CEO and co-founder Martin Luther Mathews. Below: Mathews surrounded by young club members. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 222 More than two million young men and women have learned the Three R s of Respect, Restraint and Responsibility at the Mathews- Dickey Boys & Girls Club. The organization was founded in Handy Park in 1960 by Dr. Martin Luther Mathews and the late Hubert Dickey Ballentine, neighborhood baseball coaches. As the number of teams grew, plans were made to establish a clubhouse at the former Bob Russell Sporting Goods Store at 4738 Natural Bridge Road. Soon a five-team league was formed and the clubhouse attracted more members and volunteers. By 1964 pioneer benefactor Union Electric (now Ameren Missouri and still a strong Club supporter decades later) funded uniforms for seventy-five baseball and twentytwo football teams. By 1970, and with this type of corporate support, the Club had become an integral part of the community. In 1980, with the advice of G. Duncan Bauman, the Club was led to two corporate leaders, August A. Busch III, then chairman and CEO of Anheuser-Busch Companies, and Charles F. Knight, then chairman and CEO of Emerson Electric Co., to co-chair a multimillion dollar building campaign for a new home at 4245 North Kingshighway Boulevard. The building s design was created by architect Karl Grice, a Club alumnus, and then board member Raymond Maritz. President Ronald Reagan dedicated the new facility in 1982, declaring it a model for the country. The president also presented the nation s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Citizens Award, to Mathews and Ballentine for their lifetime achievements. The facility is equipped with an Olympic-size pool, the Reverend William G. Gillespie Board Room, Robert E. Grote, Jr. Tennis Courts, the Richard B. Loynd Gymnasium, Dick and Mary Casey Hall of Fame, community meeting rooms and administrative offices. A multipurpose outdoor athletic complex was built in 1984 in honor of baseball Hall of Famer James Cool Papa Bell with support from the Boosters and President Reagan. The Club expanded its athletic programming to North County with the donation of the Bob Russell Park in The Girls Program was established in 1986 under the direction of advisor Evelyn Williams and late board member Charles Big Charlie Ruprecht, with leading support from Casey and Grote. A 19,000 square foot expansion wing was built for the new program with six learning classrooms and a teaching and demonstration kitchen. Olympic Gold Medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee took part in the dedication of a new auditorium in her honor. The Club was renamed the Mathews- Dickey Boys & Girls Club in April 2001 with a lead gift by Insituform Technologies. Today, the organization provides direct educational, cultural enrichment, career and leadership and sports programs to 6,000 youth members and indirect services to more than 40,000 young men and women annually. The United Way member, 501(c)(3) organization achieves amazing results with a small but dedicated board and staff, with an annual budget of $2.5 million. Volunteers are the organization s lifeblood, generating more than 1.9 million service hours each year.

224 Since its beginning as an institution to train teachers for the public schools, Harris-Stowe State University has evolved into a university offering four-year academic opportunities in the areas of teacher education, business, and arts and sciences. HSSU was founded by the St. Louis Public School system in 1857 as a normal school, thus becoming the first public teacher education institution west of the Mississippi River and only the twelfth such institution in the nation. The school, open to white students only, was later named Harris Teachers College in honor of William Torrey Harris, a St. Louis school superintendent and also a United States Commissioner of Education. The College began offering in-service education for white teachers in the St. Louis schools in 1906 and became a four-year undergraduate institution in The school was first accredited in Meanwhile, Stowe Teachers College began in 1890 as a normal school for future black elementary school teachers. The school, an extension of Sumner High School, became a four-year, degree-granting institution in The school s name was changed to Stowe Teachers College in 1929 in honor of abolitionist leader Harriet Beecher Stowe. The two teacher education institutions were merged by the St. Louis Board of Education in 1954 as the first of several steps to integrate the city s public schools. The merged institution was known as Harris Teachers College. In response to many requests from alumni of Stowe Teachers College, the name was changed to Harris-Stowe College. The school became the newest member of the State system of higher education in 1979 and the official name became Harris-Stowe State College. The school attained university status in Since its founding 157 years ago, HSSU has been the university of choice for first-generation college students who otherwise would not have an opportunity to pursue a bachelor s degree. The school currently serves 1,400 students at its Givens campus in St. Louis. Dr. Henry Givens, Jr., who served as the school s president for thirty-two years before retiring in 2011, was instrumental in expanding the campus from one building in 1999 to HARRIS-STOWE STATE UNIVERSITY seven buildings today. Currently, the university offers fourteen competitive degree options. HSSU, with 190 full-time employees, is steadily positioning itself to be the right choice for every student it serves and a major educational competitor in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Plans on the horizon for Harris-Stowe State University include positioning the school for future academic-centered growth so that it continues to cater to the educational needs of the metropolitan community by being the most affordable and accessible option available for individuals seeking a quality education. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 2 2 3

225 GREATER SAINT LOUIS COMMUNITY FOUNDATION Right: Left to right, D Angela Jeffries, Dawson Haley, and Raven Ginger earned college scholarships as part of the Redbird Rookies Saigh Scholarship program, a Cardinals Care program at the Greater Saint Louis Community Foundation. Below: In 1994, William C. Black established a scholarship fund in memory of his wife, Bertha Black, who was a teacher at Vashon High School, to help St. Louis area African-Americans particularly Vashon graduates attend college or professional school. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 224 Founded in 1915, the Greater Saint Louis Community Foundation continues to help St. Louisans make meaningful and lasting contributions to the causes they care about, and also help promote charitable giving in our community. Consider Edward Bredell, who was a St. Louis area merchant and philanthropist. In 1894, he established a fund with the St. Louis Community Trust, which later became the Greater Saint Louis Community Foundation. Now, 120 years later, the Community Foundation continues to act as the steward of Bredell s instructions and provides financial support in his name to local organizations and ensures his charitable wishes continue to be honored. By making a gift to the Community Foundation, a donor can contribute to the charitable causes or organizations of their choice during their lifetime and posthumously. With the help of the Greater Saint Louis Community Foundation, charities can benefit from a donor s generosity for decades and possibly centuries to come. Lucille Pappenick was a woman of modest means when she died in 1992, yet she left $340,000 to the Foundation to provide for local nonprofits. Her fund has already contributed $250,000 to local organizations, and thanks to the work of the Community Foundation, her fund is now valued at $400,000. Her good will have a positive impact on St. Louis for generations to come. Over the past twenty-five years, the Community Foundation and its donors like Bredell and Pappenndick have distributed a total of $217 million to charitable causes. More than seventy percent of those grants were made to nonprofits in the St. Louis region. Today, the Community Foundation has more than 425 funds serving nearly 2,000 donors with charitable assets totaling almost one-quarter of a billion dollars. At the same time, the Community Foundation has also broadened its mission and serves as an important resource for St. Louis area nonprofits by pairing these worthwhile organizations with interested and prospective donors. In addition, the Foundation often brings these organizations to the table with key decision-makers to develop innovative solutions that address a variety of complex community challenges. In its next century, the Greater Saint Louis Community Foundation will remain dedicated to working with charitable-minded St. Louisans and the nonprofits they love to help ensure a more vibrant St. Louis for future generations.

226 ST. MARY OF VICTORIES CHURCH (1843) St. Mary of Victories Church, founded at Third and Gratiot Streets in the Chouteau s Landing Historic District of Downtown (south of the Gateway Arch), is one of the beloved churches of Old St. Louis. Established in 1843, the charming neo-classical red brick edifice was designed by noted St. Louis architects Franz Saler and George I. Barnett. (Barnett s firm would later go on to design the New Cathedral Basilica on Lindell Boulevard and other noteworthy churches and public buildings in the Victorian Era.) St. Mary s ornate interior, featuring hand-painted frescoes, statuary and carving, was designed by Professor Max Schneiderhahn, the city s first professional church artist. The ornate statue of St. Mary of Victories, cast in 1844, still stands in the Sanctuary. The church was the second Roman Catholic Church to be constructed in the city after the Old Cathedral. Presently, it is a historic church designated by the city, the Archdiocese, and the National Register of Historic Places. This is the only church in the Archdiocese featuring the Papal Coat of Arms of Pope Benedict XVI and Pope St. John Paul II. Blessed Father Francis X. Seelos, C.Ss.R., preached here in 1865, and is slated for eventual canonization as St. Louis second saint after St. Rose Phillipine Duchesne. Blessed Karl, the last Hapsburg emperor of Austria-Hungary, is also honored here. Originally established for German immigrants to St. Louis in the nineteenth century, Old St. Mary s enjoyed a second rebirth as a spiritual and cultural home to Hungarian immigrants who arrived after the Hungarian Revolution in Today, St. Mary of Victories proudly serves the descendants of these groups, the south Downtown business community, and the Catholic community attached to the Novus Ordo (Vatican II) Latin Mass in the City of St. Louis. Visitors and numerous tourists enjoy the quaint, decorative charm and tranquility of the old church and its landscaped Old World courtyard. Masses, including weddings, funerals and regularly scheduled weekday and week end services are still held at the parish. A fully equipped church hall and catering facility also operates as part of the parish outreach to the general community and St. Louisans of all faiths. Many visitors and families attend our Annual Parish Homecoming Festival in mid- August oldest in St. Louis. Check the St. Louis Review and our website, for festival information and dates. The Friends of Historic St. Mary of Victories, a nonprofit, community-based group dedicated to the preservation and future mission of this historic church, and the redevelopment of Downtown St. Louis, thank you for your support and generosity. We invite you to come back to visit (and worship) often! Profile written and donated by Max S. Kaiser, Jr. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 2 2 5

227 SISTERS OF ST. JOSEPH OF CARONDELET H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 226 The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, a congregation of women religious, follows the spirit of the foundation established in LePuy-Velay, France around 1650 by Jean Pierre Medaille, a Jesuit priest, with Francoise Eyraud and her five women companions. Dedicated to the practice of spiritual and corporal works of mercy, the community had a rapid growth until the time of the French Revolution when convents were suppressed and the sisters were forced to live as lay persons. Mother St. John Fontbonne was one of these sisters. Many sisters were imprisoned and some guillotined, and Mother St. John herself was arrested and placed in the prison at St. Didier. However, the eve of the day scheduled for her execution saw the fall of Robespierre July 27, 1794 which meant the end of the Reign of Terror. Released from prison, she and her companions returned again to her parent s home. In 1807, Cardinal Fesch, Bishop of Lyons, asked her to reestablish the Sisters of St. Joseph in his diocese. A combination of circumstances contributed to establishment of the Sisters of St. Joseph in America. Through her work with the Propagation of the Faith, Countess Felicite Duras was greatly moved by a letter from Bishop Rosati, the first Bishop of St. Louis, asking for sisters who would undertake instruction of deaf-mutes. She offered to defray the expense of establishing a community of Sisters of St. Joseph in his diocese of St. Louis. She had a great love and admiration for Mother St. John Fontbonne and asked her to send sisters to America. The Bishop accepted six sisters to instruct the children, and two others were included to teach the deaf. The initial six sisters the oldest was 30, the youngest just 21 arrived in New Orleans March 5, 1836 after seven weeks at sea. The sisters enjoyed the hospitality of the Ursuline Sisters for two weeks, learning much about life in America. The sisters then traveled up the Mississippi, reaching their destination March 25, While waiting to occupy a log cabin in Carondelet, about five miles south of St. Louis, three of the sisters studied English under the tutelage of the Madames of the Sacred Heart. Anne Eliza Dillon, who was a student there, became the first American postulant. Many institutions had their start at Carondelet and continue their good works today. St. Joseph Institute for the Deaf, St. Joseph s Academy, and Fontbonne College, (now Fontbonne University), all began in the convent at Carondelet. Today, the sisters continue to work closely with lay persons as they serve in parishes, schools, colleges, universities and diocesan offices; in healthcare, childcare, deaf education, youth ministry and adult education literacy programs; in homes and programs for the elderly, in social work, neighborhood and community development and social concerns; as artists, consultants, counselors, and spiritual directors. In a special way the sisters are in partnership with men and women who are desirous of sharing the mission of Jesus. As non-vowed associates, these men and women meet regularly to share life and prayer with one another and to share in the Church s mission with the Sisters of St. Joseph.

228 The German Catholic immigration to America in the nineteenth century produced a great number of local parish benevolent societies, some of which sent delegates, in 1855, to the convention in Baltimore that founded the Catholic Central Verein (Union) of America. Annual conventions have been held since then in cities around the country, and, in 1908, a Central Bureau was established in St. Louis to co-ordinate the Verein s benevolent, charitable and educational endeavors. Since 1921 the Bureau has been located at 3835 Westminster Place in Midtown near the University. The purpose of the Central Verein has always been the promotion of Catholic practice, Christian virtue and works of charity, spreading the knowledge and love of God and helping to effect a Christian reconstruction of society based on the principles of the great papal social encyclicals of the nineteenth century and later. Among the noteworthy achievements of the Central Verein has been its successful support of credit union enabling acts, workmen s compensation acts, and laws allowing public school buses to transport Catholic school children. During and after the Second World War, the Central Bureau of the Central Verein served as the official agency of the Archdiocese of St. Louis for resettling refugees and other displaced persons from Europe and elsewhere. The Bureau continued this work into the 1950s. In more recent years it has conducted humanitarian aid efforts in Central America. No longer specifically a German organization; the Central Verein and its Central Bureau have extended their activities for the good of people of all ethnic backgrounds. CENTRAL BUREAU OF THE CATHOLIC The library of the Central Verein, located in a remodeled stable behind the Central Bureau building, contains an extensive collection of German-Americana, as well as many other volumes in history and the social sciences. It is not a lending library, but scholars continue to avail themselves of its resources, which include microfilm files of German-language newspapers and periodicals published in the United States. During recent decades, the most effective work of the Central Verein apostolate has been conducted through its bi-monthly journal Social Justice Review, published by the Central Bureau since its foundation in Originally containing both Germanand English-language sections, the Review has been entirely in English since Its founding editor was Frederick Philip Kenkel, who was director of the Central Bureau from 1908 until his death in The Central Verein, its journal and members still strive to bring together ideas and resources to promote the kind of social justice that is founded in Christian humanism, and to engender respect for the dignity and natural rights of all human beings. They offer a place for open discussion of social, philosophical, ethical and artistic issues, and a critical centre for reflection in and for the larger Catholic community. CENTRAL VEREIN OF AMERICA Top, left and right (close-up): Central Bureau of the Catholic Central Verein of America, founded in Left: Founder Frederick Philip Kenkel. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 2 2 7

229 COMMEMORATION COMMITTEE FOR THE Margaret and Daniel Carr. BATTLE OF FORT SAN CARLOS The Battle of Fort San Carlos is an American Revolutionary War battle fought west of the Mississippi River on May 26, More than twenty villagers were killed in this battle, and their heroic efforts halted British efforts to seize the land from Spain. Saint Louis was never attacked again. The seeds for the battle were planted in the summer of 1779 when Spain joined the American Revolution against Great Britain. British military planners hoped to secure the Mississippi River corridor against both Spanish and patriot activity. These plans included expeditions to take New Orleans and to gain control of the village of Saint Louis and other settlements in the upper Mississippi. Their mission was to drive out the rebels led by George Rogers Clark. Clark learned of the British plans and warned the Spanish Commandant at Saint Louis, Fernando de Leyba, to prepare for an attack. With money from the villagers and his own resources, de Leyba began fortifying the town. A tower called Fort San Carlos was quickly constructed near what is today Fourth and Walnut Streets. A two-mile long trench was dug to protect the town. Cannons were brought from nearby Saint Charles, Missouri, (San Carlos), and placed in the Tower. About 1 p.m. on May 26, 1780, a large force of Native Americans and other British allies attacked the defenders. These included the people of the town, a small force of Spanish soldiers, militia from Ste. Genevieve, Missouri as well as from Saint Charles, Missouri. The commandant directed the defense. Soon, cannon fire alarmed the Native American attackers. They withdrew which caused the attack to fail. Unfortunately, some of the villagers were surprised in the fields outside the town, and more than twenty were killed, and seventy captured. That same day, a second simultaneous attack on an American outpost at Cahokia, Illinois was repulsed by George Rogers Clark and his militia. Again, this was a victory for the American cause. The importance of the Battle of Fort San Carlos faded over the generations. There were those who sought to keep the memory of the battle alive. We honor their efforts. The Commemoration Committee for the Battle of Fort San Carlos was cofounded by Margaret A. Carr and her now late husband, Daniel F. Carr. Under their leadership, the battle has become much more well-known. The Missouri History Museum will have an exhibit on the battle in October The renovated museum under the Arch will have exhibits on the period, which will contain information about the battle by And, a wayside exhibit about the battle will be placed in the Luther Ely Smith Square near the Old Courthouse also by The Commemoration Committee hosts a memorial to those who died at the battle each year at the Missouri History Museum on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend in May. Anyone interested in Saint Louis History is welcome to attend and is invited to join the Commemoration Committee. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 228

230 When the first Sisters of Mercy arrived in St. Louis on June 27, 1856, it was already a thriving river trading town and the secondlargest port in the country. But it was sorely lacking in education and healthcare, especially for the poor. The Sisters came to St. Louis to teach; within five days, they also began visiting the poor and sick in their homes. By 1871 frequent cholera and typhoid epidemics required more help, so the Sisters turned their school building into a twenty-five bed hospital for women and children. Three years later, St. John s Hospital became a general hospital with wards for the poor and private rooms for men, women and children. By the 1904 World s Fair, the hospital was home to Mercy s first school of nursing in St. Louis as well a motor-driven static X-ray machine, one of the most advanced medical technologies of the era. As the city continued to grow, so did its need for healthcare. In 1912, St. John s Hospital expanded and relocated to Euclid Avenue near Forest Park, and by the late 1950s the Sisters made the then-radical decision to follow the city s rapid migration to the west. In 1963, two years before the Gateway Arch was completed, 620 bed St. John s Mercy Medical Center was opened on Ballas Road in St. Louis County. In more recent years, the changes have continued to be dramatic for the Sisters and their health ministry in St. Louis. As the number of active Sisters declined, lay leaders have emerged to help take the ministry into a new century of care. St. John s Mercy, now one of the nation s largest Catholic hospitals, was renamed Mercy Hospital St. Louis in 2011 and is one of three Mercy hospitals in the greater St. Louis area. A shift toward greater outpatient care and the establishment of Mercy Clinic has brought physician leadership to the forefront, as well as new sites of primary and specialty services across Mercy s growing landscape. With St. Louis as an operational and administrative base, Mercy s present-day health ministry encompasses health and human services across a seven state region. Mercy today is the sixth largest Catholic health system in the United States with more than 30 hospitals, 300 outpatient sites, 40,000 coworkers and 2,000 Mercy Clinic physicians. The organization is a national leader in healthcare supply chain, telemedicine and electronic health records. Just as the Sisters who established the ministry, Mercy continues to pioneer new ways of delivering healthcare to meet the needs of contemporary St. Louis and the surrounding region. MERCY HEALTH Above: St. John s Hospital opened on Euclid Avenue in St. Louis in The present day Mercy Hospital, now located in St. Louis County, is one of the largest Catholic hospitals in the country. Left: Mercy operates one of the world s largest electronic ICU programs, enabling specialists from the St. Louis control center to monitor ICU patients across four states. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 2 2 9

231 MISSOURI HUMANITIES COUNCIL Above: Winners of the 2013 Missouri Humanities Awards with members of the MHC board and staff. Bottom, left: A visitor viewing the Civil War traveling exhibit that was collaboratively developed by MHC and Missouri History Museum. Bottom, right: Storyteller Steve Otto presenting Civil War stories with fourth graders in Pierce City, Missouri. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 230 A celebration of St. Louis 250th year is a celebration of the humanities. From Pierre de Laclede Liguest and Auguste Chouteau to Dred Scott, a World s Fair, and the Gateway Arch itself, St. Louis has been home to a rich history of characters and events that have shaped the course and discourse of this country since its birth. The Missouri Humanities Council (MHC) seeks to extend that rich heritage by supporting and presenting humanities-based programs throughout Missouri. Since 1971, MHC has developed original programming in subjects including history, archaeology, anthropology, literature, religion, law, philosophy, and languages. As a 501(c) (3) organization affiliated with the National Endowment for the Humanities, MHC has proudly served over 2.15 million Missourians since its inception. Today, we offer a variety of programs throughout the state and in the Greater St. Louis area, including: READ from the START a program that encourages parents and caregivers to experience the joy of reading with their children, building the foundations for life-long learning and the love of books and stories. Traveling Exhibits in collaboration with the Missouri History Museum and other statewide institutions, MHC brings high-quality traveling exhibits to Missouri communities and helps them develop programs and exhibits to tell their own stories. Most recently, our partnership with the Missouri History Museum produced a traveling exhibit detailing the unique struggles of Missouri as a border state in the Civil War. Project and Program Grants awarding competitive grants to Missouri institutions, organizations, and communities to help them develop and present high-quality humanities-based programs, events, exhibits, and publications. Show Me Missouri Speakers Services in collaboration with the State Historical Society of Missouri, we are working to establish a network of experts and scholars to provide affordable, high-quality programs and presentations for organizations and institutions around the state, including community museums and libraries as well as civic and cultural groups (program commenced January 1, 2012). Veterans Creative Writing Workshops and Anthology in collaboration with the Warriors Arts Alliance and organizations such as public libraries and the VA, we offer creative writing workshops for veterans. This program continues to expand and is being augmented with an annual writing competition and anthology, co-sponsored with Southeast Missouri State University Press. Heritage Tourism Initiative supporting innovation in the effort to assist Missouri communities in preserving and sharing their own stories. This program invests in creative projects using new technology to encourage heritage tourism across the state. The Missouri Humanities Awards recognizing excellence in humanities-based education, literature and community service with an annual award ceremony. At the heart of these programs is our mission to build a more thoughtful, informed, and civil society. This 250th celebration is a time to reflect on that unending cause and redouble our efforts into the years ahead.

232 ST. LOUIS PUBLIC LIBRARY The St. Louis Public Library, with 70,000 cardholders and a collection numbering 3.5 million items, has served the St. Louis region for nearly 150 years. The library began in 1865 as the Public School Library and Lyceum, a private subscription library established by St. Louis Education Superintendent Ira Divoll and other supporters of public education. Its operations were transferred to the St. Louis Board of Education in Frederick Morgan Crundon, who became the second librarian in 1877, tirelessly promoted the public library as the people s university, and advocated expansion into neighborhood branches and conversion to a free, tax-based citywide service. Crundon worked for passage of a new state law that authorized cities to levy taxes for public libraries and, in 1893, voters approved the creation of an independent board of directors and agreed to tax themselves to support a public library. The St. Louis Library opened, free to the public, on June 1, The library occupied the top two floors of the St. Louis Board of Education building at Locust and Ninth Streets but was soon in search of adequate room for a growing institution and proper accommodations for its every increasing patronage. When an attempt to levy a building tax for a new building failed, the library board contacted steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, who had embarked on a crusade to build public libraries across the nation. In 1901, Carnegie gave the city of St. Louis $1 million, half to be spent on construction of a Central Library and half on neighborhood branches. The Central Library was built at Thirteenth and Olive Streets on a location formerly occupied by the St. Louis Exposition and Music Hall. Designed by noted architect Cass Gilbert, Central Library featured an oval central pavilion surrounded by four light courts. The front of the building resembled a colossal arcade, with contrasting basrelief panels. A projecting three bay central block, like a triumphal arch, provided a monumental entrance. At the rear, Central Library faced a sunken garden. The ceiling of the Periodicals Room was modified from Michelangelo s ceiling in the Laurentian Library. A $70 million renovation and renewal of the Central Library began in mid-2010 and was completed in December Today, the St. Louis Public Library operates sixteen locations with services ranging from circulation of books, music, and movie collections, to digital downloads and free computer training, to tools for business research, public Internet access, discussion groups, and speakers. The St. Louis Public Library operates with an annual budget of $23 million, with Executive Director Waller McGuire overseeing a staff of 300 employees. Q U A L I T Y O F L I F E 2 3 1

233 One of the many downtown buildings representing commercial and/or residential resurgence. FAUSZ FAMILY PHOTOGRAPH, H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 232

234 THE MARKETPLACE S t. L o u i s s r e t a i l a n d c o m m e r c i a l e s t a b l i s h m e n t s o f f e r a n i m p r e s s i v e v a r i e t y o f c h o i c e s Parkway Hotel Fabulous Fox Theatre Lowenhaupt Global Advisors, LLC Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis St. Louis Regional Chamber St. Louis Cardinals TricorBraun Express Scripts Holding Company St. Louis Economic Development Partnership Wells Fargo Advisors, LLC Scottrade, Inc Anheuser-Busch Employees Credit Union Anheuser-Busch Concordia Publishing House Vi-Jon Schnuck Markets, Inc AAIM Employers Association Commerce Bank St. Louis Post-Dispatch Edward Jones Residence Inn by Marriott St. Louis Downtown Maritz Care-Tech Laboratories, Inc. O-T-C Pharmaceuticals SPECIAL THANKS TO Best Western Airport Plaza Inn Kaestner Lawn Care LLC T H E M A R K E T P L A C E 2 3 3

235 PARKWAY HOTEL H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 234 The Parkway Hotel is well known for its Affordable Luxury but that slogan only partly explains the appeal of this unusual property. This unique, one-of-a-kind hotel in St. Louis Central West End is the sort of place where the manager brings his dog to work, guests enjoy freshly-baked cookies each afternoon, and patients attracted to nearby hospitals find a warm and caring environment. Tourists, business travelers, and medical patients alike consider the Parkway Hotel more of a home away from home, not just another room in a hotel. What makes us unique is that a good percentage of our business is related to the hospitals, explains General Manager Jim Ossola. We re adjacent to the renowned Barnes- Jewish Hospital and the St. Louis Children s Hospital, Siteman Cancer Center, and the Washington University Medical Center. Because of this, we attract the vendors who are supplying the hospitals as well as patients and their families who come from all over the world for medical treatment at the medical centers. Many of the guests are long-term patients and they and their families often live for months at the Parkway Hotel. Ossola recalls a family from Australia who stayed at the hotel for nearly a year while their six year old daughter received treatment. The little girl had cerebral palsy and couldn t walk or do much of anything, Ossola says. They heard of a radical procedure they do only at the Children s Hospital so the family and their friends conducted fundraisers to raise the money and traveled from Australia so their daughter could be treated. We got an from the parents not long ago with the great news that their little girl is now walking. Another six year old and his family were guests at the hotel for more than a year-anda-half while he received treatment. In this unusual case, the boy had no lungs and could breathe only with the aid of a machine attached to a trach in his throat. The boy also had a cleft palate and was fed through a feeding tube. This kid was an inspiration to all of us, says Ossola. We got to watch him get his lung transplant, have the surgeries for his cleft palate, and watch him eat his first meal. He still comes back for check-ups and we ve made him an honorary employee of the hotel. He even has his own little mailbox. Ossola recalls that the six year old loved to vacuum and would come down to the lobby with his little breathing machine in one hand, grab a vacuum cleaner with the other, and clean the lobby carpets. It got to the point where he would get all upset if he missed a day, because he didn t think he was doing his job. The staff became very attached to the boy and threw a birthday party for him and helped his family celebrate Christmas. We get letters from patient s family members all the time, thanking us for making them feel so welcome in their time of need, Ossola adds. Medical patients and their families constitute about thirty percent of the business at the Parkway Hotel. The remainder comes from the more traditional tourist and business travel. Whatever the reason for a visit to St. Louis, the affordable luxury at the Parkway Hotel is a strong attraction. The hotel is only steps away from the Metro Link light rail system, making it easy to visit downtown St. Louis and such attractions as Busch Stadium, Scottrade Center, Union Station, Washington University, and Cathedral Basilica. The hotel is only one block from world-famous Forest Park, site of the 1904 World s Fair Exposition, and home to the St. Louis Zoo, St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis Science Center, The Muny (Municipal Theatre Association of St. Louis) and two public golf courses. The hotel is only two miles from Chaifetz Arena, St. Louis University and Grand Center, which is home to the Fabulous Fox Theater, Sheldon Concert Hall, Powell Hall and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Major League baseball games are a big draw for the Parkway, especially games between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago Cubs. Many fans come down from Chicago, stay at the Parkway and take the Metro Link right to the ballpark.

236 The independently owned and operated Parkway Hotel was built in 2003 in the historic Central West End. The Parkway Hotel offers three star luxury and modern elegance in the midst of a stately neighborhood of historic residences, fine restaurants, eclectic art galleries and first-class shopping. The neighborhood was created during the westward expansion of St. Louis in the late nineteenth century and the building boom that resulted from the 1904 World s Fair. The Parkway is considered an anchor of the Central West End, as it is located at the southern border at the intersection of Euclid Avenue and Forest Park Avenue. The crisp, modern design and luxurious appointments of the Parkway s lobby provide guests and visitors with a glimpse of the contemporary elegance that awaits them. The Parkway features 217 beautifully appointed guest rooms, with VIP and executive rooms located on the seventh and eighth floors. All rooms feature custom-designed traditional furniture, high-speed Internet access, microwave ovens, refrigerators, coffee makers, irons and ironing boards, multiline telephones with voice mail features, DVD players, hairdryers, granite vanities and elegant surroundings. A fitness center in the hotel offers guests a variety of machines for exercise and cardiovascular workouts. T H E M A R K E T P L A C E 2 3 5

237 As you would expect from a hotel where the manager brings his dog to work every day, the Parkway is a pet-friendly hotel. My office is right in the middle of the lobby, so I get a lot of visitors each day. And, a lot of them want to pet my Golden Retriever mix named Buttercup, says Ossola. A popular Applebee s Restaurant is located in the hotel lobby and dozens of other restaurants are located within walking distance. A free hot breakfast is served to hotel guests each morning. Just-popped popcorn is available all day and there is always a line when the cookies come out of the oven at 5:30 p.m. each afternoon. Ossola feels that one of the strengths of the Parkway Hotel is its independence. The hotel is owned by the Privitera family of Kansas City and is not a part of any hotel franchise or group. It s individually owned, not corporately owned, and it s run by the family, Ossola explains. We re not handcuffed by a franchise or a management company, so we get to run things the right way, Ossola explains. There are no politics, no trying to please one group or the other. We don t have to worry about some vice president in Los Angeles telling us how to run a hotel in St. Louis. Ossola was hired to manage the hotel five years ago after a management company was unable to make the property profitable. A former professional hockey referee, Ossola grew up in Southern California and graduated from Pepperdine University. He was the youngest general manager in the Sheraton Corp. organization and worked for other hotel chains before becoming manager of the Parkway. Ossola feels that treating employees right is a major factor in the hotel s success. How you treat your employees is the most important thing in the hotel, he says. Because if you treat your employees right, they ll take care of your customers. If you hold them accountable, treat them right, and create a very, very positive work environment, you keep costs down by keeping turnover down. The Parkway currently has 60 employees, including 11 managers, and we ve had only 1 management staff member turnover. The Parkway Hotel is a recipient of the Trip Advisor Certificate of Excellence, Travelocity Excellence Award, and the Expedia Insiders Select Award. Employees of the Parkway Hotel have earned the Hospitality Employee of the Year honor, presented by the Convention and Visitors Center, for three years in a row. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 236

238 This year s winner was the hotel s director of security, Denise Gardner. She won because of something special she did for a little boy who must come to the hospital for treatment every six months, explains Ossola. He s ten years old and had a little crush on Denise so he saved his money to take her to lunch. She really couldn t do that because she was on duty, but instead of turning him down, Denise decorated a meeting room and made it look like a luxury restaurant with candles and the whole nine yards. The boy s favorite food is Subway, so she got some Subway sandwiches and put out this whole big spread and had a special lunch with the boy. Previous award winners from the Parkway were a maintenance staff member who used his own welding equipment to repair a wheelchair for a participant in the U.S. Open Tennis Wheelchair Championship; and another staff member who designed and built a customized headrest for a guest whose wheelchair had no support for the patient s head. Because the Parkway has only three meeting rooms for about sixty-five people total, it does not consider itself a conference center. However, the hotel staff works with the E.P.N.E.C. Center on the Washington University School of Medicine/Barnes Hospital campus when large groups are booked. Now that the hotel is ten years old, plans are in the works for an extensive renovation of the Parkway Hotel over the next two years. The lobby will be redone completely and rooms will be touched up and new furniture added. We try our best to make people feel at home here at the Parkway, comments Ossola. We realize our guests are staying in a hotel, but we want them to feel like they re staying at home. T H E M A R K E T P L A C E 2 3 7

239 FABULOUS FOX THEATRE When the Fabulous Fox Theatre first opened in 1929 the owners proclaimed that, No longer need residents of St. Louis look beyond their own city for the finest entertainment. For more than half-a-century the Fabulous Fox presented a dazzling array of talent and entertainment and became the premier entertainment destination in the region. Top, left: Fox Theatre Auditorium. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF DAN DONOVAN. Top, right: The Fabulous Fox Theatre. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF CHRIS CALDWELL. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 238 The theatre declined and fell into disrepair in the 1970s and, for a time, the once proud theatre s future was in serious doubt. There were fears that the majestic old structure would fall to the wrecking ball but a multimillion dollar restoration project restored the Fox to its former glory. More than 17 million people have passed through the theatre s brass doors since the restoration in 1982 and the Fabulous Fox is once again a major showcase of entertainment. When it was constructed, the Fabulous Fox was part of a nationwide chain of more than 300 opulent movie palaces owned and operated by movie producer William Fox. Early Fox films, including a string of westerns starring Tom Mix, were big crowd pleasers and grossed nearly $1 million each, a huge amount in that era. Fox also developed the concept of the movie star transforming actress Theodosia Goodman of Cincinnati into Theda Bara, who became known as The Vamp. He also pioneered the popular newsreel with Fox Movietone News. One of the very first newsreels featured the take-off of Charles Lindbergh s Spirit of St. Louis enroute to the first nonstop flight from New York to Paris. Ground was broken for the Fabulous Fox Theatre in St. Louis in 1927 but it took an army of construction workers and artisans a year-and-a-half to complete the magnificent structure designed by architect C. Howard Crane. The ornate interior of the Fox has been described as Siamese Byzantine. One of the defining features of the theatre was a 5,280 pound chandelier with a twelve foot diameter. The chandelier was made of gilded pot metal, enhanced by 2,264 pieces of jeweled glass and illuminated by 259 light bulbs. Winkle Terra Cotta Company created the ornamental façade and architectural sculptor Victor Berlendis supervised the creation and fabrication of the decorative interior plaster. Other subcontractors were responsible for art glass, brass and painting. The St. Louis Fox also boasted a magnificent Wurlitzer organ, one of only five of its type ever constructed. Although the opening night movie on January 31, 1929, was a silent film, the Fox was one of the first theatres in the nation with equipment for the Movietone process of early sound movies.

240 More than 5,500 people crowded into the Fabulous Fox Theatre on opening night to see Missouri Governor Henry Caulfield dedicate the new motion picture temple. He was joined by the mayor of St. Louis and a host of other dignitaries. The St. Louis Fox grossed more than $50,000 opening week in 1929 and hopes were high that the theatre would soon produce a healthy profit. Those hopes were dashed just a few months later when the stock market crashed, plunging the nation into the worst economic depression of modern times. Fox s personal fortune was lost to the depression and he lost all interests in his theatre chain in 1932, followed by bankruptcy in The St. Louis Fox went into receivership in 1931 and was leased to the bondholders the following year. Fanchon and Marco took a twenty-five year lease on the building in 1934 and Harry Arthur became general manager of the theatre. Over the years, the Arthurs gradually gained a controlling interest in Fox St. Louis Properties, which finally became known as Arthur Enterprises in The Arthurs managed to keep the theatre open during the depression and it retained its reputation as a first-rate movie house through the dark days of the depression and on into the 1940s and 1950s. However, the Fabulous Fox began to decline as newer and more modern movie theaters in the suburbs were opened. Although the Arthurs resorted to Kung Fu movies and an occasional rock concert in a struggle to remain open, the doors were finally locked in 1978 and the Fabulous Fox seemed doomed. Fortunately, there were those who remembered the glory days of the old theatre and felt it should be restored for modern audiences. On a cold morning in January 1981, Leon and Mary Strauss first toured the shuttered theatre with the aid of a flashlight and one working light bulb. Under the dirt, grime and decay of fifty-two years, they saw the potential for restoring the magnificent old movie palace. Banding together as Fox Associates, Leon Strauss, Robert Baudendistel, Dennis McDaniel and Harvey Harris purchased the structure from the Arthur family. In 1981, under the direction of Mary Strauss, Fox Associates began a one year, $2 million restoration program designed to restore the Fabulous Fox to its proper status as a premier entertainment venue. In 2014 the Fox partnership consists of Baudendistel, Mary Strauss, Lisa Baudendistel Suntrup and Julie Baudendistel Noonan. Restoring the building was a daunting prospect. An obsolete electrical system had to be upgraded. A leaking roof had to be replaced and serious plumbing and mechanical problems had to be addressed. The cleanup job alone was a massive undertaking. Despite the challenges, the new owners were determined to restore the theatre as closely as possible to its 1929 state of magnificence. With scrupulous attention to detail, thousands of square feet of ornate plaster work were recreated onsite, 7,300 yards of carpeting were woven in the original elephant pattern, missing art glass was authentically reproduced, ceilings were vacuum-cleaned and the magnificent chandelier was restored to its original brilliance. The stage was completely reequipped with state-of-the-art sound, lighting and stage technology. The Fabulous Fox Theatre reopened its doors on September 7, 1982, with the musical Barnum. A capacity crowd of 4,500 gave St. Louis most spectacular showplace a standing ovation. The theatre s historic relevance was recognized when it was accepted into the National Register of Historic Places. On-going renovation projects have included a $2 million, twenty foot stage addition (October 1994 July 1995); a major lobby renovation and restoration of the ceiling mural Below: The detail and brilliance of the magnificent chandelier. T H E M A R K E T P L A C E 2 3 9

241 Above: Fox Theatre lobby. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF SAM FENTRESS. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 240 in 2000 and the addition of the Marquee and Griffin Rooms for group and event dining. A video marquee was added in 2005 and a new, historically accurate vertical blade sign was installed in More recently, a $2 million energy-efficient air conditioning system has been installed, along with LED lighting and a new front façade. The long-awaited restoration of the magnificent auditorium ceiling was completed in When the Fabulous Fox originally opened in 1929, Peacock Alley was an art gallery that displayed paintings, statues and objects d art collected by William Fox s wife, Eve Leo. This area now showcases the more than 1,600 shows and stars that have appeared at the theatre since the restoration. There is also a tribute to Stan Kann, long-time Fox Theatre organist and national television personality. Today, audiences flock to the Fabulous Fox for the very best in live entertainment. The Broadway Series brings all the top hits from New York to St. Louis, including The Phantom of the Opera, Mamma Mia!, Jersey Boys, The Lion King, Hairspray, and Wicked. Concert acts from the genres of pop, rock, country and R&B that have played the Fox stage include Lady Gaga, Harry Connick, Jr., Garth Brooks, Kelly Clarkson, James Taylor, Janet Jackson, Tony Bennett, Sting and Alabama. Other attractions include comedians (Jerry Seinfeld, Kathy Griffin); family productions (Dora the Explorer, Fresh Beat Band); dance companies (The Joffrey Ballet, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater); and holiday specials (The Radio City Christmas Spectacular, Elf the Musical.) Constructed during the boom years of the motion picture industry and rescued from ruin by a group of dedicated visionaries, the Fabulous Fox Theatre is once again recognized as one of the major entertainment centers in the St. Louis region. For more about the Fabulous Fox Theatre, or to order tickets to an upcoming show, check their website at

242 Abraham Lowenhaupt moved to St. Louis as a young lawyer in 1908 and had decided that he would concentrate on federal income tax. A tax enacted by the North to pay for the Civil War was repealed after the war was over, but Lowenhaupt was convinced another would come along. While waiting for an income tax to be enacted, Abraham relied for business on his brother and brother-in-law who were in the tobacco business, the firm of Moss and Lowenhaupt. When anyone spoke of what might become a lawsuit in the tobacco shop, Lowenhaupt s brother or brother-inlaw would ask the speaker to drop a pack of cigarettes with Abe, the lawyer down the street. When the sixteenth amendment to the Constitution was enacted in 1913, the law firm, built until then on the tobacco industry, became the first firm in the US to concentrate in tax law. Today, Lowenhaupt & Chasnoff is proud to say it is the oldest law firm in the U.S. concentrating in federal tax law. Building on the tradition of tax law, Abraham s son, Henry Lowenhaupt, was one of the best known tax lawyers of his generation. He argued many of the most important tax cases in the Supreme Court and was well known throughout the Internal Revenue Service and Tax Court. When Henry s son, Charles, joined the firm after two years clerkship at the U.S. Tax Court in Washington, many of the clients of Abraham and Henry were selling businesses, which had grown large after World War II. The firm was focusing increasingly on tax and related laws involving private wealth in a world of portfolio investments. Due to the success of its legal work, the firm found itself performing what were becoming called family office services. At the request of its families, the firm began offering advisory services to wealthy families and single-family offices in the U.S., Asia and Europe. In 2006, Lowenhaupt & Chasnoff separated the advisory business into Lowenhaupt Global Advisors, LLC, an affiliated company of the law firm. Lowenhaupt Global Advisors is headquartered in St. Louis, with offices in New York, Miami and Sydney. That company, resourcing Lowenhaupt & Chasnoff and others, advises families worldwide on the practicalities of making their wealth accomplish their LOWENHAUPT GLOBAL ADVISORS, LLC purposes. The firm works with individuals and families of significant wealth to develop investment portfolios, fiduciary processes, governance plans, and philanthropic programs. From clients walking in with packages of cigarettes in 1908 to sophisticated family wealth communicating internationally by technology and serviced by jet, Lowenhaupt & Chasnoff based in St. Louis has grown with the U.S. economy and the global community. The Lowenhaupts: A 100 year history of working with St. Louisans and other private wealth holders around the world. For additional information, please visit Top, left: Founder, Abraham Lowenhaupt, Lowenhaupt & Chasnoff, LLC. Top, right: Managing Partner, Henry C. Lowenhaupt, Lowenhaupt & Chasnoff, LLC. Left: Chairman and CEO, Charles Lowenhaupt, Lowenhaupt Global Advisors, LLC. T H E M A R K E T P L A C E 2 4 1

243 FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF ST. LOUIS Above: St. Louis Fed customers at the Bank s teller windows conduct financial transactions, such as redeeming U.S. Savings Bonds, Below: The Federal Reserve is a system that includes the board of governors in Washington, D.C., and twelve independent regional Reserve banks. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis is responsible for Fed activities in the Eighth District. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 242 St. Louis is home to one of twelve independent, regional Reserve banks in the Federal Reserve System, the nation s central bank. Together with the Board of Governors and the Federal Open Market Committee, these twelve Reserve banks help promote a healthy economy for the nation by keeping inflation low and stable, fostering a sound financial system and supporting job creation. The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis is headquarters for the System s Eighth District, with branch offices in Little Rock, Arkansas; Louisville, Kentucky; and Memphis, Tennessee. The District s territory includes all of Arkansas and portions of six other states: Missouri, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. All of the Reserve Banks share some degree of similar duties, but because the banks are independent, each has some specialized assignments and tasks that distinguish it. The St. Louis Fed has a legacy of rigorous academic-style research that is on the frontier of monetary policy regarding controlling inflation and promoting maximum economic growth and employment. With its deep understanding of community banks, the Bank provides an in-depth perspective to national policymakers on the challenges to and benefits of community banks. Strong process management, innovation and customer orientation have earned the Bank the leadership role in overseeing all Federal Reserve fiscal agent activities for the U.S. Treasury. The Federal Reserve System was created by Congress in 1913 to serve as the nation s central bank. The Act creating the Fed called for the establishment of between eight and twelve regional banks. Thirtyseven cities, including St. Louis, requested designation as one of the Federal Reserve cities. A blue-ribbon committee, headed by secretary of the Treasury and former chancellor of Washington University in St. Louis, David F. Houston, visited St. Louis in January Then the nation s fourthlargest city, an important banking center and the gateway to the nation s Westward expansion, St. Louis was a logical choice. The St. Louis Fed

244 began operations with six officers and seventeen employees in November 1914, led by its first chief executive, former St. Louis Mayor Rolla Wells. The Bank opened in rented space in the current Marquette Building at Broadway and Olive Streets. Land for the current building was purchased in 1918, but high construction costs delayed the groundbreaking until The impressive neo-classic building, constructed of Bedford, Indiana limestone and Rockville, Minnesota granite, opened at the present location at Broadway and Locust Streets in June The original vault, which was designed to be as near burglar, mob, fire, and explosive proof as science and engineering skills can make them, has a forty-four ton, thirty inch thick door and still exists today. The Bank s first chairman, William McChesney Martin, Sr., whom President Wilson had called on to help draft the Federal Reserve Act, went on to become the president of the St. Louis Fed, serving from 1929 to His son and namesake, William McChesney Martin, Jr., became the longestserving chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, from 1951 to In the 1960s and early 1970s, the St. Louis Fed became known as a maverick in its advocacy of the importance of monetary policy for controlling inflation. St. Louis was the only Reserve Bank that consistently espoused the economic view of the Chicago School of Economics, led by noted economist Milton Friedman, that inflation is costly, increases the risk of recession and damages the economy s productivity growth. The Bank s president, Darryl Francis, along with its economists led by Research Director Homer Jones, were out front arguing that the current monetary policy was too accommodating and the cause of inflation, and urging drastic measures to tighten monetary policy and bring inflation under control. In the end, their view prevailed and became the accepted thinking. This St. Louis Fed tradition of scholarly macroeconomic research and challenging the status quo continues today. The Federal Reserve s decentralized structure ensures that the economic conditions of communities and industries from all regions of the country are taken into account in monetary policy decision making. Proudly representing Main Street, the St. Louis Fed is responsive to its many district constituents, meeting frequently with local business, banking, civic and community leaders. The Bank is extensively involved in promoting financial literacy and economic education. The St. Louis Fed s economic education materials reach thousands of students nationwide each year. Bank staff members also facilitate partnerships between lenders and their communities to advance issues pertaining to community development finance, neighborhood stabilization and household financial stability. In addition, the St. Louis Fed maintains one of the world s most comprehensive online economic databases and promotes dialogue between the Fed and business leaders, bankers and the general public. As a corporate citizen, the Bank and its employees are very supportive of the community. For more than a decade, personal contributions by Bank employees distinguished the St. Louis Fed as the largest corporate donor to Operation Food Search, which supplies food for local pantries. Top and above: Bank employees stepped up in a major way to support the effort in World War I and World War II. In 1944 the St. Louis Fed was presented with the Eisenhower Award for achieving the highest percentage of war bond sales quota for St. Louis companies with 501 or more employees. The following year, Bank employees raised nearly $190,000 in war bond sales and payroll deductions, more than three times the quota established by the Missouri War Finance Committee. The Bank also sold war bonds to the general public in both World Wars. Left: Modern-day shot of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis plaza and main entrance. T H E M A R K E T P L A C E 2 4 3

245 ST. LOUIS REGIONAL CHAMBER H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 244 The St. Louis Regional Chamber, one of the oldest Chambers of Commerce in the nation, is synonymous with the growth and development of the bi-state St. Louis metropolitan area. The organization s rich history includes projects as diverse as helping to secure funding for Charles Lindbergh s historic 1927 transatlantic flight in the Spirit of St. Louis, and rallying community support for construction of St. Louis famed Gateway Arch. Today, the St. Louis Regional Chamber, working together with its private and public sector partners throughout the fifteen county region, represents a strong team for St. Louis. Whether supporting public policy and infrastructure initiatives, or attracting new jobs, capital and talent, the Chamber is leading the way to a greater St. Louis. Recently, the Chamber asked CEOs, business owners and entrepreneurs what they needed to succeed and took a hard look at the Chamber s approach to economic development and public policy. The Chamber then forged a new strategy summarized in this statement: We are a broad community of leaders united for economic prosperity throughout the entire St. Louis bi-state region. In fact, our aspiration is for St. Louis to be one of the Top Ten U.S. regions in prosperity. Our one purpose is to inspire a greater St. Louis. Together, we will make St. Louis a more attractive place for people to live, work and invest. We will win on today s regional strengths in focused economic clusters. We will champion a better tomorrow through greater educational attainment, economic inclusion, innovation and entrepreneurship. The words chosen for this statement articulate clearly and concisely the Chamber s way forward. The Chamber strategy is about winning today and recreating for tomorrow. The region will win today by following the lead of employers who are working together to develop St. Louis authentic, regional strengths in: Financial & Information Services Health Science & Services Multimodal Logistics Biosciences No factor is more critical to the St. Louis region s competitive position than education. St. Louis ranks fourteenth among the nation s twenty largest metros in the percentage of its adult population with bachelor s and higher-level college degrees. The Chamber has launched a concerted, collaborative effort to advance its workforce from fourteenth place into the top ten of the nation s largest metros by the year 2025 ensuring the talent pools that area companies need to innovate and grow, and attracting people, firms and investments from all over the world. The St. Louis Chamber of Commerce was founded in At the time, the State of Missouri was only fifteen years old, but St. Louis was one of the fastest growing cities in the nation. Edward Tracy, a partner in the firm of Tracy & Wahrendorff, is credited with the idea of starting an organization of men engaged in commerce to exchange information, coordinate business growth and regulate trade. Tracy was elected the first president of the Chamber and Henry Von Phul, owner of St. Louis first steamboats, was elected vice-president. A Merchant s Exchange was established in 1848 as a center for merchants to meet, transact business and exchange ideas. The success of this organization led to the formation of other similar groups. By the 1890s the Business Men s League was established to promote the interests of the city, while the Merchant s Exchange continued to focus on trade. In 1916 the organization changed its name back to St. Louis Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber underwent reorganization at this time and hired its first full-time president, Walter B. Weisenberger. In 1963 the St. Louis County Chamber of Commerce merged with the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce to become the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan St. Louis. The Chamber took on its current form in 1973 with the merger of three organizations: the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan St. Louis, the St. Louis Regional Industrial Development Corporation and the St. Louis Research Council. From its very beginnings, the Chamber organizations have been instrumental in promoting ideas and projects to improve and

246 enrich the St. Louis area. The Business Men s League worked tirelessly to ensure success of the 1904 World s Fair. In 1909 the League invited President Taft and other prominent government officials to tour the river from St. Louis to New Orleans. This on-site visit led to a commitment from President Taft and House Speaker Joe Cannon to make Mississippi River improvements a priority. The Chamber has fought for cleaner air in St. Louis since the 1940s and supported enactment of smoke abatement legislation. The Chamber proactively prepared for World War II by publishing a report containing detailed information about area manufacturers. This report was sent to defense contractors and helped St. Louis companies secure contacts for government contracts during the war. Transportation has always been a priority for the Chamber. The opening of the MetroLink light rail system in 1993 and the Alton Clark Bridge project in 1994 received strong Chamber backing. The Chamber also established a Sports Committee, which made a bid for the 1994 U.S. Olympic Festival. St. Louis was selected as the host city, and the Olympics brought national coverage and millions of tourist dollars to the region. T H E M A R K E T P L A C E 2 4 5

247 ST. LOUIS CARDINALS Right: Team photo composite of the 1903 American League St. Louis Browns. Below: Cardinals Manager Branch Rickey posing for his portrait in H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 246 For more than a century, the St. Louis Cardinals and the game of baseball have been a source of excitement and civic pride. Throughout the mid-1800s, local athletic clubs played a number of stick and ball games for recreation. St. Louisans were introduced to the first uniform set of baseball rules, according to the Knickerbocker Baseball Club of New York, in 1859 by a man from Brooklyn named Merritt Griswold. The rules of baseball were fairly consistent, thus allowing clubs greater freedom and less frustration in playing one another. Many of these amateur teams played in Lafayette Park, not too far from the current home of the Cardinals, Busch Stadium. St. Louis had been committed to seeing its local teams remain amateur and of local talent; however, frustrations came to a head by 1874 after the professional Chicago White Stockings (one of the nation s first professional teams following the lead of the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings) had defeated St. Louis amateur teams in twenty consecutive matches dating back to Civic boosters led by J. B. C. Lucas, Jr., raised $20,000 to organize a professional baseball team called the Brown Stockings. A quality team was produced; however none of the players were from St. Louis. This led another local amateur club, the Red Stockings, to turn professional appealing to local sentiment. The Brown Stockings would prevail in the battle of gaining fans interest, though, as they defeated the Chicago White Stockings in the first professional game in St. Louis on May 6, 1875, by a score of They repeated the feat two days later. The Red Stockings could not repeat the same success on the field as the Brown Stockings and would fold as a professional corporation by the end of July. The Brown Stockings played professionally through 1877, and then continued independently until Chris Von der Ahe, a local saloon owner, purchased the club s stadium lease and placed them in the American Association, a major league of professional teams, as the St. Louis Browns. Interest in the club grew during his leadership, so he moved the team to a new ballpark in 1892, the same year that they began play in the National League after the American Association folded. The team changed ownership and names in 1899, briefly being known as the Perfectos, before adopting the Cardinals moniker in 1900, a name which would later inspire the birds on the bat logo, one of the most recognized in all of sports. In 1902 the American League would move another team to the city and take the Browns nickname in an attempt to quickly build a fan base. For over fifty years, St. Louis would play host to two major league franchises. By 1919, St. Louis teams had yet to win a championship. They had trouble competing with wealthier teams for the best players. The Cardinals Vice President, Branch Rickey, believed his team could protect and cultivate raw talent by owning minor league teams at different levels of play. The Cardinals sold their ballpark, became tenants of the St. Louis Browns at Sportsman s Park in 1920, and bought the first minor league farm teams in Texas and Arkansas. The system quickly paid off. The Cardinals won their first World Series championship in 1926, defeating the New York Yankees, with fourteen farm-grown players on their roster. The success would continue for the Cardinals with four more trips to the World Series throughout the 1920s and early 1930s.

248 The 1940s saw the Redbirds return to their winning ways, particularly with the help of a young player who made an indelible mark on the franchise and the city. Stan The Man Musial made his major league debut late in 1941 and The Man would return in 1942 to help the team to four World Series appearances during the decade on his way to becoming the greatest Cardinals player in team history. owned the St. Louis Browns. Under DeWitt s guidance, the Cardinals have experienced a renaissance with four World Series appearances since 2004 and a new ballpark that opened in 2006, which consistently draws over 3 million fans annually. Today the Cardinals remain one of the most successful in baseball with 11 World Championships, 19 National League Championships and over forty former players and managers enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. As St. Louis celebrates its 250th birthday in 2014, the Cardinals will dedicate the Cardinals Hall of Fame & Museum in Ballpark Village that will showcase the rich history of baseball s best city-st. Louis. Left: Stan Musial posing in his batting stance, Below: Bill DeWitt, Jr., and Bill DeWitt III holding the 2011 World Series trophy during the on field celebration marked a new era in franchise history when Anheuser-Busch, the St. Louis-based beer brewer, purchased the Cardinals. Recognizing they could not compete with the financial resources of one of the world s largest brewers, the American League Browns left town for Baltimore following the season. The Busch ownership group immediately made upgrades to the club s current ballpark and soon made plans for a new downtown stadium. Not too long after the team s unexpected world championship in 1964, they began playing in Busch Memorial Stadium in 1966, not far from the shadow of the Gateway Arch. The club would return to the World Series twice in the late 1960s and again on three occasions in the 1980s. Anheuser-Busch sold the club in 1996 to a group led by Bill DeWitt, Jr., a former St. Louisan, whose father had worked for the Cardinals under Rickey and had later T H E M A R K E T P L A C E 2 4 7

249 TRICORBRAUN Top: Home of the Northwestern Bottle Company, Above: Samuel Kranzberg. Below: Left to right, Mickey, Maury and Jack Kranzberg at the entrance of office at 3144 North Broadway, H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 248 Northwestern Bottle Company was founded in St. Louis in 1902 by Samuel Kranzberg as a used glass bottle company. Nearly 112 years later, the company has evolved into the world s largest supplier of glass and plastic containers, closures, dispensers and tubes. Bottles were still handmade when the company first opened, a slow and inefficient process that produced a tremendous demand for discarded bottles that could be recycled. Northwestern Bottle Company was one of hundreds of companies that scoured the countryside for used bottles and cleaned and sold them for reuse. Few of the used-bottle companies survived the economic depression of the 1930s but Samuel managed to hang on through innovation, imagination and hard work. Early in the company s history, Samuel needed financing to purchase a partner s share of the firm. According to his grandson, Ken Kranzberg, he had borrowed all the banks would lend him, but was still $5,000 short of the purchase price. At the time, the company s biggest customer was Cook s Champagne, so grandfather approached the owner about a loan, he explains. Without hesitation, the champagne bottler took out his checkbook and wrote a check for $5,000. When grandfather asked about signing a note for the loan, Mr. Cook replied that no note was required, he d take his payments in champagne bottles. At the time, no champagne bottles were made in the U.S., so grandfather collected used bottles wherever he could find them. It was a good deal for both of them. Samuel s flair for innovation was also evident at the end of the prohibition era when he obtained the St. Louis franchise for Schlitz beer. When prohibition came to an end and thirsty beer drinkers were ready to celebrate, Samuel had two rail cars loaded with Schlitz waiting on the track. My dad told me the line was two blocks long to buy a case of beer from grandfather, says Ken. The company grew steadily through three generations of Kranzberg sons, beginning with Samuel and continuing with Mickey Kranzberg, who took over the business in 1942, about the time the first plastic bottle was manufactured by Plax Corporation. Northwestern Bottle also became the first distributor for Owens-Illinois, the first company to manufacture glass bottles with a blow molding machine, as well as one of the first to sell plastic spray bottles for such products as deodorants. Mickey s son, Ken, entered the business in 1960 and opened Northwestern s first branch

250 office seven years later in Memphis. This expansion made Northwestern a $2 million company. Revenues increased from $7 million in 1977 to $110 million in 1996, when the firm was acquired by a private equity firm. Ken and his father created Kranson Industries as a holding company prior to Mickey s death in As president of Northwestern Bottle and Kranson Industries, Ken presided over the company s national expansion, with branch offices opening in Indianapolis, Chicago, Kansas City, Boston, Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Omaha, Miami, Wilmington and Denver. Texberry Container Company, a distributor of rigid packaging products, became part of Kranson Industries in 1996, along with Caliber Packaging, the result of a successful merger of Calpac Container Company and Berman Brothers in In 1997, Northwestern Bottle Company, Caliber Packaging and Texberry Container merged to create Tricor Packaging. Then, in late 1998, Tricor Packaging and the W. Braun Company consolidated operations, forming TricorBraun, the packaging industry s first super distributor. In addition to Texberry and Caliber, today s TricorBraun includes the combined history, talents and resources of Packaging Plus, Packaging West, Smith Container, Cal-West Tool & Mold, Fenton, Weber & Jones, I-Pak, Ryco Packaging Corporation, Columbia Packaging, Penn Bottle and Supply Co., and Trilogy Glass and Packaging, Inc. TricorBraun Design & Innovation is an award-winning, fully-integrated design studio that combines package design and development and custom mold building within one organization. TricorBraun, with three locations nationwide, has earned a number of prestigious package awards. In addition, TricorBraun also has pre-qualified global sources through TricorBraun s offices in Mexico City, London, China and Hong Kong, staffed with professionals who provide sourcing expertise, project management, factory qualification and engineering services. The firm also maintains strategic supplier relationships in Europe. Ken, who served the company for fiftythree years and is now chairman of the board, feels the success of TricorBraun over more than a century is the result of a great management team and top-notch employees. Our core values of integrity, passion, value added and service are still very important to the company and this has resulted in a lot of longevity among our employees. Trust, respect, fairness and honesty are our guiding principles. TricorBraun has more than 500 employees worldwide and the approximately one-third of the company is owned by the employees. Additional information on TricorBraun is available at Ken Kranzberg, chairman and Keith Strope, president and CEO at TricorBraun s corporate headquarters. T H E M A R K E T P L A C E 2 4 9

251 EXPRESS SCRIPTS HOLDING COMPANY H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 250 Prescription drugs have transformed how healthcare is practiced and deadly diseases can now be managed as chronic conditions. Specifically targeted biotech therapies have cured patients. A pill or injection can eliminate burdensome hospitalization. The cost of these breakthroughs has challenged the companies and health plans that provide a pharmacy benefit, and for the patients who continuously balance their health needs against other costs. To address these challenges, a small group of passionate healthcare advocates banded together nearly thirty years ago to start a company that today manages the pharmacy benefit for some 90 million Americans, is responsible for more than 1 billion prescriptions and has 30,000 employees located worldwide. Today, no company does more to control costs, drive out waste and improve patient outcomes. Express Scripts Holding Company has a straightforward enough mission: to make the use of prescription drugs safer and more affordable. But when you consider the complicated healthcare environment, you can understand the complexity of the task, and just how vital the company s success has been in making pharmacy care more accessible and affordable. To appreciate where this Fortune 25 company is today, you have to consider how it was created. By the mid-1980s, healthcare management in the United States was ripe for change. Costs escalated sharply. Medicare and Medicaid programs faced spiraling increases, and with an aging population, there was no end in sight. Corporations were alarmed by the rising cost of health benefits, as employees paid physicians on a fee-for-service basis without constraints of price competition to hold down expenses. This change also generated a flood of prescriptions in pharmacies, which grappled with growing problems of paperwork and claims processing. At the same time, business began to investigate new options aimed at controlling healthcare expenditures PPOs and HMOs. Sanus Health Plan of St. Louis started in 1985 by offering HMO services to 200,000 members in five states. Needing drug coverage for their members, Sanus negotiated a relationship with a ninety store, three-state pharmacy chain, Medicare-Glaser Corporation. The Medicare-Glaser team proposed to do more than supply drugs by mail, a novel concept at the time. They also saw opportunities in managing the entire prescription drug benefit for clients. And so it was in 1986 that a promising new company called Express Scripts was born. Over the next two decades, Express Scripts went from filling eleven prescriptions on its first day at a warehouse on Schuetz Road to processing more than 3.8 million prescriptions a day nationwide, including hundreds of thousands daily from its own home delivery pharmacies.

252 The company has a penchant for being inquisitive and acquisitive. Express Scripts has consistently challenged the status quo in pharmacy care with unconventional wisdom, taking behavioral science and applying it to healthcare to help drive lower costs and improve health outcomes. Express Scripts has grown with an eye toward the future of healthcare making significant acquisitions to become an industry leader with revenue of more than $100 billion. Over a ten year period, the size of the company doubled three times with the largest growth coming as a result of the company s merger with Medco Health Solutions in It combined the industry s two leading companies into a new entity that has even greater capabilities to control pharmacy costs and improve health outcomes. With each acquisition, Express Scripts grew locally in St. Louis (the company now employs 4,500 people here) and nationally. Express Scripts entered a unique partnership with the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 2006 to build its headquarters on the UMSL campus. The company s decision to expand over the years in North County has served as a catalyst for economic development. The modern buildings that host employees today are a far cry from the company s humble beginnings, where Post-It notes were a hot commodity and masking tape on the floor marked workspace borders. With thousands of clients the companies, labor unions, health plans and government agencies that offer pharmacy benefits and tens of millions of members, Express Scripts is at the epicenter of the healthcare landscape, and has unprecedented opportunities to drive meaningful improvements in care. Express Scripts combines its leadership in behavioral science, actionable data and clinical specialization to help drive better decisions and healthier outcomes. In addition, the company s mail order pharmacies conveniently deliver thousands of prescriptions each day to people across the country. It is the safest, most cost-effective way to access medications for chronic diseases like high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes. With more than 4,000 pharmacists across the company, Express Scripts is also able to provide specialized care to patients in a way that other pharmacies cannot. In addition to its clinical expertise, the company s philanthropy has helped deserving organizations do even more to help underserved and underprivileged St. Louisans get the assistance they need. From financial support of initiatives in science, technology, engineering and mathematics to volunteering time for worthy causes, Express Scripts employees play a broad role in the local community. Over nearly three decades, a great deal has changed in healthcare, but the need for Express Scripts expertise has remained the same. The company stands well prepared for continued growth and to be a part of the St. Louis landscape for years to come. T H E M A R K E T P L A C E 2 5 1

253 ST. LOUIS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP St. Louis Economic Development Partnership is a major new regional partnership between the economic development teams of St. Louis County and the City of St. Louis. First announced in February 2013, the Partnership became effective August 1, 2013, following two years of behind-the-scenes discussion to find better ways of guiding the region s joint efforts to support new and growing businesses. The Partnership creates a unified voice for the region, delivering services more efficiently while focusing on some of the most important areas of regional economic development: business development, entrepreneurship, international trade and business finance. St. Louis Economic Development Partnership reflects the sentiment that our citizens and business community alike have championed for many years, said Charlie A. Dooley, county executive for St. Louis County. It focuses on greater collaboration between the city and county as a way to propel our region forward. We are enthusiastic that this collaboration makes us more effective and raises our national and global reputation, said Mayor Francis Slay of the City of St. Louis. By projecting one voice and making it easier to interact with our region, St. Louis Economic Development Partnership better positions us to attract new companies and investment in St. Louis. Denny Coleman, previously president and CEO of St. Louis County Economic Council, serves as chief executive officer of the new agency. Rodney Crim, formerly the executive director of St. Louis Development Corporation, serves as president. Ten staff members from St. Louis Development Corporation joined the staff of St. Louis County Economic Council to form St. Louis Economic Development Partnership. The Partnership is headquartered in Clayton and serves the city and county of St. Louis. In an interview with a local newspaper, both County Executive Dooley and Mayor Slay emphasized that the new agency is a way to think regionally. Boundaries will not define us. The Partnership brings us closer together and makes a difference in the St. Louis region. That s what I m excited about, Dooley said. When you combine friends working together, you enhance what you already have. So the municipalities in St. Louis County are going to do even better than they ve done before. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 252

254 It s about St. Louis County attracting business to the county, or St. Louis city trying to drive them to the city, Slay said. We re working together to make sure that business lands in St. Louis. And whether its city or county, we all benefit. It s a regional economy, and we have to stop competing against each other. We need to work together to make sure we land more businesses here. The ultimate goal of the partnership is to grow the St. Louis region, to create jobs and opportunity and to create entrepreneurship as one, said Dooley. In one of its first initiatives to attract new business, St. Louis Economic Development Partnership has embarked on the first-ever St. Louis City/County economic development strategic plan. This strategic planning process convenes St. Louis top economic development stakeholders and experts, elected officials, business leaders, young professionals and diverse community leaders to devise a shared agenda for business growth and development that advances a strong and prosperous regional economy. The St. Louis Economic Development Partnership provides a broader range of services than most agencies of its kind, boosting innovation and entrepreneurship, attracting and retaining companies, increasing the region s international reach, and revitalization. The partnership has become a key facilitator of regional growth for businesses and communities throughout the St. Louis area. T H E M A R K E T P L A C E 2 5 3

255 WELLS FARGO ADVISORS, LLC Wells Fargo Advisors LLC, the nation s third largest brokerage firm, is part of the Wealth Brokerage and Retirement Division of Wells Fargo & Company, a diversified financial services company providing banking, insurance, investments, mortgage and consumer and commercial finance. St. Louis-based Wells Fargo Advisors is the largest brokerage firm headquartered outside New York. With $1.4 trillion in client assets as of December 31, 2013, Wells Fargo Advisors provides investment advice and guidance to clients through 15,280 full-service financial advisors and 3,328 licensed bankers. This vast network of advisors serves investors through locations in all fifty states and the District of Columbia. Advisors work with clients to understand their needs and life goals and help them develop individual investment plans and investment portfolios that are easy to understand and monitor. As part of Wells Fargo & Company, Wells Fargo Advisors has the ability to draw on extensive experience and products across the company to satisfy clients investment needs and help them succeed financially. Wells Fargo Advisors draws on a proud and colorful history that began in 1852 when Henry Wells and William G. Fargo founded the legendary Wells Fargo Company in New York City, with locations in San Francisco and Sacramento, California. In 1857, Wells Fargo joined other express companies to form the Overland Mail Company, establishing regular twice-a-week mail service between St. Louis and San Francisco. Prior to establishment of that stage line, communications east and west was twice a month by steamship. From April 1860 to October 1861, daring young horseback riders relayed mail across nearly 2,000 miles from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, in only ten days. In its final months, the famed Pony Express became part of the stage lines U.S. Mail contracts. The Wells Fargo-run Overland Mail Company operated the Pony Express from California to Salt Lake City. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 254

256 Wells Fargo Advisors is the heir to many of the nation s most respected brokerage firms, which merged over a period of many years to form the current brokerage firm. Predecessor organizations include St. Louisbased A. G. Edwards. In 2008, A. G. Edwards was acquired by Wachovia and merged with Wachovia Securities. The combined firm adopted as its headquarters the A. G. Edwards headquarters in St. Louis. At the time of the combination, several hundred Wachovia Securities employees moved to St. Louis. Wachovia, in turn, was acquired in 2009 by Wells Fargo & Company and the combined brokerage organization was renamed Wells Fargo Advisors. Wells Fargo Advisors is now one of the largest employers in the St. Louis area, with more than 5,000 team members. While the brokerage firm is the largest Wells Fargo business represented in the area, other Wells Fargo business units, including wholesale banking, commercial banking, community banking and Wells Fargo Mortgage are also present on the Wells Fargo Advisors campus at Market and Jefferson Streets in St. Louis. Wells Fargo is an active and engaged corporate citizen of St. Louis and other cities and towns across the United States. In 2013, Wells Fargo & Company contributed $275.5 million to 18,500 nonprofits, marking the fifth consecutive year of more than $200 million in total annual corporate giving. The company s community investments included $81.6 million to 8,000 educational programs and schools around the U.S. and $84 million in grants to nonprofits focused on community development in distressed communities, including affordable housing, homeownership counseling, financial education, workforce development and job creation. Last year, Wells Fargo employees across the U.S. devoted 1.69 million volunteer hours in service to communities and Missouri ranked fourth four among all fifty states with the highest number of Wells Fargo team members recording volunteer hours. Wells Fargo was also recognized in 2013 for its commitment to environmental stewardship by winning the St. Louis Business Journal s Heroes of the Planet award. In addition, Wells Fargo was selected by its team members as one of the region s Top Workplaces in an annual survey by the St. Louis Post Dispatch. Wells Fargo has partnered with the Missouri Council on economic Education to add the Hands On Banking course to the social studies curriculum at all eleven St. Louis public middle schools. The company and its employees also support the St. Louis Public School District with more than 200 mentoring and tutoring partnerships and also supported initiatives with the United Way of Greater St. Louis, Washington University, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Eastern Missouri and the Susan G. Komen Race for the cure, among others. To learn more about Wells Fargo, please visit T H E M A R K E T P L A C E 2 5 5

257 SCOTTRADE, INC. Right: Scottrade Founder and CEO Rodger Riney s fascination with the stock market started during his childhood with a few shares of stock he received as a gift. He founded Scottrade in 1980 and remains active in the firm s day-to-day management. Below: Scottrade, Inc. has the largest branch network among online investing firms with more than 500 across the country. Scottrade s mission is to improve lives by helping people overcome barriers to financial success. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 256 Scottrade, Inc., may not have existed without a gift that Kirkwood native Rodger Riney received from his grandparents. That gift, shares of Bethlehem Steel stock, sparked in him a lifelong interest in the stock market. Celebrating its thirty-fifth anniversary in 2015, Scottrade is the online investing services company with the largest branch network. While the privatelyheld firm now has locations in forty-eight states, Rodger s story and the Scottrade story is rooted in the Greater St. Louis area. Rodger founded Scottrade on his belief of doing the right thing for clients, associates and his community, which comes from his Midwestern roots and has been firmly engrained within Scottrade s history and culture. Rodger graduated from Kirkwood High School in 1963 and spent his Christmas breaks at another St. Louis financial stalwart, Edward D. Jones & Co. After graduating from the University of Missouri Columbia, he turned down higher-paying jobs to work fulltime for Jones. He spent the next ten years there, eventually becoming general partner. In 1980, as the discount brokerage concept gained momentum, Rodger and a partner formed Scottsdale Securities in Scottsdale, Arizona. In 1985, Rodger bought out his partner, moved the headquarters back to St. Louis and reduced commissions to prices unheard of at the time. His focus on driving commissions even lower led to higher trading volume, which kept the business growing. In 1996, Scottrade.com was launched, making Scottrade one of the first financial services companies to offer online stock trading. Soon after, Scottsdale Securities changed its name to Scottrade. Rodger remains active in the day-to-day management of the firm as it continues to focus on better serving traders, investors and registered investment advisors. The firm s success is owed largely to the hard working people committed to maintaining the Scottrade culture, built on St. Louis values. So here is to you St. Louis on your 250th. Thank you for supporting American innovation and building a wealth of talent here in town, which many have labeled The Wall Street of the Midwest.

258 Above: Scottrade Founder and CEO Rodger Riney rings the NASDAQ closing bell in Left: Scottrade s powerful technology with advanced charting and trading features ensures that clients are able to make quick decisions and take advantage of opportunities. The company relies on client usability testing to ensure its trading platforms are not only easy to use, but will also help them achieve their goals. T H E M A R K E T P L A C E 2 5 7

259 ANHEUSER-BUSCH EMPLOYEES CREDIT UNION H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 258 Anheuser-Busch Employees Credit Union and its community division, American Eagle Credit Union, is an independent financial institution chartered by the State of Missouri and owned and operated by its members. The Credit Union was founded in 1939 with only eight members and $55 in assets. Under the leadership of its first manager, Robert Bob Hood and first president, Thomas Tom Allen, the organization grew to 700 members and $37,000 in assets in only two years. Today, the Credit Union has 114,000 members, $1.3 billion in assets and is the second largest credit union in the St. Louis Metropolitan area. Originally, the Credit Union was developed to serve the financial needs of the employees and retirees of Anheuser-Busch companies, wholly-owned subsidiaries and select distributors, along with the immediate family of the members. The founders had three basic goals: (1) Provide credit to their co-workers at reasonable interest rates, (2) Encourage thrift through systematic savings, and (3) Offer sound financial advice. The organization s core purpose continues to be to help its members achieve financial success through the core values of fairness, trust, ethical behavior, dignity and respect, excellence and a desire to serve. In the early days, the Credit Union was run by an all volunteer staff. Today, the staff totals more than 350 skilled professionals, led by J. David Dave Osborn, who has been CEO since Other members of the senior management team include Executive Vice President Daniel Vogler; Senior Vice President Finance Ron Kampwerth; Senior Vice President Marketing Pier Y. Alsup; Senior Vice President Operations Jack Fox; and Senior Vice President Lending James Barrett. The Credit Union has an all-volunteer Board of Directors and both elected and appointed committees. Anheuser-Busch Employees Credit Union was one of the first Credit Unions to offer money market accounts and FHA home loans in Missouri. Today, the Credit Union is full service and offers a wide range of financial products such as free checking, consumer and real estate loans, business account services, savings and investments, as well as mobile banking and other online services. The Credit Union has always encouraged financial literacy for its members and the community and offers college planning seminars and financial education classes for members and non-members of all ages. These programs are available for an array of organizations, including Junior Achievement, private and public elementary schools and other community groups. College scholarships are awarded each year to young adult members. The Credit Union has also designed special programs to help make it easier and fun for young investors to begin saving and make the most of their funds. The Credit Union sponsors and supports several local community events and organizations such as the Boys Club, Kingdom House, Saint Louis University Lupus and Juvenile Arthritis Research, Homes for our Troops, United Way and many others. In 1962 the Anheuser-Busch Employees Credit Union occupied the Old Shipping Office on Broadway in South St. Louis City. The main office is now located at 1001 Lynch in South St. Louis historic Soulard area. The Credit Union now has twenty-eight locations around the nation, with eleven in the St. Louis metropolitan area.

260 Anheuser-Busch continues a tradition of brewing excellence and commitment to St. Louis! For more than 160 years, Anheuser-Busch and its world-class brewmasters have carried on a legacy of brewing America s most popular beers. Starting with the finest, all-natural ingredients sourced from Anheuser-Busch s family of Americanbased growers, every batch is crafted using the same exacting standards and timehonored traditions passed down through generations of proud Anheuser-Busch brewmasters and employees. Best known for its fine American-style lagers, the company s beers lead numerous segments of the U.S. beer market. Anheuser- Busch operates twelve local breweries to ensure consumers have the freshest beer possible. The brewer s flagship St. Louis Brewery traces its roots back to the Bavarian Brewery, which was opened in1852. In 1860, Eberhard Anheuser acquired the brewery and changed its name to E. Anheuser & Co. Soon after, Anheuser was joined in the business by his son-in-law, Adolphus Busch, and a legacy was born. With the help of his friend Carl Conrad, Busch would introduce Budweiser in Through Busch s business acumen and several key innovations, including refrigerated railcars and pasteurization, Budweiser would quickly grow to be one of the first national beer brands. The time-honored recipe remains the same and is the only beer aged twice as long to achieve the perfect balance of flavor and refreshment. Through the years, the St. Louis Brewery has seen continued growth and currently sits on a 100 acre site. Its rich architecture and heritage have made the brewery one of the most popular tourist attractions in the region. The brewery has three national historic landmarks: the historic brewhouse (1891/1892), the Budweiser Clydesdales stable (1885) and the Old Lyons School House (1868). The brewhouse is one of the most iconic structures in the brewing industry. For generations, it has been meticulously cared for and while it remains true to its historic architecture, it is one of the most technologicallyadvanced brewhouses in the world. The Clydesdales stable was built by Busch in 1885 and housed the family s horses and carriages when they lived on the property. Currently, the stables are the home of the Budweiser Clydesdale Midwest hitch and are one of the most popular stops on the brewery tour. The Old Lyons School House, where Adolphus Busch s children attended school, was named after General Nathaniel Lyon, commander of Union forces in Missouri during the Civil War. It was sold to the brewery in The building served as the company s main administrative building until Additionally, the Bevo Building, originally opened in 1918, is one of the world s most stateof-the-art bottling and packaging operations. In 2008, Anheuser-Busch and InBev combined to become Anheuser-Busch InBev. St. Louis remains the North America zone headquarters of the home of Budweiser. ANHEUSER- BUSCH T H E M A R K E T P L A C E 2 5 9

261 CONCORDIA PUBLISHING HOUSE Top: From the printing press to the everadvancing integration of tablet technology, CPH has published resources for church, home, and school for more than 140 years. Bottom: Dr. Bruce Kintz, Jonathan Schultz, and the Honorable Mayor Francis G. Slay stand with the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. CPH is the only Christian publisher to have ever received the award. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 260 From humble beginnings, nationally-recognized Concordia Publishing House has been a staple to the St. Louis community for more than 140 years. It all began in the first half of the nineteenth century before CPH s cornerstone was even laid. In a quest for freedom of worship and church government, German Lutherans immigrated to America, many settling the Mississippi Valley. Lutheran churches, schools, and a seminary were formed, and a Lutheran church body grew. In response to a growing need for doctrinally-sound church resources, Concordia Publishing House (CPH) began on September 11, Much of the material that came off the first Concordia press was in German preserving the cultural identity of Lutheran church members as they assimilated into an American society still trying to find itself. By 1880, CPH undertook the monumental task of issuing a modern German edition of Martin Luther s works, with the St. Louis Edition receiving the Gold Medal for excellence in book printing and typography at the 1904 World s Fair. As Lutheran churches and schools flourished at the turn of the century, so did the need for educational resources in English. CPH developed materials for Sunday School, Day School, Vacation Bible School, and Bible studies for Lutherans and other Christian denominations nationwide. The purpose was clear: CPH exists to strengthen pastors and congregations in their proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ by publishing resources that are faithful to the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions. Through the years, Concordia Publishing House has produced more than 8,000 products. Notably in 1912, CPH began publishing The Lutheran Witness, the voice of the Lutheran church body. First published in 1937, today Portals of Prayer has 800,000 subscribers and is also available in Spanish. CPH is well known for publishing Bibles. The Concordia Bible with Notes was published in 1947, leading to the 1986 publication of the Concordia Self-Study Bible. More recently, The Lutheran Study Bible was published in 2009 and is also available as a Kindle Edition. From the printing press to the ever-advancing integration of tablet technology, CPH is on the cutting edge of the publishing industry with digital media, e-books, and church management software. After receiving the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 2011, President and CEO Dr. Bruce Kintz said it best, With God s grace, CPH has achieved a level of excellence that few major corporations realize. As a Christian organization we are humbled by our achievements and as a thriving publishing house we are proud to represent both innovation and sustainability in this everchanging marketplace.

262 Vi-Jon is a company whose name may not sound familiar to some, but it has been a part of the rich fabric of St. Louis for more than a hundred years. Founded in St. Louis in 1908, Vi-Jon, which was called the Peroxide Specialty Company until 1933, was started by John Burgess Brunner and his wife, Viola. After a brief move to Cincinnati early on, the two brought the company back to its original home in St. Louis in 1912 where it has remained ever since, manufacturing private label health and beauty care products for retailers nationwide. The original Vi-Jon facility, still in use today, is located along the Wabash Railroad tracks just north of Skinker at 6300 Etzel Avenue. Set in the middle of the ever-growing St. Louis community, this area was used as the picnic grounds for the 1904 World s Fair before construction of the plant. St. Louis proved to be the right home for Vi-Jon and, by 1942, the company s sales exceeded $1.1 million, and about 70 St. Louisans were employed by the company. In the 1960s, Vi-Jon began to move into the private label business, making products under various stores names rather than the Vi-Jon name itself. This change in business strategy led to sales of more than $5 million by 1979 with a team of 100 employees. By 1984, Vi-Jon had become the largest private label manufacturer of mouthwash, with nail polish remover and petroleum jelly close behind. As Vi-Jon continued to grow, a second manufacturing facility was added off Page Avenue, just a few miles away from the facility at Etzel. In 1992, anti-bacterial soap production began, which was the precursor to Vi-Jon s popular Germ-X line of hand sanitizers. In 2006, Vi-Jon and Tennessee-based manufacturer Cumberland-Swan merged, instantly doubling the size of the company. With annual sales of approximately $500 million, five manufacturing and distribution centers and more than 1,300 employees in St. Louis and Smyrna, Tennessee, Vi-Jon celebrated its 100th anniversary in Today, the teamwork, innovation and success continue as the company strives to provide the best service, quality and cost in the industry. Throughout all the changes and growth Vi-Jon has seen during its 100 year plus history, St. Louis has always been at the center of it all. It is where Vi-Jon started and where two manufacturing plants and the corporate office remain today. It is also where Vi-Jon gives back; supporting local causes that center around family, education, health and well-being. Vi-Jon is proud to be headquartered in St. Louis and is looking forward to another 100 years in this great city. Additional information on Vi-Jon may be found at VI-JON T H E M A R K E T P L A C E 2 6 1

263 SCHNUCK MARKETS, INC. BOTTOM, LEFT: PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF BILL GREENBLATT PHOTOGRAPHY. BOTTOM, RIGHT: PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF ZBAREN ARCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY. Just like the delicious produce for which the company is known, Schnuck Markets, Inc. is truly homegrown. The family-owned company has grown with the City of St. Louis, even sharing an anniversary year! In 2014, Schnucks celebrates seventy-five years of serving customers. A shared vision continues to link Schnucks and St. Louis now and into the future. Siblings Craig, Scott, Terry, Mark, Todd, Nancy and cousin, Stephanie, were born into the business. Modeling their fathers, Donald and Edward respectively, they have grown to be strong merchants and philanthropists dedicated to St. Louis owning its place among other world-class cities. They hold precious their grandparents legacy. Anna Donovan (Mom) and Edwin (Pop) Schnuck were driven by a strong sense of family and community as well as the food traditions that bonded them together. With the purchase of a 1,000 square foot confectionery in 1939, Schnucks partnership with St. Louis was born. It continues today with 100 stores and 15,000 teammates in five states. As the company s hometown, St. Louis has seen the company through expansions, acquisitions and construction. In return, Schnucks has been a strong partner in St. Louis revitalization efforts. In 2006, The DESCO Group, the Schnuck family realty company, renovated The Old Post Office. The historic building is now an office center drawing enterprise into the heart of the city. Eyes ever on innovation, Schnucks unveiled a new store concept in 2009 Culinaria, A Schnucks Market. The urban prototype serving downtown residents, workers and visitors is a testament to the power of city partnerships. Schnucks also operates eight more full-service supermarkets in St Louis and a total of sixty-eight across the region. As customers needs change, Schnucks continues to reinvent itself. It has come a long way from its humble start as has St. Louis. Today, the company that began with Mom and Pop and one delivery boy is the area s eighth largest employer with 11,000 teammates. And St. Louis is a growing city, home to successful regional and global companies that are drawing new opportunities each year. So, here s to you St. Louis! Here s to 250 years of igniting advancements in business, culture, enterprise, education, science, medicine, sports, community attractions, arts and nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit! Thanks to you and all your citizens for making it possible for a family-owned grocer to celebrate seventy-five years and for enabling its third generation to achieve even more than their grandparents could have imagined. Thank you for holding up your promise of a good life to those families who have been proud to call St. Louis home. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 262

264 For more than a century, business owners and human resource staffs across Missouri and Illinois have depended on AAIM Employers Association for a wide range of services from supervisor training, to background checks, to on-site HR support, to affirmative action plans. Membership in AAIM also provides unlimited calls to HR experts, online resources, and access to survey data, and opportunities for business leaders to network with their peers. AAIM was founded in 1898 as the St. Louis branch of the National Metal Trades Association. The new association brought together the leaders of the metals, mining, manufacturing, and engineering industries. The founding objectives were to join forces and share ideas, communicate with one another, and resolve common problems such as skills training. The founders realized that they were stronger by banding together and that their association membership enhanced their ability to grow their respective markets. Today, AAIM still believes in: Supporting local businesses with critical HR tools and advice, so they become stronger, more competitive, and stable employers. Providing professional networking events, so that members become more efficient and productive, stay connected, and provide best practices for their employees. Keeping employers current with business trends and communicating timely information on employment law. Providing a wide variety of public and customized training solutions so members can develop high-functioning employees as well as, facilitate personal growth. Currently, AAIM serves 1,600 employers, representing 360,000 employees in Missouri and Illinois. The association provides 70,000 background checks and drug screenings annually, conducts 26 annual Roundtables for 300 plus participants, and responds to 7,000 annual Member Answer Center inquiries. AAIM offers a number of services that address the compliance and people needs of the HR community: HR consulting, compensation analysis, employee opinion and engagement surveys, talent acquisition, HR supervisory training, organizational development, and Affirmative Action Plans. AAIM has become a one-stop shared services experience for business leaders and human resources managers. Members may take advantage of the buying power, pooled resources, and networking/idea sharing provided by the association. One of the fastest growing services provided by AAIM is background checking and drug screening. Many employers now believe it is better to spend the time and energy upfront to thoroughly screen potential candidates with criminal checks, reference checks, and drug screens. AAIM also specializes in pre-hire assessments to insure that candidates have the appropriate skills, attitude, and personality for the position. These tests range from basic assessments to comprehensive profiling. The St. Louis office of AAIM Employers Association is located at 1600 South Brentwood Boulevard. For more information, visit their website at AAIM EMPLOYERS ASSOCIATION Above: AAIM has provided professional training and education, peer-to-peer roundtables, and networking opportunities to area employers since the founding of the association in Our ability to create and deploy practical solutions throughout decades of changing business trends, concepts, and initiatives, is the one constant for our members. Here, AAIM conducts a Performance Appraisal training course attended by supervisors and human resource managers from various St. Louis employers, in Below: The 2013 AAIM Leadership Conference attracted over 350 people, representing 128 organizations from Missouri and Illinois. The annual conference is designed to help area business leaders and HR professionals achieve organizational excellence by resolving these common challenges: leadership development, engagement, culture, talent acquisition, compensation, continuous learning, and healthcare reform. T H E M A R K E T P L A C E 2 6 3

265 COMMERCE BANK Top: In 2009 the Commerce Bank banking center in O Fallon, Missouri, was the first bank branch in Missouri to receive LEED certification. Above: Commerce Bancshares Chairman David Kemper rings the opening bell at NASDAQ, New York, during analyst presentations there on October 9, H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 264 Commerce Bancshares, Inc., the parent company of Commerce Bank, provides a full range of financial products to consumer and commercial customers. Commerce s customer promise We Ask, Listen and Solve is not just a brand, but a corporate focus. Commerce Bank of St. Louis opened for business in the St. Louis area in 1969, but can trace its roots all the way back to 1865 when Francis Reid Long founded the Kansas City Savings Association. Under the leadership of Dr. W. S. Wood, the bank was rechartered in 1882 under the name National Bank of Commerce and, by 1900, was the largest bank west of Chicago, with deposits of $36 million. In 1906, Dr. Wood organized the Commerce Trust Company. Commerce has always been a leader in offering new products and the latest technology to its customers. In 1928 the bank began the first twenty-four hour transit department in the country, which helped speed up the transit of checks between banks and provided customers with faster access to their money. Commerce also began correspondent services, which allowed banks in smaller communities to turn to the larger banks for assistance in making large business loans. Commerce created the first full-scale international department in the Midwest in the 1960s. It was the first bank to expand in Missouri in the 1960s and became the first major credit card bank in the 1970s. Commerce Bancshares, Inc. was one of the first companies to be listed on NASDAQ when it was founded in In 1978, Commerce Bancshares, Inc., merged with Manchester Financial Corp., a St. Louis-based holding company. This merger made Commerce Bank the fourth largest banking entity in St. Louis. In 1983 reorganization provided for the acquisition of County Tower Corporation and its subsidiaries and Commerce became the largest statewide banking company measured by number of banking offices. Today, Commerce operates more than 200 branches in Missouri, Kansas, Illinois, Oklahoma and Colorado, including fifty-four branches in the St. Louis area as well as commercial loan offices in Texas, Ohio, and Tennessee. Commerce is the third largest bank in St. Louis. As a member of the St. Louis community, Commerce is a key supporter of the United Way, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Beyond Housing, the St. Louis Art Fair and numerous other organizations devoted to strengthening the region and helping youth succeed. Community Service committees composed of employees help to identify several Commerce-sponsored volunteer opportunities. Operating as a super-community bank, Commerce Bank has grown from $4 billion in assets in 1983 to $22 billion in The bank employs more than 1,200 in the St. Louis area and 4,700 throughout is eightstate region.

266 On December 9, 1878, a thirty-one year old journalist and Hungarian immigrant purchased a bankrupt newspaper entitled the St. Louis Dispatch, on the steps of the St. Louis Courthouse for $2,500. Three days later, he merged this newspaper with another local paper, the struggling Evening Post. This young journalist and immigrant was Joseph Pulitzer, and this unified newspaper became known as the St. Louis Post and Dispatch. A commitment to progress, justice and accuracy were at the core of Pulitzer s journalistic devotion. The newspaper made itself the talk of the town by exposing vice, corruption and the misdeeds of the wealthy. With the crusading spirit, Pulitzer reinvented the American newspaper. After poor health and failing eyesight forced Pulitzer to retire from active management of the paper, he continued to insure that his ideals were not forgotten. In addition to turning the paper over to his son, also named Joseph, he developed the Pulitzer Prize, the top award for journalistic excellence. The St. Louis Post- Dispatch has won a total of eighteen of the esteemed awards. Under the Pulitzer s leadership, the Post- Dispatch reached some of the most prominent milestones in the history of journalism including; the first St. Louis newspaper to produce a color comic section and photographs; the first newspaper to report the sinking of the Titanic; and the first to use four-color reproduction in a newspaper. After 127 years in the newspaper publishing business, the Pulitzer family sold the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and all Pulitzer properties to Lee Enterprises on June 3, Although the sale brought an end to the Pulitzer publishing dynasty, the traditions and ideals of the Pulitzer name remain intact within Lee Enterprises. The Post-Dispatch is largest of fifty daily newspapers owned by Lee Enterprises, along with rapidly growing online services and more than 300 weekly newspapers and specialty publications. Today, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is read by nearly 1 million St. Louis adults each week and combined with STLtoday.com, ranks the sixth bestreaching media combination in the largest U.S. markets. Seven out of ten St. Louis adults turn to the Post-Dispatch each week in print or digital form. As the largest news-gathering organization in the area, they are the dominate source for local news, information and advertising across a variety of multimedia platforms and brands, that enhancing the communities of the St. Louis metropolitan area. Each day, they work to serve the public interest by connecting people to credible information whenever and however they seek it. ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH Left: The St. Louis Post and Dispatch, December 12, Below: The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, April 19, T H E M A R K E T P L A C E 2 6 5

267 EDWARD JONES Top: Edward Jones St. Louis headquarters. Above: Edward Jones financial advisors deliver personal service to individual investors. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 266 Since its humble beginnings in 1922, Edward Jones has stood for one thing: doing what is right for investors. That involves a steadfast commitment to personal service, a long-term investment philosophy, working in partnership and respect for individuals. Throughout its ninety-year history, the firm has called St. Louis home, even as it expanded to serve investors throughout North America. It was Edward Jones that broke tradition in the 1940s and moved beyond metropolitan areas to serve investors in rural communities who otherwise had no access to personal financial service. It was Edward Jones that pioneered the one-financial advisor branch model in communities across the country so financial advisors could work and live near the investors they serve. The firm s first use of technology, a telegraph wire from Pueblo, Colorado, to the St. Louis home office, served simply to ensure that investors in Colorado had quick access to the Edward Jones information center and trading floor. It is still how the firm uses technology as an enhancement to, rather than a replacement for, personal one-on-one service. From an investment standpoint, Edward Jones remains highly committed to the well-being of its clients. The firm embraces a long-term, quality-oriented investment philosophy. Investment fads come and go, but the firm s investment philosophy invest in quality, diversify your holdings, and retain a long-term perspective has stayed the same. This helps clients build an investment strategy with the potential to weather various market environments. This investment philosophy has stood the test of time. In 1956, Edward Jones was one of more than 285 financial services firms participating in the initial public offering for Ford Motor Company common stock. Due to the ever-changing and competitive nature of the financial services industry, only a dozen of those firms remain, among them Edward Jones. Today, Edward Jones is the only privately held investment firm on Wall Street. As such, the firm is solely responsible to its clients rather than to stockholders. More than 12,000 Edward Jones financial advisors work directly with nearly 7 million clients in the United States and Canada to understand their personal goals from college savings to retirement to leaving a legacy and create long-term investment solutions that emphasize a well-balanced portfolio and a buy-and-hold strategy. The firm embraces the importance of building long-term, faceto-face relationships with clients, helping them to understand and make sense of the investment options available today. Edward Jones is headquartered in St. Louis. The firm s website is and is the recruiting website.

268 Residence Inn by Marriott St. Louis Downtown sums up its goal neatly in a unique mission statement that declares, Our passion is to provide service so memorable our guests tell stories about it. The stories and compliments have been many since the extended stay facility opened at 525 South Jefferson Avenue in Visitors love the way they can make themselves at home in one of the 188 rooms featuring kitchens, complimentary Internet access, and 70 cable channels. Other conveniences include concierge services and Market, as well as a hot buffet breakfast. Guests also enjoy the twenty-four hour fitness center, sport court, indoor pool, hot tub, fully equipped business center and lobby bar. Pets are welcome at Residence Inn and guests appreciate the secure parking facility. has sixty employees, including many of the hotel s original team members. The hotel participates in the St. Louis Convention and Hospitality Commission s annual Hospitality Hero award ceremony, which recognizes and rewards managers and hospitality associates for a job well done. Most of the winners have gone above and beyond the expectations of a client or guest. Residence Inn has been honored for six Super Hero award winners and numerous Hero award winners over the years. RESIDENCE INN BY MARRIOTT ST. LOUIS DOWNTOWN If you are planning an event, Residence Inn offers more than 1,600 square feet of meeting space consisting of small meeting rooms equipped with the latest audiovisual equipment. The family-friendly Residence Inn is convenient to Chaifetz Arena, Busch Stadium, Edward Jones Dome, City Museum, Peabody Opera House, Scottrade Center, Fox Theatre and many other attractions. Getting to nearby attractions is a breeze with a complimentary area shuttle that operates within a three mile radius. Residence Inn by Marriott St. Louis Downtown is the leading brand in extended stay. The hotel is owned and operated by EQUIS Hospitality headquartered in Brentwood, Missouri. General Manager Robert Swehla opened the hotel in 2006 and continues to lead the facility. The hotel Employees of the hotel are active in a number of community activities and EQUIS Hospitality is a partner of Rankin Jordan, a children s hospital, and The Giving Tree, a seasonal charity that collects gifts for the Missouri Foster Care and Adoption Association. For reservations, or to learn more about Residence Inn St. Louis Downtown, check the website at T H E M A R K E T P L A C E 2 6 7

269 MARITZ Right: The Maritz Fenton headquarters present day. Below: In the 1920s, Maritz resided in the Columbia Building at Eighth and Locust Streets in downtown St. Louis. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 268 In 1894 thirty-one year-old jewelry engraver Edward Maritz went into business for himself and started the E. Maritz Jewelry Manufacturing Company, which he operated out of his home at 3213 Magnolia in St. Louis, Missouri. Maritz gradually built up his business by doing quality work and earning a solid reputation. At sixteen, James, his son, joined the company and helped his father establish offices in downtown St. Louis and other Midwestern cities, with a focus on importing Swiss watches for women. During WWI, pilots began wearing wristwatches and James started wearing them around St. Louis. Soon, Maritz was importing men s wristwatches and they were a hit. But when the stock market crashed in 1929, demand for jewelry declined and the Maritz company came close to folding. James and his brother Lloyd began selling their merchandise to companies as sales awards. It was the birth of modern-day incentive programs. Since the Great Depression, Maritz has been operating as a sales and marketing services company, helping corporations understand, engage and motivate their people. The company has branched out, acquired and created new businesses, and now boasts a diverse portfolio, including Maritz Travel, Maritz Research, Maritz Loyalty Marketing, Maritz Motivation, Maritz Canada, and several other non-maritz-branded companies. In 1968 the company moved from its Forest Park Boulevard location to its current headquarters in Fenton. Within the St. Louis community, Maritz is renowned for its highlyrecognizable campus off of I-44 just west of 270, and the nation s only private, enclosed walking bridge that spans a highway. Today, Maritz is a $1.2 billion dollar, familyowned company, employing approximately 2,000 people in the St. Louis area and 3,500 people worldwide. Steve Maritz currently serves as chairman and CEO, succeeding his father Bill Maritz who took over from his father James, Sr. Collectively, Maritz companies offer a wide-array of peoplefocused solutions, including sales incentive programs, employee rewards and recognition, marketing and customer satisfaction research, loyalty marketing campaigns, and meetings, events, and incentive trips. The company boasts long-term relationships with some of the world s top companies in the automotive, hospitality, technology and financial industries, and is considered a leader in each of its industries. Helping Fortune 100 clients understand and motivate their employees, sales partners and customers, is both inspiring and thrilling for Maritz people, who tap into the latest human sciences, their own creativity and business acumen to build the best solutions for Maritz clients. The family atmosphere and Steve s work hard, have fun, get the job done mantra have created a strong people-centered culture within the company. That people focus extends to Maritz corporate giving program, which strives to improve education in the communities we serve. Through financial support, employee service and Maritz people solutions and expertise, Maritz and its philanthropic partners empower people of all ages to reach their full potential.

270 Care-Tech Laboratories, Inc., a leader in non-toxic antiseptic technology, began nearly 120 years ago in Sedalia, Missouri, as a manufacturer of Vermingo, the first liquid bug killer to replace the use of kerosene oil as an insect spray. The firm was first organized in 1895 by N. L. Worrell as the Worrell Manufacturing Company, and was purchased in 1905 by J. H. Rodes, who moved the business to St. Louis. The company s first address was 112 South Main Street on the Mississippi River, a site that later became the famous Gateway Arch. Worrell Manufacturing was merged in 1923 with Germo Manufacturing Company, which produced CHOLERINE, a product used to disinfect chickens and other fowl of ticks and lice. This firm later evolved into Consolidated Chemical, headed by Henry Arthur Brereton, Walter Hensley and William H. Allen. From 1925 until 1957, Consolidated Chemical manufactured cresylic disinfectants and insecticides as well as maintenance products for schools, hospitals and industry. By 1957, Consolidated had formulated and manufactured a hundred different niche chemical products for nursing homes, hospitals, schools and other institutions. Brereton bought out his partners during the early depression days of the 1930s. A son John Arthur Brereton joined the firm in 1946 after earning an MBA degree from Harvard. In 1964, Consolidated Chemical expanded into the new field that would become its single most important field of growth. The new series of products was designed for patients in nursing homes and hospitals and consisted of skin care products with special bactericides to handle the many skin problems associated with elderly patients. The company was located on South Vandeventer Avenue from 1940 until 1979 when it moved to its current address at 3224 South Kingshighway Boulevard in St. Louis. Through the years, Consolidated Chemical emphasized research and development and led the way in development of better products for schools, hospitals and industry. The company is responsible for a number of firsts including first in development of air spray deodorizers RENOVET ; first in development of synthetic wax SKIDPROOF ; and first in development of hospital and geriatric care programs, or infection control systems. The firm was also a pioneer in development of the use of aerosol sprays with its product line. In 1985, Consolidated Chemicals changed its trade name to CARE-TECH Laboratories, Inc., and reorganized its sales efforts to better focus on developing new and innovative products for the healthcare and geriatric marketplace. These efforts accelerated in 1988 with a more aggressive sales and marketing strategy that introduced CARE-TECH products to a national market. In 1987, John C. and Sherry L. Brereton purchased all shares of outstanding stock in the company from numerous family members, making CARE-TECH a third-generation firm. CARE-TECH Laboratories continues to emphasize research and development in order to provide more efficient topical, antimicrobial technology for the healthcare industry. Markets have expanded to include physician supply, clinics, home healthcare, dental supply and veterinarian supply and the hospital marketplace. CARE-TECH LABORATORIES, INC. O-T-C PHARMACEUTICALS Below: CEO John C. Brereton and Executive Vice President, Sherry L. Brereton. T H E M A R K E T P L A C E 2 6 9

271 The new National Archives and Records Administration building that expands the region s resources for historical research. PHOTOGRAPH BY LENIN HURTADO PROVIDED COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES AT ST. LOUIS. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 270

272 BUILDING A GREATER ST. LOUIS S t. L o u i s s r e a l e s t a t e d e v e l o p e r s, c o n s t r u c t i o n c o m p a n i e s, h e a v y i n d u s t r i e s, a n d m a n u f a c t u r e r s p r o v i d e t h e e c o n o m i c f o u n d a t i o n o f t h e c i t y Ameren Corporation BSI Constructors American Water Missouri American Water Illinois American Water CIC Group, Inc McCarthy Building Companies, Inc Associated General Contractors of St. Louis U.S. Custom House and Post Office (Old Post Office) Developers: The DESCO Group and DFC Group Sheet Metal Workers Local Union Watlow Electric Manufacturing Company Monsanto PARIC Corporation Hunter Engineering Company American Radiolabeled Chemicals, Inc. (ARC) Tarlton Corporation Graybar Electric Company, Inc Sansone Group Peabody Energy St. Louis Development Corporation B U I L D I N G A G R E A T E R S T. L O U I S 2 7 1

273 AMEREN CORPORATION Above: Two years after Union Electric was formed, the company lit up eight palaces and the grounds of Forest Park during the 1904 St. Louis World s Fair. Today, Ameren Corporation continues the strong tradition of providing reliable, safe, low-cost energy to its customers and communities. Below: A 1931 shot of the nearly-completed construction of the Osage Hydroelectric Energy Center at Lake of the Ozarks. Missouri Hydro-Electric Power started the project in 1924, but halted work in On July 27, 1929, Union Electric purchased the facilities, and construction resumed on August 6. The New York Stock Exchange crashed two months later, bringing on the Great Depression, but work on the project continued. It became the only major construction project in the nation at the time. Records show more than twenty thousand people worked on the project at one time or another. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 272 St. Louis-based Ameren Corporation is a Fortune 500 energy provider and the parent of utility subsidiaries Ameren Missouri and Ameren Illinois, as well as Ameren Transmission Company. In 2013 the company announced the divestiture of its merchant generation subsidiary Ameren Energy Resources. Our electric companies all date back to the introduction of Edison s light bulb and founding of the grid more than one hundred years ago. Today, Focused Energy. For Life. is our promise to power the quality of life for the next century. Ameren s predecessor, Union Electric, was founded on May 20, With 2,000 customers, a handful of employees, and generation capacity of 6 megawatts, Union Electric (UE) faced the daunting challenge of electrifying an event of international significance: the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. Better known as the St. Louis World s Fair, the exposition opened in 1904, with its eight large palaces and fairgrounds blazing with light. Our first power plant (now called Energy Center) the Ashley Plant, located in downtown St. Louis along the Mississippi River supplied energy for the fair. As the first broad-scale demonstration of electricity, the event became known as the electric fair. This new enthusiasm for electricity created growing demand for power in St. Louis. In the midst of the flurry of home wiring activity, UE turned up the current that began our long-standing record of providing reliable, low-cost, energy. To keep up with escalating demand, Union Electric added new generating sources by expanding its territory and acquiring energy centers in neighboring states. That expansion included the Keokuk Energy Center, which opened in 1913 and celebrated its hundredth anniversary in June The hydroelectric energy center is located about 180 miles north of St. Louis, in Keokuk, Iowa. At the time of its opening, Keokuk broke records for the highest transmission line, longest line and largest transformers. UE s first renewable energy center continues to harvest the natural force of the Mississippi River. On an average day of operation, it saves the equivalent of burning 1,000 tons of coal. The next major development occurred during the Great Depression. On July 27, 1929, the utility purchased facilities and resumed construction of a dam near tiny Bagnell, Missouri. This was the last major dam to be built in the United States with private funds. As the largest construction project of its time, it attracted workers from around the country. Although there were some steam shovels and other powered equipment, most labor was done by hand.

274 The project was truly massive: Records show that more than 20,000 people worked on Bagnell Dam. The structure is a half-mile long and rises a towering 148 feet from the bedrock comparable to a building twelve stories high and seven blocks long. Nearly 60,000 acres of land had to be acquired to make way for the structure. The dam retains 600 billion gallons of water from the Osage River. This stored water serves as fuel for the Osage Energy Center, located inside the dam. In a typical year, the energy center produces more than 500 million kilowatthours of electricity enough to supply the needs of nearly 42,000 households. Construction was completed two years after work began, at a cost of $30 million, and commercial operation of Osage Energy Center began October 16, At the time, Bagnell Dam was truly an engineering marvel, and dignitaries from around the world came to see it. This project also created the manmade Lake of the Ozarks, a well-known recreation area that lures almost five million visitors annually. Since initial construction at Osage, more than $100 million has been spent to add generators, anchor the dam to the bedrock to ensure protection against a maximum flood, modernize the energy center s control facilities and replace six turbines. Ameren s other hydroelectric energy center, the Taum Sauk Energy Center near Lesterville, began operation in The 440-megawatt pumped-storage energy center acts like a giant battery, primarily used on a peaking basis and put into operation when the demand for electricity is greatest. In 2010 the upper reservoir was rebuilt at a cost of $490 million. By the 1940s, UE s production outstripped demand, so along with other power companies, we built a multistate system of power transmission lines linking Union Electric with thirty other energy providers and making the company the second-most connected utility in the nation. Expansion continued over the next several years, including a move into the natural gas market. In the 1950s our company owned gas operations in and around Alton, Illinois. In 1983, Missouri Power and Light, Missouri Utilities and Missouri Edison merged with Union Electric. It was important to our company to have a balance of generation sources for producing electricity. In 2013, Ameren had four coal-fired energy centers: Meramec (1953) 836 megawatts Sioux (1967) 986 megawatts Labadie (1970) 2,047 megawatts Rush Island (1976) 1,204 megawatts Today, Labadie is our largest coal-fired energy center and a recognized leader in emissions control and operating efficiency. Above: Early line crews ready to hitch a wagon to horses and head out for a day s work. Today, Ameren linemen maintain more than 86,000 electric circuit miles. By investing in infrastructure, Ameren can support jobs and economic growth. Below: Central Illinois Public Service Company s Canton Ice Plant, c In 1997 our company officially became Ameren Corporation with the merging of Union Electric and neighboring CIPSCO Inc. B U I L D I N G A G R E A T E R S T. L O U I S 2 7 3

275 Above: Ameren is more than an energy company it is a catalyst for growth and a resource for life. Ameren is deploying the latest in Smart Grid technology to enhance reliability in Missouri and Illinois. This technology allows the company to remotely control substation switches to isolate damage, and in many cases, automatically restore power by switching to an alternate supply. Below: Ameren gas workers help to ensure the safety and reliability of 21,000 miles of Ameren s transmission and distribution mains in Missouri and Illinois. By the mid-1980s, UE was looking to nuclear as a clean, safe and economical alternative for meeting customers growing energy needs. At a cost of $3 billion, the Callaway Energy Center was launched in 1984, becoming the company s first and only nuclear energy center. Callaway produces 1,190 megawatts of electricity each year, enough to power 780,000 households. It is the state of Missouri s only nuclear energy center. Reliable, low-cost nuclear power has been a key factor in keeping the price of electricity affordable for our customers. As Union Electric s generation capacity grew, so did the need to expand our service area. In 1977 the acquisition of Missouri Utilities made Union Electric the state s thirdlargest distributor of natural gas. In 1997 our company officially became Ameren Corporation, with the merging of Union Electric and neighboring CIPSCO Inc. (the parent company of Central Illinois Public Service Company, which later became known as AmerenCIPS). The name Ameren comes from combining the words American and Energy. Following the merger, Union Electric began doing business as AmerenUE and is now known as Ameren Missouri. In 2003, Ameren grew even more with the acquisition of CILCORP Inc. (parent of Central Illinois Light Company, which later became AmerenCILCO). In 2004, Ameren acquired Illinois Power Company (which became AmerenIP). In 2010, AmerenCIPS, AmerenCILCO and AmerenIP officially merged to become Ameren Illinois, one of Ameren s utility operating companies. The corporation s other business segments include Ameren Transmission and Ameren Services. Ameren has more than 86,000 miles of electric circuit lines and more than 21,000 miles of natural gas transmission and distribution mains over a 64,000 square mile service territory. Behind our successful generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure are dedicated employees with a wealth of expertise. Our company s growth and success is due largely to the more than 9,000 men and women whose daily work powers the lives of millions of people. For some employees, it is a family affair with third- or even fourth-generation family members working at Ameren. One reason Ameren remains an attractive local employer is because we are committed to protecting our employees their safety is our bluest of blue chip priorities. In 2012 the company saw the lowest rate of lost workday away incidents in our history. The rate was also among the best in the industry. Both our employees and our corporation are deeply committed to community involvement. Ameren employees are highly H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 274

276 active in the cities and towns we serve, and volunteer countless hours to make our communities better places to live, work, learn and play. Meanwhile, the Ameren Corporation Charitable Trust (established in 1944) donates millions of dollars annually to support education programs, services for the youth and elderly, social services and civic and cultural organizations. At Ameren, we believe that it takes more than energy to power the quality of life in the communities we serve; it takes hands-on support of those in need. Helping our customers manage their energy use is equally important. Each year, Ameren Illinois offers about $75 million worth of energy-saving tools and incentives for our business and residential customers. In 2013, Ameren Missouri launched a threeyear, nearly $150 million suite of similar programs the most ambitious energysavings portfolio in state history. Just as our utility expanded to meet the needs of twentieth century customers, Ameren continues to evolve for the twentyfirst century. This is reflected in our promise Focused Energy. For Life. The energy Ameren provides powers the lives of millions of people and the strength of our regional economy. So we are focused on ensuring that our service remains safe, reliable, efficient and affordable for generations to come. In June 2012, Ameren Missouri made a bold investment in a cleaner future by opening the Maryland Heights Renewable Energy Center. Located northwest of St. Louis, this energy center captures an otherwise unused resource: methane gas from a local landfill. With a generating capacity of 15 megawatts, the energy center produces enough power to serve about 10,000 homes. This facility is the first of its kind in Missouri and among the largest in the nation. Ameren s transmission investments also are helping to integrate renewable energy onto the grid, while providing customer benefits and creating jobs. Through the end of 2019, Ameren has multibillion-dollar plans to strengthen its transmission system within Illinois and Missouri. Nearly five hundred miles of new high-voltage lines will not only enhance regional reliability and efficiency, but also serve as an energy superhighway, to carry power where it is needed most. In addition, Ameren Missouri and Ameren Illinois are making reliability enhancements and building a smarter grid, which incorporates technology to reduce the duration and frequency of outages. Both utilities are involved in local and regional initiatives aimed at protecting and conserving our environment, as well as efforts to help our communities prosper and grow. From Union Electric, CIPS, CILCO and IP to Ameren Corporation we are proud of our history. As we celebrate this heritage, our employees are leading the way to a secure energy future with strong capacity, affordable rates, a commitment to continuos improvement and exceptional customer service for life. Above: In 1984, nuclear energy was added to Union Electric s energy mix. Callaway Energy Center is Missouri s only nuclear energy center. Reliable, low-cost nuclear power has been a key factor in keeping the price of electricity affordable for Ameren Missouri customers. Below: Ameren is a Fortune 500 energy company. We work with local leaders and communities in our service territory to attract and retain job-generating businesses. We help Missouri and Illinois build the capacity to compete for industry so our region and company can thrive. B U I L D I N G A G R E A T E R S T. L O U I S 2 7 5

277 BSI CONSTRUCTORS Below: BSI s President Paul Shaughnessy, Co-Founder Joe Shaughnessy, and Executive Vice President Jim Shaughnessy stand in front of the company headquarters at 6767 Southwest Avenue. Bottom: BSI s first $20 million project, Washington University McDonnell Hall, awarded in PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES. ARCHITECT: KALLMANN, MCKINNELL, & WOOD. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 276 Just two weeks before Christmas in 1972, Lorenz (Lorry) Bannes and Joseph (Joe) Shaughnessy, both thirty-seven years old, were suddenly, although voluntarily, unemployed. They had served as president and vice president, respectively, for the fifty-five year old Gamble Construction Company, but had become uncomfortable with the direction of the firm after it had been sold to outside investors a few years earlier. If they were going to do things their way, it would have to be at a new company. Lorry and Joe had first met when they were classmates at the St. Louis University IT School studying civil engineering. Upon graduation in 1957, Lorry served three years as a base engineer in the U.S. Air Force, while Joe headed to Guam for a three year tour as project manager in the U.S. Navy Civil Engineer Corps. The two renewed their friendship at a class reunion in 1962 and a year later Joe joined Lorry at Gamble Construction. While they had not really planned on starting their own company, once the path became clear they were determined to proceed in a manner consistent with their principles. They incorporated as Bannes-Shaughnessy, Inc. on December 18, But unlike many startups in the industry, they were determined not to grow at the expense of their prior employer. Although not constrained by a non-compete agreement, they would pursue neither the personnel nor the clients of Gamble Construction. Even if it would take longer to establish their presence in the market, they vowed to develop their own clients and build their own team. Capitalizing the new company with their own personal savings, the two founders developed a vision for the new firm that included seven key points: 1) Be a builder of all kinds of quality buildings; 2) Focus on customer value and service; 3) Operate according to sound business principles, never compromising integrity; 4) Maintain exceptional construction know how and competence; 5) Practice fiscal discipline; retain earnings for sound growth and the ability to fulfill all commitments; 6) Be a company of opportunity for its people by sharing the company s success with them; and 7) Share the company success with the local community and worthy charitable organizations. So with a big vision and some significant self-imposed constraints, they began searching for opportunities. They started small real small. Their first project came from a competitive bid they submitted to Parkway West Senior High School for a new press box. Bannes-Shaughnessy, Inc., was the low bidder at $3,988. Auspiciously they completed it ahead of schedule while earning a tidy $737 profit. Opportunities and successes came slowly, but surely. In 1976, they were awarded their first $1 million project for Hazelwood Central Senior High School. In 1981 they broke the $5 million barrier with a six-story office building for Roosevelt Federal Savings in Chesterfield, Missouri. By 1984, Bannes- Shaughnessy, Inc., had made the Engineering News Record (ENR) Top 400 Contractors for the first time of many times. But more important than the revenues or recognition that had

278 come with them, was that success was being built on the same principles that formed the basis for the company s founding in The company s reputation for delivering challenging projects continued to grow, opening up new opportunities in the St. Louis market was a significant year. Bannes-Shaughnessy was hired for its first major project at the Missouri Botanical Garden, the restoration and renovation of the world famous Climatron. A little later in the same year, the company acquired its first $10 million project, the new Medical Library for the Washington University School of Medicine. The increased staff required to address the expanding opportunities had begun to put a strain on space at the company headquarters at 6780 Southwest Avenue. Determined to stay in the City of St. Louis, the answer to their needs was found right across the street. They purchased three mostly vacant, neglected, but structurally sound buildings at 6767 Southwest. Aided by the creative design of noted architect Ray Maritz, they were able to transform them into a modern office and warehouse complex that continues to serve as company headquarters today. In 1988, after sixteen years of successful partnership, Lorry elected to pursue other interests. The company purchased his half interest and Joe became sole owner. The new company name BSI Constructors melded the firm s already well known acronym (BSI) with the word best describing its services: Constructors a combination of construction managers and general contractors. In early 1989, full of optimism for the future of the restructured company, Joe looked to supplement his already strong team of professionals. He did not have to look far. Coincidentally, his oldest son, Paul, had been contemplating a career change. Paul had worked for three summers as a carpenter apprentice at BSI while pursuing his civil engineering degree from the University of Missouri. From there, he went on to obtain an MBA from Washington University, going on to work in the financial industry for four years. The suggestion from his dad in early 1989 that he Give the construction industry a try came at an opportune time. He decided to join the company in March. A similar conversation with Jim Shaughnessy, who graduated Summa Cum Laude from St. Louis University that spring, was also productive. Jim joined the company in May of After stints in project management, estimating and preconstruction, Paul was named president in 2000, later adding the chief executive officer title. Jim, following a similar experience path, currently serves as executive vice president and COO. BSI s next big milestone project was a new $22 million, 100,000 square foot teaching and lab building for Washington University named McDonnell Hall. It marked a return to the collegiate gothic style of architecture for Washington University. It was BSI s first project of more than $20 million and was especially welcome in the very slow construction economy of While the McDonnell Hall project was awarded on a competitive bid basis, BSI began to see more and more work come from negotiated contracts and the construction management process. With its track record of performance and knowledge of costs, BSI was well positioned to take advantage of this new trend in the marketplace. BSI s customers were learning more and more that they could pick the firm they wanted and get the advantage of early builder input during the design process, as well. Above: The Laurel, originally constructed as a department store in 1905, BSI managed a dramatic conversion of this 635,000 square foot building into a hotel, apartments, retail, and the National Blues Museum. ARCHITECT: TRIVERS ASSOCIATES. Below: The renovation of the famous Climatron was BSI s first of many projects for the Missouri Botanical Garden. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF PAUL STRAATMANN. ARCHITECT: MACKEY & ASSOCIATES. B U I L D I N G A G R E A T E R S T. L O U I S 2 7 7

279 Above: The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, an all-concrete building. BSI self-performed the concrete work on this internationally acclaimed building designed by the noted architect, Tadao Ando. Below: BSI s largest single project was a 1.2 million square foot office and learning center for A. G. Edwards. ARCHITECT: RAYMOND E. MARITZ & SONS. Opposite top: St. Louis Central Library, one of world s great public libraries, the major renovation/restoration reopened in 2012, 100 years after its original dedication. ARCHITECT: CANNON DESIGN. Opposite, bottom: Citygarden, BSI completed this award winning three-acre urban oasis in the heart of downtown St. Louis. ARCHITECTS: NELSON BYRD WOLTZ + STUDIO DURHAM. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 278 Construction companies tend to be defined by their projects. On that basis, BSI has been defined, according to the St. Louis Business Journal, as the go-to contractor for some of the most impressive structures in St. Louis. Some examples from the past twenty years: The Parking Spot A 1,500 car parking structure near Lambert International Airport. When completed in the mid-1990s, it represented the area s first major precast garage in many years. Precast, where major structural concrete components are cast off-site and set by a large crane, soon became the method of choice for local developers on their parking garages. Missouri History Museum Expansion This 100,000 square foot Gyo Obatadesigned addition in Forest Park also included the renovation and restoration of the historic Jefferson Memorial. Enterprise Rent-a-Car Building The 144,000 square foot office building is in Weldon Springs, Missouri. BSI has always taken pride in working for some of the area s most respected institutions and corporations. Monsanto Research Center Built primarily for the preservation, storage, and study of over 5 million plant specimens, some of which are extinct. The first building in the region to utilize seismic base isolators, designed to protect the priceless collection even in a major earthquake. Pulitzer Foundation The first public building in the United States designed by the internationally acclaimed architect Tadao Ando. Recognized as one of the finest examples of smooth face as-cast architectural concrete in the world. The Coronado Conversion of a 240,000 square foot, vacant hotel into the prime off-campus housing option for St. Louis University students. The multiphase project also included a 750 car precast parking garage as well as the conversion of the old Moolah Temple into apartments, and a movie theater. A. G. Edwards Office Building and Learning Center BSI s largest single project at $150 million and 1.2 million square feet. Currently part of the Wells Fargo Advisors headquarters. Forest Park Restoration As construction manager for Forest Park Forever, BSI helped lead a major overhaul and updating of one of the nation s largest and best municipal parks. The Boulevard Home to the region s first Crate & Barrel, it was St. Louis first mixed-use retail development built according to the Lifestyle Center model. SEMO River Campus While most of their work is in the St. Louis metro area, BSI periodically ventures to other markets. The River Campus, in Cape Girardeau, was an all new campus that included an 850 seat performing arts grade auditorium. Citygarden Located across two city blocks in the heart of downtown St. Louis and funded by the Gateway Foundation, Citygarden is an urban oasis of art, fountains and landscape features. It has received several national awards. The Chase Park Plaza BSI performed an $85 million renovation to the iconic hotel that included the transformation

280 of the upper floors of the twenty-six story Park Plaza into St. Louis premier luxury condominiums. St. Louis Public Central Library Built in 1913 with a major donation from Andrew Carnegie, Central Library is the St. Louis Public Library s flagship branch. It reopened to rave reviews 100 years later, after a complete overhaul by BSI, which included meticulous historic restoration, and the creative transformation of former back of the house areas into stunning new public space. It is widely considered one of the world s great libraries. CityArchRiver 2015 BSI was retained in 2013 to provide comprehensive preconstruction services for the major reconfiguration of the Arch grounds, downtown connection and riverfront. Asked to look back on the last forty plus years since he founded BSI, Joe reflects, When we say this is a family business, we re not just talking the three of us. It is more about the sense of family that permeates the company, the way we work together, back each other up, and share together in the success of the company. I take satisfaction in all of the lives we have touched in a positive way: our great people, our many wonderful clients, and the many worthy charities we have been able to support due to the fact that we are a well-run and profitable company. I truly believe this company has been a force for good in our community, and that s why I d like to see it continue for many years to come. B U I L D I N G A G R E A T E R S T. L O U I S 2 7 9

281 AMERICAN WATER MISSOURI AMERICAN WATER ILLINOIS AMERICAN WATER Above: Missouri American Water invests approximately $70 to $100 million per year in water infrastructure improvements throughout the state. Right: A large water storage tank was erected as part of the construction of Missouri American Water s Central Water Treatment Plant off Hog Hollow Road in west St. Louis County in the 1920s. Below: Work on Missouri American Water s Central Water Treatment Plant off Hog Hollow Road in west St. Louis County, in the 1920s. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 280 In his classic 1883 river memoir, Life on the Mississippi, Mark Twain paints a vivid picture of drinking water in the St. Louis region in the late nineteenth century. If you will let your glass stand half an hour, you can separate the land from the water as easy as Genesis, he wrote. What Twain meant was that residents had to wait for the mud to settle in their glass for a drink of water. A supply of safe potable water is essential for the establishment and growth of any community and American Water has provided quality drinking water service for the Greater St. Louis region for more than a hundred years through two local regulated subsidiaries on both sides of the river: Missouri American Water and Illinois American Water. In the late nineteenth century, life expectancy at birth was forty-seven years and about forty-four percent of all deaths were caused by infectious disease. In some U.S. cities, up to thirty percent of infants died before their first birthday. Although there were many causes for low life expectancy and high infant death rate, including lack of medical knowledge at the time, unhealthy drinking water no doubt played a role. Medical and scientific journals of the era noted the dramatic improvements in public health as water filtration and disinfection became common practice. In 1900 about 35,000 people died from typhoid fever, the most common waterborne disease. A U.S. Geological report in 1915 announced the steady reduction in the typhoid fever death rate was undoubtedly due to a very large measure to new water filtration works. At the time the City of St. Louis was preparing for the World s Fair and making advancements in its water system, St. Louis County was also developing its first water system to serve a population of about 50,000 residents. In 1904 a new water treatment plant serving the country drew water from the Missouri River, pumped it into settling basins and incorporated the concept of water filtration

282 that local resident James Kirkwood had proposed at the turn of the century. Just in time for the 1904 World s Fair, filtered water flowed to the growing cities of Kirkwood, Webster Groves, University City and Ferguson. By 1920 most residents of both St. Louis City and St. Louis County, as well as residents of the Metro East on the east side of the river, were drinking filtered and disinfected water. Mortality rates fell by 40 percent and life expectancy at birth rose from 47 to 63 years. M I S S O U R I A M E R I C A N W A T E R Today, Missouri American Water is the largest water utility in the state, providing high-quality water and/or wastewater services to approximately 1.5 million people in 150 plus communities. Missouri American Water s St. Louis County District serves ninety-three municipalities and approximately 370,000 homes and businesses. Outside the City of St. Louis boundaries, most people get their water service from Missouri American Water. Missouri American Water and its predecessors have provided water and wastewater services in Missouri for more than a century. The roots of the St. Louis County operation date from 1904 with the West St. Louis Water and Light Company. The company grew steadily as St. Louis County developed and, in 1942, it became the St. Louis County Water. American Water acquired the system in The Missouri and Meramec Rivers are the sources of water supply for St. Louis County customers. The company s four water plants have received Directors Awards from the Partnership for Safe Water Program a national, voluntary initiative developed by the EPA and other water organizations that recognize water suppliers that consistently meet standards that surpass national standards. The Central Plant is one of the largest in the state. Missouri American Water also has operating districts in Joplin, St. Joseph, Jefferson City, Mexico, Warrensburg, Platte County, the Branson area and Brunswick. The nearby St. Charles County District provides water service to about 30,000 homes and businesses. Our professionals are committed to customer service, operational excellence and the delivery of high quality, reliable drinking water and safe, effective wastewater treatment and release, says Frank Kartmann, president of Missouri American Water. It s been exciting to play a critical role in the growth and expansion of St. Louis County. I L L I N O I S A M E R I C A N W A T E R Illinois American Water has provided quality water service in the Metro East and Alton areas for more than 110 years. It is the largest investor-owned water utility in the state of Illinois, providing quality water and wastewater service to approximately 1.2 million residents. In addition to the Interurban Top, left: The annual Missouri American Water 340 kayak/canoe race starts on the Missouri River near Kansas City and ends in St. Charles County every summer. Top, right: Missouri American Water s community education program focuses on environmental issues. Below: A photograph from the early 1900s of the construction of Illinois American Water s original water intake on the Mississippi River. That is the City of St. Louis in the background, across the Mississippi River. B U I L D I N G A G R E A T E R S T. L O U I S 2 8 1

283 Top: An aerial view of Illinois American Water s water treatment plant in East St. Louis in The original plant still provides water to most of Southwestern Illinois. Above: Illinois American Water employees install a pipe in the French Village area of East St. Louis in the 1940s. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 282 (Metro East) and Alton Districts, the company has operating districts in Peoria, Pekin, Lincoln, Champaign, Sterling, Streator, Pontiac, Cairo, South Beloit and Chicago Metro. Illinois American Water is the main regional water provider in Southwest Illinois. The company s Interurban District includes the Metro East region, including three direct service communities: Belleville, East St. Louis and Granite City. The district serves a population of about 250,000 persons in Metro East. The company also provides water to several communities on a wholesale (sale-for-resale) basis, including O Fallon, Caseyville, Waterloo, Millstadt, Columbia, Scott Air Force base and Bond Madison Water Company, as well as many large industrial customers in the Sauget and Granite City areas. Two water treatment facilities are located in the Interurban District: East St. Louis and Granite City. Both treatment facilities are located on the Mississippi River, the source of water for customers on the east side. The East St. Louis Treatment Plant was built in 1886 to provide potable water in the East St. Louis area. Over the next century, the water treatment plant grew to become a regional plant serving the majority of Southwest Illinois. A new Alton District Treatment Facility went into service in December 2000, replacing an old facility that was built in the 1890s and flooded often, most recently in Before the new Alton plant went online, the company wanted to make sure local customers had input by conducting a taste test. Several prominent members of the community, including the mayor, were asked to participate in a formal taste test in which they were asked to taste water treated and delivered from the old plant and water samples from the new plant. Overwhelmingly, the participants voted that the new plant had better water than the old plant. The East St. Louis, Granite City and Alton Treatment Plants have received awards from the national Partnership for Safe Water program, a voluntary initiative developed by EPA and other water organizations to recognize community water suppliers that consistently achieve water treatment standards that surpass EPA quality standards. As a member of the program, water utilities pledge to continually improve their treatment operations and undergo a rigorous peer review process. We focus on delivering high-quality, reliable water and wastewater services to our customers, comments Karla Olson Teasley, president of Illinois American Water. We are caretakers of water, life s most essential resource, and we take our role very seriously. Corporate offices for Illinois American Water are located in west Belleville. A M E R I C A N W A T E R American Water, the parent company of Missouri American Water and Illinois American Water, is the largest publicly traded water and wastewater utility company in the United States. American Water was founded in 1886 as American Water Works & Guarantee in Pennsylvania. The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (AWK) and is headquartered in Voorhees, New Jersey. American Water, through its subsidiaries, provides high quality water and wastewater services to approximately 14 million people in more than thirty states, as well as parts of Canada. The company provides service to residential homes, businesses and municipalities through its regulated and marketbased business. American Water has a strong presence in the St. Louis region. The company s national customer service center is located in Alton, Illinois and a national quality control and research laboratory in Belleville, Illinois. In 2001 a formal ribbon cutting celebrated the opening of the company s new national Customer Service Center at New Alton Center Business Park in downtown Alton. The Alton site was

284 chosen after a national search by American Water of areas served by the company. American Water has more than 1,500 employees in the St. Louis region, from laborers to scientists to accountants to engineers to attorneys to meter readers. Fifty-one percent of all American Water employees are members of unions, notes Nick Rowe, senior vice president for the Central Division. Both Illinois American Water and Missouri American Water have legacies as strong union employees in the Greater St. Louis region. Our people union and non-union work hard each day and take seriously the responsibility of providing water and wastewater service to communities and their residents, large and small. Both Illinois American Water and Missouri American Water are community partners in their respective service areas. The company s core focus is education, environment and economic development and stability. American Water holds two national employee-giving campaigns annually, one for United Way and one for Water for People. The national American Water Charitable Foundation seeks to proactively engage with community partners and strategically invests it resources in order to empower American Water employees to make a positive difference in their communities. The biggest challenge facing the water and wastewater industry today is balancing the critical need to update and invest in its infrastructure with sensitivity to rising cost for customers. The EPA estimates that $384 billion will be needed by 2030 to upgrade the nation s water and wastewater infrastructure. Many of the underground water lines and pipes are fifty to 100 years old and need to be replaced. Nationally, American Water invests $800 million to $1 billion per year on water and wastewater infrastructure, including pipes, pumps, filters, meters, and treatment facilities upgrades. In the St. Louis Region, Missouri American Water and Illinois American Water continue to take a proactive approach to water infrastructure improvements, in balance with customer rates. Between the two states, approximately $100 million or more is invested annually in the St. Louis region s water infrastructure. Water is essential to life and to regional economic development. The St. Louis region is fortunate to have plentiful and abundant sources of water from the Mississippi, Missouri and Meramec Rivers. The rivers have been essential to the region s settlement and development and will be a key to future growth and development. Dependable, reliable and plentiful water supports and attracts economic growth and development, business/industry relocations and expansion and new business startups. Missouri American Water and Illinois American Water are committed to providing top quality water and wastewater services for the decades ahead. Above: In August 1993 the old Alton Water Treatment Plant was flooded and water service was interrupted for several days. In December 2000 a new Alton District Treatment Facility went into service and replaced the old facility, which had been built in the 1890s. The new plant was built on the bluffs, high above flood levels. Below: American Water s national water testing laboratory is located in Belleville, Illinois. The national lab tests water samples from many states and is considered one of the industry's leading waterbased laboratories. B U I L D I N G A G R E A T E R S T. L O U I S 2 8 3

285 CIC GROUP, INC. Left: John Nooter Boiler Works (original company name) was founded in From humble beginnings riveting and repairing tanks on the St. Louis riverfront serving customers within a day s horsedrawn wagon trip of the shop, the company has grown to see sales and product shipments from multiple locations, and expand around the globe with annual revenues exceeding one billion dollars. During World War II, John Nooter Boiler Works earned the Army-Navy E Award for Excellence in the production of equipment used in the manufacture of penicillin, synthetic rubber, gasoline, and explosives. Right: Located on seventy-five acres bordering south of downtown St. Louis, Nooter Corporation operated (for more than a century) one of the world s largest custom steel and alloy plate fabrication/machine shops supplying customers with the highest quality processing equipment and services available. Many leading-edge metal working technologies, welding procedures and project execution skill sets were pioneered to meet customer s needs. Among Nooter s high profile projects were construction of vessels used to manufacture the new polio vaccine and the first nuclear reactor. Much of this expertise has been integrated into sister companies to accommodate reorganization and growth of CIC Group. Pictured is an aerial view of Nooter s office, shop and yards. For more than 115 years, CIC Group, Inc. has operated diverse commercial and industrial businesses from its headquarters in St. Louis, earning worldwide industry respect and recognition for best in class products, services, safety results, and quality of work supplied. CIC s 1500 employees are engineers and designers, constructors, laborers, entrepreneurs, project managers and business operators with both blue collar and white collar skills serving many power, refining, chemical, printing, and specialty materials markets. The culture at CIC Group challenges every worker to carry out all aspects of their jobs with excellence, while at the same time management commits to providing them with the tools and guidance to make that possible. Words like integrity, safety, service, respect, excellence, trust, family, prudent risk, and opportunistic only begin to describe CIC s cultural values. Twenty separate businesses operate under the auspices of seven major subsidiaries delivering core competencies in project management and execution, constructability solutions, engineering and heat transfer design, welding and metallurgy, and heavy rigging and lifting all to add value in meeting customers needs. CIC Group, as the holding company, provides leadership, services, and resources so the family of companies can achieve leading positions in targeted domestic and global markets and pursues new business opportunities. Nooter Construction Company provides capital project, major equipment erection, pressure vessel repair, and turnaround/outage union contractor services for heavy industrial customers. Regional offices in Philadelphia, Toledo (RMF), and Chicago (AMEX) allow for quick servicing at customers plants/refineries. Delta Nooter, Inc., performs mechanical heat exchanger cleaning and maintenance services. Wyatt Field Service Company and WFS Construction Company are open shop construction and turnaround service contractors serving refining and petrochemical industries. RJTaylor-Wyatt, LLC, serves natural gas pipeline, gathering system, and separating station businesses. Nooter/Eriksen, Inc. is a world leader in design and supply of natural circulation heat recovery steam generators for combined cycle power plants and custom designed heat recovery systems. It operates from a main office in St. Louis, from remote sales/service offices in Korea, Thailand, Spain and Dubai, and through a full-service sales, design and supply subsidiary in Italy, Nooter/Eriksen S.r.l. Technology licensees in Canada, China, India, Korea, Mexico, Poland, Turkey, and Russia and manufacturing partners around the globe support deliveries of Nooter Eriksen s equipment. St. Louis Metallizing Company is a fullservice metallic and ceramic coatings thermal spray and finishing shop. It provides expertise and production facilities for preparation, application, and finishing of parts for aerospace, power, chemical, printing, mining, and pulp and paper customers. ArcMelt Company, LC manufactures and distributes specialty thermal spray and welding materials used to protect equipment in corrosion, abrasion, and high temperature oxidation service environments. ArcMelt materials have proven to be the best solution against corrosion and erosion problems caused by the severe operating environments inside trash-to-energy boilers. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 284

286 Megamet Solid Metals, Inc. provides custom metal injection molding solutions for small, intricate, engineered components made from carbon and alloy steels as low cost, high quality alternatives to machining and casting processes. Parts are supplied to the food processing, commercial printing, sensor and control, medical instrument, aerospace, defense, and firearm industries. SPSI Company fabricates complex, high and low pressure piping for power, water treatment, chemical and petroleum processing, and nuclear applications. SPSI manages a state approved apprentice training program to teach piping fit-up and welding skills to supply tradesmen to industry. Pressline Services, Inc., provides designs, parts, and services to newspaper customers to rebuild pressroom equipment, reconfigure print formats, and modernize controls and instrumentation on printing presses partnering to limit newsprint consumption, eliminate waste, and introduce alternative solutions that further improve pressroom operations to save cost. Pressline has completed major press upgrades for two local St. Louis papers, the St. Louis Post Dispatch and the Missourian. Superior Corporate Travel, Inc., provides travel services to all CIC Group businesses, including purchasing domestic and international airline tickets, making hotel and car rental reservations, and facilitating meetings. CIC Group s foundation for daily activities is rooted in a commitment to honesty in everything it does, the safety and wellbeing of its employees, and a responsibility to community and environment. Much success comes, additionally, from attracting, retaining, and professionally developing workers who are technically capable, fit culturally, and have potential to advance CIC Group s initiatives and values. This important employee human capital is energized to identify and create opportunities for sustainability and innovation with customers so CIC Group can achieve its vision to be our customers preferred choice! CIC Group s portfolio of companies is more numerous, more diversified, and more capable to create value for its employee stockholders than ever before; the Group looks forward with confidence and determination to build on a 115 year history of success. Above: Refinery upgrades, to process heavier crudes, will produce cleaner fuels and feed stocks for countless commodities from plastics to fertilizers for distribution into the marketplace. Here, a six coke drum derrick lift (1,545 tons) is completed as part of a turnaround change-out to new, larger 29 feet diameter by 112 feet high cokers weighing 435 tons each. Below: Because of plentiful gas supplies, low carbon emissions, economical designs and installations, abilities to provide base load power, as well as ramp-up and down quickly in response to varying demand, natural gas power generation provides excellent solutions to meet future power growth needs. Pictured is 1 of 9 N/E Heat Recovery Steam Generators installed at this USA s largest, clean emission, gas fired combined cycle power plant operating at 3,750 megawatts (enough to power three million family homes). B U I L D I N G A G R E A T E R S T. L O U I S 2 8 5

287 MCCARTHY BUILDING COMPANIES, INC. Above: McCarthy s presence in downtown can be seen in this Google Maps photo. Bottom, left: A group of McCarthy workers in the 1930s. Bottom, right: The complicated parabolic form and intricate specifications of the Priory Chapel helped established McCarthy s reputation as a skilled builder with creative solutions. For nearly a century, McCarthy has called St. Louis home while earning a national reputation as a true builder. McCarthy got its start in 1864 when Irish immigrant Timothy McCarthy founded a small lumber and construction company in Ann Arbor, Michigan. From the beginning, McCarthy focused on meeting each customer s needs with integrity, delivering the highest quality results, and fostering those with the passion to build. Those simple principles have served the company well as McCarthy has grown to be one of the top ten builders in America with more than 2,600 employees and annual revenues of more than $3 billion. It all traces back to Timothy and his unique talents as a builder. Timothy and his wife had ten children. Two of them, John W. and Timothy, Jr., were taught the carpentry trade. A third son, Charles, became a bricklayer. They all shared a passion for building. In 1890, John fell in love with Hannah Bently and followed her to Farmington, Missouri when her family moved there. The two were married and John continued the building tradition. By 1903, John had helped build the Administration Building at State Hospital Number 4, a structure still in use today. Though headquartered in Farmington, John found work in St. Louis, which enjoyed a reputation as a thriving, modern city. When St. Louis hosted the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904, nearly 20 million visitors descended on the city, sparking a building boom that John was eager to be a part of; so he sent for his brothers, Timothy, Jr., and Charles, who relocated from Ann Arbor to St. Louis. On March 16, 1907, the brothers incorporated their new business, McCarthy Construction Company. McCarthy began building commercial and government structures throughout Missouri. The willingness to take risks and pursue far-flung projects led them to their most distant contract when they built the Missouri Building at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 286

288 In 1917 the company moved to St. Louis business district, opening its doors at 604½ Chestnut Street, where the business continued to grow, causing a move once again in 1925 as they took over the Roosevelt Hotel building at 4908 Delmar. A year later, they changed the name of the company to McCarthy Brothers Construction Company. McCarthy continued to expand during the 1930s depression by taking on federal projects. During World War II, the company won government contracts in the Panama Canal Zone and an air base at Coco Solo. The firm diversified in 1951 purchasing the Rock Hill Quarries Company, an aggregate plant in St. Louis that would later become the site of McCarthy s current corporate headquarters. By the 1960s, McCarthy-built structures could be found throughout the St. Louis region from floodwalls on the city s riverfront to the seventeen-story Queeny Tower at Barnes Hospital. Particularly important during this era was the construction of Priory Chapel, a unique structure that firmly established the company s reputation as a skilled and innovative builder, willing to take on the most difficult challenges. In the 1970s, McCarthy was deeply involved in several major projects that helped rebuild the St. Louis skyline, including Boatmen s Bank Tower, the Spanish Pavilion, and the new headquarters for General American Life Insurance Company. In 1982, the leading national construction magazine Engineering News-Record listed McCarthy as the St. Louis-area s most successful contractor, with major projects ranging from airport construction and bridge and highway work to construction for major St. Louis corporations and institutions. The company s reputation for building excellence had spread across the country as McCarthy had 275 employees working in thirty-two different states. In the 1980s and 1990s, McCarthy became a national leader in building for the healthcare, bio-pharmaceutical, parking, higher education, and manufacturing markets. Moving into the twenty-first century, McCarthy also became a national leader in construction of complex research facilities, K-12 education and industrial projects. It recently formed an independent company, MC Industrial that specializes in the latter. We love to hear people wonder how a difficult thing might be done, and then go figure out an innovative way to solve the problem, said Mike Bolen, who was named CEO in 2000, becoming the first chief executive without the last name of McCarthy. That is what builders do. In April 2002, 138 years of McCarthy family ownership ended when Mike McCarthy sold his majority interest in the company to McCarthy employees who now have a personal stake in the company s future. This ownership culture creates an empowering environment directed toward providing clients with innovative, value-oriented solutions. We operate like a family learning from each other, overcoming challenges and working together to achieve success for clients, says Derek Glanvill, president and COO of McCarthy. McCarthy is proud of its St. Louis roots, proud of the more than $9 billion of work it has done in the metro area and the nearly $1 billion in work currently under contract in the region. Year after year, the company has been recognized as a Best Place to Work in both St. Louis and across the country. McCarthy s never-ending goal is to be the Best Builder in America. There s no better place to make that happen than St. Louis, says Glanvill. Above: Across the United States, McCarthy is proud to build buildings that make a difference in healthcare, technology, government or higher education just to name a few categories. This is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. Below: Almost anywhere you go in St. Louis, it is likely you will find a McCarthy-built structure nearby. This is the Ridgeway Center at the Missouri Botanical Garden. B U I L D I N G A G R E A T E R S T. L O U I S 2 8 7

289 ASSOCIATED GENERAL CONTRACTORS Above: BJC HealthCare, Barnes-Jewish Center for Outpatient Health. Contractor: Tarlton/Interface Joint Venture. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF JOHN LANGHOLZ AND CHRISTNER, INC. Below: Stan Musial Veterans Memorial Bridge. Contractor: MTA. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION. OF ST. LOUIS Associated General Contractors of St. Louis, the leading voice of the St. Louis area s construction industry, represents construction contractors and industry related companies dedicated to skill, integrity and responsibility. AGC of St. Louis serves its members with a wide array of services to help build their businesses, including governmental advocacy, labor relations services, training and education and networking opportunities. AGC of St. Louis was founded in 1949, an era when the commercial construction industry was dealing with the post-world War II building boom and needed better organized representation. This included a more coordinated approach to negotiations with labor unions, better governmental representation, and the need for development of a trained workforce. AGC of St. Louis was formed through a merger of the Master Builders Association, a building contractor s organization founded in 1903, and the Municipal Contractors Association, which had been formed in Together, these two organizations represented building contractors and highway/infrastructure contractors respectively. The merger of the two associations and affiliation with Associated General Contractors of America created a more efficient and productive organization to serve the needs of St. Louis contractors. In an effort to recruit and train much needed skilled workers for the construction industry, AGC of St. Louis founded the Construction Training Advancement Foundation in 1963 to fund, build and operate the Construction Training School. This was one of the first multicraft apprenticeship training centers in the nation and provided apprenticeship programs for carpenters, cement masons, ironworkers, laborers and operating engineers. AGC of St. Louis also started the first construction oriented charter high school in the U.S., the Construction Careers Center. This community activity has helped hundreds of young people to learn about construction career opportunities while earning a high school diploma. A vast majority of the students in this program are underprivileged and AGC of St. Louis has provided significant time and capital to support the Center. In addition, AGC of St. Louis founded and continues to operate one of the first local mobile safety van training programs, Operation SafeSite. This program provides on-site safety training on construction jobs throughout the St. Louis region. When labor jurisdictional issues were creating market problems for St. Louis, AGC of St. Louis was instrumental in formation of the PRIDE (Productivity and Responsibility Increase Development and Employment) H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 288

290 organization and continues to provide labor relations service today. AGC of St. Louis also started the first mentor-protégé program for minority contractors in St. Louis and provided support services for the Contractors Assistance Program in the City of St. Louis, providing project information and mentoring for start-up firms. AGC of St. Louis hosts the only credentialing center for Building Information Modeling (BIM) in the region, allowing local construction firms to train and certify their construction professionals in computer aided building modeling and construction techniques. Membership in AGC of St. Louis has grown with the marketplace and the association currently represents 400 member companies performing approximately $1.5 billion of commercial construction work in the St. Louis region. The organization has fifteen employees who work in the areas of governmental advocacy, safety, professional development, labor relations, inclusion services, and networking and information. Looking to the future, AGC of St. Louis is working to expand into new service areas as the construction marketplace changes. New training programs for BIM and Lean Construction are now taking hold. Services to help the community build a more inclusive business base and workforce are becoming more important as the demographics of the St. Louis region evolve. As the regulatory requirements for development and construction continue to become more complex, governmental advocacy is playing a larger role in the association s service model. As a member-driven organization, the members of AGC of St. Louis determine the direction of the association through the committees on which they serve and by the programs, policies, and priorities the committees recommend to the board of directors, composed entirely of members. The staff, led by President Len Toenjes, CAE, administers decisions made by the membership and board of directors. There are literally dozens of opportunities for contractors to network within the AGC of St. Louis and many members say that effective networking opportunities is the number one advantage of their membership. Membership also provides access to a national network of companies and an opportunity to exchange ideas and best practices, and to discuss problems and solutions. For those in the construction industry, the AGC of St. Louis offers the perfect environment in which to build new business relationships and strengthen existing ones. This is why companies that use the resources of AGC seem to thrive and grow. They have greater abilities and more options to take advantage of emerging opportunities and industry trends. AGC of St. Louis is headquartered at 6330 Knox Industrial Drive in St. Louis. For more information, visit the website at Above: Three Sixty Rooftop Bar. Contractor: Paric Corporation. PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF DEBBIE FRANKE PHOTOGRAPHY, Below: Ameren LFGTE Plant. Contractor: Guarantee Electrical Company. B U I L D I N G A G R E A T E R S T. L O U I S 2 8 9

291 U.S. CUSTOM HOUSE AND POST OFFICE (OLD POST OFFICE) DEVELOPERS: THE DESCO GROUP TOP: PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF HEDRICH BLESSING. ABOVE: PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF KAREN ELSHOUT. AND DFC GROUP The U.S. Custom House and Post Office building in St. Louis is one of the most historically and architecturally significant buildings in America. The building was one of five grand U.S. Custom Houses built after the Civil War in America s fastest growing cities: St. Louis, Boston, Cincinnati, New York and Philadelphia. These masterpieces of design and construction were built to last, but by 1942, all but ours had been demolished. Alfred B. Mullett, Supervising Architect of the U.S. Treasury, designed this building in 1871, inspired by the Louvre in Paris. The only other surviving example of his work in the Second Empire style is the Old Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C. The building s construction used innovative heating and ventilation technologies, as well as elevators to move the people, mail, and gold (one of three national Sub-Treasuries occupied the lowest level). A moat surrounds the building, bringing light and air two floors below street level. Designed just after the Chicago fire of 1871, fireproofing was of utmost importance. Iron was used in place of wood throughout the building, which offered an added benefit of making exceptional decorative detailing affordable, where hand-carved details would have been cost prohibitive. Construction began in 1872, and the first of many challenges arose. Quicksand was revealed beneath the corner of 8th Street & Locust. Quick thinking gave a sound solution: 4,400 pine pilings and hundreds of cotton bales were forced into the mire, followed by an eight-foot-thick slab of concrete, forming a foundation so solid that 130 years later, no settlement cracking is found! The building s completion in 1884 brought a surge in traffic to the area, setting off a flurry of new developments. The new center of downtown, The New Post Office served as conduit for commerce and correspondence to and from all points west. The building was home to the following tenants: Federal 8th Circuit Court, covering ten states and four territories, and spanning 1,000 miles east to west U.S. Post Office Collector of Customs U.S. Secret Service U.S. Marshals Service Inspector of Steamboats Inspector of Lighthouses Inspector of Signal Service One of the building s best-known features is its monumental sculpture Peace and Vigilance by Daniel Chester French. It was one of his first public commissions (his later work includes the massive seated portrait of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.). Installed on the dome in 1882, Peace and Vigilance was removed for restoration in 1990; soon after, a cement H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 290

292 replica took its place on the dome. The restored original now graces the light-filled central atrium. When the U.S. Post Office was relocated to a newer building in 1935, this building became known as the Old Post Office. After 1935 the building fell into disuse and disrepair over subsequent years. St. Louis preservation efforts in saved the building from demolition under the Federal Government s watch. As a result of those efforts, it was designated a National Historic Landmark. However, the building was practically vacant by the mid-1990s. It stood like a hulking shadow of unfulfilled promise a hole in the heart of downtown. In 1998, Downtown NOW! presented a detailed action plan to revive the Old Post Office and the entire district, which at the time included over 2.5 million vacant square feet on Old Post Office Square. Webster University expressed interest in the building for its downtown campus, and The DESCO Group and DFC Group joined forces to redevelop it through a public-private partnership, acknowledging the importance of a solution to the parking needs of the entire area to empower its development, as well as other surrounding historic buildings. With Webster University and the Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District as the building s anchor tenants, the redevelopment was off and running a uniquely collaborative effort. With the support and cooperation of federal, state and city government officials, and private and corporate contributors, the restoration of the Old Post Office ($47 million) and creation of the new Ninth Street Garage ($33 million) were completed in time to rededicate the building on March 15, 2006 (122 years to the day since General William Sherman had presided over the original dedication). The building is 100 percent leased and restored. Today s tenants include: Webster University St. Louis Business Journal St. Louis Public Library FOCUS St. Louis Teach For America Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District Missouri Attorney General Missouri Secretary of State Missouri Department of Health & Senior Services Missouri Arts Council Culinaria, a Schnucks urban market focused on fine food and a unique culinary experience, is situated across the street from the Old Post Office at the Ninth Street Garage street level. Following completion of the Old Post Office, over $300 million was immediately invested in surrounding buildings and outdoor plaza. That scale of investment continues today, as plans for the Arcade and Chemical Buildings (over 700,000 total square feet) are underway. The Old Post Office was not only restored to its original beauty, but to its usefulness and power as a catalyst for further development of downtown St. Louis. ABOVE: PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF KAREN ELSHOUT. BELOW: PHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF ALISE O BRIEN. B U I L D I N G A G R E A T E R S T. L O U I S 2 9 1

293 SHEET METAL WORKERS LOCAL UNION 36 The development of the sheet metal industry owes much to a legacy of craftsmanship and trade union commitment began by coppersmiths, braziers and tin plate workers in Great Britain. The roots of the trade and the organization of craftsmen go back more than five centuries. The second half of the nineteenth century saw the dream of a national union in the United States become a reality. The formation of the General Tramping Union of Tin Plate Workers in 1861 evolved eventually into the Amalgamated Sheet Metal Workers International Association. Sheet Metal Workers Local 36 received its first charter from the International Association on January 1, The first recorded wages for local sheet metal workers was 37½ cents an hour in Since it was founded 123 years ago, Local 36 has been devoted to building value for the area s signatory contractors. Encompassing three-fourths of the State of Missouri, as well as all of Arkansas, Local 36 has a membership of more than 3,000 and serves more than 180 contractors. Local 36 encompasses the greater St. Louis metropolitan area, Eastern Missouri, and Columbia, Jefferson City, and Springfield, Missouri. Local 36 is an affiliate of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation (SMART) workers with membership in the AFL-CIO and the Canadian Labor Council. Local 36 s elected officials help members in obtaining employment and managing daily operations, including the important role of recruiting new members and organizing contractors. Representatives cooperate closely with the Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee in providing education and promoting safety. The foundation of Local 36 is built on six cornerstones: integrity, value, flexibility, respect, teamwork and accountability for results. The skilled craftsmen of Local 36 touch a project at every point of construction and play a major role in regional development. Their skills cut across all trades as members fabricate, install, manufacture and service residential HVAC systems, are integrally involved with commercial and industrial projects, and work with architectural sheet metal applications and specialty sheet metal products. Sheet metal is the only craft on a job site that still measures, fabricates, and installs and all working members are required to have a good working knowledge of Algebra, Geometry and Trigonometry. All our members have to be available to go out and measure a project and understand what s going on, comments President and Business Manager of Local 36 David Zimmermann. St. Louis area members are required to have city and county mechanical licenses, which require completion of twelve PEU (Professional Education Units) of industry training each year. To keep up-to-date with industry practices and stay on the cutting edge of technology, apprentices receive 10,000 hours of training with 160 hours of classroom instruction a year for four years. Recognizing the need for maintaining a skilled and educated workforce, Local 36 and its contractor partners, SMACNA/St. Louis, invest more than $2 million in training annually through a Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 292

294 In 2012, Local 36 invested $23 million in a new facility to serve all its training, benefit and administrative operations. The facilities, at 2319 Chouteau Avenue in St. Louis, brought together the administrative and benefit offices that were formerly located on South Ewing Avenue and a training center on Spruce Street. The new facility is built on the site of an old boiler factory, which had been vacant for decades and represents a tremendous contribution to the revitalization of an area on the edge of downtown St. Louis. The project was also an opportunity to showcase the architecture, skills, craftsmanship and technology used by sheet metal workers. The 96,000 square foot building utilizes the region s most advanced sustainable technology and energy efficient procedures and practices. It is the region s highest rated LEED Platinum Building, receiving sixty-two out of a possible sixty-nine LEED points for sustainable technology and energy efficient products and practices by the U.S. Green Building Council. Among the building s many energy conservation features are twelve different HVAC systems including solar, wind turbine, geothermal and conventional. The facility in the new building is a working educational resource with state-of-the-art technology and advanced systems designed to train thousands of craftsmen in skills that will have a far-reaching economic impact. The facility has been designated as one of only eight centers in the nation that can provide Testing Adjusting Balancing Bureau (TABB) certifications developed by the National Energy Management Institute Committee (NEMIC). Technology is improving all the time and with this new training facility we ve committed 56,000 square feet to state-ofthe-art training to keep our membership on the cutting edge of technology so we can produce the best craftsmen in the industry, says Zimmermann. Local 36 operates with a staff of about forty people, including thirty in St. Louis. Members of Local 36 contribute more than $200,000 each year to such charitable organizations as St. Vincent Home for Children, Habitat for Humanity, Rebuilding Together, United Way and the American Red Cross. SMART Local 36 has a strong tradition of striving to be the best at whatever it sets out to do. Members embrace new technology and endeavor to be on the cutting edge of changes and advancements in its trade. With a mission statement focused on integrity, value, and flexibility, Local 36 will continue to build strong relationships between its members and the contractors they serve, and promote a work environment that invites respect and rewards excellence. B U I L D I N G A G R E A T E R S T. L O U I S 2 9 3

295 WATLOW ELECTRIC MANUFACTURING COMPANY Right: Since 1922, Watlow has been owned and operated by the Desloge family. Clockwise, starting from the top right, leaders have included founder Louis, Sr., (seated); sons George and Louis, Jr.; and grandson and current Chairman and CEO Peter Desloge. Below: Watlow s trade show display from the 1950s. George Desloge and fellow engineers invented many innovative low wattage electric heaters including the groundbreaking FIREROD cartridge heater, still in use today. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 294 A passion for enriching lives through inspired innovation has energized the evolution and growth of Watlow Electric Manufacturing Company since Louis Desloge, Sr., first began manufacturing electrical heating elements in 1922 for shoe manufacturers. From its original space at 1409 Pine Street, the St. Louis-based company has grown to rank among the world s largest thermal engineering companies, delivering solutions and technical support globally. Today, Watlow employs more than 2,000 team members (400 in St. Louis), operates 12 manufacturing facilities and technology centers in the U.S. and around the world, and serves clients from sales offices in 15 countries. Watlow now applies its innovative thermal technologies to various applications for customers in key industries all over the world. For example, Watlow s temperature sensing solutions help cut harmful emissions from diesel engines. The company s unique heating devices are applied in numerous medical applications to increase patient comfort and make care more accessible. Watlow s industry-leading solutions are used in many processes to help make energy production cleaner and more affordable. The company s advanced solutions are improving thermal management of semiconductor manufacturing which, in turn, creates faster, smaller, less expensive and more powerful computer chips. Watlow team members are committed to being the best at applying their collective knowledge of heaters, sensors and controllers to create a positive impact for Watlow customers and for the world. The name Watlow was coined by Desloge, Sr., to express the low wattage custom heating elements he manufactured, an idea decades ahead of its time. He was a classic entrepreneur with technical prowess in electrical engineering. The new company soon was developing electric heaters for brick presses that replaced the more costly steam process. Consumer products followed in 1924, then custom heating units to fit the dies used in making hats. By 1931, Watlow was providing customers with electric immersion heaters to replace steam pipes and flammable gas. Watlow relocated to its first bona fide factory near downtown St. Louis in Growth necessitated moves to new manufacturing facilities in St. Louis County. The first in Pagedale (1952) was followed in 1961 by a new facility at Lackland Road, where groundbreaking product innovation spurred several expansions. The world headquarters remains there today. The founder s search for a successor led him to his son, George Burdeau Desloge. After service in the U.S. Navy as a Catapult Officer during World War II, George joined Watlow as a design engineer in With a fervor sustained by his drive to be the best in meeting customers needs, he expressed simplicity and reliability in his product design work. By 1950, George had invented the narrow band cylindrical heater with its patented clamping strap for use in plastics processing. In 1954, he invented and later patented the FIREROD cartridge heater that outperformed all competing heaters by a factor of at least ten times. He remained a prolific inventor throughout his career.

296 He was joined at Watlow in 1963 by his brother, Louis Desloge, Jr., in the role of sales manager. With a degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University, Louis, Jr., added strong sales management expertise. When their father retired in 1965, George became president of Watlow, focused on engineering, operations and innovation. Louis, Jr., was promoted to vice president, committed to developing an exemplary global sales organization. Together, they built a team that was prepared and inspired to be the best in solving problems with Watlow products. Their joint efforts shaped Watlow into a total thermal solutions provider. Over their thirty year span of joint leadership (1963 to 1993), Watlow grew into a global provider known for innovative thermal solutions as annual revenues skyrocketed from $1.8 million in 1963 to $143.6 million in From this position of strength, Watlow was led by President Gary Neal beginning in 1991 while George remained chairman and Louis, Jr., served as vice chairman. Growth through the 1990s was accomplished via strategic acquisitions and global expansion in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Third-generation family members were attracted to Watlow in the early 1990s. Peter, a mechanical engineer blessed with the hands-on style, strong inventive streak and drive to develop client-focused solutions expressed by his father, George, joined Watlow in His cousin, Steve Desloge, brought complementary strengths upon becoming chief financial officer in In 1999, Peter became chairman of the board, and he was joined on the board in 2001 by Steve, who today oversees IT and legal operations as well. They were joined by Tom LaMantia, who served as chief operating officer from and as president of Watlow starting in Under Peter s leadership, the company adopted the Watlow Way in This instilled a continuous improvement and people-centric culture worldwide. The firm excels in solving some of the world s most challenging thermal problems and serving humanity via its market focus discipline, a strategy that establishes deep roots in particular industries to create much richer value for customers. Today, the company holds more than 200 patents and annual sales have grown to $330 million. Watlow s focus on product leadership that meets the thermal needs of the world s leading companies continues to fuel its growth and success, as it has since Left: Watlow solves some of the world s most challenging thermal problems with unique thermal technologies serving key industries. In Watlow s Class 10,000 cleanroom, products are tested before delivery to customers in the semiconductor industry. Below: Today, Watlow develops and manufactures complete thermal systems including industrial heaters, temperature sensors, wire and cable, temperature controllers, power controllers and supporting software. B U I L D I N G A G R E A T E R S T. L O U I S 2 9 5

297 MONSANTO The vast majority of our nation s agricultural production takes place within a five-hundredmile radius of St. Louis. Supported by tens of thousands of farmers and livestock producers, this work is essential to meeting the demands of our country as well as a world population that is growing by 200,000 people daily. The challenges facing agriculture and food production are staggering. Collectively, the agriculture industry, all production practices and literally millions of farmers and agriculture producers around the world will be called on to do more to meet the growing demands for more food, feed, energy, and water. These global demands mean that the companies that focus on serving farmers must also focus on discovering and delivering innovations that can help them farm better each year. This is central to the work of St. Louis leading agricultural business, Monsanto Company. The Monsanto name has a long history in business, and in the St. Louis area, with its origin dating back to However, the Monsanto Company that exists today was incorporated in 2000 and is focused solely on agriculture. In 2002, following a period of mergers and reorganizations, its old corporate parent spun off Monsanto Company, a move that established it as an independent, publicly held agricultural company. Since that time, the agriculture company has realized strong financial performance with year-after-year growth of more than twenty percent for eight of the last ten years. Today, Monsanto focuses on helping farmers meet the demands of our society and planet. Monsanto applies modern-day agriculture sciences such as plant-breeding, biotechnology and other agronomic practices to develop and support products for farmers around the world. This work helps enable both small-holder and large-scale farmers to produce more from their land while conserving more of our world s natural resources such as water and energy. The company sells corn, soybean, cotton and vegetable seeds as well as crop protection products to farmers around the world. Seed offerings are marketed through national and regional brands that include DEKALB, Asgrow, Deltapine, Channel, Seminis and DeRuiter. Monsanto also broadly licenses its technologies to approximately 160 independent seed companies and distributors so farmers can access the products they prefer in the brands H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 296

298 they prefer. The company s portfolio also includes leading brands such as Roundup herbicides, which have a long history of safe use in more than one hundred countries. Monsanto is Proud to be St. Louis Grown and operates its world headquarters in Creve Coeur, Missouri, and its global research headquarters in Chesterfield, Missouri. The company employs more than 23,000 people in 60 countries around the world, including more than 4,000 in the St. Louis region. Monsanto recently announced that it will invest $400 million to expand its research headquarters in Chesterfield, a move that will create 675 new jobs over the next three years. In 2013, Monsanto spent $1.5 billion on research and development (R&D) with primary focus on improving yield through crop breeding, biotechnology and improved agronomic practices. More than twenty percent of the company s employees are involved in R&D to improve crops such as corn, soybeans, cotton, canola, alfalfa, sugarcane, wheat, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, onions, melons, broccoli, and lettuce. The company also partners with many leaders throughout the public/private sector, including more than 3,900 technology-related agreements with public and private institutions around the world. As an agricultural company, Monsanto recognizes that the company and its employees can make an important contribution to improving the productivity and environmental footprint of food production and the company is committed to doing just that. In 2008, Monsanto was one of the first companies to set a series of goals to make agriculture more sustainable. The company is committed to the development improved seeds by 2030 that will double yields from 2000 levels for corn, soybeans, cotton and spring-planted canola; and support efforts to use one-third fewer key resources such as land, water and energy per unit of output. Monsanto is not only one of the region s top employers, but is also routinely recognized as one of the best companies for which to work. The company has been named one of the World s Top 25 Best Multinational Workplaces, and in 2013 was named one of the Top 100 Best Corporate Citizens by Corporate Responsibility Magazine. The company was also ranked among the Top 100 Sustainable Companies by Corporate Knights Capital, a leading index recognizing sustainability in business. Monsanto continues to focus on strengthening the communities where its employees live and work. The company provides basic education support designed to improve education in farming communities throughout the world through support of schools, libraries, science centers and training programs. The company s philanthropic work includes support of nonprofit organizations that help in such areas as food security, sanitation, and access to clean water, public safety and other local needs. In 2013 the company s philanthropic arm, Monsanto Fund, contributed more than $24 million to support communities around the world. Monsanto is proud to support farmers and farming communities throughout the world. The problems facing agriculture and our world are common, but the solutions that can make a difference are as varied as the many regions where the company s employees live and work. B U I L D I N G A G R E A T E R S T. L O U I S 2 9 7

299 PARIC CORPORATION PARIC Corporation is the leading general contractor, construction manager and designbuild firm in the St. Louis region and is one of the largest privately held companies in the Midwest. The company specializes in senior living, healthcare, historic renovation, hospitality and multifamily residential, public and academic projects, as well as interior specialty projects. PARIC manages construction projects for long-term and repeat clients ranging from universities and banks to hotels, restaurants and warehouses. PARIC Corporation was founded in April 1979 as a partnership between Paul J. McKee, Jr., and his wife, Midge, and Richard F. Jordan and his wife, LaVona. After much discussion and brainstorming, the partners agreed on a clear vision for a unique type of construction company specializing in design-build projects. The name PARIC is an acronym for the combination of the first names of the company founders: Paul and Rick s company. Paul and Rick began business in a small, 1,200 square foot office in the Westport area of St. Louis with the credo of People Make the Difference. During the early days, the founders families took turns cleaning the company office and warehouse with help from their children, one of whom, Joe McKee is PARIC s owner and CEO today. When they started PARIC, Paul and Rick made a decision to invest heavily in information technology rather than construction equipment. Accurate, timely cost and scheduling information was considered far more important to project owners than who owned the backhoe. This was in the very early days of computer technology and all programs had to be developed in-house. When Compac introduced the first portable computer, PARIC bought them for its major development customers, equipping them with PARIC s proprietary proforma program. This made it possible for customers to expeditiously analyze many project variations without having to wait on analysis by their accountants. This accelerated the preconstruction process while lowering project risks for customers. This approach also made PARIC the preferred contractor for many developers. Paul and Rick s entrepreneurial, values-based business model took hold quickly and, in 1980, PARIC built its first office building. By 1982 the firm had developed relationships with many major national corporations and many of the region s most successful commercial developers. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 298

300 In 1995, PARIC was featured in a cover story in Building Design and Construction magazine, which heralded the company s unique processes and systems based on the use of information technology. Paul and Rick believed that the integration of accurate, easily accessible designcost and scheduling information would be a valuable tool for developers and facility owners when planning a project. As PARIC moved into the twentyfirst century, the company was hailed by the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association as the champions of the design/build model. Meanwhile, company leadership was transitioning to the next generation, with Joe becoming president and Greg Frick chief operating officer. Joe grew up in the business, beginning as a laborer while still in high school and working later as a carpenter, assistant estimator and assistant project engineer. He joined the company full-time in 1993 after graduating from Vanderbilt University and earning a master s degree in business administration from Washington University. In 2002, Joe purchased the company from Paul and Rick and moved the headquarters to O Fallon. That same year, PARIC cracked the Top 200 of the Engineering News-Record s Top 400 Contractors list, coming in at number 178. The company was also ranked as fiftieth among the largest design/build firms in America. Rather than going after a wide range of projects PARIC started to focus on a few key markets that showed the most opportunity for future growth. This niche focus allowed PARIC to become the experts for these key markets. Over the next ten years, PARIC would receive various accolades for projects in the region. From AGC Keystone Awards and CNR Regional Excellence Awards, to Best Practices Awards and various safety and quality awards. In 2012, PARIC embarked on a leadership transition that included the ascension of Keith Wolkoff to president and a move into a new headquarters location in St. Louis County. The year 2012 also brought the culmination of a thorough evaluation of the PARIC brand that led to an evolution of the brand strategy and a recommitment to the company s core values. The rebranding resulted in a complete redesign of visual identity, codification of PARIC s brand attributes and the slogan, Experience. Excellence. We work hard to take our services to the next level, comments Joe. We re very committed and intimately involved with our customers and, as such, become partners and deliver our services in a way that is simply unparalleled. During its thirty-five years in business, PARIC has worked to create a fulfilling work experience by offering a variety of benefits to its employees and creating a fulfilling, family-focused atmosphere. As a result, more than thirty percent of PARIC employees have remained with the company for more than ten years. In 2013, PARIC was named a finalist for Best Places To Work by the St. Louis Business Journal. One of PARIC s core values is enhancing the community. As part of that effort, PARIC encourages and recognizes the philanthropic efforts of its employees by making a contribution to a charity of the employee s choice. These organizations have included Habitat for Humanity, Stray Rescue, the National Children s Cancer Society, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and the United Way. As PARIC moves forward into the future it looks to continue the stable growth, while remembering where it got its start. This is clearly defined in the company s new brand promise of Building Excellence to Move our Community Forward. B U I L D I N G A G R E A T E R S T. L O U I S 2 9 9

301 HUNTER ENGINEERING COMPANY Right: Hunter s Bridgeton, Missouri international headquarters spans thirty acres. Below: Lee Hunter, Jr., founded Hunter Engineering Company by challenging conventional theories. Opposite, clockwise starting from the top: Hunter s patented HawkEye Elite alignment system is the No. 1 selling wheel aligner in the world. Hunter s commitment to product quality is unmatched. Prior to shipment, Hunter inspects 100 percent of products for performance and accuracy. Over 350 Hunter Service Representatives serve Hunter customers in North America. The Road Force Touch wheel balancer guides the technician with live 3D graphics. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 300 Founded in 1946, Hunter Engineering Company is the global leader in automotive service equipment. While Hunter is now known for its complete line of top-quality service equipment, the company began with a single breakthrough. In the 1930s, Washington University student Lee Hunter, Jr., became increasingly frustrated with car batteries of the era, which frequently died and took days to recharge. Defying engineering experts, Hunter designed the Kwikurent the world s first quick-charge battery changer, reducing battery recharge time to hours. After returning from World War II, Hunter founded Hunter Engineering Company to concentrate on new automotive challenges. Today, Hunter Engineering designs computerized wheel alignment systems, lift racks, wheel balancers, brake lathes and inspection lane equipment for the world s top automotive manufacturers, including Volkswagen Audi, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Ford, Toyota and General Motors, as well as for leading service providers such as Goodyear, Firestone and Sears Automotive. Hunter s thirty acre Bridgeton campus hosts the largest research and development team in the automotive service equipment industry. Over seventy dedicated electrical, computer science and mechanical engineers develop solutions to the latest automotive problems. With over 100 patents in force today and growing, Hunter s engineering team earns close to one new patent per month. Beyond Hunter s lead manufacturing plant in Bridgeton, Hunter equipment is manufactured in four additional company plants in Mississippi. With products ranging from intricate circuit boards to 16,000 pound capacity alignment lifts, Hunter s plants produce a full line of automotive service equipment for shipment around the world. Hunter customers in North America are served by an industry-leading field organization of over 650 independent Sales and Service Representatives. Hunter Sales Representatives provide automotive dealers and independent shop owners with on-site

302 product demonstrations and sales support. Hunter Service Representatives provide same-day or next-day service to all Hunter customers. Regional training centers in forty-five locations help Hunter customers maximize their equipment investment with local, ASE-certified training. Growing demand for Hunter s products has led to a network of over 100 franchised distributors in more than ninety countries. Hunter also manages wholly owned subsidiaries in Canada, Germany and China to give auto manufacturers and large customers the same support found in the United States. Following Lee Hunter s commitment to innovation and progress, Hunter Engineering continues to provide revolutionary equipment to customers around the world. B U I L D I N G A G R E A T E R S T. L O U I S 3 0 1

303 AMERICAN RADIOLABELED CHEMICALS, INC. (ARC) Above: ARC s main building. Below: Some of ARC s employees at its thirty year anniversary party. Left to right, back row: Chang Wang (ARC Canada), Ajay Gupta (ARC India), Bary Stephenson, Jensen Estrada, Nick Rice, Phani Veeramachaneni, Donald J Lite III, and Janardhanam Selvasekaran. Left to right, front row: Jason Yu (Shin), Kristina Lafser, Subhash Bansal (ARC UK), Radhey Gupta, Surendra Gupta, Phil Korb, Kamal Das, Chandranan Vora, Sunil Gupta, and Salesh Gupta. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 302 Since its inception in 1983, American Radiolabeled Chemicals, Inc. (ARC) has established itself as one of the world s leading suppliers of high quality radiolabeled and unlabeled chemicals. ARC s 2014 catalog, the largest in the world, contains more than 5,000 radiolabeled and unlabeled chemicals for life science research. More than eighty-five percent of the products in the catalog are available exclusively through ARC. Through a network of distributors in more than twenty countries and its own offices in Canada, India, and the United Kingdom, ARC sells its products worldwide. As the name implies, radiochemicals are chemicals in which one or more atoms have been replaced with a radioactive isotope. These research tools are used for tracking pharmaceuticals and other compounds as they work their way through living things and are used for life science research by pharmaceutical industries and universities worldwide. The founder and president of ARC is Surendra Gupta who came to America from his native India in 1963 to earn his Ph.D. at Wayne State University (Detroit, Michigan) in He had already earned his Bachelors and Masters Degrees from Delhi University and his Master of Technology Degree from the Indian Institute of Technology (I.I.T.) in Mumbai. Surendra came to Wayne State on the recommendation of one of his professors from I.I.T. Two key events happened at Wayne State that would forever change Surendra s life: a dissertation topic focused on carbohydrate chemistry and meeting Karen, the woman who would eventually become his wife. After receiving his Ph.D. and completing research at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1974, Surendra applied to one of only two radioactive carbohydrate chemical companies in the world at the time, New England Nuclear Corporation (NEN) in Boston. Because of his unique specialization, he joined NEN as a group leader of seven chemists in the carbohydrate group. While working there, he gained immense knowledge of radioactive chemicals and how profitable they can be. In 1981, NEN was about to be acquired by Dupont, Surendra left NEN and joined Pathfinder Labs in St. Louis as a group leader involved not only in R&D and production of radiochemicals, but also marketing. When the company experienced financial difficulties during the 1983 recession, Surendra decided to start his own company. Surendra comes from a family of business owners and understands the importance of operating with a tight budget and debt-free.

304 Surendra and Karen started American Radiolabeled Chemicals, Inc. in 1983 with a SBA guaranteed loan of $60,000, which they were able to pay off within the first year. They were able to rent a small building at 4545 Shaw Avenue in St. Louis for $300 per month and acquired the necessary license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). They purchased most of the required lab equipment and supplies for $5,000 from Missouri Biochemical Labs operated in St. Louis by Masters and Johnson, the renowned sex therapists. ARC s first employee was a former colleague and friend who had vast experience in synthesizing radiochemicals and was able to set up the new labs. Due to the low cost of living, St. Louis was an ideal place to start a high-tech company at low cost. The production started in 1984 and the customer base began to increase as the word spread quickly about ARC. Some of the key customers of ARC were a group of neuroscientists at Washington University, who used ARC s products for brain mapping. They were also instrumental in spreading the word about ARC s high quality products at very low prices. In 1985, Surendra and Karen moved their company from downtown St. Louis to a 2,400 square foot building in St. Louis County, which was later annexed by Maryland Heights. In 2003, Maryland Heights redeveloped the area and offered ARC its own five-acre campus and street name (ARC Drive) where it has a 25,000 square foot office building and 10,000 square feet production facilities. Over the years, ARC has grown into a world leader by acquiring the inventories of several companies which closed their radiochemical divisions: Wizard Labs (Sacramento, California) radiochemical business and inventory in 2002, Tocris Cookson s (United Kingdom) radiochemical business and inventory in 2005, Sigma s (St. Louis, Missouri) radiochemical inventory in 2008, GE s radiochemical inventory from Quotient Bioresearch (United Kingdom) in 2011, and Aptuit s (Lenexa, Kansas) radiochemical inventory in In 2003, ARC also acquired Precision Biochemicals in Vancouver, Canada and established its Canadian headquarters there. All of these acquisitions were made without borrowing any money. ARC is a family-owned, debt-free organization. ARC is the recipient of numerous awards and citations. It was the recipient of RCGA s Fast 50 Technology Award in the St. Louis Region in 1996 and 2004; in 1998, India Abroad 100 Award; in 2004, the Export Achievement Award from the U.S. Department of Commerce; and the Bharat Jyoti Award in Surendra and Karen Gupta ARC Foundation (formerly GAEA Foundation) has established several educational scholarships at UMSL, Wayne State University, I.I.T. Mumbai, Hindu College (Delhi, India), and Delhi University. The foundation also is actively involved in charitable contributions to various environmental, human welfare, and animal protection agencies in the St. Louis region and abroad. In 2013, ARC celebrated its thirtieth anniversary and Surendra celebrated fifty years of being in the United States. Surendra, Karen, and ARC employees are very proud to be part of the 250 year celebration of St. Louis. Above: ARC s chemists Janardhanam Selvasekaran, Ph.D. and Sadras Ganeshraj, Ph.D. reviewing a product s HPLC chromatogram. Below: Surendra and Karen Gupta, founders of ARC. B U I L D I N G A G R E A T E R S T. L O U I S 3 0 3

305 TARLTON CORPORATION Top: Pet Inc. Headquarters in construction, the Arch is behind it. Above: Washington University Seigle Hall (Social Sciences and Law). Bottom, left: Saint Louis Art Museum New East Building. Bottom, right: Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District Lemay Expansion. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 304 Tarlton Corporation general contractors and construction managers have been helping build St. Louis since 1946, when Arthur Elsperman and three partners bought G. L. Tarlton Contractor Incorporated. In 1972, Robert Elsperman succeeded his father as company president, the firm assuming its present-day name in The third generation took over in 1999, when Tracy Elsperman Hart was named president and Dirk Elsperman, chief operating officer. Today, with Let s Build as its motto, Tarlton is an Engineering News-Record Top 400 Contractor and nationally certified Women s Business Enterprise that employs 275 people and excels in complex new construction and renovation. Tarlton is deeply rooted in St. Louis and remains committed to making the region a better place to live and work, taking pride in its enduring relationships, community service and contributions to the built landscape. The firm is humbled by the history it has helped shape and motivated by the exciting frontiers St. Louis is embracing. Following is a snapshot of Tarlton landmark projects and notable firsts in the city Tarlton proudly calls home: 1940s provided a post-war surplus of construction equipment and marked the beginning of Tarlton s long-lasting relationships with Ameren, Anheuser-Busch and McDonnell Aircraft Corporation, among others. 1950s Wohl and Renard Hospitals. Pope Pius XII Memorial Library at Saint Louis University; Steinberg Addition to Jewish Hospital. Art Elsperman elected first chairman of the Associated General Contractors of St. Louis. 1960s Pet Inc. Headquarters city s first architectural concrete project; first tower crane used in St. Louis. Steinberg Hall at Washington University; Brown Shoe Company Headquarters; Bissell Point Primary Water Treatment Facility; and Busch Stadium West Parking Garage. 1970s Southwestern Bell Olive Toll Street Building. McDonnell-Douglas harpoon missile facility early design-build. Multiple hospital projects. WU Mudd Law Building. Monsanto Queeny Plant renovations. Kiel Parking Garage. 1980s St. Louis Centre. Anheuser-Busch projects. Laclede s Landing projects, including Witte Hardware Building. St. Louis County Water Treatment Facility. St. Anthony s Medical Center. Interior renovations at Mart (now Robert A. Young) Building. 1990s Additions to St. Louis County Library headquarters. Novus Research and Development Facility. Famous-Barr at Jamestown Mall. Lincoln University Library. 2000s First LEED project in city Washington University: Earth and Planetary Sciences Building; Knight Executive Education Center. First LEED Silver project in city Tarlton headquarters. Contemporary Art Museum. Nordstrom at West County. Cross County MetroLink Extension. Muny and Saint Louis Zoo projects. Multiple Ameren projects. Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District Wet Weather Expansion. Wexford BRDG Park 1 at Danforth Center. Tracy E. Hart: first woman chairman of the AGC of St. Louis and beyond National Personnel Records Center. Nordstrom at Saint Louis Galleria. Barnes- Jewish Center for Outpatient Health. Saint Louis Art Museum Expansion. in CORTEX District. Under construction: BioGenerator expansion in CORTEX. WU Olin Business School Expansion. Monsanto Chesterfield Expansion parking garage. New firsts history in the making.

306 GRAYBAR ELECTRIC COMPANY, INC. Graybar is a Fortune 500 company and a leading North American distributor of electrical, communications and data networking products and related supply-chain management services. Graybar traces its beginnings to Gray & Barton, a telegraph equipment manufacturer founded in 1869 by entrepreneur Enos Barton and inventor Elisha Gray. Gray & Barton was renamed Western Electric in 1872, and later spun off its supply department in This subsidiary was named Graybar Electric Company, Inc., or Graybar, as it is generally known today. In 1929, Graybar employees made history by purchasing the company from Western Electric for $9 million. Graybar has since thrived as an employee-owned company. In 1982, Graybar moved its headquarters from New York City to St. Louis to take advantage of the central location, reasonable cost of living and high quality of life for employees. Today, Graybar is a multibillion dollar organization that employs more than 7,500 people at more than 240 North American locations, including nearly 1,000 people across three locations in the St. Louis metropolitan area. Graybar is widely known to the manufacturers, customers, employees and the communities it serves as a company with the highest ethical and business standards. Graybar takes pride in being an industry leader and working to its customers advantage in a variety of markets including construction, commercial, government, industrial and utility. Graybar s knowledgeable employees and extensive service capabilities can help customers increase productivity, upgrade and maintain their facilities, lower energy costs, streamline processes and ultimately improve their profitability. As customers needs and technologies have evolved over the years, Graybar has also focused on providing sustainable solutions that help facility managers reduce overhead costs and their carbon footprint. That same approach to sustainability can also be found within Graybar s operations as many locations are ENERGY STAR certified and practice sustainable stewardship. In 2012, Graybar built its first LEED Goldcertified facility in Tucson, Arizona, illustrating the company s longterm commitment to improving the triple bottom line of people, planet and profits. From lighting and lighting controls, renewable power, building automation and controls and power management, Graybar has continued to lead by example. As one of the largest employeeowned companies in North America, Graybar invests in its employees, recognizes their achievements and provides them opportunities to build successful careers. Likewise, Graybar encourages its employees to get involved and make a difference in their communities. Graybar has been a St. Louis institution for more than thirty years. It is a company rooted in timeless values that has a passion for innovatively working to its customers advantage, which is what being the vital link in the supply chain is about. Above: The company s original founders in Below: The Clayton-based headquarters. B U I L D I N G A G R E A T E R S T. L O U I S 3 0 5

307 SANSONE GROUP Above: Founder Anthony F. Sansone, Sr., pictured in Below: Anthony is joined by four of his sons as principals of the firm. Bottom: Sansone Group is headquartered at PNC Center. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 306 Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri Sansone Group is nationally recognized as a leading commercial real estate firm in the Midwest, South, and Southeastern United States. Sansone Group specializes in leasing and sales, brokerage, tenant representation, development and redevelopment, investment and acquisition and property and facility management. Currently, Sansone has eight offices in five states overseeing more than twenty million square feet of property in twelve states throughout the Midwest, Texas, and Florida. The company was founded in 1957 by Anthony F. Sansone, Sr., who is well known in the St. Louis business community for his success in commercial real estate and his devotion to civic and charitable causes. Anthony is joined by four of his sons James, Timothy, Douglas and Nicholas as equal principals of the firm. Each is specialized in a different area of commercial real estate and all are proactive in the firm s daily activities. Like their father, they are deeply involved in community and charitable activities. Anthony s entrepreneurial spirit catapulted the firm into the heavily competitive development industry with its first retail development, Inn Village, in Over the next fifty plus years, under his leadership, the company has gone on to develop or redevelop thirty-two shopping centers in Missouri, Iowa, Florida, Illinois and Texas. Other developments include twenty-three free-standing Walgreens, four office/industrial buildings and several other free-standing businesses. The firm made history in 1987 by becoming the first developer in Missouri to implement the use of Tax Increment Financing (TIF). This resulted in development of a 211,000 square foot shopping center in Florissant, Missouri. Though the company was experiencing great success in its retail development efforts, Anthony saw an underserved niche in the residential community in the City of St. Louis. This led to the development of nine multifamily and assisted living facilities beginning in The company continues to manage and staff all of these apartment buildings, along with a large portfolio of third party residential properties nearing 5,000 total units. In 2013, Sansone was chosen for the Shine the Light Award from Paraquad, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to empower people with disabilities to increase their independence through choice and opportunity. Sansone was honored for the services they provide and dedication to making all of its properties accessible to those with disabilities. When the 2007 recession hit and development slowed, Sansone focused on diversification of its services in order to retain its entire staff. In 2013, Sansone continues its efforts to expand and diversify by acquiring stabilized groceryanchored and/or regional power centers in primary and secondary markets in the Midwest and Southeast. Since 2007, Sansone has grown from 160 employees to over 200. Following the example of its founder and his sons, Sansone has implemented a unique Charitable Fund to aid nonprofit organizations throughout the area. Each employee is asked annually to choose a charity to receive a contribution in their name. Charities receiving substantial donations from this program include The Humane Society, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, St. Jude s Children Research, Make A Wish Foundation, American Heart Association and Animal Protection Association. In addition, the firm and its employees help support such organizations as Multiple Sclerosis Society, Backstoppers, St. Agnes Home, St. Louis Zoo, Missouri Botanical Gardens and many others. As a unique tribute to its St. Louis heritage, each year Sansone holds popular summer events and Christmas parties for its employees, which are always located at a St. Louis landmark. Locations for these events have included the Lemp Mansion, Becky Thatcher Riverboat, St. Louis Zoo and Busch Memorial Stadium in its final year before it was rebuilt. Sansone continues to be involved in community, civic and charitable causes. The company and its principals are dedicated to their family of employees, providing them the opportunity for growth, advancement and benefits to ensure a sustainable and enjoyable career. Sansone Group s Mission Statement reads: We are a purpose-driven organization dedicated to providing superior commercial real estate services for our customers through teamwork, creativity, hard work, faith and professionalism. For more information, please visit

308 More than half a century ago, Peabody Energy moved into a handsome three-story headquarters in the shadow of the St. Louis Gateway Arch and a great partnership was born. By then, the company had grown from a one-room Chicago coal brokerage established in 1883 to a household name. But the best was yet to come. From its headquarters in St. Louis, Peabody became the world s largest private-sector coal company with customers in twenty-five nations on six continents. Peabody has thrived for 130 years by recognizing the power of coal to achieve its mission: To be a leading worldwide producer and supplier of sustainable energy solutions that enable economic prosperity and a better quality of life. Reliable, abundant and affordable energy from coal has played an essential role in the St. Louis region s development. In fact, St. Louisans were using coal-fueled electricity around the same time Peabody began mining it. Shortly after Peabody Energy founder Francis S. Peabody began traveling Chicago s cobbled streets selling coal, St. Louis streetlamps were blazing with incandescent light powered by the fuel. Today, Missouri s residents enjoy some of the lowest electricity rates in the nation precisely because eighty percent of the state s electricity is fueled by coal. St. Louis is also home to multiple coal companies. Peabody continues to give back to the communities it serves. In 2012 alone, Peabody created $21.5 billion in direct and indirect economic benefits and contributed more than $7.2 million to philanthropic causes around the world. At Peabody Energy, we believe energy poverty is the greatest crisis the world confronts, and increasing access to all forms of affordable energy including coal is essential. Coal is the world s fastest growing major fuel and projected to overtake oil in coming years, because coal is the only fuel with the scale and low cost to meet enormous international need. Advanced supercritical coal technologies make economic and environmental objectives compatible and achievable with coal. Peabody is a global leader in sustainable mining and clean coal technologies. Our company has advanced projects and partnerships on multiple continents to develop low-carbon and near-zero emissions electricity generation from coal, including the Consortium for Clean Coal Utilization at Washington University in St. Louis. Peabody Energy is St. Louis-based and St. Louis proud. We salute the spirit of innovation and remarkable energy that has enabled the people of St. Louis to prosper for 250 years, and we look forward to many years to come in St. Louis. PEABODY ENERGY Top: Gregory H. Boyce, Chairman and CEO. B U I L D I N G A G R E A T E R S T. L O U I S 3 0 7

309 ST. LOUIS DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION Above: Rendering of the future IKEA store that will be located in the CORTEX Innovation Community. Below: Ballpark Village. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 308 In 1991 the St. Louis Development Corporation (SLDC) was formed as the front door for doing business in the City of St. Louis. More than twenty years later, SLDC is well-positioned to continue its role as a team player in stimulating economic development in the St. Louis region. As the economic development agency for the City of St. Louis government, SLDC facilitates any development in the city and administers local, state, and federal developments incentives that may be required to make it happen. During the building boom of the 1990s through the recession of the new millennium, many plans and ideas developed as concepts became reality as a result of SLDC working with people that shared its commitment to the city. These public and private sector partners and the local development community recognized our city s potential and acted on it, utilizing SLDC incentives to jumpstart long-stalled projects, reuse historic buildings, demolish derelict buildings to make room for creative in-fill projects, and upgrade housing stock with LEED-certified rehabs and new construction all around the city. This early entrepreneurial spirit showed developers from around the country that the city offered a great opportunity to develop quality homes, retail, and entertainment, commercial and industrial space and realize a positive return. Downtown is vibrant again with new entertainment venues and is home to more than 14,000 people living in new and rehabbed residential units. Longtime businesses are staying downtown and new entrepreneurs are moving in. After being dark for twenty years, the Peabody Opera House was restored to its original splendor. The City of St. Louis is now a major competitor for convention business thanks in part to the completion of the Renaissance Grand convention hotel. The downtown riverfront has grown from a one-docked casino boat to home of the world-class Lumiere Place Casino and Four Seasons Hotel, raising the bar for riverfront gaming and entertainment in our region. The vision to create a campus that would position the city as a leader in the life science industry, coined Technopolis in the 1990s, is now the $500 million, 187 acre CORTEX Innovation Community biotech and medical district. Companies have located to and stabilized city neighborhoods, adding jobs and convincing other entrepreneurs to follow suit in popular areas such as The Grove, The Ville, and the North Riverfront. The city has worked to make neighborhood streets and government itself green and sustainable, implementing recycling programs and creating public spaces that encourage citizens to make green a way of life. The momentum continues with nearly $10 billion in new development underway or planned to add 24/7 excitement to downtown and our neighborhoods. All of this activity is no accident: it is the product of partnerships SLDC built over the years that kept working together to move our city forward. The progress has changed the way the world looks at St. Louis and how we look at ourselves. As the city continues working for a better and brighter St. Louis, SLDC staff knows a regional approach is key to growing the economy. In partnership with neighborhood organizations, the Partnership for Downtown St. Louis, St. Louis Economic Development Partnership, and the St. Louis Regional Chamber, SLDC is exploring new initiatives to foster entrepreneurialism, immigration, and foreign trade to help grow our regional economy and make the region competitive in the global market. SLDC appreciates the continuing support of our dedicated regional, public, and private sector partners, who have made it possible to overcome obstacles and transform the city into a sustainable, diverse, and vibrant regional core where more and more people and businesses are making their homes.

310 St. Louis at night, January 27, BY PHOTOGRAPHER DANIEL SCHWEN; PERMISSION FOR FREE USE GRANTED UNDER WIKIMEDIA COMMONS. B U I L D I N G A G R E A T E R S T. L O U I S 3 0 9

311 SPONSORS AAIM Employers Association Ameren Corporation American Radiolabeled Chemicals, Inc. (ARC) American Water Missouri American Water Illinois American Water American Red Cross Anheuser-Busch Anheuser-Busch Employees Credit Union Archdiocese of St. Louis Ascension Associated General Contractors of St. Louis Best Western Airport Plaza Inn Bi-State Development Agency BJC HealthCare BSI Constructors Care-Tech Laboratories, Inc. O-T-C Pharmaceuticals Central Bureau of the Catholic Central Verein of America CIC Group, Inc Commemoration Committee for the Battle of Fort San Carlos Commerce Bank Concordia Publishing House Delta Dental of Missouri Edward Jones Express Scripts Holding Company Fabulous Fox Theatre Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Fontbonne University Graybar Electric Company, Inc Greater Saint Louis Community Foundation Harris-Stowe State University Hunter Engineering Company JCI Kaestner Lawn Care LLC Max Kaiser, Jr Lindenwood University Lowenhaupt Global Advisors, LLC The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod Maritz Maryville University Mathews-Dickey Boys & Girls Club H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 310

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313 ABOUT THE AUTHOR J. F R E D E R I C K F A U S Z Fred Fausz is a history professor and former dean of the Pierre Laclede Honors College at the University of Missouri St. Louis, specializing in the ethnohistory of Indian-European relations in colonial America. He received an AB degree in European history from Thomas More College in his native Kentucky; earned his PhD in early American history from the College of William and Mary, with Phi Beta Kappa honors; and was a fellow of the D Arcy McNickle Center for the History of the American Indian at the Newberry Library, Chicago. Three of his many publications have won best of the year awards from historical societies in Missouri, Virginia, and Maryland, and in May 2007, Time magazine cited his research on early Jamestown. Committed to sharing historical knowledge with the general public, he was a consultant on Kevin Costner s eight-hour Indian documentary, 500 Nations, and has exhibited his extensive collection of fur trade artifacts in major museums and at other sites in seven Midwestern states. In 2006 he was the lead organizer and program chair for the Ninth North American Fur Trade Conference in St. Louis and received the 2007 Missouri Governor s Award in the Humanities for Enhancing Community Heritage. In 2011, he received the UMSL Chancellor s Award for Teaching Excellence and published Founding St. Louis: First City of the New West, now in its third printing. H I S T O R I C S T. L O U I S 312

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