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ST LOUIS, MISSOURI - USA
Saint Louis, which is named after Louis IX of France, is the name of an
independent city (the City of Saint Louis) in the state of Missouri and its
metropolitan area ("Greater Saint Louis"). The city borders, but is not a
part of, Saint Louis County, Missouri. The Saint Louis metropolitan area,
which includes counties in both Missouri and Illinois, is the 18th largest
in the United States, with a total population of 2,603,607 as of the 2000
census. While the population of the metropolitan area has been increasing,
the population of the City of Saint Louis (348,189) has been declining since
the 1950s, as many have moved to the many suburbs in Saint Louis County, or
to other parts of the metropolitan area.
Nickname: the "Gateway City" ("Gateway to the West")
Former Nickname: "Mound City"
History
Pierre Laclede and his stepson, Auguste Chouteau, founded Saint Louis as a
trading post in 1763. The city proper was established on February 15, 1764.
St. Louis was in Louisiana Territory, which had belonged to France but,
after the settlement of the French and Indian War in 1763, was controlled by
Spain. Louisiana Territory was returned to France in the secret Treaty of
San Ildefonso in 1800. Saint Louis was acquired from France by the United
States under President Thomas Jefferson in 1803, as part of the Louisiana
Purchase.
French explorers Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette had begun exploring the
Mississippi River Valley in 1673. In 1682, La Salle claimed the entire
valley for France, calling it "Louisiana" for King Louis XIV. The region
explored and settled by the French was also known as "Illinois Country".
A settlement was established across the river from what is now Saint Louis,
at Cahokia in 1699. There were settlements farther down river at Kaskaskia,
Illinois, Prairie du Pont, Fort de Chartres, and Sainte Genevieve.
Catholic priests established a small mission at what is now St. Louis, in
1703. The mission was later moved across the Mississippi, but the small
river at the site (now a channelized drainage ditch near the southern
boundary of the City of Saint Louis) still bears the name River Des Peres (River
of the Fathers).
Pierre Laclede, 13-year old Auguste Chouteau, and a small band of men left
New Orleans in 1763 and traveled north along the Mississipi River. In
November, they landed a few miles downstream of the confluence with the
Missouri River at a site where wooded limestone bluffs rose 40 feet above
the river. The men returned to Fort de Chartres for the winter. In February
1764, Laclede sent Chouteau and thirty men to begin construction.
When it was learned that the Treaty of Paris (1763) had given England rights
to all land east of the Mississippi, Frenchmen who had settled east of the
river moved to the new settlement west of the river. "Laclede's Village", as
it was called, grew quickly.
Other settlements were established at Saint Charles, Carondelet (now a part
of the city of Saint Louis), Saint Ferdinand (now Florissant), and Portage
des Sioux.
From 1766 to 1768, St. Louis was governed by the French lieutenant governor,
Louis Saint Ange de Bellerive. After 1768, St. Louis was governed by a
series of Spanish governors. They continued to administer the city even
after Louisiana was secretly returned to France in 1800, by which time the
population of St. Louis had grown to about a thousand.
The transfer of power from Spain (because of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803)
was made official in a ceremony called "Three Flags Day". This began on
March 8, 1804, with the lowering of the Spanish flag and the raising of the
French flag. The French flag was flown for one day only and was replaced on
March 10, 1804, with the United States flag.
The Lewis and Clark Expedition left the Saint Louis area in May 1804,
reached the Pacific Ocean the summer of 1805, and returned to Saint Louis on
Sept. 23, 1806. Many other explorers, settlers, and trappers (such as
Ashley's Hundred) would later take a similar route to the West.
The steamboat era began in Saint Louis on July 27, 1817, with the arrival of
the "Zebulon M. Pike." Rapids north of the city made Saint Louis the
northernmost navigable port for many large boats, and Pike and her sisters
soon transformed St. Louis into a bustling boomtown, commercial center, and
inland port. By the 1850s, Saint Louis had become the largest U.S. city west
of Pittsburgh, and the second largest port in the country, with a commercial
tonnage exceeded only by New York.
Missouri became a state in 1820. Saint Louis was incorporated as a city on
December 9, 1822. A U.S. Arsenal was constructed at Saint Louis in 1827.
Immigrants flooded into Saint Louis after 1840, particularly from Germany
and Ireland, driven by an Old World potato famine. The population of Saint
Louis grew from fewer than 20,000 in 1840, to 77,860 in 1850, to just over
160,000 by 1860.
Two disasters occurred in 1849: a cholera epidemic killed nearly a tenth of
the population, and a fire destroyed numerous steamboats and a large portion
of the city.
In the first half of the 19th century, a second channel developed in the
Mississippi River at Saint Louis. An island ("Bloody Island") formed between
the two channels, and a smaller island ("Duncan's Island") developed below
Saint Louis. It was feared that the levee at St. Louis might be left high
and dry, and federal assistance was sought and obtained. Under the
supervision of Robert E. Lee, levees were constructed on the Illinois side
to direct water toward the Missouri side and eliminate the second channel.
Bloody Island was joined to the land on the Illinois side, and Duncan's
Island was washed away.
Militarily, the Civil War (1861-1865) barely touched St. Louis; the area saw
only a few skirmishes in which Union forces prevailed. But the war shut down
trade with the South, devastating the city's economy. Missouri was nominally
a slave state, but its economy did not depend on slavery, and it never
seceded from the Union. The arsenal at Saint Louis was used during the war
to construct ironclad ships for the Union.
Saint Louis is one of several cities that claims to have the world's first
skyscraper. The Wainwright Building, an 11-story structure designed by Louis
H. Sullivan and built in 1891, still stands at Chestnut and Seventh Streets
and is used by the State of Missouri as a government office building.
Nikola Tesla made the first public demonstration of radio communication here
in 1893. Addressing the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and
the National Electric Light Association, he described and demonstrated in
detail the principles of radio communication. The apparatus that he used
contained all the elements that were incorporated into radio systems before
the development of the vacuum tube.
The uranium used in the Manhattan Project to build the first atomic bomb was
refined in Saint Louis by Mallinckrodt Chemical Co., starting in 1942.
The Pruitt-Igoe housing project, built in 1955 and demolished in 1972, is
one of the most infamous failures of urban planning. (The buildings were the
first major work by Minoru Yamasaki, who later designed the World Trade
Center.)
During the last half century, the city of Saint Louis, whose boundaries have
been constrained since 1876, has suffered from population decline:
1950 - 856,796
1960 - 750,026
1970 - 622,236
1980 - 453,085
1990 - 396,685
2000 - 348,189
2002 - 338,353 (estimate)
Geography
The city of Saint Louis extends along the western banks of the Mississippi
River, just south of the Missouri-Mississippi confluence. Much of the area
is a gently rolling prairie with low hills and broad, shallow valleys. Both
the Mississippi River and the Missouri River have cut large valleys with
wide flood plains. Limestone underlies much of the area and there are some
sinkholes and caves, although most of the caves have been sealed shut.
The western and northern boundaries of Saint Louis County are defined by the
Missouri River. Near the southern boundary of Saint Louis County is the
Meramec River.
At the southern boundary of the city of Saint Louis (separating it from the
county) is the River des Peres, virtually the only river or stream within
the city limits that is not entirely underground. Most of River des Peres
was either channelized or put underground in the 1920s and early 1930s. The
lower section is an open channel with a sewer at the bottom. Because of poor
water quality, the River des Peres has acquired some uncomplimentary local
nicknames, such the "River de Pew" and "River Despair". The lower section of
the river was the site of some of the worst flooding of the Great Flood of
1993.
Near the central, western boundary of the city is Forest Park, site of the
1904 World's fair, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904 or, as it is
commonly known, the Saint Louis World's Fair, and the 1904 Summer Olympics,
the first Olympic Games held in North America. At the time, Saint Louis was
the fourth most populous city in the United States.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of
171.3 km˛ (66.2 mi˛). 160.4 km˛ (61.9 mi˛) of it is land and 11.0 km˛ (4.2
mi˛ or 6.39%) of it is water.
The Saint Louis, MO, IL MSA
The Saint Louis Metropolitan Statistical AreaThe Saint Louis Metropolitan
Statistical Area, the 18th largest in the United States (population:
2,603,607), includes Saint Louis County (1,016,315), the independent City of
Saint Louis (348,189), the Missouri counties of Saint Charles (283,883),
Jefferson (198,099), Franklin (93,807), Lincoln (38,944) and Warren
(24,525), and the Illinois counties of Madison (258,941), Saint Clair
(256,082), Clinton (35,535), Monroe (27,619) and Jersey (21,668).
Cities in the Saint Louis MO-IL MSA include numerous municipalities (suburbs)
in Saint Louis County, as well as St. Charles (population: 60,321) and Saint
Peters (51,381) in Missouri, and Alton (30,496), Granite City (31,301), East
Saint Louis (31,542) and Belleville (41,410) in Illinois.
Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there are 348,189 people, 147,076 households, and
76,920 families residing in the city. The population density is 2,171.1/km˛
(5,622.9/mi˛). There are 176,354 housing units at an average density of
1,099.7/km˛ (2,847.9/mi˛). The racial makeup of the city is 51.20% African
American, 43.85% White, 1.98% Asian, 0.27% Native American, 0.03% Pacific
Islander, 0.80% from other races, and 1.88% from two or more races. 2.02% of
the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race. Historically, North Saint
Louis City has been primarily African American while South Saint Louis City
has been primarily White. This has changed in recent years as large portions
of North Saint Louis City have been depopulated, with African-American
residents moving either south or to surrounding counties.
There are 147,076 households, out of which 25.4% have children under the age
of 18 living with them, 26.2% are married couples living together, 21.3%
have a female householder with no husband present, and 47.7% are non-families.
40.3% of all households are made up of individuals and 12.9% have someone
living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is
2.30 and the average family size is 3.19.
In the city the population is spread out with 25.7% under the age of 18,
10.6% from 18 to 24, 30.9% from 25 to 44, 19.1% from 45 to 64, and 13.7% who
are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 34 years. For every 100
females there are 88.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there
are 84.2 males.
The median income for a household in the city is $27,156, and the median
income for a family is $32,585. Males have a median income of $30,106 versus
$24,987 for females. The per capita income for the city is $16,108. 24.6% of
the population and 20.8% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the
total people living in poverty, 36.4% are under the age of 18 and 17.4% are
65 or older.
Neighborhoods
(in the City of St. Louis)
Arlington
Baden - Riverview
Benton Park
Bissell - College Hill
Cabanne
Carondelet
Central Business District
Central West End
Clifton
Compton Heights
Dogtown
Fairgrounds
Grand Prairie
The Hill
Hyde Park
Kingsbury
Lafayette Square
Marquette - Cherokee
Midtown
Morganford
Oak Hill
Oakland
Old North Saint Louis
Soulard
Southwest
Saint Louis Hills
Tower Grove / Shaw, near Tower Grove Park and Missouri Botanical Garden
University City (Including The Loop)
Walnut Park
Yeatman
Economy
Saint Louis, despite its size, was until recently a major center for
corporate headquarters. The city is well known as being the center of
operations for Anheuser-Busch Breweries, as well as Monsanto, formerly a
chemical company and now a leader in genetically modified crops, and
Solutia, the former Monsanto chemical division that was spun off as a
separate company in 1997. It is also the site for the headquarters of
Energizer, the battery company. Saint Louis was the corporate headquarters
of McDonnell-Douglas prior to its 1997 merger with Boeing, and is still home
to a Boeing plant where many of the United States'—and its allies'—military
aircraft are built. This facility is where all the precision JDAM smart
bombs which achieved notoriety in the recent Iraq war are manufactured.
However, when Boeing relocated its corporate headquarters from Seattle,
Washington in 2001, it moved to Chicago, Illinois. Saint Louis was not one
of the final candidates.
From 1994 until its acquisition in 2000 by Tyco International, another
chemical company, Mallinckrodt, was headquartered in Saint Louis County.
Many of the former Mallinckrodt facilities are still in operation by Tyco in
the Saint Louis suburb of Hazelwood, Missouri.
Saint Louis has also been corporate headquarters for animal feed maker
Ralston Purina, Trans World Airlines, telecommunications company
Southwestern Bell, financial giants AG Edwards and Edward Jones, as well as
aerospace manufacturer General Dynamics.
Saint Louis is also home to railway car plants; two DaimlerChrysler plants
in the nearby suburb of Fenton, Missouri, where minivans and pickup trucks
are built; and a Ford Motor Company plant in Hazelwood, where SUVs are
built.
Major attractions
Forest Park, located on the western edge of the central corridor of the City
of St. Louis, offers many of Saint Louis' most popular attractions: the free
Saint Louis Zoological Park; the Municipal Theatre ("The Muny"), the largest
and oldest outdoor musical theatre in the United States; the Saint Louis
Science Center and Observatory, with its architecturally distinctive
McDonnell Planetarium; the Saint Louis Art Museum (also free); the Missouri
History Museum; and, of course, plenty of lakes and scenic, open areas.
Forest Park completed a multimillion dollar renovation in 2004 for the
centennial of the St. Louis World's Fair.
The Missouri Botanical Garden, also known as "Shaw's Garden", is one of the
world's leading botanical research centers. It possesses a beautiful
collection of flowery plants, shrubs, and trees: It includes the Japanese
Garden, which features a lake filled with koi and lovely gravel designs; the
woodsy English Garden; the Chinese Garden; the Home Gardening Center; a rose
garden; the climate-controlled dome Climatron; and other scenic gardens.
The Gateway Arch, officially named the Jefferson National Expansion
Memorial, is located near the riverfront in downtown Saint Louis. It was
designed by noted architect Eero Saarinen. The Arch is the centerpiece of a
national park that also includes the nearby Old Courthouse, where the famous
Dred Scott case was tried.
The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis, the New Cathedral is a large Roman
Catholic cathedral designed in the Byzantine and Romanesque styles. The
interior is decorated with lovely mosaics, the largest mosaic collection in
the world.
The Basilica of St. Louis, King of France (1834), also known as the "Old
Cathedral", is the oldest Roman Catholic cathedral west of the Mississippi
River. The Old Cathedral is located adjacent to the Jefferson National
Expansion Memorial.
The Fox Theatre, originally one of many movie theatres along Grand
Boulevard, is now a newly restored theatre featuring Byzantine decor. The
Fox Theatre presents a Broadway Series in addition to concerts.
The Hill is a historically Italian neighborhood where many of the area's
best Italian restaurants can be found. The Hill was the home of Yogi Berra
and many other noted baseball players.
Laclede's Landing, located directly north of Downtown and by the Mississippi
River, is popular for its restaurants and clubs.
The International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame is located by Busch
Stadium in downtown Saint Louis.
The Eugene Field House, located in downtown Saint Louis, is a museum
dedicated to the distinguished children's author.
The City Museum (http://www.citymuseum.org/) offers a variety of fun
exhibits. It serves as a meeting point for Saint Louis' young arts scene.
The Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra plays at Powell Symphony Hall. Leonard
Slatkin is one of the former conductors.
Saint Louis also possesses several extant examples of 18th and 19th century
architecture, such as the Soulard Market district (1779-1842), the
Chatillon-de Menil House (1848), the Bellefontaine Cemetery (1850), and the
Robert G. Campbell House (1852), the Old Courthouse (1845-62), and the
original Anheuser-Busch Brewery (1860).
Nearby attractions
The Delmar Loop, located in University City just west of the Saint Louis
city line, is a popular entertainment, cultural and restaurant district.
The Butterfly House is located in western Saint Louis County.
The Museum of Transportation is located in Kirkwood, a suburb in
southwestern Saint Louis County.
Six Flags - Saint Louis, known as "Six Flags over Mid-America" when it
opened in 1971, is an amusement park located in Eureka, Missouri, in the far
west of Saint Louis County.
Saint Charles, seat of St. Charles County and first capital of the state of
Missouri, is the location from which the Lewis and Clark Expedition began.
It also has a downtown historic district with many small craft shops.
Cahokia Mounds, located near Collinsville, Illinois, holds the ruins of a
city of the ancient Mississippian aboriginal culture. Similar mounds within
Saint Louis, utilized as construction fill in the 1800s, gave the city one
of its nicknames.
Sports
The Saint Louis Cardinals are one of the teams of baseball's National
League. They play at Busch Stadium.
The Saint Louis Blues are the local NHL hockey team; they play at the Savvis
Center, formerly the Kiel Center.
The Saint Louis Rams are the NFL team best known for bringing Saint Louis
its first Super Bowl victory, in 1999. They play at the Edward Jones Dome
(formerly the Trans World Dome, after Trans World Airlines, which merged
with American Airlines).
Cuisine
Gooey butter cake
Toasted ravioli
Ted Drewes Frozen Custard
Saint Louis-style pizza, exemplified by regional chain Imo's Pizza
Pork steaks
Fried-brain sandwiches
Provel cheese
Anheuser-Busch beers
Vess soda
Colleges and universities
Saint Louis is the home of several major universities:
Saint Louis University, the oldest university west of the Mississippi River
Washington University in St. Louis
Webster University
University of Missouri - St. Louis
Concordia Seminary of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Fontbonne University
Medicine
Because of its colleges, hospitals, and companies like Monsanto, Saint Louis
is respected as a center of medicine and biotechnology.
Journalism
The Saint Louis Post-Dispatch is the only major newspaper in the area. It
was founded by Joseph Pulitzer in the 1800s. Pulitzer Publishing also owns
the Suburban Journals, a collection of local newspapers. Other alternative
weeklies include the Saint Louis American (the oldest African-American
newspaper in America), The Saint Louis Argus, The Evening Whirl and the
Riverfront Times (http://www.riverfronttimes.com/) ,though its coverage is
more liberal commentary, social events and entertainment than news. Several
other neighborhood and suburban journals cover local news.
Saint Louis is also home to the last remaining metropolitan journalism
review, the Saint Louis Journalism Review (http://www.stljr.org/), based at
Webster University in the suburb of Webster Groves, Missouri.
Transportation
Like most American cities, the main method of transportation is the
automobile. Use of the automobile is supported by the existence of many
limited-access interstate highways (I-70, I-55, I-44, I-64, I-270, I-255,
I-170, etc.) and many other roads. Also, located as an enclave in northern
Saint Louis County, near the Missouri River, is the Lambert-Saint Louis
International Airport, which is administered by the city of Saint Louis.
Mass transit is provided in two forms, both of which are controlled by one
agency: the city bus system and Metrolink, a light-rail train system that
mainly connects the airport to downtown and, recently, parts of the Metro
East (the Saint Louis region in Illinois). Metrolink is currently being
expanded to Clayton, the county seat for Saint Louis County, and to south
Saint Louis County. Passenger train service is also available through a
"temporary" (since 1980) train station set up near downtown by Amtrak;
smaller, yet permanent, train stations exist in the suburb of Kirkwood and
nearby Alton, Illinois.
Saint Louis was also the largest city between Chicago and Los Angeles on
famous U.S. Highway 66.
Social issues
Historically, Saint Louis has been, a de facto segregated city. The City's
African-American population has been concentrated in North St. Louis. While
some North St. Louis neighborhoods such as Baden, Penrose, and O'Fallon are
stable and have a large number of middle-class residents, many northside
neighborhoods suffer from poverty, unemployment, crime and dilapidated
housing. Most white Saint Louisans, especially white males, who tend to hold
the better jobs in the region and enjoy higher pay scales than women and
minorities, have moved their families into the better-off suburbs. In an
attempt to counter this problem, Saint Louis has implemented a school
desegregation program: some inner city African-American students are bused
into Saint Louis County schools, and, in exchange, some County students are
bused into City magnet schools.
This historic patterns of segregation are starting to break down. For the
past 25 years, St. Louis has a number of successful integrated neighborhoods
in the "central corridor" stretching from Soulard and Lafayette Square near
the Mississippi River to the Central West End near Forest Park. More
recently, a number of near southside neighborhoods, especially around Tower
Grove Park, have also successfully integrated. These areas have seen an
influx of African-American residents, as well as Vietnamese residents and
other immigrant groups. There has been a recent growth in the Bosnian
population in South St. Louis. Many of the suburbs in North St. Louis County
became more integrated during the 1990's. Indeed, the 2000 Census revealed
that more African-Americans live in St. Louis County than live in St. Louis
City. Of the African-American residents in the City, less than half live
north of Delmar Boulevard, the traditional boundary for "North St. Louis."
The city of Saint Louis has one of the highest per-capita crime rates in the
United States, with 111 murders and 7,059 burglaries in 2002, reported by
CityData (http://www.city-data.com). However, statistical data for the city
of Saint Louis is often skewed by its fixed boundary and status as an
independent city.
The whole Saint Louis area has been trying to fix its pollution problem.
Missouri requires gasoline stations in the metro area to serve a special,
reformulated gasoline. Most cars owned by residents of Saint Louis and the
counties of Saint Louis, Saint Charles, Jefferson, and Franklin must pass an
automobile pollution test every other year.
Famous Residents
Chuck Berry
Nell Carter
Miles Davis
Dizzy Dean
Scott Joplin
Stan Musial
Nelly
Charlie Parker
Ozzie Smith
Ike Turner
Tina Turner
Kurt Warner
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