Saint Louis, Missouri

The Gateway Arch, shown here behind the Old Courthouse, is the most recognizable part of the St. Louis skyline.

Apotheosis of Saint Louis, a bronze statue of the city's namesake on horseback, was widely used as a symbol of the city before construction of the Arch.

For other uses of Saint Louis, see Saint Louis.

Saint Louis (pronounced /seɪntˈluːɪs/ in English, St-Louis /sɛ̃ lwi/ in French) encompasses an independent city in the American state of Missouri (the "City of Saint Louis") and its metropolitan area ("Greater Saint Louis"). The city, which is named after Louis IX of France, 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", or "Gateway to the West"
Former Nickname: "Mound City"
Unofficial Nicknames: "Baseball City USA", "The Lou", "The STL", "STLMO", "Saint Louie"

History

The settlement that would become the city of Saint Louis was founded by French explorers in 1763.

European exploration of the area had begun nearly a century earlier. Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette, both French, traveled through the Mississippi River valley in 1673, and five years later, La Salle claimed the entire valley for France. He called it "Louisiana" after King Louis XIV; the French also called their region "Illinois Country". In 1699, a settlement was established across the river from what is now Saint Louis, at Cahokia. Other early settlements were downriver at Kaskaskia, Illinois, Prairie du Pont, Fort de Chartres, and Sainte Genevieve. In 1703, Catholic priests established a small mission at what is now St. Louis. The mission was later moved across the Mississippi, but the small river at the site (now a channelized drainage ditch near the southern boundary of the City of Saint Louis) still bears the name River Des Peres (River of the Fathers).

In 1763, Pierre Laclede, his 13-year-old stepson Auguste Chouteau, and a small band of men traveled up the Mississippi from New Orleans. In November, they landed a few miles downstream of the river's confluence with the Missouri River at a site where wooded limestone bluffs rose 40 feet above the river. The men returned to Fort de Chartres for the winter, but in February, Laclede sent Chouteau and 30 men to begin construction. The settlement was established on February 15, 1764.

The settlement began to grow quickly after word arrived that the 1763 Treaty of Paris (1763) had given England all the land east of the Mississippi. Frenchmen who had settled to the river's east moved across the water to "Laclede's Village". Other early settlements were established nearby 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, whose administration continued even after Louisiana was secretly returned to France in 1800 by the Treaty of San Ildefonso. The town's population was then about a thousand.

Saint Louis was acquired from France by the United States under President Thomas Jefferson in 1803, as part of the Louisiana Purchase. The transfer of power from Spain was made official in a ceremony called "Three Flags Day". On March 8, 1804, the Spanish flag was lowered and the French one raised. On March 10, the French flag was replaced by the United States flag.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition left the Saint Louis area in May 1804, reached the Pacific Ocean in the summer of 1805, and returned 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, Bohemia and Ireland, the latter 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 one-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.

On July 4, 1876 the City of Saint Louis voted to remove itself from Saint Louis County and become Saint Louis City and Saint Louis County. At that time the County was primarily rural and sparsely populated, and the fast-growing City did not want to spend their tax dollars on infastructure and services for the inefficent county. This decision would gravely come back to haunt the City as white flight with suburban development and population migration outside the City limits would cost the City millions of lost tax dollars and contribute to the City's deterioration.

Saint Louis is one of several cities that claims to have the world's first skyscraper. The Wainwright Building, a 10-story structure designed by Louis Sullivan and built in 1892, still stands at Chestnut and Seventh Streets and is today used by the State of Missouri as a government office building.

Nikola Tesla made the first public demonstration of radio communication here in 1893. 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.

In 1904, the city hosted the World's Fair and the Olympic Games, making the United States the first English-speaking country to host the Olympics.

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.)

Geography

The Rivers around Saint Louis

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 km² (66.2 mi²). 160.4 km² (61.9 mi²) of it is land and 11.0 km² (4.2 mi² or 6.39%) of it is water.

The Saint Louis, MO, IL MSA

The Saint Louis Metropolitan Statistical Area

The 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 census² 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/km² (5,622.9/mi²). There are 176,354 housing units at an average density of 1,099.7/km² (2,847.9/mi²). 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 population, 36.4% of those under the age of 18 and 17.4% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.

Population

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)

Neighborhoods

The City of St. Louis is divided into 81 neighborhoods--79 officially. These divisions have no legal standing, although some neighborhood associations administer grants or hold veto power over historic-district development. Nevertheless, the social and political influence of neighborhood identity is profound. Some hold avenues of massive stone edifices built as palaces for heads of state visiting the 1904 World's Fair. Others offer tidy working-class bungalows, hip loft districts, or areas hard-hit by social problems and unemployment. Many of them have retained--quite consciously and deliberately--a camaraderie that is missing from many American towns today.

Among the best-known, architecturally significant, or well-visited neighborhoods are:

• Benton Park, placed on the National Register of Historic Places as Missouri's largest Federal Register District in 1985
• Carondelet
• Central West End
• Clayton/Tamm
• Downtown St. Louis
• The Hill, St. Louis' world-renowned Little Italy
• Lafayette Square
• Midtown St. Louis
• Shaw, home to the Missouri Botanical Garden and named after the Garden's founder, Henry Shaw
• Soulard, home of the second-largest Mardi Gras festival in the nation
• Tower Grove East, named for nearby Tower Grove Park
• Tower Grove South
• Wydown/Skinker

Neighborhoods outside the city limits

• University City, whose popular "Loop" business district borders St. Louis

Economy

Saint Louis punches above its weight as a center for corporate headquarters. Beer commercials have made the city well known as the home of Anheuser-Busch Breweries. Two local brokerages, A.G. Edwards and Edward Jones, have grown into dominant players on America's financial landscape. It is also the site for the headquarters of Energizer, the battery company. Neighboring suburbs host Monsanto, formerly a chemical company and now a leader in genetically modified crops, and Solutia, the former Monsanto chemical division that was spun off as a separate company in 1997. Hardee's corporate headquarters lies in the metro area. Enterprise Rent-A-Car is headquartered in Clayton.

However, in recent years, many longtime corporate pillars have left St. Louis. Saint Louis was the corporate headquarters of McDonnell-Douglas prior to its 1997 merger with Boeing. Upon the merger, the area became the headquarters for Boeing's $27 billion-per-year Integrated Defense Systems division and its company-wide Phantom Works R&D operation. Locally, Boeing manufactures the F/A-18 Super Hornet and JDAM smart bombs, and has developed — at times secretly — several unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs). However, when Boeing relocated its corporate headquarters from Seattle, Washington in 2001, it moved to Chicago — 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 and human-food maker Ralston Purina (split up and acquired by out-of-town interests, although St. Louis-based Energizer is a former subsidiary), Trans World Airlines (acquired by American Airlines, which then dismantled TWA's St. Louis hub), telecommunications company SBC (moved to San Antonio), and military contractor General Dynamics (moved to Washington, D.C.). All major St. Louis banks have been purchased by out-of-town banks. The city retains a Federal Reserve Bank.

Saint Louis remains home to railway car plants; two DaimlerChrysler plants in the nearby suburb of Fenton, where minivans and pickup trucks are built; a General Motors plant in suburban Wentzville; and a Ford Motor Company plant in Hazelwood, where SUVs are built.

The region has built up a formidable health care industry. This is dominated by BJC HealthCare, which operates Barnes-Jewish Hospital and St. Louis Children's Hospital, plus eleven others. BJC benefits from a symbiotic relationship with Washington University's School of Medicine, which is a major center of medical research. Other major players include SSM Health Care, St. John's Mercy, and the Tenet Corporation chain.

Although local housing costs have risen in recent years, they are still significantly below the national average, and are a revelation to new arrivals from the coasts. From the mid-1990s onward, the City of St. Louis itself has seen a major surge in housing rehabilitation as well as new construction on cleared sites. As a rule, other costs of living also are at or below the national average. Wages tend to reflect these facts, likewise being at or slightly below the average.

Major attractions

• Forest Park, located on the western edge of the central corridor of the City of St. Louis, is one of the largest urban parks in the world. It 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. Immediately south of the Missouri Botanical Garden is Tower Grove Park, a gift to the City by Henry Shaw.
• 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 on the Mississippi Riverfront directly north of the historic Eads Bridge, 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 offers a variety of fun exhibits. Including a several large caves, and a huge outdoor playground. It also serves as a meeting point for Saint Louis' young arts scene. "Unlike any museum you've ever seen before".
• 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), the Robert G. Campbell House (1852), the Old Courthouse (1845-62), the original Anheuser-Busch Brewery (1860), and two of Louis Sullivan's early skyscrapers: the Wainwright Building (1890-1), and the Union Trust Building.

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 St. Louis County.
• The Museum of Transportation is located in Kirkwood, a suburb in southwestern St. 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 St. 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, used as construction fill in the 1800s, gave the city one of its nicknames.

Sports

Enthusiastic and knowledgable fans give the city a reputation as "a top-notch sports town" and being dubbed as "Baseball City USA." The Sporting News rated St. Louis the nation's "Best Sports City." Although the city has or had professional football, hockey, basketball teams, it is baseball that is undeniably the epicenter of the city's sporting life. The St. Louis Cardinals, one of the oldest franchises in Major League Baseball, have accumulated nine World Series titles since 1892, second only to the New York Yankees. (The 2005 baseball season will be the last played at historic Busch Stadium; a new Busch Stadium is to be built, with views of the Saint Louis skyline and the Gateway Arch.)

The city of St. Louishas earned 11 professional sports championships. As mentioned earlier the St. Louis Cardinalshave won 9 World SeriesChampionships with one of the championships played against the old cross-city rival the St. Louis Browns. The St. Louis Ramshave won a Super BowlChampionship, and the St. Louis Hawksgave the city its lone NBA Championship. On top of that the St. Louis Blueshold the record for most consecutive playoff appearances, in all of sports, with 26 straight. The Blues have also made 3 trips to the Stanley CupFinals.
The Savvis Centerwill host the 2007 Frozen Fourcollege ice hockey tournament on April 5and April 7, 2007.
In April2009Edward Jones Domewill host the NCAA Women's Division I Basketball ChampionshipFinal Four. Gateway International Speedwayhosts NASCARevents in nearby Madison, Illinois. The Savvis Center hosts the annual "Braggin' Rights" game, a men's college basketball rivalry game between Illinoisand Missouri. St. Louis is roughly equidistant from the two campuses.
Other Sports teams Gateway Grizzlies- Minor League Baseballteam and member of the Frontier Leaguewhich, plays at GMC Stadiumin Sauget, IllinoisRiver City Rascals- Minor League Baseballteam and member of the Frontier League, which plays at T.R. Hughes Stadiumin O'Fallon, MissouriMissouri River Otters- Member of the United Hockey League, which plays at Family Arenain St. Charles, Missouri

Cuisine

• Anheuser-Busch beers
• Fried-brain sandwiches
• Gooey butter cake
• Missouri wine
• Pork steaks
• Provel cheese
• Saint Louis-style pizza, exemplified by regional chain Imo's Pizza
• Schlafly beers
• Ted Drewes Frozen Custard
• Toasted ravioli
• Vess soda

Colleges and universities

Saint Louis and its surrounding area are the home of several major universities, colleges, and higher education facilities:

• Saint Louis University, the oldest university west of the Mississippi River
• Parks College of Aviation and Aeronautical Sciences A division of SLU.
• Washington University in St. Louis
• Webster University
• University of Missouri - St. Louis
• Concordia Seminary of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
• Fontbonne University
• Eden Seminary
• Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, one of the two Southern Illinois University system schools
• Lindenwood University
• Maryville University
• Harris-Stowe State College
• Hickey College
• Missouri Baptist University
• Ranken Technical College
• University of Phoenix - St. Louis Campus
• Saint Louis College of Pharmacy
• Missouri Tech University
• Kenrick Glennon Seminary
• National Academy of Beauty Arts
• Missouri College
• Deaconess College of Nursing
• Aquinas Institute of Theology
• Covenant Theological Seminary
• Allied Medical College
• Patricia Stevens College

Medicine

Because of its colleges, hospitals, and companies like Monsanto, Saint Louis is respected as a center of medicine and biotechnology. Barnes-Jewish hospital, in junction with Washington University in St. Louis's School of Medicine, is the fifth largest in the world, while WashU's Medicial School consistently ranks in the top 5 nationally.