A Critical Look at St. Louis’ Martin Luther King Drive
Yesterday was Martin Luther King, Jr. day and I’ve spent a good bit of time this weekend looking at the St. Louis street bearing his name. Sunday I took a nice ride on my scooter the full length of MLK in both directions. Yesterday, I went back in the car to get a few more pictures. I learned something new — last year I kept saying “Boulevard” but turns out to be a “Drive” instead. Either way it is about six miles of depressing ruins with the occasion signs of hope.
From the St. Louis Library Street Index:
MARTIN LUTHER KING DRIVE (E-W). (Official designation is DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING DRIVE.) Following the route of the early trail from St. Louis to St. Charles, this street was officially named St. Charles Rock Road in 1865 and renamed Easton Avenue in 1881 to honor Rufus Easton, an early St. Louis postmaster [1805]. It received its present name following the assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968. King won a Nobel Prize in 1964 for his work to gain full civil rights for black Americans.
Easton Avenue, and part of Franklin Avenue, were renamed in 1972. At the time this once busy major shopping street would have been mostly intact although showing signs of neglect and decline:
“Between 1950 and 1970 the Ville’s population declined by nearly 40%. With such a drop due to “Black Flight”, the Ville businesses struggled.” [source]
It is important to note the city was heavily overcrowded at its peak. This should not be confused with density. Overcrowding had to do with the number of people per unit while density is the population per square mile. We had great density to support mass transit and local stores but an insufficient number of units per square mile. Taller buildings, such as the multi-story walk ups common in New York would have given us enough units to avoid being overcrowded.
Lacking enough units means some population drop was probably a good thing, helping ease overcrowding. However, we compounded the problem by tearing down many buildings for highways and low-density housing projects. But by 1970 the drop in population would have been noticeable through vacant houses and storefronts. The crumbling buildings and vacant lots we see today are a product of the 1980s and later.
I can’t think of a more significant street in the African-American community in 1972 than Easton Avenue. Natural Bridge never had the nice pedestrian scale of Easton Avenue and Delmar was significantly residential. Even today you can tell that Easton Avenue was the street in North St. Louis.
The #32 Wellston Streetcar line began running in 1901, helping connect much of North St. Louis with downtown. It ran from the Wellston Loop at the City Limits along Easton to Franklin and then to 3rd street. The Wellston Loop, built around 1911, served as a hub for four other streetcar lines. While many streetcar lines were replaced with buses in the 1940s or 1950s, the Wellston Line continued in service until July 28, 1963. The book Streets & Streetcars of St. Louis; A Sentimental Journey has some great photographs of this line taken in the final month of operations. While perhaps not thriving the street remained a busy commercial corridor.
I’m not a fan of buses and much prefer streetcars but one wonders if it was purposeful that while much of the city got air conditioned buses that it took extra time for the largely African-American community to also get air conditioned public transportation. More of that separate but not so equal philosophy of the time?
Experiencing the street today and seeing how vibrant it once was has proven depressing to me. The surrounding area, while it does have some positive signs, is largely stuck in deep poverty. So many forces have led to where we are today: government lending policies that encouraged suburban growth while discouraging renovation of existing properties, white flight followed by middle class black flight, closure of the streetcar line and failed policies of “urban renewal” projects.
Renaming Easton & Franklin to Martin Luther King Drive likely had little effect on the street’s condition —- neither accelerating nor decelerating it’s eventual decline. I can imagine shortly after changing the name that you had some African-Americans taking a renewed interest in the street while “hold out” whites saw it as a signal they were increasingly a minority.
On to the visual tour:

MLK Drive breaks up as it crosses Tucker near the St. Louis-Post Dispatch. MLK Drive picks up again for a block West of the convention center and then again between I-70 and the Mississippi River.
The P-D building is very attractive but the rest of the intersection is a dreadful combination of surfacing parking and a decaying plaza (shown at right in picture).

The prominent corner of MLK Drive and Jefferson features an ugly (newer) warehouse building, a surface parking lot, a non-urban police station and this — an RV park. I guess the folks that drive to St. Louis need a place where they can park their RV and then go explore in their in-tow vehicle but what does this say about the land values?
Last year I showed the building at left. I commented how the street has great buildings such as this one. Sadly, it may not have this one much longer!
[January 2005]

This weekend the same building is looking much worse. More windows are broken out while others are missing altogether. Some of the roof is open exposing the building to the elements. What a shame as this is a stunning building which would make great loft condos.
[January 2006]

As a local church expands their parking lot a building which faces onto MLK Drive crumbles. The building has an interesting facade and looks like it may have been an old theatre.
Another building across the street that I had photographed last year has now been razed.

These crumbling houses are on a side street off MLK Drive. Another house has recently been razed to the left of these. How can someone live in such an area and have much hope for society or their own future?

Sadly many formerly thriving commercial buildings are just left behind.

The 3-story building on the left of this image contains the Harlem Tap Room, an interesting looking bar that I hope to check out soon. This section of MLK Drive is on the south edge of the Ville neighborhood.
The building in the extreme right of the picture and the one out of view to the right were the subject of hearings by the Preservation Board last year where requests for demolition permits were denied. Not much remains of these buildings but at the very least the facades can be saved.

New senior housing is being constructed at MLK Drive and Compton. While not ground breaking architecture it is fairly urban in design and well detailed. This is one of a number of projects in the area

Streetscape improvements on part of the street are good. Basically they’ve “bulbed” out the curb in places to narrow the street and enclose the ends of on-street parking.

Another view of new streetscape improvements along a small portion of MLK Drive. I think it is important to send a message of hope to current residents & business owners as well as those that are prospective residents and/or business owners. My fear is that sidewalks and street lamps is a little too late.
I think the street needs something bigger to stimulate a rebirth. The best bet, in my mind, is to return to a streetcar. Before people tell me all the reasons why we shouldn’t do a streetcar let me just get those out in the open. First up is likely that it can’t be funded for various reasons. We built a dome without a football team, I think we can fund a streetcar. Second will likely be the population density doesn’t justify the expense. Well, it is a “built it and they will come” proposition. This street was once surrounded by dense housing and I think it can be again.
Now I’m not talking about some “tourist” vintage streetcar line. I’m talking a modern version. But I’m also not talking about light rail in the street. I’m talking frequent stop streetcar on rails in the middle of the street. Metro, the bloated public agency that runs our bus and light rail systems, doesn’t like running vehicles in the street. They want massive and costly construction projects that can best be described as over engineered. A modern streetcar can connect this six miles of MLK Drive to each other as well as downtown. This could be the first step in returning to streetcars within the City of St. Louis.
– Steve
