St. Louis’ first ban on smoke

On April 8th St. Louis took action to get rid of damaging smoke.  The year was 1940 and the smoke was from coal fired furnaces. The problem had been building for years.  Time magazine explains:

The burly head of Bernard Francis (“Barney”) Dickmann, the enterprising bachelor realtor who is St. Louis’ mayor until at least April 6 (municipal election day), last week literally was in a smoky fog, and had been there for many winter weeks. The murk over St. Louis has been so thick that the new Governor of Missouri, Lloyd Crow Stark, an enterprising nurseryman, could not see the city streets when he flew over during an inspection of the Ohio-Mississippi flood. He wished that Mayor Dickmann would sign a pending city ordinance to abate the smoke which makes St. Louis grimier than notorious Pittsburgh.   (Medicine: St. Louis Smoke Monday, Feb. 22, 1937)

Dickmann was reelected as Mayor but it would be another three years before he’d get a bill from the Board of Aldermen to sign into law.

During Mayor Dickmann’s administration, the city also enacted a Smoke Ordinance, and took steps to reduce the air pollution created by the extensive use of coal for home heating and industrial use in the city. (Wikipedia: Dickman)

A key figure in banning smoke was future mayor Tucker:

Tucker served in Mayor Bernard F. Dickmann’s administration from 1934 to 1937, during which time he served as City Smoke Commissioner. From 1939 to 1941, he was secretary to Mayor Dickmann’s Survey and Audit Committee which sponsored the Griffenhagen Report on St. Louis City Government. In part of 1940 and 1941, he was Director of Public Safety. (Wikipedia: Tucker)

Can you imagine smoke so bad you had to use lanterns to see during the day? It took years to ban the cause of the smoke because many fought the change.  Today, 70 years later, I’m so glad they got it done despite those who objected.

- Steve Patterson

The Soulard voting riot of 1852

Voters in the region will go to the polls tomorrow.  In St. Louis County voters will be asked to approve Proposition A to help fund local public transit.

ABOVE: The current Soulard Market building dates to the early 20th century

It was on this day in 1852 that voting led to a riot. From the book “St. Louis Day by Day” by Frances Hurd Stadler:

“This election day was filled with bloody rioting between recently enfranchised Germans and native-born Americans with the battlefield centered in the Soulard Market area. Early in the morning First Ward poll workers discouraged Whig voters from casting their ballots.  The discouragement increased until some would-be voters barely escaped with their lives. When the rumor spread that Germans had taken over the First Ward polls, a large group of Americans moved in.”

From the history of Soulard Market:

In St. Louis, the burgeoning German immigrant population sided fervently with the abolitionist North, while most of the Americans and French were Southern sympathizers. During mayoral election day in April 1852, some German men began preventing, by the threat of bodily harm, the presumed opposition from voting at the Soulard Market polling place.

Word quickly spread of this action, which enraged the American population. A mob of 5,000 Americans moved through the streets that afternoon toward the market. They were greeted by firsts, rocks, brickbats, and even gunshots, but 200 or so of the Americans broke through and seized the Soulard Market poll with shouts of “Free suffrage!”. The violence lasted into the night; persons were killed and a nearby tavern was set ablaze.

Voting tomorrow should be less dramatic!  If you are a registered voter in St. Louis County please support Prop A.

- Steve Patterson

Poultry in the city was once common

ABOVE: St. Louis Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center on Arsenal

We don’t know where our food comes from. Sure, the supermarket.  But where does the supermarket get it? My grandparents and parents had gardens their entire lives.   Before the 1950s industrialization of our food production, people in cities and suburbs raised food.  Large facilities such as the 1869 St. Louis County Lunatic Asylum at 5300 Arsenal, now known as the St. Louis Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center, raised the food they needed.

“On April 23, 1869, St. Louis County Lunatic Asylum opened its doors to 150 mentally ill people. Work began in August 1864. Designed and built by architect William Rumbold, it is the second governmental facility in the state to serve this population. Rumbold’s vision was to recall Imperial Rome, resulting in the cast-iron-dome and plans that called for fine imported marble pillars for the front portico.” (Source)

As a side note remember that prior to 1876 the city was located within the boundaries of St. Louis County.

ABOVE: 1909 Sanborn Map. Source: Univ of MO Digital Library

As you can see when the facility was 40 years old it had a number of buildings behind it to the South. If we look closer we get a better idea of the uses:

ABOVE: 1909 Sanborn Map. Source: Univ of MO Digital Library

There near the center is the hen house and poultry yard, over on the right is the dairy and on the left is the greenhouse.  The pink structure is a brick bread room.

Food production within the city is not a new concept, it is an old one that many are thankfully discovering and reintroducing.  I’m not suggesting we eat only what we can grow ourselves, I just don’t want the “animals belong on the farm” to prevent people from raising some of their food in urban areas.  Thanks to John Palmer for pointing out the hen house on this map to me.

- Steve Patterson

Before the highway cut off downtown from the river

The razing of 40 blocks of St. Louis along the riverfront began on October 10, 1939. There was no plan at that time, a design competition wasn’t held until 1947.  So St. Louis created the biggest surface parking lot on what was the original village.

ABOVE: For two decades the Arch grounds was nothing but a massive parking lot. Image: NPS

Ground breaking for construction of the Arch was held nearly 20 years later, on June 23, 1959.  For 20 years the only reason to connect with this location was to get to your car in a sea of cars.

May 2, 1961 only a boulevard separates downtown from the JNEM site. Image: NPS

Two years after the ground breaking we see that all that had changed was the reduction in the amount of land for surface parking.  By this point the city’s leaders saw this site as a wasteland, nothing we’d ever want easy pedestrian access to.

Future mayor Raymond Tucker was 43 (my current age) when the city razed these blocks.  One of his first duties as mayor would have been the ribbon cutting at the Pruitt-Igoe housing complex.  He was 68 when the depressed highway lanes created a permanent divide between the central business district and what would become the Jefferson Nation Expansion Memorial we know today.  He and others leaders at the time must have thought they were making good decisions for the future of our city.

But to them the site was simply parking.  They worked hard to get the Arch funded and built.  Tucker saw the Arch completed but not the landscaping, he died in 1970. This generation of men had experience with a very different St. Louis than us today.

Thank you to to Tom Bradley & Jennifer Clark of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial for the use of the above images.

- Steve Patterson

1975: Automobile Club of Missouri Headquarters destroyed by fire

Most of us are familiar with the curvy building on Lindell that is home to offices of the Automobile Club of Missouri. Modern architecture fan Toby Weiss wrote the following about the building:

3917 Lindell – Automobile Club of Missouri
One of two round white buildings on Lindell, it looks like the curvy female answer to the boys-will-be-boys clubhouse across the street. But this building was erected in 1977! As early as 1942 the Automobile Club was listed in this same spot, and they certainly waited a long time to join in the CWE urban renewal.

Maybe the delay was so that they could get exactly the perfect building. It’s a truly iconic piece on Lindell – everyone knows and admires this building, and Triple A takes exceptional care of it. They must stock pile drums of white paint for constant touch ups in between new coats. A view through the endless ribbon of windows reveal many original fixtures still in place, and the whole thing has a distinct 1960s Jetsons feel. Were the original plans drawn up in the 60s and they sat on them for a bit, or did they purposely try to evoke a by-gone era, even though it wasn’t all that by-gone? Again, it feels like a sly wink to the club across the street.  (Belt STL)

1977 was late for modern new construction in this section of town.  The new building was constructed to replace the old headquarters that were destroyed by fire on March 14, 1975.  So that answers the question about why the current building was built in 1977 but it doesn’t help me understand what was destroyed. My first place to look is the Sanborn Fire Insurance map from 1909.

- Steve Patterson

Fourth floor view better than fortieth

As I visit different offices downtown I’m always looking for interesting views. From some of the tallest buildings you get spectacular views across the skyline.  But from the fourth floor you get a view I treasure much more.

ABOVE: Old Post Office (left), Chemical Building (right), Roberts Tower (center)

The above is the view from the offices of the Partnership for Downtown St. Louis in the Laclede Gas Building.

- Steve Patterson

Researching 2817 Cherokee Street

Recently while driving down Cherokee Street I noticed something I had never noticed before.

I’m usually so distracted by the beautiful glazed terra-cotta on the building on the right above, 2817 Cherokee. But the void between the buildings is what caught my eye.  The short stone wall with the break and steps.  Was there a narrow building between these that was torn down, I wondered?  The answer is yes and no.  The building we see today was constructed in 1936. The date on the building on the left is unknown except it is newer.

From the alley on the side of 2817 Cherokee to the corner at Oregon Ave contained five one-story brick homes (pink) with wood back porches & sheds (yellow) at the 9ft alley in 1909.  What was platted as five parcels of approximate equal width in 1909 is now three parcels of different widths (27.5ft, 25ft , & 75ft).  The above 1909 Sanborn Fire Insurance map is from the University of Missouri Digital Library.

Neighborhoods and streets are not static.  As the streetcar line on Cherokee Street brought more and more people to the street homes gave way to commercial development.

- Steve Patterson

Centene headquarters taking shape

After years of controversy and plenty of lawsuits, the new Centene buildings are going up in Clayton.  Just what Clayton needed, more generic glass towers.  Yawn…

ABOVE: Centene headquarters at Hanley & Forsyth, Clayton

For decades the site at Hanley & Forsyth was occupied by the unique Scruggs Vandervoort Barney/Library Limited building (learn more at Vanishing STL).  While I don’t believe we can or should save every old building, I do think we should have higher expectations for the buildings that replace significant structures.

ABOVE: Second building under construction facing Forsyth.

No, this is not a high-rise prison.  This is their second building under construction, just West of the corner tower. Maybe it will all be great when finished but what I see so far makes me think it will be more of the same — anonymous boxes.

At least the other end of the block has a low, but appealing, scale.

- Steve Patterson

A Visit to the Old Courthouse

ABOVE: rotunda at the Old Courthouse

In the last two weeks I’ve visited the Old Courthouse downtown.  I had forgotten just how wonderful the building is.

“The majestic Old Courthouse has remained over the past 150 years as one of St. Louis’ most prominent architectural landmarks. Plan your visit to see all the permanent exhibits and special events! The Old Courthouse was the site of the first two trials of the pivotal Dred Scott case in 1847 and 1850. It was also where Virginia Minor’s case for a woman’s right to vote came to trial in the 1870s. You may tour this historic structure, and visit the restored courtrooms to learn more about our 19th century judicial system.”  (National Park Service)

So much history, much of it bad.  Humans were sold on the front steps!  I find that fact so difficult to understand.

We often think of the front as the West side facing Kiener Plaza, but the front actually faces onto 4th Street toward the river.  The wheelchair access is off Broadway (5th) though.  If you have not been before or if it has been many years consider stopping in.

- Steve Patterson

St. Louis’ official flag designed by a Yale professor in early 1960s (updated)

To my eye the official flag of the City of St. Louis is quite striking, the colors and composition are excellent.

In looking at the flag recently, I began to wonder about its history.  A number of websites listed the same information, from the same source.  So I went directly to that source: The Revised Code of the City of St. Louis:

“1.20.010 Description.

The design submitted by Professor Emeritus Theodore Sizer, Pursuivant of Arms at Yale University, and now on file in the office of the City register is approved, adopted and designated as the official flag of the City. The flag with a solid red background has two broad heraldic wavy bars, colored blue and white, extending from the left top and bottom corners toward left center where they join and continue as one to the center right edge. This symbolizes the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers. Over the point of confluence a round golden disk upon which is the fleur-de-lis of France (blue) calling attention to the French background of the early city and more particularly to St. Louis of France for whom the City is named. The golden disk represents the City and/or the Louisiana Purchase. (Heraldically, the disk is a “bezant” or Byzantine coin signifying, money or simply purchase.)

The flag’s colors recall those of Spain (red and yellow or gold), Bourbon France (white and gold), Napoleonic and Republican France (blue, white and red), and the United States of America (red, white, and blue). (Ord. 52322 § 2, 1964: 1948 C. Ch. 1 § 5: 1960 C. § 6.020.)”  (1.20.010)

I had long assumed the flag was from the 19th century but the years listed above include 1948, 1960 and 1964.  Unsure of the meaning of these I turned to David Sweeney, Clerk at the Board of Aldermen. He pulled two ordinances that further clarify the history.

First is the ordinance (#52322) that denotes the current flag as the official flag, approved on February 3, 1964:

It repealed an earlier ordinance that was approved on January 2, 1946 that made a 1916 flag official – 30 years after the fact:

I’d like to see a picture of this 1916-1964 flag.  What is still not yet known is if St. Louis had flag prior to 1916.  The creator of our current flag, Theodore Sizer, was born in 1892 and he died 75 years later in 1967.  He was an art history professor at Yale.  My guess is a competition was held for the design.  Flags don’t seem to be the important symbols they once were.

UPDATE: 2/13/2010 @ 10:00AM:

Thank you to Michael Allen (Ecology of Absence) and Daniel Glossenger (Bygone St. Louis) for looking up additional information on the 1916 flag.  In the January 25, 1916 edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch it was announced that Edward A. Krondl won a $100 prize for his entry.

ABOVE: Winning design from January 1916. Image from Post-Dispatch

Krondl was a 27 year old unmarried commercial artist living in a 4-family located at 2317 Indiana Avenue.  More than 200 entries were submitted. But the Pageant Drama Association that organized the competition felt the blue was not blue enough and the orange not orange enough.

On May 20, 1916 the Post-Dispatch published the winner of a new competition:

ABOVE: Winning design from May 1916. This was our official flag until 1964. Image from Post-Dispatch

The winner of the $100 prize this time was A. P. Woehrle of 3214 Gustine Avenue.  But it was disclosed the winner was actually Edward Krondl, the winner from earlier in the year.  Krondl submitted his new design using the name of a friend because he “wanted to win on merit and not the prestige gained by winning the previous contest.”   The Board of Aldermen passed a resolution to adopt this latest entry as the official flag — the first for the city from what I can gather.  Here was the best line, “Alderman Fett asked to be excused from voting, on the grounds he was too patriotic to vote for for any flag except the stars and stripes.”

- Steve Patterson