Encyclopedia
St. Louis , sometimes written
Saint Louis, encompasses an independent city in the
U.S. state of
Missouri and its
metropolitan area . This area includes counties in the states of
Missouri and
Illinois. St. Louis is the largest metropolis in Missouri and the 18th largest in the
United States. The population of Metro St. Louis as of 2005 is approximately 2,786,728 according to the .
The city, which is named after
Louis IX of
France, is adjacent to, but not part of, St. Louis County, Missouri which is a unique situation relative to other metropolitan areas. This separation between St. Louis city and St. Louis County skews the statistics, especially when St. Louis news events are reported in the media.
St. Louis is one of the most historic cities in the United States known for its long standing French and German heritage and bright Victorian past. While St. Louis has embraced its deep roots as the Gateway to the West, it also has modernized into a globally known contributor in the healthcare and scientific research fields. The St. Louis renaissance can be attributed to large scale construction and renovation efforts seen throughout the city in conjunction with corporate support and strong civic organizational efforts. St. Louis has seen its population increase as a direct result of the committed efforts of St. Louisans to return their city to the grand international status it was once known for dating back to the 1904 World's Fair and first Olympic Games ever held in the United States.
The city has several common nicknames, including the "Gateway City", "Gateway to the West", and "Mound City". St. Louis is also sometimes called "St. Louie", or "River City". Alternatively, many young people who live in St. Louis have begun to call it "The Lou". Another popular synonym for St. Louis is "STL" in reference to the airport code for the city and a long-standing use of an interlocked S, T, and L by the
St. Louis Cardinals baseball team.
History
Prior to the arrival of
French explorers in 1673 the area that would become St. Louis was a major center of the
Mississippian mound builders. The presence of numerous mounds, now almost all destroyed, earned the later city the nickname of "Mound City."
City founding and early history
European exploration of the area had begun nearly a century before the city was founded.
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 St. Louis, at Cahokia. Other early settlements were downriver at Kaskaskia, 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 still bears the name "River Des Peres" .
In 1763, Pierre Laclède, 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 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 , Fleurissant , and
Portage des Sioux. In 1765, St. Louis was made the capital of Upper Louisiana.
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.
St. 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.
19th Century expansion and growth
The
Lewis and Clark Expedition left the St. Louis area in May 1804, reached the
Pacific Ocean in the summer of 1805, and returned on 23 September 1806. Many other explorers, settlers, and trappers would later take a similar route to the West. Missouri became a state in 1820. St. Louis was incorporated as a city on December 9 1822. A U.S. arsenal was constructed at St. Louis in 1827.
The steamboat era began in St. Louis on July 27 1817, with the arrival of the "
Zebulon M. Pike." Rapids north of the city made St. 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, St. 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.
Immigrants flooded into St. Louis after 1840, particularly from
Germany,
Bohemia,
Italy and
Ireland, the latter driven by an Old World potato famine. The population of St. 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. These disasters led to political action: old cemeteries were removed to the outskirts of the town; sinkholes were filled and swamps drained; water and sewer public utilities started; and a new building code required structures to be built of stone or brick.
In the first half of the 19th century, a second channel developed in the Mississippi River at St. Louis. An island formed between the two channels, and a smaller island developed below St. 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 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 St. Louis was used during the war to construct ironclad ships for the Union.
St. Louis during the Gilded Age
On July 4, 1876 the City of St. Louis voted to secede from St. Louis County and become an independent city. 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 infrastructure and services for the inefficient county. The move also allowed some in St. Louis government to increase their political power.
As St. Louis grew and prospered during the late 19th and early 20th Century, the city produced a number of notable people in the fields of business and literature. The
Ralston-Purina company was headquartered in the city, and
Anheuser-Busch, the world's largest brewery, remains a fixture of the city's economy. The City was home to both International Shoe and the
Brown Shoe Company. Notable residents in the field of literature included poets Sara Teasdale, and
T. S. Eliot as well as playwright
Tennessee Williams.
St. 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 1896, one of the deadliest and most destructive tornadoes in U.S. history struck St. Louis and East St. Louis. The confirmed death toll is 255, with some estimates above 400, and injuries over 1,000. It left a mile wide continuous swath of destroyed homes, factories, mills, saloons, hospitals, schools, parks, churches, and railroad yards. Damages adjusted for inflation make it the costliest tornado in U.S. history at an estimated $2.9 billion. Several other tornadoes have hit the city making it the worst tornado afflicted large city in the U.S.; with the most deadly and destructive occurring in 1871 , 1890 , 1904 , 1927 , and 1959 .
By the time of the 1900 census, St. Louis was the fourth largest city in the country . In 1904, the city hosted a
World's Fair and the
Olympic Games, making the
United States the first
English-speaking country to host the
Olympics. Citizens of St. Louis still look back fondly on the events of 1904; there were several events held in 2004 to commemorate the centennial.
Early 20th century
St. Louis experienced major expansion in the early 20th century due to the formation of many industrial companies. The city reached its peak population at the 1950 census, reflecting a national housing shortage after World War II. The continued trend of suburban development and highway construction shifted the population into the St. Louis County suburbs over the next several decades. While the overall population of the St. Louis MSA has always been growing, the St. Louis city population, as discussed below, is increasing once again.
Recent developments
Recently, there has been a significant upturn in construction in
Downtown St. Louis. The Bottle District, an entertainment district named after a large Vess soda bottle that stands near
Interstate 70, will open in spring 2007 and will be located in an area just north of the Edward Jones Dome. The St. Louis Cardinals' new
Busch Stadium opened in 2006. Ballpark Village will be built where the former
Busch Stadium stood. For several years, the
Washington Avenue Loft District has been gentrifying with an expanding corridor along Washington Avenue from the Edwards Jones Dome westward almost two dozen blocks. Rehabilitation of other downtown areas is planned, such as around the Old Post Office, Cupples warehouses and St. Louis Centre. The Forest Park Southeast neighborhood near the Missouri Botanical Garden and the old Gaslight Square district are also going through extensive renovations.
While the overall population of the St. Louis MSA has steadily increased over the years, the St. Louis city population is growing again following a half-century of decline reversing the trend of population shift to St. Louis County. As of 2005, the City of St. Louis' population has grown over what it was at the time of the 2000 Census.
Geography
According to the
United States Census Bureau, St. Louis has a total area of 171.3 km² . 160.4 km² of it is land and 11.0 km² of it is water.
With its exact coordinates located at ., the city is built primarily on bluffs and terraces that rise 100-200 feet above the western banks of the
Mississippi River, just south of the
Missouri-Mississippi confluence. Much of the area is a fertile and gently rolling prairie that features low hills and broad, shallow valleys. Both the Mississippi River and the Missouri River have cut large valleys with wide flood plains.
Limestone and
dolomite of the Mississippian
epoch underlies the area and much of the city is a
karst area, with numerous sinkholes and caves, although most of the caves have been sealed shut; many springs are visble along the riverfront. Significant deposits of
coal,
brick clay, and millerite ore were once mined in the city, and the predominant surface rock, the
St. Louis Limestone, is used as dimension stone and rubble for construction.
The
St. Louis Geologic fault is exposed along the bluffs and was the source of several historic minor earthquakes; it is part of the
St. Louis Anticline which has some
petroleum and
natural gas deposits outside of the city. St. Louis is also just north of the
New Madrid Seismic Zone which in 1811-12 produced a
series of earthquakes that are the largest known in the contiguous United States. Seismologists estimate 90% probability of a magnitude 6.0 earthquake by 2040 and 7-10% probability of a magnitude 8.0 , such tremors could create significant damage across a large region of the central U.S. including St. Louis.
Near the southern boundary of the City of St. Louis 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 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, and the
1904 Summer Olympics, the first
Olympic Games held in North America. At the time, St. Louis was the fourth most populous city in the United States.
The
Missouri River forms the northern border of St. Louis County, exclusive of a few areas where the river has changed its course. The
Meramec River forms most of its southern border. To the east is the City and the
Mississippi River.
Metropolitan statistical area
The St. Louis
Metropolitan Statistical Area is the 18th largest in the United States, and has an estimated total population of 2,786,728 as of July 1, 2005. This area includes Saint Louis County , the independent City of Saint Louis , the
Missouri counties of Saint Charles , Jefferson , Franklin ,
Lincoln ,
Warren , and
Washington , and the
Illinois counties of Madison ,
Saint Clair ,
Macoupin , Clinton ,
Monroe ,
Jersey ,
Bond , and
Calhoun .
Cityscape
The city is divided into 79 neighborhoods. The 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 or loft districts Many of them have successfully retained a remarkable camaraderie that is missing from many American towns today.
Among the best-known, architecturally significant, or well-visited neighborhoods are
Downtown, Midtown, Benton Park, Carondelet, the Central West End,
Clayton/Tamm , Dutchtown South, Forest Park Southeast, Grand Center,
The Hill, Lafayette Square, LaSalle Park, Old North St. Louis, Compton Heights, Shaw , Southwest Garden,
Soulard , Tower Grove East, Tower Grove South, Hortense Place and Wydown/Skinker.
Climate
St. Louis has a continental temperate
climate, and has neither large mountains nor large bodies of water to moderate its temperature. The area is affected by both cold Canadian arctic air, and also hot, humid tropical air from the
Gulf of Mexico. The city has four distinct
seasons. The average annual temperature for the years 1971-2000, recorded at nearby Lambert-Saint Louis International Airport, is 56.3 °F , and average precipitation is 38.75 inches . The normal high temperature in July is 90 °F , and the normal low temperature in January is 21 °F , although these values are exceeded at times. Temperatures of 100 °F or more occur no more than five days per year, while temperatures of 0 °F or below occur 2 or 3 days per year on average. The official all-time record low is -22 °F and the record high is 115 °F .
Winter is the driest season, averaging about 6 inches of total precipitation. Springtime, March through May, is typically the wettest season, with just under 10.5 inches. Dry spells of one or two weeks duration are common during the growing seasons.
St. Louis usually experiences
Thunderstorms between 20 and 30 days per year. A few of them can be severe with high winds and occasionally some
hail. Other occasional weather events include snowstorms and ice storms.
A period of warm weather late in
autumn known as
Indian summer can occur –
roses will still be in bloom as late as November or early December in some years.
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
|---|
| Avg high °F | 39 | 44 | 54 | 67 | 76 | 85 | 89 | 87 | 80 | 69 | 54 | 43 | 66 |
|---|
| Avg low °F | 21 | 25 | 34 | 46 | 55 | 65 | 69 | 67 | 59 | 48 | 36 | 26 | 46 |
|---|
| Rainfall in. | 2 | 2.1 | 3.3 | 3.6 | 3.9 | 3.8 | 3.8 | 3 | 3 | 2.8 | 3.1 | 2.6 | 37.1 |
|---|
Flora and fauna
Before the founding of the city, the area was prairie and open forest maintained by burning by
Native Americans. Trees are mainly
oak,
maple, and
hickory, similar to the forests of the nearby
Ozarks; common understory trees include
Eastern Redbud,
Serviceberry, and
Flowering Dogwood.
Riparian areas are forested with mainly
American sycamore. Most of the residential area of the city is planted with large native shade trees. The largest native forest area is found in Forest Park. In
Autumn, the changing color of the trees is notable. Most species here are typical of the Eastern Woodland, although numerous decorative non-native species are found; the most notable invasive species is
Japanese honeysuckle, which is actively removed from some parks.
Large mammals found in the city include urbanized
coyotes and occasionally a stray
whitetail deer.
Eastern Gray Squirrel,
Cottontail rabbit, and other rodents are abundant, as well as the nocturnal and rarely seen
Opossum. Large bird species are abundant in parks and include
Canada goose,
Mallard duck, as well as
shorebirds, including the
Great Egret and
Great Blue Heron.
Gulls are common along the
Mississippi River; these species typically follow
barge traffic. Winter populations of
Bald Eagles are found by the
Mississippi River around the
Chain of Rocks Bridge. The city is on the Mississippi Flyway, used by mi
