The Museum was initially located in a neo-Renaissance building in downtown St. Louis. In 1906, it moved into the former Palace of Fine Arts Building, which was used for the 1904 World's Fair and is now the home of the St. Louis Art Museum. It remained there until 1960 when a new structure called Steinberg Hall, which was soon called Washington University Gallery of Fine Art. The museum adopted its current name in 2004 and moved into the present building in 2006. It was designed by renowned architect Fumihiko Maki.

Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum was founded in 1881 and has become one of the best university art museums in the country.

Website

The Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis is one of the country's leading university art museums. It was established as the St. Louis School and Museum of Fine Arts in 1881, making it one of the oldest teaching museums in the nation. The museum was originally located in downtown St. Louis and is presently located in Washington University's West Campus near beautiful Forest Park. The collection is comprised of 19th, 20th, and 21st-century art, and includes some ancient Greek and Egyptian artifacts and over 100 Old Master paintings. The museum is named after Mildred Lane Kemper, who was a lifelong resident of Kansas City, Missouri, and supporter of the arts.



Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum

This trail includes over three dozen iconic and historically significant landmarks in St. Louis. In addition to a variety of museums, the tour includes some of St. Louis' iconic cathedrals, historical landmarks, art museums and galleries, and classic sites such as the Gateway Arch and Busch Stadium. The trail was designed to help visitors discover the history behind some of the leading museums and landmarks, but it should also be useful for local residents as it provides background information for each site on the trail. 

Today, the street known as the Delmar Loop has been designated (as of&nbsp;2007) as one of the 10 Great Streets of the United States by the American Planning Association, but not too long ago, it was merely a strip full of abandoned storefronts. The street was established in 1891 when the state legislature empowered the City of St. Louis to issue ordinances to establish boulevards in the city, and a racetrack and amusement park were soon constructed there. (The Loop got its nickname from a long-dismantled streetcar line which used the area as a turnaround.)&nbsp;After 1906, the incorporation of the suburb of University City made The Loop into a thriving retail area until the 1950s. However, the competition of suburban shopping malls in the post-World War II era made the street seem much less attractive to many. The city government responded by widening sidewalks, narrowing streets and reserving&nbsp;all&nbsp;streetfront space for retail use, including restaurants, shops and galleries. However, much of the street was still deserted. In 1972, a young entrepreneur, Joe Edwards, and his wife purchased a local pub called Blueberry Hill and soon sought to organize local business owners to improve the area. A major breakthrough occurred&nbsp;in 1984, when the&nbsp;Delmar Loop-Parkview Gardens Historic District was entered in the National Register of Historic Places, which allowed developers to qualify for Federal tax breaks. Shortly afterwards, in 1988, Edwards came up with the idea of the St. Louis Walk of Fame, which would provide an attraction to draw visitors to the Loop, and at the same time educate people about St. Louis' diverse history and culture. The Walk was originally established in the University City area, with 10 people nominated each year for each of the first five years. With the induction of Cedric the Entertainer in 2008, the Walk crossed for the first time into the City of St. Louis proper.&nbsp; It is now much more difficult for people associated with St. Louis to get a star and plaque on the Walk then it was during the attraction's&nbsp;early years. (Edwards has acknowledged that there are some Nobel Prize winners associated with St. Louis that have not yet gotten in.)&nbsp;On average, only three nominees per year are accepted. However, the actual&nbsp;nomination process is quite simple and anyone can participate. All that a person must do is send a letter to the nominations committee, listing: a) the nominated person's name, date and place of birth,&nbsp;and his/her connection to St. Louis, which must involve having been born in the city,&nbsp;or having spent his/her formative or creative years there; and b) the accomplishments of the person nominated, and why these were important on a national level (not just within the St. Louis area). Of the approximately 250 nominees annually, Edwards reduces the list down to about 40 names, which are then decided by the committee, which consists of university chancellors, representatives of arts and historical organizations and libraries, and past inductees.&nbsp; Currently, there are 140 inductees in the Walk of Fame. These include many famous figures in the entertainment field, such as early 20th Century pianist and composer Scott Joplin, legendary singer and dancer&nbsp;Josephine Baker, Hollywood actors William Holden, Betty Grable and Vincent Price, guitarists Chuck Berry and Albert King, jazz great Miles Davis and contemporary singer Tina Turner. There are also&nbsp;athletes, such as baseball legends Yogi Berra and&nbsp;Rogers Hornsby, boxer Archie Moore&nbsp;and&nbsp;tennis champion Jackie Joyner-Kersee, as well as&nbsp;giants of the arts such as novelist Maya Angelou, playwrights William Inge and Tennessee Williams and poets T.S. Eliot and&nbsp;Marianne Moore. Others included are businessman/educator Robert S. Brookings of the Brookings Institution, and historical figures like Generals Ulysses S. Grant,&nbsp;William Tecumseh Sherman and Dred Scott, the former slave whose court case led to the infamous Dred Scott decision. In addition to celebrities, the Walk&nbsp;includes ordinary people who have accomplished extraordinary things, such as Max Starkloff, a disabled St. Louis native who founded the Starkloff Disability Institute and helped secure passage of the landmark Americans with Disability Act in 1990. The six-block Loop area attracts numerous people each year, including an estimated 200,000-plus residents and millions of tourists. In acknowledgement of its central significance to the Loop, the St. Louis Walk of Fame&nbsp;is open to the public&nbsp;24 hours a day, seven days a week.&nbsp;

The St. Louis Walk of Fame was conceived by local entrepreneur Joe Edwards in 1988. It is located in the Delmar Loop, which is situated partly in the city of St. Louis and partly in the suburb of University City. Each honoree gets a star and a plaque identifying his or her achievements and connection to St. Louis. The purpose of the Walk is to draw people to the Loop and its shopping district and to encourage people to learn more about St. Louis and its famous sons and daughters. So far, 140 persons have been inducted. The St. Louis Walk of Fame is open to the public 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

St. Louis Walk of Fame

Designed by architects William Cope and John Stewardson, Brookings Hall resembles the Collegiate Goth style of architecture. It was likely inspired by architecture from Cambridge and Oxford Colleges in England. This building stands as a defining feature on Washington University’s campus in St. Louis, Missouri. The inscription above the clock of Brookings Hall reads, Cedunt Horae, Opera Manent: “The hours go by, the works remain.” The inscription on the east facade of Brookings Hall reads Discere Si Cupias Intra: Salvere Iubemus, meaning “If you wish to learn, enter: we welcome you.” These two quotes capture the academic and determined spirit of Washington University.Washington University was founded by Wayman Crow and William Greenleaf Eliot Jr in 1853. It is a private research institution that stands as one of the top universities in the United States. WashU is recognized for its research programs and medical school. The current location of the Danforth Campus of Washington University began construction in 1900. The university gained finances from leasing buildings out to the Louisiana Expedition Company during the 1904 World’s Fair. Brookings Hall (formerly known as University Hall), Busch Hall, Cupples I, and Cupples II were used as administrative and service buildings during the historic St. Louis event.The building was renamed after the president of the Board of Directors, Robert S. Brookings, who was integral to the expansion and new construction of Washington University, Danforth Campus. Brookings spent several years working at a home furnishing company, eventually becoming a partner in the company. Once he accumulated enough money, he began making business moves. Brookings became a millionaire by his mid-thirties. After several successful projects, Brookings retired from business at 46. He began focusing more time and energy on philanthropic pursuits. Following his interest in education, Brookings donated over five-million dollars to Washington University. He also played a major role in securing funds for the construction of the current WashU campus. University Hall was renamed to Brookings Hall in 1928 to honor Robert S. Brooking and his many contributions to Washington University.

Brookings Hall is located on the Danforth Campus of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Construction for Brookings (originally University) Hall began in 1900 and took roughly two years to complete. The historic building was leased to the Louisiana Expedition Company for the 1904 World's Fair as an Administration Building. Currently, the building is used for Washington University administration offices, financial services, and the graduate school for the College of Arts and Sciences.

Brookings Hall

Edward Bates (1793-1869) moved to St. Louis from Virginia as a young man. He studied law and became barred as an attorney and when Missouri entered the Union as a slaveholding state in 1820, Bates helped draft the Missouri Constitution. An enterprising young lawyer and politician, Bates became the state's first Attorney General and the first AG west of the Mississippi. He was later elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, but only served one term before returning to St. Louis. Bates had an unsuccessful bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 1860, losing out to Abraham Lincoln who would later ask Bates to be his Attorney General. While Bates was loyal to Lincoln and helped carry out much of Lincoln's wartime actions against the Confederacy, he disagreed with the President and the abolitionists over the issue of whether Blacks should have full civil and political equality. Bates resigned in 1864 after Lincoln passed him over as a potential nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court. He returned home to St. Louis and died in 1869. He is buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis County.

The Edward Bates Statue was dedicated in 1876 at the same time Forest Park was established. Bates was an important figure in Missouri history, but also a controversial one. He was active in Missouri and national politics in the antebellum era as a member of the Whig Party and then of the Republican Party.

Edward Bates Statue

The Apotheosis of St. Louis is a statue of King Louis IX of France, also known as Saint Louis, and the original version of this monument marked the entrance to the 1904 World’s Fair. Much like the other attractions at the fair, the original statue was meant to be a temporary feature. While the numerous buildings and attractions were demolished at the conclusion of the event, the Louisiana Purchase Committee decided to have the statue recast and then donated to the city of St. Louis in 1906.The statue was sculpted by Charles Henry Niehaus and recast in bronze by W.R. Hodges. Depicting King Louis IX as a soldier valiantly mounted on a horse, his sword is held in a way that the ninety-degree angle between the hilt and shaft resembles a cross. King Louis is dressed in a cloak with the symbol of the French monarchy, the fleur-de-lis. This statue is meant to associate the city with Christianity as well as leadership, strength, valor, and vitality. King Louis IX ruled France from 1226 to 1270. He succeeded his father at the young age of twelve, so in his early years as king, his mother served as regent. In his time as king, Louis led the Seventh Crusade (1248-1250) in an unsuccessful attempt to regain the Holy Land. King Louis also reorganized the royal administration system, standardized coinage, and made peace with England under the Treaty of Paris (1259). Less than twenty years after King Louis’ death in 1279, he was canonized by Pope Boniface VIII in 1297.This statue was so central to the identity of St. Louis prior to the construction of the Gateway Arch that it served as the official symbol of sports teams and militia units. For example, the image of the Apotheosis of St. Louis was incorporated into the logo of the St. Louis Browns baseball team. Today, the statue continues to serve as a symbol of the city and a reminder of the 1904 World's Fair.

The Apotheosis of St. Louis is a statue of the city's namesake (King Louis IX of France) and a replica of a plaster statue that served as one of the landmarks at the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair. This bronze version of the statue was designed after the fair and quickly became one of the symbols of the city. The statue has been located in front of the Saint Louis Art Museum in Forest Park since 1906. Prior to the completion of the Gateway Arch, the statue was the principal symbol of the city. Although supplanted by the Arch, this statue continues to serve the iconography of St. Louis for more than a century after the World's Fair.

Apotheosis of St. Louis

SLAM was founded in 1879 as the St. Louis Museum of Fine Art and was part of Washington University of St. Louis. After the 1904 World's Fair, the museum moved into its current building, the former Palace of Fine Arts, which was constructed for the fair. In 1909, the museum ended its affiliation with the university and renamed itself City Art Museum. It adopted its current name in 1972 and underwent a large expansion in 2013.The current building for St. Louis Art Museum was designed by Cass Gilbert. It was originally part of the Palace of Fine Arts, which was intended to be the only permanent building from the World's Fair. Gilbert’s design for the building was heavily inspired by the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, Italy. The brick and limestone exterior create a grand entrance, welcoming viewers to come and enjoy the collections housed by the museum.SLAM contains over 34,000 different works spanning over 5,000 years. There are 9 main collections which include works from different areas of the world as well as a variety of art medias. The museum has work from famous artists such as Monet, Matisse, Picasso, and Van Gogh. In 2009, the museum underwent a massive construction that added over 224,000 square feet of gallery space. This expansion elevated the art museum by allowing more display space and attracting more viewers. In 2013, SLAM added an East Building, designed by David Chipperfield. In 2015, Michele Desvigne designed an outdoor sculpture garden for the museum of 20th century and modern works.

The Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) houses an impressive collection of 33,000 works that spans all of human history; nearly every culture from around the world is represented. As such, the SLAM is one of the leading comprehensive museums in the country. The collection includes paintings, sculptures, photography prints, ancient artifacts, weaponry, textiles, and other forms of art. It is possible to see 3,000 (and counting) of these items on the museum's website. The museum puts on exhibitions throughout the year to complement the permanent exhibition galleries. Education and outreach are also important goals of the museum. To this end, it offers classes for people of all ages, concerts, performances, films, and lectures.

Saint Louis Art Museum

In 1866, civic and business leaders gathered at the Old Courthouse to establish the Missouri Historical Society, which was founded "for the purpose of saving from oblivion the early history of the city and the state." Initially housed in the Larkin mansion in downtown St. Louis, the organization began by collecting historical artifacts and hosting lectures for its membership. In 1892, the collections were opened to the general public for viewing, mainly in the hopes of attracting new sources of revenue. Following the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exhibition, also known as the World's Fair held in St. Louis that year, formal planning began in earnest for the creation of a new building that would be constructed specifically as a public history museum. Thus, although the Missouri History Museum opened in 1892, its first location wasn't permanent. It was not until 1913, when the current building was constructed, that it moved into a permanent space. Its construction was paid for in part by profits from the 1904 World's Fair, and the new building was also intended as a memorial to U.S. President Thomas Jefferson. Nearly a century after the museum moved into the new building, it expanded considerably in 2000, with the addition of classrooms, galleries, an auditorium, and a restaurant. Today, the museum's galleries showcase permanent as well as temporary exhibits on topics such as the history of Forest Park, the Mississippi River, the 1904 World's Fair, Women's Suffrage, St. Louis Music, and the Civil Rights movement. In addition, the museum's Library and Research Center contains over a million photographs and prints in its extensive collections. These collections provide archival resources for scholars, students, and the general public on subjects of national interest, such as westward expansion and the history of railroad transportation, along with local history and genealogical studies. The Library and Research Center is considered the premiere regional repository of historical documents related to the city of St. Louis and the state of Missouri, the Mississippi and Missouri River Valleys, the Louisiana Purchase Territory, and more broadly, the western U.S. Since many of these documents have been digitized, they are currently accessible in online databases and the museum's collections are now accessible via the internet all over the world.

Established in 1892, the Missouri History Museum preserves and promotes the state's history through its collection, exhibitions, and public programming. It is operated by the Missouri Historical Society. The museum boasts a large collection of 175,000 artifacts, some of which have national significance. These include items associated with aviator Charles Lindbergh and his trans-Atlantic flight and many artifacts from the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Other items in the collection include Colonial and Native American artifacts, artifacts from the 1904 World's Fair held in St. Louis, and state and city artifacts. It is possible to view and learn more of these items on the museum's website, which features an online collection.

Missouri History Museum

The original wooden bandstand at this site was built in 1876 for the grand opening of Forest Park. Situated on an island surrounded by a moat known as Pagoda Lake, it was designed in the Syrian style, featuring a red ogee roof and decorative elements. During the 1904 World's Fair held at the park, the bandstand featured musical concerts, quickly becoming one of the most photographed structures at the event. Concerts continued to be held at the site even after the fair was over, further adding to the landmark's popularity. However, the pagoda succumbed to nature only a few decades later, due to an unexpected storm and fire. A historical marker placed near the site notes that: "In the late 1800s, the Music Pagoda drew carriages full of music lovers who parked around Pagoda Lake to listen to afternoon concerts. Said to resemble a building from One Thousand and One Arabian Nights, the Music Pagoda was of Syrian design. It was also, unfortunately, made of wood. A storm destroyed it, and the wreckage of that first bandstand burned in 1912."It was not until the mid-1920s that a new bandstand could be constructed, when funds were provided by the St. Louis attorney and entrepreneur, Nathan Frank. Designed in the Renaissance Revival style by Heffensteller, Hirsch, and Watson, the new bandstand was built from white marble and concrete, with bronze railings and a copper roof. Its stylized arch amplified sound and enhanced acoustics across the lake. Frank, the philanthropist behind the project, was the son of German-Jewish immigrants in St. Louis, and he received a degree from Harvard University Law School in 1871. Later, he became Missouri's first Jewish member of the U.S. Congress, where he served one term beginning in 1889 in the U.S. House of Representatives. Frank was also the vice president of the commission that oversaw the planning of the 1904 World's Fair in Forest Park, leading to the construction of many new structures and landscape elements within the park. In addition, he founded the St. Louis Star newspaper, and he remained committed to several local causes throughout his lifetime. With the funds that he provided for the construction of the new music pagoda in Forest Park, the marble bandstand was completed and dedicated in 1925, with a ceremony in his honor.However, half a century later, this relatively sturdy marble bandstand had fallen into disrepair, with its basement prone to flooding. The structure underwent several restorations beginning in 1980. Electric lighting was also added, and the ceiling was painted. Afterwards, a public picnic was held near the lake, featuring a musical concert with members of the seventy-piece U.S. Air Force Band of Mid-America. For the special occasion, band members brought their own instruments, including a piano that had to be carefully transported across the lake. Today, the bandstand still remains accessible only by boat, yet what it lacks in practicality, it makes up for through its picturesque charm. The Pagoda Circle and Nathan Park Bandstand continues to be among of the most photographed landscape elements and structures in Forest Park. The site is currently overseen through a partnership between the City of St. Louis and Forest Park Forever, while the Flora Conservancy of Forest Park maintains the plantings that surround this historic landmark.

Located on a small island within Pagoda Lake, the original wooden bandstand that existed at this site was built for the grand opening of Forest Park in 1876. Designed in a Syrian style, it soon became one of the park's most photographed structures, as spectators gathered around the lake to listen to musical concerts during the 1904 World's Fair. In 1911, however, the pagoda was damaged in a storm and then lost to a fire. It was not until the early 1920s, when the St. Louis philanthropist Nathan Frank donated $50,000, that a new bandstand could be constructed on the picturesque island known as Pagoda Circle. Designed in the Renaissance Revival style by Heffensteller, Hirsch, and Watson, this new pagoda was built from white marble and concrete, with a copper roof and bronze railings. Although it remains accessible only by boat, it is still one of the most popular and recognizable landmarks in Forest Park.

Forest Park's Pagoda Circle and Nathan Frank Bandstand

The museum was originally housed in 1988 in a small basement room of the U.S. Chess Federation in New Windsor, NY.&nbsp;Originally affiliated with FIDE, the International Chess Federation,&nbsp;the hall at that time&nbsp;contained only a few artifacts, and offered its members a postal chess
program, a magazine (Chess Life),&nbsp;and discounts on chessboards, computers, etc.&nbsp;The U.S. Chess Trust purchased the museum and
moved its contents to Washington, DC, where the expanding collection included trophies,
numerous chess sets and the first Hall of Fame inductee plaques. In 2001, the
institution moved into a new multimillion-dollar facility at the Excalibur
Electronics headquarters in Miami, FL. This version of the Hall of Fame closed
in 2009. Then Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield provided the seed money to move the
collection to its present location in a nearly 16,000-square-foot space in the
bustling Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis.&nbsp;To celebrate the opening of the institution in 2011, a
game of “human chess” was held, in which Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura
participated, portraying the Black king.&nbsp;The Saint Louis Chess Club (STLCC), founded in 2008, together with the WCHOF form the Saint Louis Chess Campus.&nbsp;The joint success of the STLCC and WCHOF has made Saint Louis, according to the hall,&nbsp;"the premiere chess destination worldwide." The U.S. Chess Federation named Saint Louis “Chess City of the Year”
in 2009 and 2011.&nbsp; Part of the mission of the WCHOF is to make chess accessible to as many people as possible. It has explored many connections between the ancient game and contemporary issues
and interests, such as chess in art, fashion, and comic books. Past exhibitions have included "Power in Check: Chess and the American
Presidency," which detailed the history of American presidents, from Thomas Jefferson to William Jefferson Clinton, and their fascination with the royal game, and "A Memorable Life: A Glimpse into the Complex Mind of Bobby Fischer,”&nbsp;profiling the legendary and controversial American chess master.&nbsp; More recently, the hall has offered "M.C. Escher: Infinite Variations," which examines the mathematical and metamorphic works of world-famous graphic
artist and chess enthusiast, M.C. Escher. The exhibit, according to the program, "features an extensive collection of drawings,
mezzotints, lithographs, and woodcuts, which blend and blur constructs inspired
by impossible worlds, the intricacies of nature, and the infinity of chess.” Another recent exhibition focuses on&nbsp;the Cairns Cup, a
nine-round classical chess tournament created by the STLCC that is bringing together one of the strongest
international fields ever assembled in women’s chess. In honor of the
cup, the&nbsp;exhibition contains
highlights related to women’s chess from the&nbsp;WCHOF collection. The WCHOF building is immediately recognizable by the huge chess piece --&nbsp;the largest in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records --&nbsp;situated in front of it. It is a&nbsp;large-scale version of a
“Championship Staunton” king, custom-designed by The House of Staunton in 2013 for use in the first Sinquefield Cup. A joint
effort between the WCHOF and the&nbsp;STLCC, the giant king piece is 53 times larger than its model and&nbsp;measures 20 feet tall and 9 feet, 2 inches in diameter at the base, and weighs almost 11,000 pounds. It is made of African sapele
mahogany. This record of the largest chess piece in history&nbsp;was achieved on April 6, 2018.&nbsp; "The iconic king
chess piece not only serves as a beacon for the Saint Louis Chess Campus, but
also a regional and national landmark that exemplifies Saint Louis' impact on
the sport and art of American chess," said Brian Flowers, WCHOF Marketing
Communications Coordinator.

For chess enthusiasts, the World Chess Hall of Fame is a must visit. It houses the U.S. and World Hall of Fames and a museum that showcases the history of chess and its impact on the arts and culture. It was founded in 1986 by the U.S. Chess Federation, which is now U.S. Chess. Inside, visitors will find numerous chess sets, trophies, photographs, scoresheets, and periodicals. Interesting items include the Paul Morphy silver set, which he used to win the First American Chess Congress tournament in 1857. Another highlight is the perpetual trophy for the Piatigorsky Cup, which commemorates one of the best American chess tournaments. Chess sets are available for visitors to play on. The museum also offers various public programming such as lectures, panel discussions, and activities for children.

World Chess Hall of Fame

&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;Sumner High School in St. Louis, Missouri, who’s namesake
was Charles Sumner, the famous abolitionist senator who became famous for an
antislavery speech that lead to his being beaten on the senate floor by a pro
slavery senator, was opened at the beginning of the Reconstruction Era of
American history that began with the end of the Civil War.1 The high school was
the very first high school west of the Mississippi River established for African
American students, and it opened its doors in 1875 following the adoption of
the Constitution of 1865 in Missouri. The new Constitution, which ratified the
13th Amendment of the US Constitution in the state and was in effect
until 1875 when it was amended once again, mandated that all regional school
boards in Missouri support the education of Black students.2

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Sumner
High School was originally located at 11th and Spruce Streets in St.
Louis, but it was moved to 15th and Walnuts streets in the 1880s
after parents of the students attending the school successfully lobbied to have
it relocated in order to avoid making their children walk past gallows and the
city morgue on their journey to and from school.3&nbsp;The school was moved once
again in the 1890s due to successful lobbying by the parents of children at the
school, except this time they wanted the location to be moved to avoid having
their children go to school in a neighborhood full of saloons and pool houses.3 Sumner
High School was finally moved to its current location in the building designed
by William B. Ittner on Cottage Street in 1908.4

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; As the
public school systems began to desegregate in Missouri during the mid -950s,
many students opted to leave the school in order to attend the nearby
Soldan-Blewett High School, which was actually much closer for many students
who had previously been forced to travel further for school solely because of
their race.5 Today, Sumner High School is still functioning as a (fully
desegregated) St. Louis high school for over five hundred students in the
surrounding area, making it one of the oldest schools in the area that is still
operating in the form of an educational institution.

                  When Sumner High School opened in 1875 in St. Louis, Missouri, it was the first high school for African Americans anywhere west of the Mississippi River. Since then, the school has been moved twice, with the location it is housed in now being the location it was moved to in 1908. The school was established following the adoption of the Constitution of 1865 in Missouri, which required that regional school boards support the education of Black children in their districts. Even though the African American population grew steadily from the early 1860s to the 1920s, Sumner High School was the only high school for African Americans until 1927 when Vashon High School opened its doors. Today, Sumner High School is still functioning as a predominantly African American high school. 

Sumner High School

The Griot
Museum of Black History and Culture opened in 1997, and was first named the Black
World History Wax Museum. The name of the museum was changed in 2007, to emphasize
its mission as the caretaker of the stories, culture, and history of African Americans.
Griot is a name for a West African historian or storyteller that collects,
shares, and preserves stories and traditions. The Griot Museum of Black History
and Culture is the second largest Black wax museum in the country. &nbsp; 
 
The Griot
Museum interprets stories and features life-size wax resemblances of African
Americans whose lives influenced the state, region, and country. Visitors have
the opportunity to learn about several historical African Americans such as:
Carter G. Woodson, Josephine Baker, Dred and Harriet Scott, Elizabeth Keckley,
William Wells Brown, James Milton Turner, Clark Terry, Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr., the Rev. Earl. E. Nance Sr., Miles Davis, Madame C.J. Walker, York, Percy
Green, and many more. The Griot Museum also features a slave cabin that was
originally built on the Wright–Smith Plantation in Jonesburg, Missouri.
Visitors can also solve puzzles, view documentary videos, and explore a model of
ships that were used to transport African Americans to America during the
Transatlantic Slave Trade. 
 
This museum also celebrates the achievements of African-Americans. Visitors have
the opportunity to learn about John Berry Meacham, who avoided the law which forbade
the education of African Americans. He anchored a boat in the Mississippi River
and taught them how to read, write, etc. An entire section of the museum has
been dedicated to Madam C.J. Walker, and it exhibits the life she led. 
 
The museum hosts local and national traveling arts and humanities
exhibits. In order to increase their community outreach, they sponsor community
education projects, gallery discussions, and cultural celebrations. The museum
hosts traveling exhibits led by local and national artists as well. The museums’
goal is to create a community of lifelong learners who explore and embrace the African-American
heritage.

The Griot Museum of Black History and Culture opened in 1997, and was first named the Black World History Wax Museum. The name of the museum was changed in 2007 to emphasize its mission as the caretaker of the stories, culture, and history of African Americans. In order to increase their community outreach, the museum sponsors community education projects, gallery discussions, and cultural celebrations. The museum hosts traveling exhibits led by local and national artists as well. The museums’ goal is to create a community of lifelong learners who explore and embrace the African-American heritage. 

Griot Museum of Black HIstory and Culture 

William Fox, born Wilhelm Fuchs in 1879, arrived in America from Europe as the infant son of Jewish immigrant parents, and grew up on New York's Lower East Side. He started out in the fur trade in 1900, switched to the burgeoning movie business four years later, and founded Fox Film Corporation in 1915, which produced many popular pictures, including those of cowboy star Tom Mix. By the late 1920s, the Fox empire commanded a nationwide chain of 1100 theatres. Not content with that, in 1929 Fox opened five grand picture palaces of unprecedented size and opulence called the "Super Foxes," of which the St. Louis Fox Theatre was one. Unfortunately, that same year, 1929, saw William Fox's downfall. His attempt to take over MGM resulted in a long-running antitrust suit; he was involved in a near-fatal car accident; and the stock market crash inaugurated the Great Depression, miring Fox and his corporation in debt and essentially ending his career. Construction began on the Fox Theatre in St. Louis in 1927, at the site of the defunct Grand Avenue Presbyterian Church. The Winkle Terra Cotta company constructed the facade. Architect C. Howard Crane, who had already built many classic movie palaces, designed the theatre in what was called the "Siamese-Byzantine" style. The interior, made of plaster, included Moorish, Far Eastern, Egyptian, Babylonian and Indian elements. (It has been suggested that the movie audiences of the day, because they was far less well-traveled than today's audiences, might not have recognized the incongruity of all these clashing styles.) Opening night was attended by many of the wealthiest citizens of St. Louis, and a newspaper reported, "Gov. Henry S. Caulfield dedicated the new $5,000,000 Fox Theatre last night before probably the most notable first-night crowd in the history of St. Louis drama -- silent or legitimate." Despite this brilliant beginning, the theatre encountered from the first heavy competition from the local Skouras Brothers theatre operation, and the financial troubles of the parent corporation forced the building into receivership in 1931. The following year, it was leased as part of Fox St. Louis Properties, and in 1934 Harry Arthur became the theatre's General Manager. Many interesting events took place at the theatre over the years. The movie St. Louis Blues, starring Nat King Cole, held its premier there, with Cole himself, as well as Pearl Bailey and the Nelson Riddle Orchestra, performing live. The big bands of Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and Glenn Miller played there in the 1940s. Performers as diverse as Arturo Toscanini, Eddie Cantor, Bob Hope, Mae West and Sally Rand appeared at the Fox, and the venue has served as host to events as diverse as the Miss America pageant (in 1954) and the Saint Louis University Convocation (in 1968). When the theatre was forced to close in 1978, its story seemed to have ended. But Leon and Mary Strauss fell in love with the theatre and began a $2 million-plus restoration of the structure. This task included removing fifty years' worth of dirt and grime, renovating all 4500 of the remaining seats, cleaning and relamping the 2000-pound chandelier, and weaving 7000 yards of carpet in the original elephant design. An up-to-date sound and lighting system was installed and the dressing rooms completely renovated. Today, the venue plays host to entertainers such as Bryan Adams and Bob Dylan and Broadway shows such as Kinky Boots. It has also served as a location for Hollywood movies. The character of Snake in John Carpenter's movie Escape from New York goes in search of the President at a theatre whose exterior is that of the Fox Theatre (though the interiors for that scene were filmed in Los Angeles). A character associated with this venue who was every bit as colorful as William Fox was Stan Kann, who served as the Fabulous Fox' beloved organist from 1953 to 1975, making him the longest-performing theatre organist in the US. In the 1970s, Kann became a fixture on television talk shows, demonstrating his collection of vintage vacuum cleaners and other wacky gadgets. (He appeared on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson 77 times.) In 1998, Kann returned to the Fox to play the Wurlitzer again for tour groups. The following year, he was inducted into the American Theatre Organ Society Hall of Fame and was named Organist of the Year for 2003. He died in 2008.

The Fox Theatre of St. Louis, located at 527 N. Grand Boulevard, was one of five spectacular Fox Film Corporation "picture palaces," designed for both film exhibition and stage shows, that the Corporation built at the end of the 1920s (the others were in Brooklyn, Atlanta, Detroit, and San Francisco). Opening for the first time on January 31, 1929, the theatre, nicknamed "The Fabulous Fox," was constructed by architect C. Howard Crane in a style incongruously known as "Siamese Byzantine," consisting of a mishmash of various exotic motifs. Seating 5060, it was reportedly the second largest theatre in America at that time. 

However, the Fox Film Corporation fell on hard times during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Changing owners, the Fabulous Fox carried on with a combination of movies and concerts until forced to close in 1978, one year shy of its 50th anniversary. In 1981, an organization to restore the theatre, Fox Associates, began a one-year multi-million-dollar overhaul of the structure, restoring it as closely as possible to its original 1929 grandeur, but with modern sound, lighting and dressing rooms. It reopened on September 7, 1982, and remains in operation today as a venue for concerts and Broadway shows. In 1976, the Fox Theatre was included in the National Register of Historic Places. 


Fox Theatre 

The museum is housed in a historic building constructed in 1900 for the&nbsp;St. Louis Club, which was founded in 1866. The building is a city landmark and was designed in the Beaux Arts style, which was popular in the country at that time. It is believed that the idea for the 1904 St. Louis Fair originated here. A fire in 1925 signaled the end of the club. The building wasn't very damaged but nonetheless the building was sold. A series of companies owned the building until St. Louis University bought it in 1992 from SLU alum Francis O'Donnell. It was named after him and became&nbsp;home to the SLU graduate school and School of Public Health. The building became the museum in 1998.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Ranked the fourth best college museum in the country in 2015, the Saint Louis University Museum of Art boasts an impressive collection of art. The collection consists of modern and contemporary art, American-west Jesuit mission art, and Asian decorative art. The first floor of the museum is used for temporary exhibitions. Modern and contemporary artists represented include Andy Warhol, Serge Poliakoff, Richard Serra, Jasper Johns, and Chuck Close. The Jesuit collection features art and artifacts that shed light on Jesuit frontier life. As of May 2017, the Asian collection, which is on the fourth floor, is closed for renovation. It consists of artifacts dating from 3,500 years ago to today. Items include jade and ivory artifacts, figurines, and prints.

Saint Louis University Museum of Art

Located next to Triumph Grill (and near the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum) is a small but impressive museum dedicated to motorcycles. The Moto Museum was founded in 2007 by bike enthusiast Steve Smith. The collection consists of motorcycles primarily from Europe dating from 1900-1975. Countries of origin include Hungary, Germany (and east Germany), Sweden, and England. Motorcycles from non-European countries include the former Soviet Union and Mexico.

Moto Museum

The museum moved here in 2013. Its first physical&nbsp;was first located in Santa Barbara, California (in 1977) and in 1983 it moved to Oklahoma City. St. Louis was chosen because it had a solid base of professional photographers as well as art schools.

Founded in 1965, the International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum celebrates the pioneers of photography and preserves historic photographs and equipment. Over 500 artists are represented here, including Ansel Adams, Sebastiao Salgado, and Dorothea Lange. The museum houses 30,000 photographs and 5,000 cameras, including a basic brownie box camera, press cameras, and 19th century studio cameras. These items are rotated in and out of exhibits throughout the year. The museum is located in the vibrant Garden Center Arts District. 

International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum

It is not known when the modest two-story brick row house was built, but it was probably constructed sometime during or shortly after the Civil War, as the structure was already listed in an 1874 reference source. The neighborhood developed from common agricultural fields belonging to the French settlement of St. Louis. German immigrants in the 1850s occupied the region known as the "Old North Area" of St. Louis, and it soon attracted other immigrant populations including Irish, Italian, Polish and Jewish groups. It began to become a predominantly Black neighborhood around the years in the very early 20th Century in which Joplin lived there. Scott Joplin was born in 1868 near Marshall, Texas. The young musician exhibited talent from an early age. As a student at George R. Smith College in Sedalia, Missouri, a Black college established by the AME Church, he studied classical music and the liberal arts. Mastering both the formal structure of classical music and the free-flowing, improvisational expression of area folk musicians, he was able to produce and record the music he and other Black musicians were creating throughout the South. His talent, ambition and education enabled him to become the foremost composer of the new musical genre that became known as "ragtime." His first published ragtime work, "Original Rags," was released in Kansas City in 1899 and in the same year, the Stark Music Company of Sedalia published Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag." This composition ultimately sold over half-a-million copies by 1909, so the man who moved into the modest house on Morgan Street was already famous. Although he was but one of many composers perfecting the new syncopated sound, his ability to compose such popular music led to his becoming known as "The King of Ragtime." (It should be noted that Joplin referred to himself only as "The King of Ragtime Writers," a title that acknowledged that he was only one of many talented musicians.) In addition to his many popular ragtime tunes published by his own sheet music company, Joplin composed an opera, a musical, a symphony, and a piano concerto. Because of the deterioration of the surrounding Old North neighborhood in the 1970s, Jeff-Vander-Lou, Inc., an African American neighborhood development nonprofit corporation led by local housing activist Macler Shepard, purchased the property. The corporation sought both private and public funding for the restoration work, with the goal of converting the house into a museum, as the cornerstone for an inner-city cultural center. It was clear, however, by the early 1980s that the corporation would not be able to raise enough money to complete the project, and in 1983, it donated the property to the State of Missouri. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) assumed responsibility for completing the restoration and establishing an interpretive center. To the dismay of the African-American community that had supported the restoration, exhibits were installed at the Scott Joplin House that celebrated the composer and his music, but communicated little about the urban milieu that nourished his talents, the origins of African-American music or his legacy on modern composers. Local residents were excluded from exhibit programming, so such programming appealed overwhelmingly to white, middle-class music lovers. Around the turn of the 21st Century, a community-based history project, the Scott Joplin Heritage Project, was initiated. The project sought to empower citizens to make decisions about all aspects of the project by linking historical research and interpretation to neighborhood revitalization goals. Among the issues that faced the Scott Joplin Heritage Project was how best to deal with aspects of Joplin's legacy that still make many people, including those within the Black community, uncomfortable, including violent racial relations, prostitution (Joplin frequently performed in the city's red-light district) and venereal disease (Joplin died of complications from syphilis). With the historical and archaeological evidence from this project, a more comprehensive interpretation of the neighborhood and of Joplin’s tragedy may be necessary to paint a clearer picture of the man whose compositions changed the face of American music. On the death of Macler Shepard in 2005, he was remembered and honored in print for his contribution towards the preservation of the Scott Joplin House. According to one commentator, "One of Missouri’s historical jewels would have been lost if not for Mr. Shepard and Jeff-Vander-Lou, Inc."

The Scott Joplin House is one of the few remaining structures related to the life and career of Scott Joplin (1868-1917), one of America's most significant composers. The writer of such popular and enduring songs as "The Maple Leaf Rag" and "The Entertainer" (the latter prominently featured in the popular 1973 film, The Sting), Joplin lived in the house on Delmar Boulevard, then known as Morgan Street, with his wife Belle between 1900 and 1903. Designated both a National Historic Landmark and part of the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, America's bicentennial year, the house was saved from demolition largely through the efforts of the late local housing advocate Macler Shepard, on behalf of the African-American community of St. Louis. 



Scott Joplin House State Historic Site

The People's Hospital was a significant building that once resided in the neighborhood of Mill Creek Valley. Despite this neighborhood's rich 200+ year African American history, the people of St. Louis decided in the 1950s to tear down many sections of this area and create new refurbished buildings, highway ramps, and much more. Luckily for the People's Hospital, it is one of the few buildings that remain on Locust Street, but that does not mean that this establishment did not face the hardships associated with the gentrification of this land. In December of 1860, the St. Louis Provident Association was created with the intention to support the lower class and ethnic minorities as they merged into white American society. They focused their work on more than just temporary assistance and ensured that their patients were able to sustain themselves during and after their transitions. Not only was the association dedicated to enhancing the lives of St. Louisans in poverty but they also were one of the first groups to dedicate themselves to the field of social work. This organization was one of the leading social work institutions for their time and they are the organization responsible for starting the George Warren Brown School of Social Work. Following the establishment of the Saint Louis Provident Association, the board then created the People's Hospital, previously known as Provident Hospital, just west of downtown St. Louis in 1903. This three story, brown brick building was filled with African American doctors, nurses, and seventy-five beds for their private African American patients for over sixty years. The Peoples Hospital, along with the Annie Malone Children's Home and the Firmin Desloge Hospital were some of the first public institutions in St. Louis to cater to its African American population during the late 19th century and early 20th century. From the end of the Civil War to the end of segregation, this was one of only four African-American hospitals that have existed in Saint Louis. The hospital was especially influential for its contributions to promote universal healthcare, advance women's careers and education, and ethnic welfare. The social and economic contributions of this hospital helped to move Saint Louis forward despite the racial separation of the time. One way that the People's Hospital helped to do this was by establishing one of the first nurses training program for Black women. This was one of the only post-secondary education opportunities for minority women in the area. In 1967, the People's Hospital was facing financial hardships and closed it's doors indefinitely. Renters from other social groups who focused on the well being of St. Louisans moved in but their stays were temporary and they left shortly after. The last known group to occupy the building was the Brennan Center for the Blind and they vacated the building in 1972. Since then the first floor of the building has been used for as a temporary storage unit but as of today the building lies empty yet full of the rich history of the Mill Creek Valley neighborhood.

Established in 1903, the People's Hospital was the only privatized institution in St. Louis that treated African American patients during segregation. This clinic is one of the many buildings that once made up the, now, forgotten Mill Creek Valley neighborhood of St. Louis. Currently, the People's Hospital building remains at 2219 Locust St. but has since been abandoned. 

People's Hospital

The Booker T. Washington Theatre first opened in 1912 and operated until 1930. Named for Booker T. Washington, many locals referred to the theater as "Bookers." It had a seating capacity of one thousand and was one of the first theaters operated by and for African Americans in the United States. The theater was located in Mill Creek Valley area, a majority African-American neighborhood in St. Louis city. St. Louis has long been a segregated city, first officially due to race-restrictive covenants and redlining, and now unofficially due to the long-lasting effects of old segregation laws. Theater owner Charles Udell Turpin was a businessman, politician, and motion picture pioneer. In 1910, Charles was the first African American in St. Louis to be elected to a local political office. He made a point to hire fellow African Americans at his business. His brother, Tom Turpin, had his own ragtime band and ran the Rosebud Cafe (sometimes referred to as Rosebud Saloon) next door at 2220-22 Market. Performances at the theater featured vaudeville, motion pictures, and musical acts. The theater was a member of the African-American vaudeville circuit, the Theatre Owners' Booking Association. This membership helped bring in stars such as Ethel Waters, Bessie Smith, and Ma Rainey. The theater showed motion pictures with a different theme each week, such as African, cowboy, or Egyptian. The theater served as an important venue in the history of St. Louis music. In the early years, Tom Turpin held piano contests that drew in popular ragtime musicians of the day such as George Coins, Charles Thompson, Owen Marshall, and Raymond Hines. As trends in music changed, these contests did as well. Ragtime slowly evolved into different music traditions as the 1920s approached. By 1915, a blues piano contest was held at the theater, and the final ragtime piano contest took place in 1916. One of the most popular musical evolutions that took hold in the 1920s was jazz. Elijah Shaw, a jazz musician who played on the Mississippi riverboats, remembered seeing all the "top Negro entertainers" play at the theater. In 1927, Shaw played with Bill Robinson around the time that a tornado came through the city. In an interview with the State Historical Society of Missouri, he recalled, "I played there and I incidentally, played once right during the tornado when Bill Robinson was playing. He came out and did his act at the Booker Washington Theater for the benefit of the tornado suffers. And I got a chance to play for Bill Robinson." The theater was a popular gathering place for children as well. Between the ages of 12 and 13, Josephine Baker was one of many children who performed outside the Booker T Washington Theatre, hoping to get noticed by the theater's patrons. Baker went on to become a popular entertainer in France. Baker was not the only young musician to find inspiration at the theater. Henry Townsend, a St. Louis-based blues guitarist, decided to pursue his career after hearing Lonnie Johnson play guitar at the Booker T. Washington Theater when he was young. Places like the Booker T. Washington Theater played an important role for young African Americans seeking representation in a time of widespread race division.

The Booker T. Washington Theatre was one of the first theaters in the United States operated by African-Americans for African-Americans. In its operating years between 1912 and 1930, audiences came to see vaudeville performances, motion pictures, and musical acts. Charles Udell Turpin, the theater's owner and manager, was the first African-American St. Louisan elected to a political office in 1910. The theater was host to many prominent African-American artists throughout its history. Ethel Waters and Bill Robinson were among the stars featured at Booker T. Washington Theatre. As a child, entertainer Josephine Baker performed outside the theater with other neighborhood children hoping to get noticed.

Booker T. Washington Theatre

Although a St. Louis railroad depot had been built only a generation before, by the early 1890s that building was already obsolete, due to the enormous expansion of rail travel in the late 19th Century. Seven railroad companies founded the Terminal Railroad Associate of St. Louis, which proposed building a station large enough to serve the long-term transportation needs of the city. A closed competition was held among ten architects invited to submit their designs for the new building, and the St. Louis-based firm of Link and Cameron won. The co-founder of that firm, German-born engineer and architect Theodore Link, was a doubly appropriate choice because, before beginning his second career as an architect, he had been a railroad employee for many years. Link is said to have used Carcassone, a walled medieval city in Southern France, as the model for the terminal. Union Station is often considered Link's "crowning achievement." The original structure consisted of three areas: the Headhouse, the Midway and the Train Shed. The Headhouse contained ticket offices, a hotel, a Harvey's restaurant and railroad company offices. The Midway, as its name implies, was the midway point where people gathered to greet or say farewell to passengers. The Train Shed (which was designed by George H. Pegram) contained the platforms and tracks and was one of the largest of its kind in the world, spanning eleven-and-a-half acres and containing the greatest number of train tracks within one roof. When it opened on September 1, 1894, the building's size inspired such awe that pundits predicted that the station would not be used to full capacity for a hundred years. However, within a decade, rail traffic was so heavy that the terminal needed to be expanded. The aesthetic centerpiece of Union Station was, and is, the Grand Hall, which consists of a 65-foot barrel vaulted ceiling, Romanesque arches and stained glass windows. The most famous of the latter is the "Allegorical Window" which appears just below the equally famous "Whispering Arch" over the main entrance. The window is "allegorical" because it depicts three women in classical attire who represent the three main railroad terminals in the U.S. at the time: New York, St. Louis and San Francisco. The "Whispering Arch" received its nickname because of an acoustic phenomenon whereby one person speaking softly at one end of the arch can be heard clearly by a person standing dozens of feet away at the arch's other end. Union Station remained very busy and successful up to the end of World War II. But as the popularity of air and highway travel increased, that of rail travel declined. The last train pulled out of the station in October 1978; by that point, time and neglect had taken its toll on the structure. In 1979, Union Station sold for $5.5 million –
less money than it had cost to build 85 years before. However, a major renovation took place in the mid-1980s, in which Conrad Schmitt Studios, by using original paint schemes and newspaper descriptions from the 1890s as guides, restored the original color of the Grand Hall. The project has been called "one of the largest adaptive re-use projects in the United States." Today, Union Station is home to the DoubleTree Hotel and many restaurants. The Metro Link stop at Union Station, however, is one of the few remaining connections to the building's past as one of the great transportation hubs of the world.

Union Station in St. Louis, built in 1894, was once the largest railroad terminal in the world that contained tracks and passenger service areas all on one level. Theodore Link, referred to as "one of the city's greatest architects," was selected out of a closed competition to design the structure. Constructed of Indiana limestone in the then-modern Richardson Romanesque style, it was completed at the staggering cost (for the time) of $6.5 million. It was particularly praised for the beauty of its Grand Hall, with its Romanesque arches, gold leaf embellishment and stained glass windows. 

For 50 years, the terminal was the transportation nucleus of St. Louis, and reached its height during the 1940s, but thereafter its use sharply declined, due partly to the increasing popularity of air travel. However, by the mid-1960s, the Terminal Railroad Association began to study possible uses for the property. In 1968, it was decided to adapt it into a convention center and in the early 1980s, the station was restored at a cost of $150 million. Union Station now serves St. Louis as a tourist attraction, hotel and food court.  


Union Station (St. Louis)

Although some civic leaders opposed the nudity of the two central figures on grounds of public morality, Edith Aloe, the widow of alderman Louis Aloe for which the plaza is named, held her ground in defense of the statue. Louis Aloe had worked for years to secure the approval of bonds that allowed for the construction of downtown infrastructure projects, including this plaza, and her view held sway over many others in a 4-2 vote to accept the artist's design without alteration. However, concerns about the intimacy of the male and female figures led to a slight change in the name of the monument from the original proposal "The Wedding of the Rivers" to "The Meeting of the Waters." Louis Aloe served as the president of the St. Louis Board of Alderman from 1916 to 1923 and in this final year he and his wife worked together to secure passage of a massive bond that financed many construction projects that replaced flophouses and other areas of concentrated vice with the plazas, grand intersections,&nbsp;and fountains that can be found throughout the city. His wife Edith met the Sweedish sculptor Carl Milles at a modern art exhibit in 1930. She was impressed by his work and personally contacted Mr. Milles to create this sculpture to be placed at the center of the plaza that was dedicated in her husband's honor.&nbsp;

Designed in 1937 by artist Carl Milles, this fountain celebrates the meeting of the Missouri River with the Mississippi River. The fountain and its fourteen bronze sculptures that celebrate the river delta were dedicated in 1940 and they have been an official city landmark since 1971. At the time, and at several moments during the next three decades, the statue has been a subject of controversy and discussion about the nature of art owing to the nudity of the sculpture's two central figures, a man and a woman, who face one another with outstretched and arms.  

Meeting of the Waters Fountain, St. Louis

What was once an old shoe factory in
the Great Depression is now an astounding museum enjoyed by the young and the
old alike. Bob Cassilly, a creative classically trained sculptor and building
contractor’s son, used his creative mind to open his astonishing tourist
attraction in the middle of the largely abandoned field of warehouses in
downtown St. Louis on October 25th, 1997. &nbsp;Although the museum is seen as a children’s museum,
Cassiliy has said that the it was meant for visitors of all ages. The City
Museum of St. Louis attracted 300,000 visitors per year just two years after
its opening. Cassilly was in the process of completing another project, called
Cementland, but was killed in 2011 when his bulldozer flipped over.

&nbsp;The museum grounds feature a giant urban
playground that Cassilly and his crew of 20 artisans, known as the “Cassilly
Crew” constructed from all sorts of repurposed materials---objects that were
donated by the people of St. Louis. The jungle gym is full of secret
passageways, including multi-story slides that drop into underground caves that
were originally the parts of its former shoe factory where workers would drop
shoes through chutes. Its most prominent features include a fully-functioning
Ferris Wheel and an old school bus that was donated by the Roxana School District
that sit atop the roof.&nbsp;<blockquote>“City Museum makes you want to know,” said Cassilly.
“The point is not to learn every fact, but to say, ‘Wow, that's wonderful.' And
if it's wonderful, it's worth preserving.”4&nbsp;</blockquote>The museum constantly continues to
grow and change, thanks to the hard work of the Cassilly Crew. &nbsp;It also offers days for
homeschool groups and workshops and overnight visits for Girl Scouts and
families.

&nbsp;Inside the museum, the first
floor and the Mezzine levels allow visitors to walk on a mosaic tiled floor and
view columns decorated with aquarium creatures and oyster shells. This area is
used for group events, performances and presentations. The Vault Room on the
second floor, also available for group rental of the museum is embedded with
St. Louis relics, a hallway of mirrors, and a marble bar. This floor also housed the World
Aquarium where visitors could visit sea creatures such as sharks, turtles, and
stingrays but was closed in 2015 after being in the museum for 11 years. This
was due to the fact that the museum did not promote it very much, so visitors
did not know it was there, and also because they had to pay a separate
admission fee for it. The aquarium is now located at the St. Louis Riverfront.&nbsp; &nbsp;

Established in 1997, St. Louis's City Museum was built by internationally acclaimed artist, Bob Cassilly. The museum was constructed largely from repurposed architectural and industrial objects and is housed in the former International Shoe building in the Washington Avenue Loft District of St. Louis. The 600,000 square-foot museum is an eclectic mixture of children's playground and museum with fantastical caves, funhouse exhibits, rides, and surrealistic architectural wonders. The museum attracts about 740,000 visitors each year, more than double of St. Louis's population.

City Museum

In the mid 1850s, the area where the Campbell House is situated
was named Lucas place. It was the first suburban clearly defined wealthy neighborhood,
a very expensive, upscale residential neighborhood with very large homes. 

Built in 1851, the first house in this elegant Lucas Place
neighborhood, the Campbell House was built by &nbsp;John H. Hall (born in 1801 in Kentucky) who,
along with his business partner James F. Donaldson (born about 1800 in
Maryland), owned a hardware, cutlery, and mechanics tools store. Hall sold the property
at 1508 Lucas Place to Cornelia Wilson in April 1853, witch lived here for only
one year. In 1854 Robert Campbell, legendary fur trader and merchant, became
its third owner, and the house remained in his family for more than 80 years, until
1938.

After settling in St. Louis, Campbell began an important
business career which included the fur trade, dry goods, steamboats, banks and
real estate. He also helped develop places like Kansas City and El Paso, Texas.
At the end of this career, Campbell owned the Southern Hotel, the biggest hotel
in St. Louis. When Campbell died in 1879, he was considered the wealthiest man
in Missouri. 

Two of Campbell's sons, Hugh and Hazlett, continued to live
in the house after Robert's death. After Hazlett's death in 1938 the house was
willed to Yale University and it was put it up for sale. The furnishings were
sent to the Selkirk Gallery to be auctioned. Stix, Baer and Fuller, a local
department store, bought the home in 1941 as part of its 50th anniversary
celebration and gave it to the Campbell House Foundation, a group that was
formed to turn the home into a museum. The Foundation raised enough funds to go
to Selkirk Gallery to buy back 90 per cent of the Campbell furnishings. The
house was opened as a museum in 1943 showcasing Victorian furnishings and
decorative arts.

In 1973 an important album of 60 photographs was donated to
the Museum. The photos, dating from about 1885, show the house interior, exterior
and surrounding neighborhood. The discovery of the Campbell House photo album
allowed for accurate restoration of the interior of the rooms and after the exterior
in 2005, returning the building to its opulent 1880s appearance. 

The house was one of the centers of St. Louis society,
hosting notable Americans as President Ulysses S. Grant, General William
Tecumseh Sherman and Sioux Chieftain Red Cloud. It is the only surviving
building from the Lucas Place neighborhood.

Since opening in 1943, the Campbell House Museum has served the greater St. Louis area as one of the nation’s premier historic property museums.
The house served as a family home of Robert Campbell from 1851 to 1938. The Museum preserves not only the Campbell’s house, the family home of Robert Campbell—a prominent figure in the history of St. Louis and of the American West— but also the family’s collection of original furniture, fixtures, paintings,  letters, objects , thousands of pages of family documents, and unique album of 60 interior photographs taken in the mid-1880s. 
In 2000, the Museum began a meticulous restoration project that returned the building to its opulent 1880s appearance, when the house was one of the centers of St. Louis society. The museum  is considered to be one of the best preserved mid-Victorian house museums in the United States.

Campbell House Museum

The initiative to construct a memorial plaza and memorial building to honor the citizens of St. Louis, who made the ultimate sacrifice in the World War I, began in 1923. Over the course of several years, the city of St. Louis and its citizens raised money for the project. Under the leadership of Mayor Bernard F. Dickmann, in 1933 additional funds were raised, and with the help of money from the federal Relief and Recovery Act, the construction of the building began in 1935. President Franklin D. Roosevelt traveled to St. Louis to dedicate the site on October 14th, 1936, and the memorial and the museum officially opened to the public on Memorial Day, May 30th, 1938.&nbsp;

The Soldiers’ Memorial, located between Market and Pine and 13th and 14th Streets, is the first of the two war memorials in St. Louis completed in honor of World War I veterans. Soldiers' Memorial Military Museum was dedicated by Franklin D. Roosevelt, as a memorial for veterans and as a museum for preserving a historic collection of military artifacts, on October 14th, 1936.
 
Two museum galleries contain a collection of military-related objects of both local and national historical significance, such as photographs, posters and printed materials, uniforms, flags, medals, firearms, edged weapons, and a range of war-time memorabilia from the battlefront and the homefront.
  
The building was designed by St. Louis architectural firm Mauran, Russell & Crowell in a stripped Classical style, with a severely simplified form and limited ornament. Notable features include the massive stone columnns with carved stone panels between the columnns that bear the faces of war veterans. On the north and south sides of the building are large stone statues of winged horses and martial looking men and women, representing courage, loyalty, vision, and sacrifice.

Soldiers Memorial Military Museum

The Christ Church Episcopal congregation, consisting of 26 people, was formed in 1819, four years before St. Louis was chartered as a city. The first Christ Church was constructed ten years later, at the corner of Third and Chestnut. A decade after that, the congregation moved to a church two blocks away, at Fifth and Chestnut. However, due to the rapid growth of the congregation in the middle of the 19th Century, the organization purchased land at the corner of 13th and Locust for a new, larger structure. Designs for a Gothic cathedral and cost estimates were requested of four distinguished architects: Leopold Eidlitz of New York, John Notman of Philadelphia, Calvin N. Otis of Buffalo and Richard Upjohn of New York. The design created by Eidlitz, a Prague-born architect trained in Vienna, was the one approved in July 1959, and construction was begun soon afterwards. However, the church's timing was poor, as within two years the Civil War began, so that men, materials and money suddenly became very scarce. Consequently, several features of the original design, such as a tower and rose window, had to be abandoned. The opening service was held on Christmas Day, 1867. The church became the cathedral of the Diocese of Missouri in 1888. The church has been described as, "Fourteenth century 
Second Pointed or Early English Decorated, and the plan is cruciform, 
with shallow transepts and apsidal chancel." The original nave was 121-feet long. There are galleries in the north and south transepts. A new tower, designed by Kivas Tully, as well as large, steel-cast silver bells that were cast in a German foundry, were dedicated in 1912. The Bishop Tuttle Memorial Building, designed deliberately to harmonize with the design of the main church, was constructed in 1927-1928, and contains parish offices, a bookstore and a homeless shelter. The reredos behind the altar, carved between 1909 and 1911 from cream-colored stone, comprises 52 religious figures and biblical scenes. Its sections were shipped to the cathedral in 230 cases. The church was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1994. The original stained glass windows, executed by Owen Doremus of Montclair, New Jersey, were described in 1867 as "of the most gorgeous colors and truly artistic in design and workmanship." (Some replacement windows were added in the late 19th and early-to-mid 20th Centuries.) The church is a frequent venue for musical performances. The church organ, which contains over 5000 pipes, is a combination pipe and electronic organ of the Aeolian-Skinner type. The long-running Shepley Concert Series currently held at the church is described as, "Promoting aspiring and established musicians, artists and actors through concerts, exhibits and theater at Christ Church Cathedral in downtown St. Louis for over one hundred years."

Christ Church Cathedral is an Episcopal church which was constructed at its present location beginning in 1859, with the opening service held in 1867. (The eight-year delay was primarily due to the Civil War.) It was designed by New York-based architect  Leopold Eidlitz in the Gothic Revival style, emulating the style of the English 14th Century. It is constructed in a cruciform (i.e., cross-shaped) plan and is made of Illinois sandstone; a tower and porch made of Indiana limestone were added by 1912. The interior of the cathedral is most renowned for four features: the steel church bells, dating from 1912; the large combination pipe and electronic organ, built in 1965; its imposing stained-glass windows; and the sculpted wall rising over 30 feet behind the main altar, called the reredos. The cathedral still functions as a local parish, as well as a diocesan seat. The structure was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.


Christ Church Cathedral (St. Louis)

The National Blues Museum aims to tell the story of how blues emerged from the slave plantations and evolved as former slaves traveled northwards, settling in St. Louis, Chicago, and other northern cities. The museum celebrates the music that would eventually be the basis for Jazz, Rock &amp; Roll, Funk, and R&amp;B, featuring interactive exhibits, photographs, guitars and some outfits worn by blues legends. It opened on April 2nd, 2016 and was designed by internationally-recognized museum design firm, Gallagher &amp; Associates. The museum also offers performances, lectures, film showings, and other events. William Christopher
(W. C.) Handy was said to be “The Father of the Blues”. Born on in 1873 in
Florence, Alabama, Handy grew up in a strict household where he was forbidden
to play any musical instruments, but secretly bought a guitar that he would practice
with. He could also play many others, including the piano and organ and was
particularly skilled with the trumpet. In 1892, he left Alabama to travel to
the Midwest where he would join various other music groups. Through 1900-02, he
worked as a teacher, and then the next year, Handy conducted his own orchestra
called The Knights of Pythia, in Mississippi up until 1921. During those years,
he would arrange harmonizing tunes, influenced by the music by the Mississippi
Delta and Memphis, Tennessee. He joined Harry Pace and they would form a music
company that would become the Handy and Pace Music Company. Handy’s music had a
melodic element to it, which can be heard in his “Memphis Blue’s”, a campaign
song that he wrote for elections in Tennessee that was the first example of
music to be written and published as sheet music. The origins
of blues can be traced back to the 19th Century in Northwestern
Mississippi where it was being sung by former slaves and would eventually
spread to the rest of the South and the rest of the U.S. The Blues music that
was performed would often accompany those who were traveling, such as doctors,
musicians, circuses, etc. that would go anywhere to be able to share their
music. There were also many different styles of blues music such as ballads,
folk music, gospel, and ragtime. The music had both melancholy and upbeat tunes,
for both the hard times and the pleasures of life. The crowds were often
segregated due to the Jim Crow Laws.&nbsp;

During the time, thousands of settlers would travel along the Mississippi
and Missouri rivers, that would become known as the “Gateway to the West”. By
1890, St. Louis was the 4th largest city in the U.S. as it became a
place where people could exchange new ideas and old traditions, especially in
regards to music. African Americans who were former slaves would be important
contributors to the development of blues, ragtime and jazz by combining their traditional music based with
the tunes they would hear in bands, parlors, and dance. Blues music
would continue to grow and evolve in St. Louis into the early 20th Century.
Jazz and swing would become popular in the 1930’s and 40’s. After World War II,
blues music became electric and would turn into what we now know as R&amp;B and
Rock and Roll, with musicians such as Chuck Berry and Tina Turner.&nbsp; 

&nbsp;

The National Blues Museum opened to the public in 2016 in what was once a downtown St. Louis department store for nearly a century. One of the goals of the museum is to educate those about music and its importance when speaking of America’s culture, race, and diversity. Blues is the foundation for nearly all music that became popular, such as jazz and rock and roll. The museum encourages even those who are not blues fans to visit in order to gain appreciation for the music. The Blues Museum holds various events, including live music, and visitors can sign up for a newsletter on the official website to find out more about them. 

National Blues Museum

In 1763, a French fur trapper named Pierre Laclede, along with Auguste Chouteau, set out from New Orleans to explore the Illinois Country to establish a trading post.&nbsp;In 1764, he chose the west bank of the Mississippi River, north of the River des Peres and south of the Missouri River. In 1784, the site was cleared and temporary cabins were built. Laclede named the settlement St. Louis in honor of the patron saint of the king of France. The village of St. Louis contained three streets: La Grande Rue, now First Street; Rue d'Eglise, now Second Street; and Rue des Granges, now Third Street. Soon the village became the center of commerce with furs as the main source of exchange for goods. Today, Laclede's Landing is&nbsp;an entertainment district with a variety of&nbsp;shopping, dining, and entertainment options.

Laclède's Landing is a small urban historic district in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. It marks the northern part of the original settlement founded by the Frenchman Pierre Laclède, whose landing on the riverside the name commemorates.

Laclede's Landing

This new museum located offers a unique&nbsp;educational experience that will offer a deeper understanding of the economy. The museum offers a number of&nbsp;educational resources on its website&nbsp;as well as a mobile app that includes lessons about economic history.&nbsp;Inside the museum, visitors will&nbsp;learn about the&nbsp;economy by using "displays, games, sculptures, and videos."The museum is divided into zones 1-5. Each zone focuses on specific factors that affect the economy. By interacting with these exhibits, the visitor can learn their place in the economy and how their actions affect the economy. Begin your visit with a video that "transforms the teller lobby from historic to modern, then setting the stage for your dynamic experience!"2 Learn about spending, trade and the market, history of the Reserve, and more on the economy. After your visit, you won't go home empty handed. The museum gives you a bag of shredded money to carry out as a souvenir! Plan to visit this new museum and all its interactive exhibits. Bring your Identification and children must be accompanied by an adult. Check out the official website for more details and enjoy your visit to St. Louis' INSIDE THE ECONOMY MUSEUM!

The Federal Reserve of St. Louis features the Inside the Economy Museum. Located near the Gateway Arch, the museum offers nearly 100 exhibits. With interactive exhibits, you will have the opportunity to experience how inflation is affected by expenses as well as have the opportunity, at one exhibit, to use your sense of smell to understand the economy!  Learn the history of the Federal Reserve as well as other interesting information such as the changing economy during the history of the United States when you visit this fascinating new museum. 

Federal Reserve of St. Louis/Inside the Economy Museum

<div>In 1816 Auguste Chouteau and Judge John B.C. Lucas donated land to St. Louis County for a courthouse near the St. Louis riverfront. Built between 1839 and 1864, this Greek Revival,
three-story, brick and stone structure was designed by several architects over
the period of its construction (Henry Singleton, William Twombly, George I.
Barnett, Robert S. Mitchell, Thomas D. F. Lanham, and William Ruumbold) , and
has been altered several times, including a major restoration and remodeling
completed in 1942. Basically a Greek Cross in plan, the junction of the four wings
forms a central rotunda surmounted by a Renaissance style cast-iron dome and
lantern. In the interior of the rotunda, the first three-stories are Greek
Revival, but the later, upper levels, including the dome and lantern are Late
Renaissance, almost Baroque, in style.This upper dome is the first cast iron dome ever built. It was erected in 1862 and still stands today as part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. The dome features four beautiful frescoes created by Carl Wimar, a German immigrant famous for his paintings of American Indian lifestyles and westward expansion. The four murals align with the four cardinal directions, and
each depicts a significant event in St. Louis’ history that occurred in that
direction: Hernando DeSoto encountering the Mississippi River in 1541, Pierre
Laclede and Auguste Chouteau founding St. Louis in 1764, the British-led
Revolutionary War attack on St. Louis in 1780, and the proposed
transcontinental railroad route through the Rocky Mountains’ Cochetopa Pass.
Allegorical and portraits of famous Americans were painted over other Wimar
originals by Ettore Miragoli in 1880.</div><div>The Old Courthouse was the site of hundreds of suits for freedom, but one gained notoriety - It was the scene of Dred Scott’s historic slavery trial in 1847, which focused national attention on the slavery issue. Scott won his case in St. Louis but the decision was
overturned in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1857. The court ruled that Scott was not
a citizen and therefore not entitled to sue. The decision served as a flashpoint
for the start of the Civil War. After the decision, Scott and his wife Harriett
were freed by their owner. Scott died in 1858.&nbsp;The Old Courthouse features an exhibition on this pivotal event, called “Dred Scott: A Legacy of Courage.” Re-creations of the trial are conducted throughout the year at the Old Courthouse, and Scott’s grave can be visited at Calvary Cemetery.&nbsp;The last known slave sale in St. Louis was held as part of a property settlement on the steps of the Old Courthouse in 1861. A large anti-slavery crowd refused to bid, and slave traders never tried it again in St. Louis.&nbsp; It is also the place where Virginia Minor's case for a woman's right to vote came to trial in the 1870s. Virginia Minor was an officer in the National Woman Suffrage
Association, which during the 1872 presidential election decided to challenge
voting restrictions in the United States which excluded women. The nation-wide
movement of 1872 originated with Virginia and her husband Francis Minor.
Virginia Minor’s attempt to register to vote was refused by the ward registrar
in St. Louis, and the Minors sued him in the St. Louis Circuit court.&nbsp; </div>

The Old Courthouse in downtown St. Louis is one of America’s most important historic sites. The courthouse used to be a combination of a federal and a state courthouse. The courthouse building was the tallest building in Missouri until 1896, when Union Station was built. Today it is one of the centerpieces in the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, together with the mighty Gateway Arch. It features restored courtrooms, a decorated dome, Dioramas, the "Gateway To The West" film and galleries depicting the history of St. Louis. Over the past 150 years, Old Courthouse remained as one of the St. Louis’ most prominent architectural landmarks. 

Old Courthouse - Jefferson National Expansion Memorial

Dred Scott was born in Virginia around 1799 as property of
the Peter Blow family. He was illiterate and had spent his entire life as a
slave. Dred Scott moved to St. Louis with the Blows in 1830, but was soon sold
due to his master's financial problems. He was purchased by Dr. John Emerson
and accompanied him to Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory, which had
prohibited slavery by the Missouri Compromise of 1820. During this period, Dred
Scott married Harriet Robinson, also a slave, and had two children, Lizzie and Eliza.
John Emerson later married Irene Sanford. In 1842, the Scott's returned with the
Emerson’s to St. Louis where John Emerson died the following year. It is
believed that Mrs. Emerson hired out Dred Scott, Harriet, and their children to
work for other families.&nbsp;On April 6th, 1846, Dred Scott and his wife Harriet filed
suit against Irene Emerson for their freedom. Scott had previously lived in
free territories, yet made no attempt to end his servitude. There are several
theories as why Dred Scott waited to petition for his freedom - the theme
between each being that Scott felt it was not detrimental to seek a life
elsewhere. In fact, his original owners, the Blows family, by most accounts
treated Scott fairly well, albeit he remained a slave. This could account for
Scott waiting to petition for his freedom. The exact reason for Scott
petitioning for his freedom is not known, although historians have considered
three possibilities: He may have been dissatisfied with being hired out by Mrs.
Emerson; Mrs. Emerson might have been planning to sell him which would have
meant a great chance of a rough life working tirelessly under a brutally-strict
slave owner; or he may have offered to buy his own freedom and been refused by
Mrs. Emerson. It is known, however, that the suit was not brought for the
political reason of abolition of slavery. 

It is thought that friends in St. Louis who opposed slavery encouraged
Scott to sue for his freedom on the grounds that he had once lived in a free
territory. In the past, Missouri courts supported the doctrine of "once
free, always free”, and for this reason many in the North, in addition to their
collective inclination to support abolition, felt that Dred Scott could win his
case. The case would encompass eleven years from its birth on April 6th, 1846
to a resolution on March 6, 1857. 

As he was illiterate, Dred Scott needed help with his suit.
John Anderson, the Scott's minister, may have been influential in their
decision to sue and the Blow family, Dred's original owners, backed him
financially. Support of those around them helped the Scott’s through this
trying time as the case would encompass eleven years from its birth on April
6th, 1846 to a resolution on March 6, 1857. A chilling reminder of such
unimaginable difficulties during this period can be noted within the body
language of Harriet and Dred Scott in their dedication statue. 

In 1850, the state court finally declared Scott free.
However, Scott's wages had been withheld pending the resolution of his case,
and during that time Mrs. Emerson remarried and left her brother, John Sanford,
to deal with her affairs. Mr. Sanford, unwilling to pay the back wages owed to
Scott, appealed the decision to the Missouri Supreme Court. The court
overturned the lower court's decision and ruled in favor of Sanford. Scott then
filed another lawsuit in a federal circuit court claiming damages against
Sanford's brother for Sanford's alleged physical abuse against
him. The Missouri court&nbsp;ruled that Scott could not sue in federal court because he had
already been deemed a slave under Missouri law. Scott appealed to the U.S.
Supreme Court, which reviewed the case in 1856.&nbsp;

It is difficult to understand today, but under the law in
1846 whether or not the Scotts were entitled to their freedom was not as
important as the consideration of property rights. Slaves were considered
property rather than people, however, sweeping verification of this by a
Supreme Court decision had not yet taken place before this case. Therefore, the
Supreme Court’s verdict in Dred Scott vs. Stanford on March 6, 1857, decided
several imperative facts that had overwhelming implications across an already
divided society.&nbsp; On the south lawn of the Old Courthouse in St. Louis, the Dred
and Harriet Scott Statue Dedication depicts the pair as close, holding their
heads high, hands strongly and passionately intertwined,&nbsp;their eyes directed not only Arch-ward and across the Mississippi
River, but toward a horizon of freedom in which they believed enough to one day
finally see.&nbsp;

On April 6, 1846, a slave named Dred Scott and his wife, Harriet, sued for their freedom from their slave owner Irene Emerson in the St. Louis’ Old Courthouse.  The case itself spanned nine years, and at its conclusion saw the decision favor of Ms. Emerson by way of retaining the services of Dred and Harriet Scott. The Supreme Court decided the case in 1857; Chief Justice Roger B. Taney announced the decision in the case of Dred Scott v. Sanford. He stated that Americans of African ancestry were not eligible to be citizens, based on the historical claim that they "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect." This meant that Americans of African descent, whether free or slave, were not American citizens and could not sue in federal court. Furthermore, The Court also made clear its intentions to uphold slavery in the United States by ruling that Congress lacked power to ban slavery. Finally, the Court declared that the rights of slave owners were constitutionally protected by the Fifth Amendment because slaves were categorized as property. As a result, the issue of slavery further divided the North from the South and thus expediting the start of the Civil War. It is therefore believe that this case is one of the most important ever to be tried in the United States. On the south lawn of the Old Courthouse in St. Louis, the Dred and Harriet Scott Statue depicts the pair as close, holding their heads high, hands held together for loving support. This was a trying time for the Scott's, a time which would test their character and resolve. 


Dred and Harriet Scott Statue 

The Gateway Arch, designed by the late Eero Saarinen, soars 630 feet above the banks of the Mississippi River, serving as the centerpiece of the Thomas Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. Saarinen’s submission was selected ahead of 172 others in an architectural competition to select the most appropriate design to symbolize St. Louis’s role as the Gateway to the West. Sadly, the Finnish born Saarinen, a graduate of Yale University, passed away from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1961 and never lived to see his masterpiece. The Jefferson Memorial site was set in motion in 1935 by
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to celebrate Jefferson’s role in the
Louisiana Purchase and America’s territorial expansion to the West, but the
lasting effects of World War II and the onset of the Korean War in 1950 halted
the completion of the project for several years. During that time the necessary
funds were raised to realize the Arch, still the tallest monument in the United
States, with Roosevelt chipping in $3 from the government to match every dollar
raised by the city of St. Louis. The inverted catenary arch, the shape formed
by a chain of flexible cord hung between two points, was finally completed in October
of 1965 at a cost of $13 million. Saarinen’s stainless steel Arch is more complex and subtle
than the pure geometric form of a catenary arch, with heavier links on its ends
and progressively smaller links towards its apex, making its shape much rounder
than a pure catenary. The Arch was built in triangular sections with larger
sections at the base that continue to get smaller as it works its way up 630
feet. All 142 sections are equilateral triangles of carbon steel on the
interior and stainless steel on the exterior, held together by welded steel rods.
The small spaces between the double walls are filled with concrete up to the
300-foot level on each side, and each section is welded to the one above it.
The result is that the structural framework is the steel and concrete skin
itself.





The outer width of the Gateway Arch, from the North leg to
the South leg, matches the height of the arch at 630 feet. Each leg at the base
is 54 feet in dimension, with the apex piece of the arch at 17 feet. The margin
of error to make sure the constructed legs would meet at the apex was a mere
1/64th of an inch, incredibly realized with the relatively crude instruments
available at the time. The need for a high-strength, flexible mortar from
LATICRETE for the surrounding pavers is magnified by the Arch’s need to sway in
high winds. In 150 mile-per-hour winds, the Arch will sway a maximum of 18
inches, nine in each direction.The two bases of the Arch are equilateral triangles (triangles with three 54 foot-long sides). At the top of the arch, the triangle is only 17 feet long on each side. Visitors enter the arch from an underground Visitor’s center, and can travel to the observation deck at the top in a 40-passenger tram that runs inside the arch.

The Gateway Arch is a monument to western expansion and is the centerpiece of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial which pays tribute to the Louisiana Purchase. Intended to revitalize the crumbling St. Louis riverfront, city boosters envisioned a memorial park and monument as early as 1933. Construction began in 1963 and the arch was completed in 1965. At 630 feet, the Gateway Arch is the tallest man-made monument in the United States. It is also the world's tallest arch.

Gateway Arch, St. Louis

In 1764 a log structure was built in present-day St. Louis to serve as a Catholic church. For many years it was the only church in the area. The church, like the rest of the city, was named St. Louis after King Louis IX of France, a Catholic saint. In 1776 a larger church was built to replace the original. It was at this church that Sacagawea's son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, was baptized. In 1826, St. Louis became a diocese, and, the following
year, Bishop Joseph Rosati became the first bishop of the Diocese of St. Louis. The present-day stone cathedral church&nbsp;was built in 1834. Designed by Morton and Laveill, construction costed over $63,000. It became the first Catholic cathedral west of the Mississippi.&nbsp;Church membership continued to grow and in 1914 it was replaced with the construction of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis. The 1834 church remained popular however and became known as the "Old Cathedral." It was the only building in the neighborhood to be spared demolition for the creation of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in 1959. In 1961 Pope John XXIII officially designated the Old Cathedral as a basilica, naming it the Basilica of St. Louis, the King. It was also added to the National Register of Historic Places.The Old Cathedral most recently underwent a massive $15 million restoration, the first since 1959. The renovations included restoring the interior to its nineteenth century appearance. Today the church continues to hold regular services and can be booked for weddings. It also has a museum containing items relating to the Catholic history of St. Louis.

The Basilica of St. Louis King of France, affectionately known as the Old Cathedral, was the first cathedral west of the Mississippi River and until 1845 the first and only parish church in the city of St. Louis. The church was founded in 1770. It sits just west of the Gateway Arch and is surrounded by the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial grounds.  It is the oldest building still standing in the city of St. Louis that remains in the hands of its original owner. 

Basilica of St. Louis, King of France - The Old Cathedral

The new&nbsp;Busch Stadium (occasionally called Busch Stadium III)&nbsp;was completed in 2006 and like its for-bearers, it is located downtown. The stadium has a capacity of&nbsp;43,975 and is located next to an entertainment district that allows thousands of additional fans to enjoy the ballpark atmosphere. In order to maintain naming rights to the stadium, Anheuser-Busch agreed to a&nbsp;twenty-year sponsorship agreement. The Cardinals franchise has a rich history, winning a total of eleven World Series Championships and&nbsp;hosting five All-Star Games. Some notable Cardinal players that are currently in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York include: Lou Brock, Steve Carlton, Dennis Eckersley, Bob Gibson, Stan Musial, Ozzie Smith, and Cy Young. Bob Gibson won a total of two Cy Young Awards for the best pitcher in the league in 1968 and 1970. Chris Carpenter won a Cy Young in 2005. Shortstop Ozzie Smith won eleven straight Gold Glove Awards for best fielder by position from 1982-1992. Overall, it is obvious that the St. Louis Cardinals have had many historical seasons headline by many great players to ever play the game of baseball. One of the most prestigious views in all of baseball, fans greatly enjoy the walk into Busch Stadium, with the Gateway Arch beyond the center field wall. The first game played at Busch Stadium was on April 10, 2006, when the Cardinals squared off against the Milwaukee Brewers. Starting pitcher&nbsp;Mark Mulder delivered the first official pitch of the game, while Albert Pujols hit the first homerun for the Cardinals&nbsp;in the third inning, leading them to a 6-4 victory. 2006 was a memorable year for the St. Louis Cardinals, as they went on to the postseason eventually winning the World Series, making them the first team in Major League Baseball history to win a World Series in the inaugural year of a new stadium. Under longtime manager Tony La Russa, the Cardinals defeated the Padres two three games to one in the Division Series, defeated the New York Mets four games to three in the Championship Series, and defeated the Detroit Tigers four games to one to win the World Series. Since it opened in 2006, Busch Stadium&nbsp;has hosted&nbsp;one All-Star in 2009. A crowd of 46,760 people jammed Busch Stadium on July 14, 2009 for the 80th Annual All-Star Game. Ryan Franklin, Yadier Molina, and Albert Pujols&nbsp;were the lone Cardinal players to be voted in to participate in the All-Star Game. Unfortunately, the American League defeated the National league by a score of 4-3, meaning that the American League Championship Series winner would have home-field advantage in the World Series.

The most recent home to the St. Louis Cardinals, Busch Stadium opened on April 10, 2006 and replaced the city's former Major League Ballpark, Busch Memorial Stadium. One of the most storied franchises in baseball history, the Cardinals have won eleven World Series championships and became the first team in over a century to win a championship in the inaugural season of a new ballpark. 

Busch Stadium

The brewery, opened in 1852, is a National Historic Landmark District, and includes three buildings listed as National Historic Landmarks. Free public tours of the brewery are given. The tour takes visitors through the complex, and those of the legal age can enjoy two free glasses of any Anheuser-Busch product in the Hospitality Room after the tour. Tourists can see beer being made and packaged in a working part of the brewery.


The company keeps a rotation of its famous Budweiser Clydesdales at its headquarters, and visitors to the brewery can observe the Clydesdales in their exercise field and see their places in the carriage house. Some of the herd is kept at the company farm in St. Louis County. The farm, known as Grant's Farm (having been owned by former President Ulysses S. Grant at one time), is home to a menagerie of animals such as elephants, tortoises, and a variety of exotic hooved mammals. Since 2008, approximately half of the Budweiser Clydesdales are kept at the Warm Springs Ranch near Boonville Missouri.


The brewery was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1966.

Anheuser-Busch Brewery

The tower was put into service in August, 1899. The
superstructure was completed by November 30, 1899. The Compton Hill Water Tower
is important as an architect designed landmark within its neighborhood, in
which it has been the tallest constructed element for three-quarters of a
century. The tower was removed from service as a standpipe in 1929. Since
1958-1959 the tower has supported the St. Louis Water Division's radio antenna
used to dispatch and relay messages to the Division's fleet of service vehicles
throughout the city.

The tower exemplifies the work of Ellis, an inventive
designer in the Richardsonian-Romanesque tradition of the late 19th
century. It is a robust design in limestone, buff brick, and terra cotta
composed of three major elements: 1) a stone foundation forming a podium for
the shafts, proceeding to a height of 34 feet; &nbsp;2) two tangential shafts, one square in plan,
the second, smaller, and circular in plan, continuing for the next 101 feet in
height; 3) the terminus and roof area. 

The Compton Hill Water Tower is one of only seven surviving
such towers in the United States (two others are also in St. Louis). It was
listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972. The Compton Hill
Water Tower is the latest of the three St. Louis towers. These towers provided
an essential function within the city bringing the water supply to their
neighborhoods, and thereby improving the attractiveness of the neighborhoods
for residential and other development. The standpipes aided in reducing the
intensity of the water pressure pulse as it left the reciprocating pumps
creating an even-pressured flow of water to consumers. The towers are exceptional
structures for having their utilitarian function housed in an architect
designed masonry sheath. The combination of engineering and architectural
inventiveness gave services to the neighborhood, and a handsome landmark as
well.

The Compton Hill Water Tower was designed by Harvey Harvey Ellis, a designer-draftsman in the employ of architect, George R. Mann in St. Louis. The tower was constructed in 1897-1899 and is preserved as a mid-19th century engineering masterpiece. The tower is centered on the western edge of Reservoir Park, an attractive urban park, in the "Near South Side" of St. Louis City. East of the tower is the roofed-over Compton Hill Reservoir which is still used for water storage. 
The Water Tower was built to disguise a standpipe in its interior.  It was designed as part of the city's public water supply system. The standpipe helped to control the dangerous surges in the city's pipes caused by the reciprocating pumps and maintain an even water pressure. Occasionally, the observation deck at the top of the water tower is opened to the public, allowing visitors to see 360-degree panoramic views of the city.
The tower exemplifies the work of Ellis, an inventive designer in the Richardsonian-Romanesque tradition of the late 19th century. It is a robust design in limestone, buff brick, and terra cotta.

Compton Hill Water Tower

Henry Shaw arrived in St. Louis in 1819, when it was a small French village and trade center. His timing could not have been better, and he amassed a fortune as a merchant and landowner that mirrored the city's growth. He also made considerable revenue by selling equipment to pioneers who departed from St. Louis along various western trails. Shaw retired at the age of 40 and traveled extensively. He also pursued a passion in botany, a hobby that led to the establishment of the nearby botanical gardens. The gardens were part of his estate which encompassed the present-day park. In 1859, Shaw donated these lands, the gardens, and a considerable fortune for the construction of pavilions and other public spaces throughout Tower Grove Park. He also donated money to create a hospital, schools, and donated funds that led to the creation of the Missouri Historical Society. He also&nbsp;supported the endowments of several&nbsp;area colleges.&nbsp; After 100 years of use as a private home, school, dormitory, and office building, the house underwent meticulous renovation. Furniture and materials once belonging to Shaw were located and returned. It opened to the public in 1953. Tower Grove House was rededicated on October 29, 2005 after another period of extensive restoration. The house has been restored to reflect Shaw’s original country home. Many of the 19th century furnishings belonged to Shaw; others are of the same era.Today, staff and volunteers encourage visitors to take a step back in time and experience the country home of Henry Shaw. Artifacts and furniture that belonged to&nbsp;Shaw are on display. Timelines help visitors discover how Tower Grove House was used after 1889. Voices from the past tell stories of those who helped build the Missouri Botanical Garden.

This 300-acre urban park and botanical garden sits on land that belonged to businessman and philanthropist Henry Shaw. Shaw donated the land to build the park and botanical garden, as well as funds to care for its maintenance. The gardens and adjacent park contains Shaw's former estate, the Missouri Botanical Gardens, a dozen pavilions, a lily pond and numerous flower gardens, and several fountains and statues.

Tower Grove House

The Missouri Botanical Garden was founded in 1859 by the Englishman Henry Shaw. Upon arriving in St. Louis in 1819, Shaw became involved in various enterprises such as agriculture, mining, and and real estate. Through these pursuits, he amassed considerable wealth and was able to retire in 1840 at the age of thirty-nine. However, historians have noted that Shaw's financial circumstances were also made possible due to the labor of several enslaved persons from 1822 to 1860. In 1851, Henry Shaw made a trip back to England to view the Great Exhibition of London, which included collections of plants from around the world. Afterwards, he decided to use his wealth to fund philanthropic endeavors in St. Louis, including the construction of a new botanical garden. To accomplish his goal, Shaw sought assistance from the Harvard botanist, Asa Gray, and also from Sir William Hooker, the director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew near London. Shaw also asked the German-American botanist, Dr. George Englemann, to oversee the development of the plant collections.Upon its opening in 1859, the Missouri Botanical Garden offered visitors the opportunity to stroll along outdoor walking paths and to view indoor horticultural displays of tropical plants in greenhouses, similar to what Shaw had observed in London. On site, there was also an herbarium (featuring a collection of botanical specimens) and a research library. From its earliest beginnings, the Missouri Botanical Garden's mission has remained "to discover and share knowledge about plants and their environment in order to preserve and enrich life." The institution continues to curate plant collections, maintain plant records, and advance scientific knowledge through research. Additionally, the Missouri Botanical Garden provides horticultural information to the public through exhibits, classes, and events. It is one of the top botanical gardens worldwide and one of the oldest botanical gardens in the U.S.

Established in 1859 by Henry Shaw, the Missouri Botanical Garden provides the public with access to horticultural displays and plant information, while also advancing scientific knowledge through research. As a museum of plants, the Botanical Garden maintains indoor and outdoor ornamental horticultural displays featuring plants from around the globe. Indoor collections include plants such as orchids, ferns, bromeliads, acacias, yuccas, and cacti. Outdoor collections feature trees such as willow, pine, magnolia, and oak. There is an Italian garden, a rose garden, and perennial gardens with pathways and decorative water features. The Linnean House, built in 1882, is the oldest continuously operated public greenhouse west of the Mississippi River. Designed by George Barnett, it is also the only greenhouse that remains standing from the institution's early decades. Today, the Missouri Botanical Garden is one of the leading botanical gardens worldwide. It was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places and designated a National Historic Landmark in 1976. A major renovation is underway for the Visitors Center, which will update the facility for the 21st century.

Missouri Botanical Garden

The roots of the St. Louis Science Center ultimately reach back before the Civil War. In 1856, the Academy of Science of Saint Louis, the first scientific organization west of the Mississippi, was founded. Its members displayed personal collections and published scientific papers for over 100 years. In 1959, the Academy founded The Museum of Science and Natural History. The museum was originally located in Oak Knoll Park in Clayton, MO. Meanwhile, in 1955, a municipal bond issue approved $1 Million to build a planetarium in St. Louis, which opened on April 1, 1963. The following year it was named The James S. McDonnell Planetarium after its primary benefactor. The building was designed by then-unknown architect Gyo Obata of Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum (he later designed the National Air and Space Museum). It is a hyperboloid structure of poured concrete, no more than 3½ inches thick at its widest point. The planetarium opened during the period of initial space exploration (during the Mercury and Gemini missions)&nbsp;when enthusiasm about space flight was at its peak. In 1983, a city proposal was passed both to save the planetarium and combine it with the already existing Museum of Science and Natural History, which was then moved from Clayton to St. Louis. The current $34 million main building opened on November 2, 1991, and the St. Louis Science Center is now widely considered one of the top five science centers in the United States. It contains more than 700 exhibits spread out over several buildings. At the bottom level of the main building, there are life-sized, animated models of a T-Rex and Triceratops. Among the permanent exhibitions it offers are: Ecology &amp; Environment, which explores tornadoes, earthquakes and paleontology; Cyberville, which includes a Laser Harp (using light instead of strings to make music) and a 3D Design Studio to create your own 3D animation; and the Life Science Lab, which includes the Pacific Coral Reef aquarium and a Vital Science exhibit. The OMNIMAX® theater, a large format film projection system, currently offers the following shows: “Journey to Space,” “Humpback Whales” and “Mysteries of the Unseen World.” (Please note that, though admission to the main building is free, some features within the center are subject to an admissions charge, such as the&nbsp;OMNIMAX® theatre, the Discovery room for children, the Boeing Space Station and special traveling exhibits.)

The St. Louis Science Center, located near the southeast corner of Forest Park, combines what was originally two completely separate institutions: the Museum of Science and Natural History, founded by The Academy of Science of Saint Louis in 1959, and the James S. McDonnell Planetarium, which first opened in 1963. (The two institutions merged in the mid-1980s.) The center's primary mission has been to educate schoolchildren about the mysteries of the universe. Featuring 700 interactive exhibits, it has been called one of the top science centers in the country and one of only two that offers free admission. Around 1.2 million people visit the museum annually. In addition to the Planetarium, the center offers the OMNIMAX® Theatre, a large format, 70mm film projection system, and various permanent exhibitions. 


Museums and Landmarks of St. Louis

Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information