Thanks to those who planned this event. Thanks to everyone who made effort to have the talks and slideshows available for others to partake at a later time. Thanks to the speakers too. I found all of this history extremely interesting.
My ancestor was the original owner of the land to where the north leg of the arch now stands. My grandfather helped put the electricity in the arch. My great grandfather was the head carpenter for all the woodwork in the civil courts building. So all of this history is surrounding those two locations, so it’s of great interest to me. It’s also interesting to me how some of this happened during my lifetime and I was not aware of it. Did I live under a rock? And some of this happened during my parents and grandparents and great grandparents lifetime and I don’t remember them ever talking about it. Except my grandparents used to live where the highway goes over that location now and I wonder if that was part of this expansion. I don’t think they were ever happy about that.
Greed was definitely a component, though I would argue that for the riverfront, it had nothing to do with corporate. It was just a real estate boondoggle.
I was unable to attend this talk, but I would have liked to. My wife and I, new to St. Louis in the early 1980s, attended the demolition of the Buder and International buildings. At the time, the idea of the creation of the mall from the courthouse to the Civic Courts building seemed like a good one, more or less. But then a new building went up, can't remember the name of it, and totally messed with that concept. I've become much more interested in the history and preservation the longer I've lived here (40+ years now). St. Louis was once a beautiful amazing city. I so fear that we are merely living among her ruins now.
Thanks to those who planned this event. Thanks to everyone who made effort to have the talks and slideshows available for others to partake at a later time. Thanks to the speakers too. I found all of this history extremely interesting.
That’s great! I’ll be publishing an article with more detail about the riverfront clearances shortly.
My ancestor was the original owner of the land to where the north leg of the arch now stands. My grandfather helped put the electricity in the arch. My great grandfather was the head carpenter for all the woodwork in the civil courts building. So all of this history is surrounding those two locations, so it’s of great interest to me. It’s also interesting to me how some of this happened during my lifetime and I was not aware of it. Did I live under a rock? And some of this happened during my parents and grandparents and great grandparents lifetime and I don’t remember them ever talking about it. Except my grandparents used to live where the highway goes over that location now and I wonder if that was part of this expansion. I don’t think they were ever happy about that.
Both of these projects combined corporate greed with historical short-sightedness, and the history of St. Louis has suffered from them as a result.
Greed was definitely a component, though I would argue that for the riverfront, it had nothing to do with corporate. It was just a real estate boondoggle.
I was unable to attend this talk, but I would have liked to. My wife and I, new to St. Louis in the early 1980s, attended the demolition of the Buder and International buildings. At the time, the idea of the creation of the mall from the courthouse to the Civic Courts building seemed like a good one, more or less. But then a new building went up, can't remember the name of it, and totally messed with that concept. I've become much more interested in the history and preservation the longer I've lived here (40+ years now). St. Louis was once a beautiful amazing city. I so fear that we are merely living among her ruins now.