St. louis
In 1763 Pierre Laclede and Auguste Chouteau were scouting for
an Indian fur trading location. Pierre Laclede was a partner in
a fur trade company in New Orleans. He took his stepson Auguste
with him on a journey up the Mississippi. After looking over two
sites unsuitable for their needs, they discovered an area with
river access and a bluff to prevent flooding some 18 miles south
of the junction of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. They marked
the site and returned to it one year later to found the settlement
of St. Louis, named for King Louis IX of France.
St. Louis is an independent city completely
surrounded by St. Louis County on the west, and the Mississippi
River on the east,
in the U.S. state of Missouri. Sometimes written as Saint Louis,
the city, which is named after Louis IX of France, is adjacent
to
but not part of St. Louis County, Missouri, thus giving it an
almost-unique situation similar to Baltimore, Maryland in comparison
to other metropolitan areas.
St. Louis is known for its long standing French and German heritage
and Victorian past. While St. Louis has embraced its deep
roots as the Gateway to the West, it also has modernized into
a globally known contributor in the health care and scientific
research fields. The St. Louis renaissance can be attributed to
large scale construction and renovation efforts seen throughout
the city in conjunction with corporate support and strong civic
organizational efforts. St. Louis has seen its population increase
as a direct result of the committed efforts of St. Louisans to
return their city to the grand international status it was once
known
for dating back to the 1904 World's Fair and first Olympic Games
ever held in the United States.
The city has several common nicknames, including
the "Gateway City", "Gateway to the West",
and "Mound City". It is called
"Gateway to the West" because of the many people who
moved west starting near St Louis; first, because the lower Missouri
River was the first leg of the Oregon Trail, and later, because
of wagon trails. The Mound City name originated with the Native
American burial mounds that once were common in the city. These
were removed to fill sink holes filled with stagnant water
that were thought to be a source of cholera. The city is also
sometimes called "St. Louie", "River City",
or "The Lou"
. A popular synonym for St. Louis is "STL" in reference
to the airport code for the city (STL) and a long-standing use
of an interlocked S, T, and L by the St. Louis Cardinals baseball
team. The City of St. Louis lies in the heart of Greater St. Louis,
which includes counties in the states of Missouri and Illinois.
It is the largest metropolitan area in the state of Missouri,
and the
second largest metropolitan area in the state of Illinois.
The St. Louis metropolitan area is the 18th largest in the U.S.,
with 2,786,728 as of the 2005.
History
Prior to the arrival of French explorers in 1673 the area that
would become St. Louis was a major center of the Mississippian
mound builders. The presence of numerous mounds, now almost all
destroyed, earned the later city the nickname of "Mound City."
European exploration of the area had begun
nearly a century before the city was founded. Louis Joliet and
Jacques Marquette,
both French, traveled through the Mississippi River valley in
1673, and five years later, La Salle claimed the entire valley
for France.
He called it "Louisiana" after King Louis XIV; the French
also called their region "Illinois Country." In 1699,
a settlement was
established across the river from what is now St. Louis, at Cahokia.
Other early settlements were downriver at Kaskaskia,
Prairie du Pont, Fort de Chartres, and Sainte Genevieve. In 1703,
Catholic priests established a small mission at what is now
St. Louis. The mission was later moved across the Mississippi,
but the small river at the site (now a drainage channel near the
southern boundary of the City of St. Louis) still bears the name
"River Des Peres" (French Rivière des pères,
River of the Fathers).
In 1763, Pierre Laclède, his 13-year-old
"stepson" Auguste Chouteau, and a small band of men
traveled up the Mississippi from
New Orleans. In November, they landed a few miles downstream of
the river's confluence with the Missouri River at a site where
wooded limestone bluffs rose 40 feet above the river. The men
returned to Fort de Chartres for the winter, but in February,
Laclede sent Chouteau and 30 men to begin construction. The settlement
was established on February 15, 1764.
The settlement began to grow quickly after
word arrived that the 1763 Treaty of Paris had given England all
the land east
of the Mississippi. Frenchmen who had settled to the river's east
moved across the water to "Laclede's Village." Other
early
settlements were established nearby at Saint Charles, Carondelet
(now a part of the city of St. Louis), Fleurissant (renamed
Saint Ferdinand under the Spaniards and now Florissant), and Portage
des Sioux. In 1765, St. Louis was made the capital of
Upper Louisiana.
From 1766 to 1768, St. Louis was governed by
the French lieutenant governor, Louis Saint Ange de Bellerive,
who was not
appointed by French or Spanish authorities, but by the leading
residents of St. Louis. After 1768, St. Louis was governed by
a
series of governors appointed by Spanish authorities, whose administration
continued even after Louisiana was secretly
returned to France in 1800 by the Treaty of San Ildefonso. The
town's population was then about a thousand. During the period
when commandants appointed by Spanish authorities governed St.
Louis, meetings of leading residents were also held from
time to time, and "syndics" were sometimes elected to
carry out certain governmental tasks.
St. Louis was acquired from France by the United States under
President Thomas Jefferson in 1803, as part of the Louisiana
Purchase. The transfer of power from Spain was made official in
a ceremony called "Three Flags Day." On March 8, 1804,
the
Spanish flag was lowered and the French one raised. On March 10,
the French flag was replaced by the United States flag.
French continued, along with English, to be one of the major spoken
and written languages in St. Louis until the 1820s.
St. Louis first became legally incorporated
as a town on November 9, 1809, though it elected its first municipal
legislators
(called trustees) in 1808.
The Lewis and Clark Expedition left the St.
Louis area in May 1804, reached the Pacific Ocean in the summer
of 1805,
and returned on 23 September 1806. Both Lewis and Clark lived
in St. Louis after the expedition. Many other explorers,
settlers,
and trappers (such as Ashley's Hundred) would later take a similar
route to the West. Missouri became a state in 1820.
St. Louis was incorporated as a city on December 9, 1822. A U.S.
arsenal was constructed at St. Louis in 1827.
The steamboat era began in St. Louis on July
27, 1817, with the arrival of the Zebulon M. Pike. Rapids north
of the city made
St. Louis the northernmost navigable port for many large boats,
and Pike and her sisters soon transformed St. Louis into
a bustling boom town, commercial center, and inland port. By the
1850s, St. Louis had become the largest U.S. city west
of Pittsburgh, and the second-largest port in the country, with
a commercial tonnage exceeded only by New York.
Immigrants flooded into St. Louis after 1840,
particularly from Germany, Bohemia, Italy and Ireland, the latter
driven by an
Old World potato famine. The population of St. Louis grew from
fewer than 20,000 in 1840, to 77,860 in 1850, to just over
160,000 by 1860.
Two disasters occurred in 1849: a cholera epidemic
killed nearly one-tenth of the population, and a fire destroyed
numerous
steamboats and a large portion of the city. These disasters led
to political action: old cemeteries were removed to the outskirts
of the town; sinkholes were filled and swamps drained; water and
sewer public utilities started; and a new building code required
structures to be built of stone or brick.
In the first half of the 19th century, a second
channel developed in the Mississippi River at St. Louis. An island
("Bloody Island")
formed between the two channels, and a smaller island ("Duncan's
Island") developed below St. Louis. It was feared that the
levee at St. Louis might be left high and dry, and federal assistance
was sought and obtained. Under the supervision of
Robert E. Lee, levees were constructed on the Illinois side to
direct water toward the Missouri side and eliminate the
second channel. Bloody Island was joined to the land on the Illinois
side, and Duncan's Island was washed away.
Militarily, the Civil War (1861-1865) barely
touched St. Louis; the area saw only a few skirmishes in which
Union forces prevailed.
But the war shut down trade with the South, devastating the city's
economy. Missouri was nominally a slave state, but its
economy did not depend on slavery, and it never seceded from the
Union. The arsenal at St. Louis was used during the war to
construct ironclad ships for the Union.
1874 Eads Bridge was completed, the first road
and rail bridge to cross the Mississippi River.
On July 4, 1876 the City of St. Louis voted
to secede from St. Louis County and become an independent city.
At that time the
County was primarily rural and sparsely populated, and the fast-growing
City did not want to spend their tax dollars on
infrastructure and services for the inefficient county. The move
also allowed some in St. Louis government to increase their
political power. This decision would later come back to haunt
the City of St. Louis, the negative results of which are still
visible
today.
As St. Louis grew and prospered during the late 19th and early
20th Century, the city produced a number of notable people in
the fields of business and literature. The Ralston-Purina company
(headed by the Danforth Family) was headquartered in the city,
and Anheuser-Busch, the world's largest brewery, remains a fixture
of the city's economy. The City was home to both
International Shoe and the Brown Shoe Company. Notable residents
in the field of literature included poets Sara Teasdale and
Marianne Moore, T. S. Eliot, William Burroughs, and Kate Chopin
as well as playwright Tennessee Williams.
St. Louis is one of several cities that claims
to have the world's first skyscraper. The Wainwright Building,
a 10-story structure
designed by Louis Sullivan and built in 1892, still stands at
Chestnut and Seventh Streets and is today used by the State of
Missouri as a government office building.
Nikola Tesla made the first public demonstration
of radio communication here in 1893. Addressing the Franklin Institute
in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the National Electric Light Association,
he described and demonstrated in detail the principles
of radio communication. The apparatus that he used contained all
the elements that were incorporated into radio systems before
the development of the vacuum tube.
In 1896, one of the deadliest and most destructive
tornadoes in U.S. history struck St. Louis and East St. Louis.
The confirmed
death toll is 255, with some estimates above 400, and injuries
over 1,000. It left a mile wide continuous swath of destroyed
homes,
factories, mills, saloons, hospitals, schools, parks, churches,
and railroad yards. Damages adjusted for inflation (1997 USD)
make it the costliest tornado in U.S. history at an estimated
$2.9 billion. Several other tornadoes have hit the city making
it the
worst tornado afflicted large city in the U.S.; with the most
deadly and destructive occurring in 1871 (9 killed), 1890 (4 killed),
1904 (3 killed, 100 injured), 1927 (79 killed, 550 injured), and
1959 (21 killed, 345 injured).
By the time of the 1900 census, St. Louis was
the fourth largest city in the country.[2] In 1904, the city hosted
a World's Fair and
\the Olympic Games, making the United States the first English-speaking
country to host the Olympics. Citizens of St. Louis
still look back fondly on the events of 1904; there were several
events held in 2004 to commemorate the centennial.
St. Louis had developed a lively immigrant
gang culture by the early 20th century, leading up to much bootlegging
activity
and gang violence. One gang leader, from an Irish part of the
city referred to as "Kerry Patch" (now almost entirely
non-Irish-populated, the area is now part of the Old North St.
Louis neighborhood) was named "Jelly Roll" Hogan. Hogan's
gang is mentioned in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie.
In the 1920s there were shoot outs on Lindell Boulevard
between Hogan's Gang and the gang known as Egan's Rats. A Priest
was brought in to broker peace between the gangs in 1923,
but this truce only lasted a few months before two more people
were killed in a public shoot out. In 1924, Egan's Rats made
off with $2.4 million in bonds from a mail truck. Hogan during
this time was a state representative. He was elected in 1916,
eventually became a state senator, and spent forty years in elected
office.
St. Louis did not segregate people on street
cars like other cities, but there was still some discrimination.
During World War II,
the NAACP successfully campaigned, through protests and picket
lines, to persuade the Federal government to allow
African-Americans to work in war plants. Some 16,000 jobs were
gained in this way. White southerners no longer had to be
brought to St. Louis to do the work.
St. Louis experienced major expansion in the early 20th century
due to the formation of many industrial companies.
The city reached its peak population at the 1950 census, reflecting
a national housing shortage after World War II.
The continued trend of suburban development and highway construction
shifted the population into the St. Louis
County suburbs over the next several decades. While the overall
population of the St. Louis MSA has always been growing,
the St. Louis city population itself had been decreasing. However,
as discussed below, the St. Louis city population is
increasing once again.
Recently, there has been a significant upturn in construction
in Downtown St. Louis. The Bottle District, an entertainment
district named after a large Vess soda bottle that stands near
Interstate 70, will open in summer 2008 and will be located in
an area just north of the Edward Jones Dome. The St. Louis Cardinals'
new Busch Stadium opened in 2006. Ballpark Village
will be built where the former Busch Stadium stood. For several
years, the Washington Avenue Loft District has been gentrifying
with an expanding corridor along Washington Avenue from the Edwards
Jones Dome westward almost two dozen blocks.
Rehabilitation of other downtown areas is planned, such as around
the Old Post Office, Cupples warehouses and St. Louis Centre.
The Forest Park Southeast neighborhood near the Missouri Botanical
Garden and the old Gaslight Square district are also
going through extensive renovations. In 2005 the US census bureau
reported St. Louis had a net population gain of 4,383 the
first the city has had since 1950.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, St. Louis has a
total area of 171.3 km of it is land and 11.0 km (4.2 mi or 6.39%)
of it is water. The city is built primarily on bluffs and terraces
that rise 100-200 feet above the western banks of the Mississippi
River,
just south of the Missouri-Mississippi confluence. Much of the
area is a fertile and gently rolling prairie that features low
hills
and broad, shallow valleys. Both the Mississippi River and the
Missouri River have cut large valleys with wide flood plains.
Limestone and dolomite of the Mississippian
epoch underlies the area and much of the city is a karst area,
with numerous
sinkholes and caves, although most of the caves have been sealed
shut; many springs are visible along the riverfront.
Significant deposits of coal, brick clay, and millerite ore were
once mined in the city, and the predominant surface rock,
the St. Louis Limestone, is used as dimension stone and rubble
for construction.
Near the southern boundary of the City of St. Louis (separating
it from St. Louis County) is the River des Peres, virtually
the only river or stream within the city limits that is not entirely
underground.[citation needed] Most of River des Peres was
either channelized or put underground in the 1920s and early 1930s.
The lower section of the river was the site of some of
the worst flooding of the Great Flood of 1993.
Near the central, western boundary of the city
is Forest Park, site of the 1904 World's fair, the Louisiana Purchase
Exposition of 1904, and the 1904 Summer Olympics, the first Olympic
Games held in North America. At the time, St. Louis
was the fourth most populous city in the United States.
The Missouri River forms the northern border
of St. Louis County, exclusive of a few areas where the river
has
changed its course. The Meramec River forms most of its southern
border. To the east is the City and the
Climate
St. Louis has a humid continental climate, and has neither large
mountains nor large bodies of water to moderate its
temperature. The area is affected by both cold Canadian arctic
air, and also hot, humid tropical air from the Gulf of Mexico.
The city has four distinct seasons. The average annual temperature
for the years 1971-2000, recorded at nearby
Lambert-Saint Louis International Airport, is 56.3 °F (13.5
°C), and average precipitation is 38.75 inches (980 mm).
The normal high temperature in July is 90 °F (32 °C),
and the normal low temperature in January is 21 °F (-6 °C),
although
these values are exceeded at times. Temperatures of 100 °F
(38 °C) or more occur no more than five days per year, while
temperatures of 0 °F (-17.8 °C) or below occur 2 or 3
days per year on average. The official all-time record low is
-22 °F (-30.0 °C)
and the record high is 115 °F (46.1 °C).
Winter is the driest season, averaging about
6 inches of total precipitation. Springtime, March through May,
is typically the
wettest season, with just under 10.5 inches. Dry spells of one
or two weeks duration are common during the growing seasons.
St. Louis usually experiences thunderstorms
between 20 and 30 days per year. Especially in the spring, these
storms can
often be severe, with high winds, large hail and tornadoes. St.
Louis has been affected on more than one occasion by particularly
damaging tornadoes. Other occasional weather events include snow
and ice storms.
A period of warm weather late in autumn known
as Indian summer can occur – roses will still be in bloom
as late as November
or early December in some years.
Flora and fauna
Before the founding of the city, the area was prairie and open
forest maintained by burning by Native Americans. Trees are
mainly oak, maple, and hickory, similar to the forests of the
nearby Ozarks; common understory trees include Eastern Redbud,
Serviceberry, and Flowering Dogwood. Riparian areas are forested
with mainly American sycamore. Most of the residential area
of the city is planted with large native shade trees. The largest
native forest area is found in Forest Park. In Autumn, the
changing color of the trees is notable. Most species here are
typical of the Eastern Woodland, although numerous decorative
non-native species are found; the most notable invasive species
is Japanese honeysuckle, which is actively removed from
some parks.
Large mammals found in the city include urbanized coyotes and
occasionally a stray whitetail deer. Eastern Gray Squirrel,
Cottontail rabbit, and other rodents are abundant, as well as
the nocturnal and rarely seen Opossum. Large bird species are
abundant in parks and include Canada goose, Mallard duck, as well
as shorebirds, including the Great Egret and Great
Blue Heron. Gulls are common along the Mississippi River; these
species typically follow barge traffic. Winter populations
of Bald Eagles are found by the Mississippi River around the Chain
of Rocks Bridge. The city is on the Mississippi Flyway, used
by migrating birds, and has a large variety of small bird species,
common to the eastern U.S. The Eurasian Tree Sparrow, an
introduced species, is limited in North America to the counties
surrounding St. Louis. Tower Grove Park is a well-known
birdwatching area in the city.
Frogs are commonly found in the springtime,
especially after extensive wet periods. Common species include
the
American toad and species of chorus frogs, commonly called "spring
peepers" that are found in nearly every pond.
Some years have outbreaks of cicadas or ladybugs. Mosquitos and
houseflies are common insect nuisances; because of this,
windows are nearly universally fitted with screens, and "screened-in"
porches are common in homes of the area. Populations
of honeybees have sharply declined in recent years, and numerous
species of pollinator insects have filled their ecological niche.
Sports
Club Sport League Venue
St. Louis Cardinals Baseball Major League Baseball-National League
Busch Stadium
St. Louis Rams Football National Football League : NFC Edward
Jones Dome
St. Louis Blues Ice Hockey National Hockey League Scottrade Center
St. Louis Steamers (inactive) Soccer Major Indoor Soccer League
Scottrade Center
River City Rascals Baseball Frontier League T.R. Hughes Ballpark
Gateway Grizzlies Baseball Frontier League GCS Ballpark
St. Louis Stunners Basketball American Basketball Association
TBA
River City Rage Arena Football United Indoor Football Family Arena
St. Louis Aces Tennis World TeamTennis Pro League Dwight Davis
Memorial Tennis Center
Arch Rival Rollergirls Roller Derby WFTDA (will be members in
2007) All American Sports Mall
Enthusiastic and knowledgeable fans give the city a reputation
as "a top-notch sports town" and "Baseball City
USA."
The Sporting News rated St. Louis the nation's "Best Sports
City" in 2000.[4] The St. Louis Cardinals, one of the oldest
franchises in Major League Baseball, have won 10 World Championships,
second only to the New York Yankees.
The city of St. Louis has earned 12 professional sports championships.
The St. Louis Cardinals have won 10 World Series
Championships, with one of the championships played against the
old cross-city rival St. Louis Browns in 1944. The
St. Louis Rams have won one Super Bowl Championship (Super Bowl
XXXIV in January 2000), and the St. Louis Hawks
(who later moved to Atlanta) gave the city its lone NBA Championship
(1958). On top of that, the St. Louis Blues hold the
record for most consecutive playoff appearances in all of sports
with 26 straight. The Blues have also made 3 trips to the
Stanley Cup Finals, but have never won the championship.
St. Louis is also a hotbed of Soccer in the
United States. The Saint Louis University soccer team is amongst
the elite of
NCAA soccer, and several American soccer stars, such as Taylor
Twellman, Steve Ralston, Matt Pickens, Mike Sorber,
and Pat Noonan, hail from St. Louis. Despite soccer's popularity
in the area, St. Louis is yet to gain a Major League Soccer
franchise, but plans are currently in the works. Currently, the
highest ranking soccer club in St. Louis is the St. Louis Steamers.
Professional Wrestling also has firm roots
in St. Louis. Essentially, three men combined to make the Mound
City not only the
"Gateway to the West," but the unofficial capital of
professional wrestling. The three men were Tom Packs, Sam Muchnick,
and Lou Thesz. Wrestling at the Chase was a popular weekly event
for hundreds of thousands of fans for several decades,
both live and on television. St. Louis is also home to former
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) World Champion and
currently one of the sport's top performers, Randy Orton.
y has
occurred, mostly among students drawn to the sport's freewheeling
atmosphere.
In 2006, the College Cup will be played at
Hermann Stadium on the campus of Saint Louis University.
The Scottrade Center will host the 2007 Frozen
Four college ice hockey tournament on April 5 and April 7, 2007.
The Scottrade Center also hosts the annual "Braggin' Rights"
game, a men's college basketball rivalry game between the
universities of Illinois and Missouri. St. Louis is roughly equidistant
from the two campuses.
In March 2005, the Edward Jones Dome in St.
Louis hosted the final two rounds of the NCAA Men's Division I
Basketball
Championship, also known as the Final Four. In April 2009, the
Edward Jones Dome will host the NCAA Women's
Division Basketball Championship Final Four.
Gateway International Raceway hosts NHRA Drag
Racing and NASCAR racing events 5 miles east of the city in Madison,
Illinois.
There are also several minor league teams in
the area. The Gateway Grizzlies (Minor League Baseball) of the
Frontier League,
which plays at GCS Ballpark across the river in Sauget, Illinois.
The River City Rascals (Minor League Baseball) also of the
Frontier League, play at T.R. Hughes Stadium in nearby O'Fallon,
Missouri. The Missouri River Otters (United Hockey League)
have now folded; they used to play at Family Arena in St. Charles,
Missouri. The River City Rage are an Arena Football team
that play in United Indoor Football at Family Arena. The St. Louis
Stunners are a basketball team that play in the newly
reincarnated American Basketball Association.
St. Louis is also one of the few cities in
the country that plays host to local Corkball leagues. Corkball
is a "mini-baseball"
game featuring a 1.6 oz. ball and bat with a barrel that measures
just 1.5". Corkball is St. Louis's classic baseball game.
Originally played on the streets and alleys of St. Louis in the
early 1900s, today the game has leagues formed around the
country as a result of St. Louis servicemen introducing the game
to their buddies during World War II and the Korean conflict.
It has many of the features of baseball, yet can be played in
a very small area because there is no base-running.
Nearby Town and Country is home to the Bellerive
Country Club, which has hosted several golf major championships.
Thanks to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Louis
The French began settling in St. Louis and established a fur
trading community. The town developed into a center for north
and south commerce along the Mississippi River. St. Louis was
closely designed after a French colonial city of the times, probably
New Orleans. The early settlement had no retail centers. There
were only two granaries, a bakery, a maple sugar works, and a
church. Supplies were brought to St. Louis by keelboats with cargoes
of flour, sugar, whiskey, blankets, fabrics, tools, and household
goods.
The French colonial homes were uniquely structured with wall
logs placed vertically and plastered over. Plaster gave the logs
a fresh, white exterior. The home typically consisted of a living
area, a bedroom, and fireplace in between. The French colonial
home was sparsely furnished and may have included straight back
wooden chairs, a table, a four poster bed with a buffalo robe
spread, and cooking utensils.
The French were one of several cultural groups who settled
in St. Louis. The French from Canada brought African slaves who
were regulated by Spanish law. This allowed the slaves to earn
money for work performed on evenings and weekends. The community
traded with the local American Indian people. The Spanish administered
the city, which became part of the United States in 1804, although
France had rights to the land since 1800 but never took possession
of it from the Spanish.
By the time of the Louisiana Purchase in 1804, St. Louis had
grown in population to 1,100 and established a bustling river
landing. With city growth came new warehouses, supply stores,
a need for boat makers, and repair shops. Keelboats transported
furs to the north in exchange for manufactured goods. After the
Lewis and Clark expedition returned from exploring the Louisiana
Purchase, their news of beaver sightings was of great interest
to trappers. St. Louis became a hub for trappers in a new trade
oriented to the far west, and outfitted travelers before their
journeys.
In 1817, the steamboat Zebulon M. Pike marked an new era in
transportation along the river as it docked in St. Louis for the
first time. The sandy beach levee in St. Louis was no longer adequate
for these new steam vessels. Levees were transformed into wharves
of stone and warehouses were built to receive goods. Steamboats
became the mode of river transportation and gradually replaced
the keelboat.
By 1849 St. Louis, Missouri was a major trading city as travelers
passed through to the gold rush in California and on to Independence
to follow the Oregon Trail. With the travelers came deadly cholera
that sickened and killed hundreds of people. That same year a
steamboat blew up on the crowded levee and fire quickly spread
to the city. It destroyed 15 blocks of the center of the city
and caused 6.1 million dollars in damage. The Old Courthouse and
Old Cathedral were stone structures and not destroyed. St. Louis
was built again, this time with brick and iron rather than easily
kindled wood.
The community known as the "Gateway City" humbly
began as a frontier village. Pierre Laclede predicted in a journal
entry in 1763 that, "I have found a situation where I am
going to form a settlement which might become hereafter one of
the finest cities in America." St. Louis developed into a
thriving river town and eventually into a cultured city of the
time.
ABPS Florists and Gifts moved out of St. Louis city to the
closest city in the suburbs... Lemay, MO. We got tired of a sales
tax rate highest in the area, paying a 1% city earnings tax, a
$150 business tax plus $50 for each employee, higher business
license fees, a police system that was controlled by the state,
not the city of St. Louis. I can't remember anything good about
the city police, just all the bad experiences that I had every
time I called them! After years of putting up with a city government
and a police department that was useless to us, I grew to hate
St. Louis more and more everyday, so we moved to the county and
now enjoying the helpful police and government! Best thing we
ever did... moved out of the city of St. Louis, just a few miles
away into Saint Louis county.
Last
update: 4-10-08