found in 1763 by Pierre Laclede and his 13-year-old stepson Auguste Chouteau; a permanent settlement was established on February 15, 1764
|
|
acquired by the United States in 1803 from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase
|
|
officially, the Lewis and Clark Expedition began and ended here; they left in May 1804 and returned by September 1806
|
|
the steamboat era of the early 19th century transformed the city; by the 1850s it was considered the second largest port in the country
|
|
the Old Courthouse was the site of the original 1847 Dred Scott Case; the Supreme Court's final decision was handed down in 1857 and is considered a key cause of the American Civil War
|
|
the City of Saint Louis voted to remove itself from Saint Louis County on July 4, 1876
|
|
hosted the 1904 World’s Fair, known as The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, which celebrated the centennial of the Louisiana Purchase
|
|
1950 city population: 856,796
|
|
the stainless steel Gateway Arch, by Eero Saarinen, is completed in October 1965; it follows a catenary curve with equation: y = 68.8 * cosh(0.01x - 1)
|
|
the Pruitt-Igoe housing project, an infamous urban planning failure, is destroyed in 1972; many see this as the symbolic death to modernism and the beginning of postmodern sentiment
|
|
2000 city population: 348,189; almost 28 people per day left the city between 1950 and 2000
|
|
the 108-year-old Century Building is destroyed in October 2004 to make way for a new parking garage
|
j.crocker