Horses are beautiful creatures; large, strong and well-suited to working with people. They found an immediate home in the heart of American cities.
St. Louis had challenges on many levels in dealing with its own waste. Without a dissipating wind the coal smoke hung like a low shroud over the city. Sewage often refused to drain properly, garbage was dumped in open pits, and animals died without proper burial.
A problem compounded by numbers
In the 1880’s over 100,000 horses worked in the city. Pulling wagons, carriages, and streetcars is hard work, and a properly fed workhorse required three tons of oats and hay yearly. The output was just as impressive. The same workhorse produced 22 pounds of manure a day.
Dead animals and animal waste were more than an olfactory offense. One solution, disposal by rendering carcasses into tallow, was so noxious that the heavy odor sickened those nearby. The standard joke was that the stench was thick enough to slow incoming trains. Flies were everywhere, and summers were insufferable. Eventually, St. Louis moved rendering operations from the city to boats on the river. This was a consequence of the same 1918 code that rezoned Lafayette Square to allow boarding house residences. Win a few, lose a few.
Animal waste became an unavoidable factor in city infrastructure development. Dirt roads full of horse manure turned to wet muck in rainy weather, and during dry windy times, the dust would blow into the mouths, noses and eyes of anyone downwind. Stone, brick and macadam streets resulted.
Stabilizing the situation
Stabling horses and cattle was a start, at least confining the cleanup to a predictable area. The development of electric streetcars wasn’t just the kind of good thinking we prove ourselves unable to duplicate today – it was a necessity for getting horses off the streets. There’s an expression that refers to “the horse manure crisis of 1894”. This references something where the solution to an otherwise impossible problem lies in technological progress. The horses became cable and electric streetcars which then gave way to the automobile. The horse manure problem was solved by replacing the horses with horsepower.
Here is a look at the center of Lafayette Square, 18th Street at Park Avenue, in 1892:
Note the giant Lafayette Park Livery, which would have served the early horse drawn version of the Peoples Railway that went down Park Avenue. Across the alley to the north is the neighborhood dairy stable, keeping animal clean up somewhat localized. A blacksmith shop is nearby to serve horseshoeing needs, The old #7 fire station and duplex home immediately north are about all you’ll find still there today.
Turning south from Park:
The dairy stable across Park Avenue served the old Union Dairy at 18th and Park. Immediately to the south is another blacksmith shop, still there today, where Daven Anderson ran his art gallery. A block east on Dolman is a carriage shop.
All this development, in service of large animals, in the middle of Lafayette Square’s business district, in 1892! And these are no small works, either. The giant livery for the Peoples Railway line was a little further down Park, where the grand fountain is today. In 1872, it had stalls for 246 horses. That required a lot of mucking on a daily basis.
From then to now
The St. Louis Common was a tract created in 1836, to serve primarily as grazing lands for the animals of a fast growing city. 30 acres of this was set aside for public parade grounds (aka park). This owed a lot to the fact that its elevation raised it above the many unpleasant odors of downtown, and often exposed it to a pleasant breeze. The development of the whole area followed a logical scheme. Animal culture was central to city life, even if we associate it more with rural environments. Something to consider next time you’re enjoying the fresh air from a bench at the fountain on the Park Avenue plaza.
Resources
Thanks to research sources including:
Livery advertising at top from St Louis Globe-Democrat of June 5, 1887.
Great Horse Manure Issue of 1894 discussion in Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_horse_manure_crisis_of_1894; referencing a 2004 article by Stephen Davies of the Foundation For Economic Research
Streetcar cartoon by Dan Zettwock for the Walk Through St Louis 1875 exhibit at the Missouri History Museum. This memorable 2015 exhibit was authored by Andrew Wanko, who discusses it in this interview:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG2ilcDH3Q0
Map extracts from the Whipple insurance map of 1892, courtesy of the Washington University Digital Gateway, also called “Unreal City.”
This post was mostly about horses, but if you’re more keen for the chaos that cows brought to early St. Louis, try my earlier essay: lafayettesquarearchives.com/1874-a-cattle-call-from-lafayette-square/
Very interesting article. I was drawn to it as my maternal great-grandparents (Frederick & Reina Vissering) lived in that neighborhood. They were immigrants from Aufrresland, Germany, although they were so close to Denmark, they considered them selves danish. Anyway Frederick was a blacksmith in that neighborhood, not sure where. They raised 8 or 9 kids, my grandmother among them. She was the 4th or 5th child and the first one to be. born in this country.
Thanks for sharing that, Bernadette. It’s fascinating how connected Germany and South St.Louis are. A lot of Germans bailed out and immigrated in 1849. A lot of them found their way here.
Great read, Mike. Adds context to our location. We’re at the duplex adjacent to the No.7 fire house (1300). Initially occupied by the fire house employees & their families. We have unearthed scores of bones (butchered meat/kitchen scraps) in the yard and crawl space. I’m wondering if the concentration of discarded scraps was common for the time or related to the proximity of the stables & off-duty firemen eating well! Also dug up an old horseshoe from that period, perhaps made by the neighbor blacksmith.
Thanks, Tim. I’d guess that in the days before organized trash collection, folks might dig a waste pit and toss in whatever they couldn’t otherwise use. The meat and paper and organic stuff breaks down with time, but bones, thanks to all the calcium, resist degradation well. I’ll suppose you’re seeing what’s left of various throwaways. The horseshoe really speaks for itself, eh? Hope your doing well in the Square!
Good work, sir. Happy that we’re still on your radar. If I have this correct, Wiebusch Livery Stable (1609-1615 Lafayette Ave.) was owned by Henry August Wiebusch who built our house at 2343 Albion Place and lived there until his death in 1909. They are somehow related to Dorothy Strasser. She has told me more than once but I have thus far failed to take good notes. Anyway, she has extensive and meticulous records of the stable and its operation.
Thanks for the comment, Duke. I’ll do a little snooping into Mr. Wiebusch.