1934: John A Bryan on Clearing The Air

St. Louis was simultaneously blessed for growth and cursed for livability by its proximity to the rich bituminous coal deposits of Southern Illinois. It made for cheap power, which allowed energy intensive industries like brick works and steel makers to thrive here. Most residents followed suit (or is it soot?) and burned coal to heat their homes. The smoke from soft coal hung heavy in the air of St. Louis every winter, dimming the daylight and causing respiratory issues. City efforts at smoke abatement through legislation reached back to the late 1860s, but the power of the coal business and low cost for home use kept it a perceived necessary evil. 

A colorful world in shades of grey

By the 1930’s, the situation approached absurdity, with the need to use streetlights and car headlights in the day. The smoke deposited a layer of black particles, uniformly draped on buildings, sidewalks, and even shirt collars.

His two terms spanned much of the Great Depression. It was a time of rapid technological change as well. He named a good friend and accomplished engineer, Frank McDevitt, as commissioner for streets and sewers. The two men led a movement toward improved services and increased revenues. They introduced the first parking meters in St. Louis, and required the purchase of drivers licenses for resident car owners. Federal relief funds were tapped to install 9,600 electric streetlights. These replaced existing naphtha and gas lights.

McDevitt starts in on garbage collection

With more efficient collection, McDevitt set about improving solid waste processing. In the early 1930s, the city disposed of its garbage by selling it to hog farms in Illinois, for which it received $1.00 a ton. He secured city approval to build three giant mechanized grinders that handled up to 300 tons of waste per day. A staff of three men with pitchforks combed the waste at each grinder for bottles and cans. Mixed with water, the effluent from the plant at Vandeventer and Forest Park Boulevard was fed into the Vandeventer sewer, from there to the Mill Creek sewer and finally into the Mississippi River.

This “out of sight, out of mind” solution did remove the waste from St. Louis without incinerating or piling it into giant hills. It eventually put about 100 free-lance waste collectors, also supplying the hog trade, out of business. This probably boosted the sales of grain to hog suppliers, if giving the hogs themselves a somewhat better defined diet. 

The next objective – clearing the air

In February of 1934, McDevitt claimed that the primary source of a recurrent shroud of smoke enveloping the city was the 100,000 home furnaces, each burning soft coal in a poorly designed boiler. He maintained that by building city-run central systems, cheaper and cleaner heat would result. At the time, Only two central heating systems existed in St. Louis, both operated by Union Electric. (One, the Ashley unit, still provides steam heat to buildings downtown.) He argued that buying better fuel in huge volumes, and running in a non-profit way would make central power more affordable for homeowners as well. Questions remained:  

Would the city be able to run a power plant economically for the five months of active heating demand, while maintaining it for twelve? Would that plant serve sparsely populated areas as economically as the highly concentrated downtown area? McDevitt proposed issuing a survey to canvass for opinions on the idea. 

The St. Louis Star And Times was bullish in its assessment. It stated: 

“ Moral suasion and propaganda have been tried for fifty years and have utterly failed. You can’t talk clouds of smoke out of the atmosphere while low-grade coal is being carelessly  burned in thousands of furnaces.” (Something must be done) “toward ridding St. Louis of its greatest business incubus and health menace. This city cannot prosper with a national reputation as the smokiest city in the United States.”

John Albury Bryan weighs in

It is at this point that we hear from 44 year old architect John Albury Bryan. Six years earlier he wrote an influential  book, Missouri’s Contribution To American Architecture, and was chair of the St. Louis Historical Buildings Committee. He moved to Lafayette Square in 1949, but his interest in the Square predated his move there by a full 15 years. He wrote to the Times in 1934:

I have been much interested in the municipal heating plants proposed by Mr McDevitt; and would like to suggest a location for the first plant in a residential area.  

Moreover, the thirty-acre park in the center of this district is the oldest public park in St. Louis – the municipality having acquired it 99 years ago next month. Anything that will reduce the volume of smoke in this neighborhood and thus promote the growth of trees and shrubs in that park would be a civic investment. Lafayette Park is the third highest elevation in the city, so that this experiment would have a better chance of success than one tried in a lower area. 

The city now owns a large piece of ground at Lafayette Avenue and Preston place, and a building combining a heating plant and police station ought to supply all the houses on the south and east sides of the park. At the northwest corner of the park there is a considerable space of vacant ground along Caroline Street west of Missouri Avenue, and a second plant located there could take care of the north and west sides of the park.

No other section of St. Louis has been a good residential area for so long a time as this district I have outlined and real estate values there will continue to hold their own for many years to come, especially if the smoke can be eliminated

JOHN A. BRYAN.

The event that proved the point

As it turned out, the program was slowed by investigations into hiring of contractors for the city grinders, and strong opposition from powerful coal merchants. Meanwhile, Union Electric expanded electrification, replacing coal boilers with electric ones. This essentially proved the value of McDevitt’s proposal. Electrical lines were strung and for increased service. Smoke density remained a problem for the city – in 1937, it was estimated that 97% of city homes still burned coal – this expressed itself every winter, leading to the pivotal days of November 1939.  November 29th became known as “Black Tuesday”. 

The streetlights and car headlamps burned all day, and visibility was nearly nil. Streetcars  couldn’t keep to their schedules for lack of visibility. There were nine similar days in the following month. It directly led to Raymond Tucker being named Smoke Commissioner before the end of the year, and  passage of the nation’s most restrictive smoke ordinance. 250 local coal dealers heckled from the gallery at City Hall as the ordinance was voted on. The source of winter coal was switched to Arkansas anthracite, a cleaner burning hard coal. As with the national trend, railroads switched to diesel power, homes and businesses converted to natural gas. St. Louis enjoyed demonstrably cleaner air just a year later, and within five years smoke concentration was decreased by 75%.

A St. Louisan worth remembering

For the record, Frank McDevitt, who paved the city streets and ground our garbage and helped clean our air was again called to service as World War II began. He led the Midwest District for Defense Contract Services to increase readiness as war impended, and then the Office of Production Management during the conflict.

It turned out, like in Pittsburgh and Milwaukee, that under all the grime and smoke, and to the surprise of some, this is a pretty good looking place! John Albury Bryan knew this in 1934. I don’t know how he felt about grinding garbage, but he definitely frowned on grinding old buildings. 

Thanks to research sources, including: 

Missouri Skies Now And Then; MO DNR;  https://dnr.mo.gov/env/apcp/missouriskiesnowandthen.htm

Smog Impacts Blog; Courtney Ouelette https://smogimpacts.weebly.com/1939-st-louis-smog.html

Look Back: The Day Coal Smoke Choked St Louis; Tim O’Neil St Louis Post Dispatch on STLToday, November 28 2017; https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/look-back-the-day-coal-smoke-choked-st-louis-/article_eeed6f7c-19ba-5962-97bc-39dc72fc6d28.html A terrific multi-media look at a strange time. Like our own version of the Dust Bowl.