History of Lafayette Square Archives - Page 3 of 4

1977: Sadie Hawkins Day

Ever heard of Sadie Hawkins Day? This old-timey observance presents a fine opportunity for the gentler sex to giddy up and grab the guy who’s been a little…reluctant. There’s an old riddle about why bachelors make poor grammarians (When asked to conjugate, they decline.) Well, this whole Sadie Hawkins thing started back in 1937, with cartoonist Al Capp and his comic strip called Lil’ Abner.

A race would be run by all the eligible bachelors of Dogpatch. The slowest of this lot would be the first Sadie would catch. By rules of the game, he must consent to marrying her.

1930: The Dogleg Corner of Lafayette Square

18th Street at Chouteau has a rich history of causing traffic flow issues. Due to a quirk in the layout, there was nearly always a sharp jog (or dogleg) to the west as one headed south, then 18th Street continued as Second Carondolet. It was this way as far back as 1875, as shown in the Compton and Dry pictorial map:

1931: Strange Interlude on Park Avenue

July 10, 1931. The Great Depression was in its second full year. Nationwide unemployment stood at 16% (it would rise to 25% by the end of 1932), and year over year growth constricted by 8.5%. Even the news seemed slow that Friday. The afternoon’s Post-Dispatch noted Secretary of State Stimpson, concluding disarmament talks with Italian dictator Mussolini. The German Reichsbank, reeling from its efforts to pay postwar debts and struggling to remain solvent, sought an international loan of $400,000,000 from the Bank of England, the Bank of France, the Federal Reserve Bank and World Bank.

1929: Launching The German House

Frank Absher of the St. Louis Media History Foundation recently sent me a color postcard from the German House of September 1929. It served as an invitation to the dedication of the huge building that still sits at 2345 Lafayette Avenue. This was its very beginning. KMOX, on the air for four years by then, was on hand to live cast the event.

1935: Just Past Noon at the Junction

A City Struggling To Recover

1935 was well over 80 years ago. Lafayette Square had regressed from mansions to boarding and rooming houses, as the nation around it sank firmly into its fifth year of economic depression. FDR attempted to prime the pump with federal funds by creating both the Social Security Administration and National Recovery Administration (NRA) that year.

2008: What’s a Treemonisha?

This essay is about the Treemonisha sculpture, but to get there, let’s journey back 50 years to visit Lafayette Square in March 1971. A quick look around, and we’d understand why properties sold for the cost of their back taxes. The housing stock was dilapidated and no banks would finance the buying of a vacant shell. No realtors listed the properties.

2021 – Much About 2051 Park Avenue

It’s entertaining and ever evolving to put an ear to the discussion about properties in Lafayette Square. Over the past two years, I’ve seen several posts and memos about a classic three story building at 2051 Park Avenue. It’s currently a set of four upscale condominiums, but has a busy back history – residential, educational, and religious.

First 2051 essay photo — 2051 Park Avenue, today

2020: Halloween Once In A Blue Moon

Happy Halloween! This is a particularly weird one in any number of ways, but to keep from trying to list all the forms of dysfunction we’re probably feeling, let’s check in with the celestial and supernatural worlds.

1951: An Anchor On The Corner In Lafayette Square

What’s in a building? It’s entire history, for one; and in Lafayette Square, that can be considerable.

2001 Park Avenue has been holding down the Northeast corner of Mississippi and Park Avenue for a long time. It appears in the Compton and Dry map of 1876, looking much like itself, but for today’s first floor windows and the long single story extension down Mississippi Avenue:

1975: A Felonious Bldg. Commissioner

The photo at top, left is of 1926 Hickory Street in April, 1970. It is a ‘before’ example of the kind of property recognized and restored in Lafayette Square back in the brave days. This story is about these empty hulks, and about what you can lose when you trust that your government works always in the public interest.