Lafayette Park Archives - Lafayette Square Archives

1860: Lafayette Square on First

A college game moves west

A little known aspect of Lafayette Park history involves its role in expanding our national pastime. In the 1850’s, the mansion of Edward Bredell Sr. stood directly across from the park on Lafayette Avenue. Edward Sr. made his fortune in mining and dry goods wholesaling. He later established the Missouri Glass Company as an enterprise for his son to manage. Edward Jr. attended Brown University, where he likely was introduced to New York rules baseball. Games involving balls and bats in various forms have been described as early as the 1820s, but the New York game was well defined and quickly gained popularity in that area

1894: Keep Off The Grass

In the Gilded Age of the 1890s city parks often hewed to the same starchy formality as was expected of a polite society. Lafayette Park was a strolling park, with pedestrians expected to keep to the graveled pathways. Those who chose to stray onto lawns and flower beds could find themselves confined to the police substation (today’s park house) for an hour, to ponder their errant ways.

This stuffy policy informs a poem which appeared in the St. Louis Globe-Democrat 130 years ago, in February of 1894. Reprinted for your enjoyment here:

1914: The Tough Old Birds Of Lafayette Park

The prevailing economy in 1914 caused many tight purse strings around Lafayette Square. For the winter holiday season, someone decided to take the frugal approach. He or she procured a Christmas goose from the apparent bounty of Lafayette Park.

1903: Photos From Lafayette Park

Today’s feature is a recently discovered photo collection – about 45 images of Lafayette Park. They date from sometime after the great tornado of 1896. The trees were slowly reestablishing themselves by 1903. Although the twister took out virtually every old growth tree, some of the smaller ones bent enough to survive the storm. The loss of canopy provided an unintended benefit for today’s observers, however. We get a more unobstructed view of the streets and homes surrounding the park. Close inspection has its rewards.

Mississippi Avenue and Park Avenue; 1903

1885: A Lafayette Park Ghost Story

Adapted from a story by the St Louis Post Dispatch of December 25, 1885

LAFAYETTE PARK GHOST.

IT STRIKES TERROR TO THE HEARTS OF THE PEOPLE OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Seen by George Wilson and a Couple of Inquisitive Young Men – It Is Fully Identified as Supernatural – A Newspaper Investigator Solves the Mystery and Relieves the Pressing Fears

George Wilson is an ashman who lives on Jefferson Avenue near Russell Avenue. While passing through Lafayette Park last Saturday night he spied a ghost. The apparition nearly crazed him with terror for a time.

1888: Views Of Lafayette Park

The 1888 book Commercial And Architectural St. Louis was both city travelogue and advertisement for its many commercial enterprises. It contains some intriguing drawings of Lafayette Park from the late 1880s. Consider that these images pre-date the Great Cyclone of 1896. That cataclysm wrecked much of the neighborhood and everything in the park but the statues and Park House.

2013: Vile Wild Violets

Wild Violets

Sometimes scary tales involve something one wouldn’t associate with a threat. Something pleasant to the eye, that wouldn’t hurt a fly. Little wild violets, for example.

We once had a home with a large yard in South County. Pat came in beaming one spring morning, delighted by the little blue flowers that had appeared in our lawn.

2020: A Walk In Lafayette Park

I recently took a look at an enlarged view of Lafayette Park, and came away pretty amazed at what the map recognized.

1859: Lafayette Park and Krausnick

Sometimes the research for a historical essay seems linear enough, but then pinballs off at unanticipated angles. I set about to simply find some background on Edward Krausnick, the little-remembered first superintendent of Lafayette Park. What followed is a reminder that real lives seldom follow a linear narrative.

1867: The Lafayette Park House

1874; Missouri Historical Society; photo by Robert Benecke

Crowd management in the park

This victorian home in miniature was built as a single story police station in 1867, around the same time as the fence surrounding Lafayette Park. It was a field office of sorts for the main Soulard Police Station. Police stationed here dealt with the large crowds routinely drawn to events like Thursday concerts. These were held at the bandstand, the ruins of which remain to the northwest of the Park House. In 1873, the Daily Globe reported: “It has been rare that a fine day has called out less than five thousand people to listen to the music.” Historian John Albury Bryan noted,“crowds on Sundays exceeded those of Thursdays.” He quoted the St. Louis Republican from May 23 1877. “Visitors to Lafayette Park on Sunday, between 1pm and 6:45 pm totaled 13,749.”