Sir Charles Gibson and landscape architect Maximilian Kern made Lafayette Park something far more appealing than a parade ground and pasture. Gibson was Lafayette Park Commissioner for a quarter century, and authored the legislative acts that established Forest Park.
The great tornado of 1896 spoiled things, knocking down every mature tree in Lafayette Park. Just seven months earlier, Sir Charles wrote a long letter to the Post-Dispatch. In it, he shared his thoughts on forestation of the city. This is printed as he wrote it, with little modification.
(The systematic planting and protection of shade trees in residence streets) is an old and favorite scheme with me. Shade and water are invaluable in a climate like ours. They add to the beauty, comfort and health of the people.
Some years ago the Post-Dispatch advocated the passage of an ordinance requiring the streets to be watered by the city. It was a long hard pull for the paper, but the utility of the measure is now almost universally conceded. Several showers a day over several hundred miles of streets make the city cooler than in the country. They relieve it of dust and prevent injury to dry goods and other property. The return is twenty times the cost of watering the highways.
Planting trees along the streets by the city would give a uniformity and beauty that can never be achieved otherwise. The shade would tend to cool the city, and the influence of the foliage would be beneficial to health. Where trees are planted by individuals it is all done in patches. Some put in one kind of tree, and some put in others. Few citizens understand what trees to select or how to plant them, and often they are greatly imposed upon.
Then again, when a man buys a lot and builds a house he improves his yard and plants his own trees. Meanwhile, the proprietors on either side of him leave theirs unplanted. They expect to sell their lots without the expense or trouble of obtaining trees. The man who improves his place is given no credit by these proprietors, although their own property will be enhanced by the improvements.
I think the Board of Public Improvements should be authorized to designate streets to be planted. A bureau of forestry should be established in the office of the Park Commissioner. It should select and plant the trees on such streets.
Sir Charles then described a similar and successful effort in Washington DC.
There is an evil in this regard that ought at once to be attended to. One-half of the few trees already planted have been destroyed by horses being hitched to them. There is an ordinance fixing a penalty for any injury done to a shade tree. It is practically useless though, because the informer gets no reward for prosecuting the offender. This should be changed, making the penalty not less than $5.00, and giving one-half to the informer. The evil would at once be remedied.
There is one matter about the sprinkling ordinance that also needs attention. As it now stands separate tax bills are made out for the most trivial amounts. Numbers of them are for less than one dollar. They have all to be paid separately and are liens upon the property taxed. This is a good thing for the City Hall crowd. It must employ a number of clerks and other persons to go through all the machinery of entering taxes in the books, making out the bills, receiving them and forcing liens by law if necessary. Taxes for sprinkling and assessments for planting shade trees should be put in and made part of the expense mentioned.
I think if trees were planted on all residential streets by the city itself they would add almost as much to the grandeur of the city as the parks themselves, great and beneficial as the parks are.
I was one of the first Park Commissioners in St. Louis, having been appointed in 1852. There were but a few small parks in the city then. In 1852 Stephen D. Barlow lived near me here, and he and I had an interview in this house. We discussed the improvement of what is now Lafayette Park and was then known as the Parade Ground. It was then outside the city limits. There was a forest between here and the city. Not a house in the town could be seen from my front door. About one-third of the northern part of the park was then fenced. It was held by Patrick M Dillon’s estate under the MacKay claim. I made an arrangement with the trustees of the estate, and the fences were removed.
Mr. Barlow and myself selected the name Lafayette Square. It came from the portion of the city east of it being known as “French Town.” Lafayette was a name popular with both Americans and French. At that time the park was considered large enough for all the future wants of the city. The name suggested was adopted by the City Council, except that ‘park’ was substituted for ‘square.’
For 25 years afterward I had much to do with the improvement of this park. We made various attempts to enlarge it, but always failed. This was due to the beer houses opposition to it. The park drew off many of their customers, especially on Sundays.
About 20 years ago the demands for a great park were so pressing that several gentlemen, of whom I was one, undertook to establish Forest Park. We failed to get one bill through the Legislature. When a second bill passed, it was then defeated by Mr. Chouteau and others in the courts. We finally succeeded in passing a bill which was held to be valid after fierce litigation from the same quarter. The members of the Legislature from that northern and southern portion of this city declined to support the bill unless parks were also established in their sections of the city. This was finally agreed to by myself and friends. Carondelet and O’Fallon Parks were established in this way.
At that time there was not a horse car nor a ‘bob-tail’ running anywhere near Forest Park. Not a house in the city could be seen from it. Many of our best citizens considered it a monstrous oppression. For instance, Mr. Garard Allen wanted to sell it out for a cemetery. The cable and electric roads, which have been since invented, have made the three parks accessible to the masses. The tax in the neighborhood of Forest Park now pays the interest on the bonds issued for its purchase and improvements. They will soon, if set apart for that purpose, create a sinking fund which will pay the principal. Thus, the city gets the park for nothing.
But still greater improvements are now being perfected in urban transportation. The population is rapidly growing beyond the city limits. When I came to St. Louis 7th Street was the west boundary. The city was then extended to 16th Street, then again to Grand Avenue, and lastly to the present limits, a distance of six miles from 7th Street. Each time it was supposed that the extension embraced enough territory for generations to come. But the people here do not live like they do in Europe. There is no use in comparing St. Louis with London, Paris or Berlin. Our people want to escape the smoke and confusion of the city proper. They will soon stretch out over the central parts of the country.
The little parks in the center, and the cordon of large pleasure grounds made by Carondelet, O’Fallon, and Forest Parks, accommodate the present city. But there is a new St. Louis which begins to dawn upon us. In the not distant future it will have to be provided for. To obtain large public grounds one has to look far ahead. There is great difficulty in getting people to act because they do not see the future. It is as bad to be out of sight before as behind. But there should be another circle of parks for the new and greater St. Louis. It is time to consider how to acquire them.
Fifteen years ago I wrote a bill and sent it to one of our Congressmen. It proposed to set aside Jefferson Barracks as a public park forever, but it was neglected and did not pass. The government is now more liberal in the establishment of great national parks on the battlefields. Jefferson Barracks has been the greatest base of military operations in all our wars for the 50 years past. It has been more important to the military glory and preservation of the Government than Shiloh, Gettysburg, or any other battlefield in the country. It contains 1,750 acres, which would make it larger than Forest Park.
(Jefferson Barracks) was originally a part of the Carondelet Commons, unjustly wrung from the village by the Secretary of the Interior. He refused to confirm the Commons until the villages relinquished its title to the barracks. So the city has a certain moral claim to it. The soldiers would only be an ornament and not a detriment to the park. With a little pressure upon our Congressmen they would pass a bill setting Jefferson Barracks aside as a public park. It would be under the control of the War Department as are similar national parks.
It is time to consider the acquisition of a large park in the Southwest. Another should be about Creve Coeur and one more in the Northwest. This would constitute a second cordon of parks around the greater St. Louis. Ultimately, they would be connected by a boulevard.
This may seem extravagant to the common mind, but it is far less than the establishment of the three large parks we now have was 20 years ago.
Mr. Pulitzer, who I regard as the greatest journalist in the world, introduced a new doctrine. It holds that a public journal is not only a medium of news, but also a guardian of public interests and promoter of public welfare. The efforts of the Post-Dispatch that resulted in the passage of the sprinkling ordinance demonstrated this. I ask the paper to persistently advocate for passage of a bill to plant and protect shade trees in the manner indicated. If successful it will render another important service to the public. It will be an act greatly beneficial to the whole city.
The City of St. Louis now has 108 parks, totalling nearly 3,000 acres. Gibson’s vision largely came to pass, from Fairgrounds Park through Forest Park, Tower Grove Park, Carondelet Park and Jefferson Barracks. It forms a belt near what were once the outskirts of the city. St. Louis County has an additional 75 parks, comprising approximately 12,700 acres.
Great Rivers Greenway works in real time to connect all the area park infrastructure into pedestrian and bike-friendly trails. We all get to breathe a bit easier, and learn the joys of slow discovery around St. Louis. It is worthy of your financial support.
It all began with the 30 acre tract that Lafayette Square surrounds. That, and the determination of one man to keep it beautiful.
The original article appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of October 31, 1895
Background on Charles Gibson from Old And New St. Louis; James Cox; Central Biographical Publishing; 1894.
St. Louis City parks map from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St_louis_city_parks_map.jpg
I recently wrote about street watering, a big issue in its day. All you need to know, here: https://lafayettesquarearchives.com/1887-street-sprinkling-in-st-louis/
A good introduction to Great Rivers Greenway and source of my graphic map is here: https://www.stlpr.org/economy-business/2013-11-01/whats-the-great-rivers-greenway-district
A good introduction to Jefferson Barracks, and source of my photo: https://invitational.hancock.k12.mo.us/jefferson-barracks-history/
Gibson got his way with a park in Creve Coeur as well. The guy had vision, and the county had the collective wisdom to follow it. https://www.islands.com/2219566/creve-coeur-lake-missouri-second-largest-natural-lake-urban-gem-woodland-trails-olympic-history/
Forest Park Forever is a group dedicated to the preservation and improvement of St. Louis’s premier park. In addition to being lovely, it’s loaded with free attractions. It also is deserving of your support. https://www.forestparkforever.org