Forward, Into The Past
The advent of civil war was a perilous time to be a state in the middle U.S. There were slave states with deep economic interests in that “peculiar institution,” and free states where slavery wasn’t legal. However, four slave states did not secede from the US in 1861: Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri. These states walked a tricky line, and it required political and sometimes military maneuvering to prevent their secession.
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:
Continue reading “1930: The Dogleg Corner of Lafayette Square”Casting a look back a hundred years in St Louis history, it requires little effort to find a subject with deep roots in Lafayette Square, whose tale is well worth retelling. Here’s the story of the 32nd mayor of St Louis, Henry W. Kiel.
Continue reading “1917: The Life and Times of Mayor Henry Kiel”
