The Hunt for 1875: Plate #5

I have seen the Compton and Dry pictorial St. Louis used for a variety of historical purposes, but I have yet to see a full comparison of the pictorial St. Louis in 1875 with what remains today. Each day a new plate will appear in the order of their appearance in the Compton and Dry map, followed by an edited version in which the remaining buildings (as far as I can tell) are highlighted in blue. All images are from the Library of Congress downloadable map.

Plate index:

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Surviving buildings from Plate #5:
• 1809-1811 S. 7th (residential)
• 1817-1819 S. 7th (residential)
• 1821 S. 7th (residential)
• 1823 S. 7th (residential)
• 1825 S. 7th (residential)
• 1919 S. 7th (Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church)
• 1709 S. 8th (residential)
• 1711 S. 8th (residential)
• 1713-1719 S. 8th (residential)
• 1721-1723 S. 8th (residential)
• 1800-1802 S. 8th (residential)
• 1804-1806 S. 8th (residential)
• 1808-1810 S. 8th (residential)
• 1805-1811 S. 8th (Trinity Lutheran Church)
• 1814 S. 8th (residential)
• 1818-1820 S. 8th (residential)
• 1822 S. 8th (residential)
• 1824 S. 8th (residential)
• 1825 S. 8th (residential)
• 1826 S. 8th (residential)
• 1828 S. 8th (residential)
• 1920 S. 8th (residential)
• 719 Soulard (residential)
• 710 Geyer (residential)
• 800-802 Geyer (residential)
• 803 Allen (residential)
• 805 Allen (residential)
• 807 Allen (residential)
• 809 Allen (residential)

Plate #5:

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Remaining Buildings from Plate #5:

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The Hunt for 1875: Plate #3

I have seen the Compton and Dry pictorial St. Louis used for a variety of historical purposes, but I have yet to see a full comparison of the pictorial St. Louis in 1875 with what remains today. Each day a new plate will appear in the order of their appearance in the Compton and Dry map, followed by an edited version in which the remaining buildings (as far as I can tell) are highlighted in blue. All images are from the Library of Congress downloadable map.

Plate index:

(Click image to enlarge)

Surviving buildings from Plate #3:
• 744 S. 3rd (St. Mary of Victories Catholic Church)
• 744 S. 4th (commercial)
• 750 S. 4th (commercial)
• 701 S. Broadway (commercial; Beale on Broadway)
• 736 S. Broadway (commercial; Broadway Oyster Bar)

Plate #3:

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Remaining buildings from Plate #3:

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The Hunt for 1875: Plate #1

I have seen the Compton and Dry pictorial St. Louis used for a variety of historical purposes, but I have yet to see a full comparison of the pictorial St. Louis in 1875 with what remains today. Each day a new plate will appear in the order of their appearance in the Compton and Dry map, followed by an edited version in which the remaining buildings (as far as I can tell) are highlighted in blue. All images are from the Library of Congress downloadable map.

Plate index:

(Click image to enlarge)

Surviving buildings from Plate #1:
• 209 Walnut (Basilica of St. Louis, King of France)
• 11 N. 4th (Old St. Louis County Courthouse)

Plate #1:

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Remaining Buildings from Plate #1:

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St. Alphonsus Liguori, 1875

From Leaves from the history of St. Alphonsus's Church (1895) comes this photograph of the church prior to the addition of its steeple in the 1890s.

From Dry's Pictorial St. Louis (1875) comes this spliced image of two plates, showing St. Alphonsus Liguori in its earliest days. Note the lack of characteristic spire and no rock wall surrounding the building.

Interesting fact about St. Alphonsus: according to the Leaves from the history of St. Alphonsus's Church (1895), the altar was centered over one of the abundant Native American mounds that once dotted the St. Louis landscape. The mound was leveled to make way for the church.

St. Alphonsus Liguori, 1895

From Leaves from the history of St. Alphonsus' Church (1895) comes this splendid picture of St. Alphonsus Liguori Church at Grand and Finney avenues in North St. Louis. St. Alphonsus lovingly was nicknamed the "Rock Church" since its construction in the early 1870s. The 237-foot spire was added in the early 1890s, hence the booklet on the church.

The engraving, incidentally, was done by Sanders Engraving Co., located at 400 N. 3rd Street in 1895. More engravings and photographs to follow.

Shaare Emeth Congregation, 1878

From The Pictorial Guide to St. Louis by Camille N. Dry (1878) is this fine drawing of the Shaare Emeth Congregation's temple at the northeast corner of 17th and Pine streets. The reform Jewish congregation purchased the land and built a temple in the late 1860s, and it continued to occupy the building until the late 1890s, when it moved to the corner of Lindell and Vandeventer, reflecting changing attitudes about fashionable areas of the city. By the 1920s, the congregation population had shifted further west -- this time, Shaare Emeth moved to University City (at 6840 Delmar). By the 1960s, a still-migrating congregation permitted the sale of the University City temple, and Shaare Emeth currently holds services in Creve Coeur.

It is unclear when the Temple at 17th and Pine was demolished. The site is now home to the Plaza Square Apartments.

Old Cathedral, 1934

From the Historic American Buildings Survey, this photograph was taken by renowned St. Louis architectural photographer Alexander Piaget on April 9, 1934. Within a few short years, everything surrounding the Cathedral, including the street itself, was torn up and destroyed.

Christ Church Cathedral, ca. 1867

From an eBay listing comes this fine photograph of the Christ Church Cathedral at 1210 Locust Street, sometime in the late 1860s. Remarkably, it depicts the church while under construction; the building was designed by Leopold Eidlitz in the mid-1860s and is listed as a National Historic Landmark (as of October 1994). For more information, visit the St. Louis Historic Preservation article about the church:

http://stlcin.missouri.org/history/structdetail.cfm?Master_ID=1761

Old Cathedral, ca. 1875

From The Great South: A Record of Journeys by Edward King (1875) (freely available online from UNC-Chapel Hill [here]). Looking north along Walnut Street; most of the buildings north of the cathedral were demolished to make way for I-70; the building to the right of the cathedral was demolished for the Arch grounds.

First Catholic Church, ca. 1805

From A History of Missouri from the Earliest Explorations and Settlements until the Admission of the State into the Union by Louis Houck (1908). This is a sketch of the first Catholic Church in St. Louis, built in 1776 of ash posts supplied by the townsfolk, who also paid a man by the name of Juan Cambas to construct the facility for a sum of 1480 livres (paid in deer skins). The home behind the church was built a bit later (in the mid-1780s) for the parish priest. The original church was built in order to house a bell, cast about 1772; the church was demolished in 1833 to make way for the Basilica of Saint Louis, King of France (colloquially known as the Old Cathedral).