Forest Park Band Pagoda, 1910

From eBay listings are these postcards of the original Forest Park bandstand in Pagoda Circle near the Municipal Theater. The bandstand was built in 1876, but in 1911 (around the time of these postcards) it was closed. The next year, it was damaged by a storm and caught fire, and the remnants were demolished. The current pagoda is known as the Nathan Frank Bandstand, after funds for its construction were donated in 1925 by Nathan Frank, a former U.S. House representative of the Missouri 9th district and St. Louis lawyer.

The Big Mound, 1869

From Switzler's Illustrated History of Missouri 1541-1877 (1879) comes this sketch of the largest Native American mound built in St. Louis near the time of its demolition in 1869. The Big Mound, as it was known, was near the intersection of Broadway and Mound Street in Old North St. Louis. It stood at least 30 feet high, was 150 feet in length, and had three terraced approaches facing the river for religious ceremonies. At one point in the 1820s, a small resort building was constructed at the top of the mound. Artifacts were found during its demolition.

Its only rival in size was the mound demolished to make way for Col. John O'Fallon's mansion in the 1850s. In 1875, ten years after O'Fallon's death, his mansion burned; it was demolished completely in 1893. The site is now O'Fallon Park.

River Des Peres Plans, 1907

From A City Plan for St. Louis (1907). This cross-section of the River Des Peres included roadways and streetcar lines, with lovely shrubbery and trees. The Civic League also advocated purchasing hundreds of acres of low-lying land near the River Des Peres, both to facilitate landscaping but also to avoid flood damage. How prescient.

Views of Kingshighway, 1907

From A City Plan for St. Louis (1907). The top image depicts the southern terminus of Kingshighway, near Caldwell Street, along the Mississippi River. The lower image is Kingshighway as it looked along Forest Park (on the left) with its characteristic boulevard landscaping already in place by 1907. The absence of gridlock, dozens of traffic signals, and the skyline of the Barnes-Jewish Hospital is stark.

A few interesting points about the image at top: first, Kingshighway Boulevard no longer exists at this location. The initial plan for the city suggested that Kingshighway would extend from its current roadway, then jog southeast at what is now Bellerive Boulevard. Bellerive for many years was known as Kingshighway South, or some variant of that name. However, with the building of Interstate 55 and other issues, the linking of Bellerive as an integral portion of Kingshighway faltered and then disappeared.

Mullanphy Park, 1907

From A City Plan for St. Louis (1907). The two photographs depict dozens, if not hundreds, of children playing at the Mullanphy Park Playground and Garden, then being leased by the city from the Mullanphy family. Later purchased by the city for a public park, it no longer seems quite as vibrant, but soon might in light of recent developments in the area. The park is extant at 10th and Mullanphy in Old North St. Louis.