Broadway and Third Street, 1907

From Billboard Advertising in St. Louis by the Civic League of St. Louis (1910). This photograph depicts an illegal three-sided billboard erected on the strip of land between Broadway and Third Street. The billboard was constructed in 1907 against city ordinances, but upon attempting to tear it down, the billboard owners sued the city. In the ensuing court case (which took several years), all billboard regulations were overturned until later in the 1910s. Ironically, the site of the triple billboard structure is now occupied by an on-ramp for Interstate 70, which supports a multitude of billboard owners with its continual traffic.

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