St. Louis City Hall, 1904

From The World's Fair, St. Louis, U.S.A., 1904 (1904). Again from Mr. Reid, here is St. Louis City Hall from an interesting angle. Keeping in mind that the building was constructed in 1894, it is fascinating to see it surrounded by new landscaping, wide sidewalks, and virtually no surrounding structures. The open grass, landscaping, and trees have been replaced with a particularly splendid parking facility.

View of Broadway and Olive, 1904

From The World's Fair, St. Louis, U.S.A., 1904 (1904). This splendid booklet from Robert Allan Reid is a wonderful compendium of images of the fair and of St. Louis from more than a century ago. Reid chose Broadway (looking toward the intersection with Olive) for inclusion among the images as a typical scene on St. Louis downtown streets. None of the buildings, streetcar lines, or telephone wires are extant.

View from Eads Bridge, 1917

From Problems of St. Louis by the Civic League of St. Louis (1917). This is the view from the base of the Eads Bridge looking left on to 3rd Street and straight and to the right along Washington Avenue. The Civic League was actively promoting a more beautiful and inviting entrance to the city via the bridge; compare with the view today. Nothing in the above photograph exists any longer. Below is the current view:


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View along Delmar Avenue, 1917

From Problems of St. Louis by the Civic League of St. Louis (1917). Thanks to Paul Hohmann, the view is identified as about a block west of Union Boulevard looking east. The tracks in the median have been replaced by a grassy median, which is, ironically and 92 years later, just what the Civic League wanted done with Delmar.

Lindell and McPherson, 1910

From Street Lighting in St. Louis by the Civic League of St. Louis (1910). This photograph depicts the streetlamp at the junction of Lindell Boulevard and McPherson Avenue. The building immediately behind the streetlamp has been demolished. Note the tree-lined street. Compare with the current junction of Lindell and McPherson:

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18th and Pine, 1910

From Billboard Advertising in St. Louis by the Civic League of St. Louis (1910). A "double-decker" billboard is shown here at the corner of 18th and Pine streets; the caption for the photograph suggests it spans an entire city block. Below is the view today (still an empty lot); it is debatable whether a parking lot is preferable to a double-decker billboard.

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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.