(45 acres), probably the finest of their kind in the country, were gifts to the city from a public-spirited citizen, Henry Shaw (1800-1889), who also endowed the botanical school of Washington University. Carondelet (180 acres), O'Fallon (158 acres), and Fair ground(129 acres, including a 65-acre athletic field) are the finest of the other parks. King's Highway is a boulevard (partly completed in 1910) from the Mississippi on the S. to the Mississippi on the N., crossing the western part of the city. In accord with a general movement in American cities late in the 19th century, St Louis made a beginning in the provision of small “neighbourhood parks,” intended, primarily to better the lives of the city's poor, and vacation playgrounds for children; and for this purpose five blocks of tenements were condemned by the city. In the different parks and public places are statues of Columbus, Shakespeare (Tower Grove Park) and Humboldt (Tower Grove Park), by Ferdinand von Mueller of Munich; a replica of the Schiller monument at Marbach in Germany, and of Houdon's Washington (Lafayette Park); statues of Thomas Hart Benton (Lafayette Park; by Harriet Hosmer), of Francis Preston Blair (W. W. Gardner) and Edward Bates (J. W. McDonald), both in Forest Park, and of General Grant (R. P. Bringhurst) in the City Hall Park; all of these being in bronze. In the cemeteries of the city—of which the largest are Bellefontaine (350 acres) and Calvary (415 acres)—there are notable monuments to Henry Shaw, and to Nathaniel Lyon, Sterling Price, Stephen W. Kearny and W. T. Sherman, all closely associated with St Louis or Missouri. There are various lake, river and highland pleasure-resorts near the city; and about 12 m. S. is Jefferson Barracks, a national military post of the first class. The old arsenal within the city, about which centred the opening events of the Civil War in Missouri, has been mainly abandoned, and part of the grounds given to the municipality for a park.
The annual fair, or exposition, was held in the autumn of each year—except in war time—from 1855 to 1902, ceasing with the preparations for the World's Fair of 1904. One day of Fair Week (“Big Thursday”) was a city holiday; and one evening of the week was given over after 1878 to a nocturnal illuminated pageant known as the Procession of the Veiled Prophet, with accompaniments in the style of the carnival (Mardi Gras) at New Orleans; this pageant is still continued.
Among the educational institutions of the city, Washington University, a largely endowed, non-sectarian, co-educational school opened in 1857, is the most prominent. Under its control are three secondary schools, Smith Academy and the Manual Training School for Boys, and Mary Institute for Girls. The university embraces a department of arts and sciences, which includes a college and a school of engineering and architecture, and special schools of law, medicine (1899), dentistry, fine arts, social economy and botany. Affiliated with the university is the St Louis School of Social Economy, called until 1909 the St Louis School of Philanthropy, and in 1906-1909 affiliated with the university of Missouri. The Russell Sage Foundation co-operates with this school. In 1909 Washington University had 1045 students. In 1905 the department of arts and sciences and the law school were removed to the outskirts of the city, where a group of buildings of Tudor-Gothic style in red Missouri granite were erected upon grounds, which with about $6,000,000 for buildings and endowment, were given to the university. St Louis University had its beginnings (1818) as a Latin academy, became a college in 1820, and was incorporated as a university in 1832. One of the leading Jesuit colleges of the United States, it is the parent-school of six other prominent Jesuit colleges in the Middle West. In 1910 it comprised a school of philosophy and science (1832), a divinity school (1834), a medical school (1836), a law school (1843), a dental school (1908), a college, three academies and a commercial department; and its enrolment was 1181. It is the third largest, and the Christian Brothers' College (1851), also Roman Catholic, is the fourth largest educational institution in the state. The Christian Brothers' College had in 1910 30 instructors and 500 students, most of whom were in the preparatory department. Besides the Divinity School of St Louis University, there are three theological seminaries, Concordia (Evangelical Lutheran, 1839), Eden Evangelical College (German Evangelical Synod of North America, 1850) and Kenrick Theological Seminary (Roman Catholic, 1894). There are two evening law schools, Benton College (1896) and Metropolitan College (1901).
The public school system came into national prominence under the administration (1867-1880) of William T. Harris, and for many years has been recognized as one of the best in the United States.
The first permanent kindergarten in the country in connexion with the public schools was established in St Louis in 1873 by W. T. Harris (q.v.), then superintendent of schools, and Miss Susan Ellen Blow. The first public kindergarten training school was established at the same time. There is a teachers' college in the city school system, and there are special schools for backward children. Several school buildings have been successfully used as civic centres. The city has an excellent educational museum, material from which is available for object lessons in nature study, history, geography, art, &c., in all public schools. In the year 1907-1908 the total receipts for public education were $4,219,000, and the expenditure was $3,789,604. The City Board of Education was chartered in 1897.
The German element has lent strength to musical and gymnastic societies. The Museum and School of Fine Arts was established in 1879 as the Art Department of Washington University. In 1908 it first received the proceeds of a city tax of one-fifth mill per dollar, and in 1909 it was reorganized as the City Art Museum. In its building (the “Art Palace,” built in 1903-1904 at a cost of $943,000 for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition; now owned by the city) in Forest Park are excellent collections (largely loaned) of sculpture and paintings (illustrating particularly the development of American art) and of art objects. The School of Fine Arts, now separate from the museum and a part of Washington University, has classes in painting, drawing, design, illustration, modelling, pottery, bookbinding, &c. Among the libraries the greatest collections are those of the Mercantile Library (in 1910, 136,000 volumes and pamphlets), a subscription library founded in 1846, and the public library (1865)—a fine city library since 1894, with 312,000 volumes in 1910 and six branch libraries, the gift of Andrew Carnegie, who also gave the city $500,000 towards the new public library, which was begun in 1909 and cost $1,500,000. Other notable collections are those of the St Louis Academy of Science and of the Missouri Botanical Gardens. There are at least three newspapers of national repute: the Republic, established in 1808 as the Missouri Gazette, and in 1822-1886 called the Missouri Republican; the Globe-Democrat (1852); and the Westliche Post (1857).
In trade, industry and wealth St Louis is one of the most substantial cities of the Union. Its growth has been steady; but without such “booms” as have marked the history of many western cities, and especially Chicago, of which St Louis was for several decades the avowed rival. The primacy of the northern city was clear, however, by 1880. St Louis has borne a reputation for conservatism and solidity. Its manufactures aggregate three-fifths the value of the total output of the state. In 1880 their value was $114,333,375, and in 1890 $228,700,000; the value of the factory product was $193,732,788 in 1900, and in 1905 $267,307,038 (increase 1900-1905, 38%).
Tobacco goods, malt liquors, boots and shoes and slaughtering and meat-packing products were the leading items in 1905. The packing industry is even more largely developed outside the city limits and across the river in East St Louis. St Louis is the greatest manufacturer of tobacco products among American cities, and probably in the world; the total in 1905 was 8.96% of the total output of manufactured tobacco in the United States; and the output of chewing and smoking tobacco and snuff in 1900 constituted 23.5% and in 1905 23.7% of the product of the country. St Louis is also the foremost producer of white lead, street and railway cars, and wooden ware; and in addition to these and the items above particularized, has immense manufactories of clothing, coffee and spices (roasted), paints, stoves and furnaces, flour, hardware, drugs and chemicals and clay products. One of its breweries is said to be the largest in the world.
Aside from traffic in its own products, the central position of the city in the Mississippi Valley gives it an immense trade in the products of that tributary region, among which grains, cotton, tobacco, lumber, live stock and their derived products are the staples. In addition, it is a jobbing centre of immense interests in the distribution of other goods. The greatest lines of wholesale trade are dry goods, millinery and notions; groceries and allied lines; boots and shoes; tobacco; shelf and heavy hardware; furniture; railway supplies; street and railway cars; foundry and allied products; drugs, chemicals and proprietary medicines; beer; wooden-ware; agricultural implements; hides; paints; paint oils and white lead; electrical supplies; stoves, ranges and furnaces; and furs—the value of these different items ranging from 70 to 10 million dollars each.[1] According to the St Louis Board of Trade, St Louis is the largest primary fur market of the world, drawing supplies even from northern Canada. As a wool market Boston alone surpasses it, and as a vehicle market it stands in the second or third place. In the other industries just named, it claims to stand first among the cities of the Union. It is one of the greatest interior cotton markets of the country—drawing its supplies mainly from Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma—but a large part of its receipts are for shipment on through bills of lading, and are not net receipts handled by its
- ↑ These are arranged in the order shown by the Annual Statement for 1906 reported to the Merchants' Exchange.
