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Downtown Information
Downtown St. Louis is the central business district of St. Louis, Missouri,
the hub of tourism and entertainment and the anchor of the St. Louis
Metropolitan area. The downtown is bounded by Interstate 64 to the south,
Jefferson Ave. to the west, the river front to the east, and Cole St. to the
north. The downtown is the site of many corporate headquarters including A.G.
Edwards, Edward Jones Investments, Energizer Holdings, Anheuser-Busch, and a
host of other companies.
The earliest history of the downtown area of St. Louis is synonymous with the
beginnings of the City. Pierre Laclede chose to found the city here because it
was a excellent fur trading post, immune to most floods and defensible to
against any hostile Native Americans, because of its high bluffs and forest,
Laclede found the present day downtown area the prefect place to run a bustling
fur trade.
In its early days Laclede acted as the De facto leader St. Louis, and although
the settlement as named after King Louis IX of France most residents called it
"Laclede village" Laclede planed out the format of the city streets, and oversaw
the construction of the settlements first buildings. Although initial growth was
slow, the settlement received a real stimulus when France surrendered all of its
territorial holdings east of the Mississippi river to Great Britain after the
Seven Years' War. By 1776 St. Louis had 300 residents and almost 75 buildings.
By 1804 the population had tripled to 900, yet village was still without a local
government. As the years passed a flood of America immigrants came to the
village, these newcomers established an American system of government, and
French influence began to wane.
With arrival of the steam boat in 1817, St. Louis became a vital center of
American commerce able to trade goods from the Gulf of Mexico across America. By
1836 the City had 15,000 inhabitants yet it still did not have basic intuitions,
such as banks, library's or public schools. By now the downtown streets shed
their French names and began to reflect the American settlers. By the mid 1800s
the downtown, was becoming more commercial than residential, and more people
began to move to the western parts of the city.
The commercial activity of St. Louis was centered around Main street(present day
First street) Washington Avenue, and Walnut Street. However the Great St. Louis
fire of 1849 destroyed much of this district. In time the city recovered from
the fire and regained its place as one of the commercial centers of the Midwest.
During the late 19th and early 20th century, the St. Louis Downtown experienced
a building boom largely because of a lack of room for businesses to expand. In
in its heyday the downtown was a bustling center of commerce however by the mid
20th century the downtown began to decline. During the 1970s dozens of historic
builds were razed and replaced by parking lots. The present day downtown has
moved further south, yet the Historic downtown remains, and recent preservation
efforts have been effective.
Both major universities in St. Louis began in the downtown region, St. Louis
University, founded in 1818 by Bishop DuBourg rented a stone house on Market
Street to house its first class. The University was discontinued in 1826 because
of pastoral duties of Bishop DuBourg. But was rejuvenated two years late by
Father Van Quickenborne. The university expanded greatly constructing numerous
buildings but eventually relocated in 1888. Washington University founded as
Eliot Seminary on February 22, 1853, and received its present name in 1857 at
the insistence of its chancellor, William Greenleaf Eliot, because it was
chartered on Washington's birthday. The first school opened on its downtown
campus at 17th Street and Washington Avenue was the Smith Academy in 1856, soon
followed by the buildings for other departments. Like St. Louis University
Washington University relocated from the downtown in 1904.
After World War II St. Louis, like many other urban centers began to experience
decline, heavy population loss an high crime plagued the city. However by the
early 1990s the downtown has subject to urban renewal efforts. Over $3.3 billion
dollars have been invested downtown between 1999 and 2005 and that number will
grow to over $4 billion by the end of 2006. The population of the grew for the
first in 40 years, and numerous residential and commercial units are being
built.