Any place that can produce the grandfather of rock ‘n’ roll and one of the most influential poets of the 20th century has to be taken seriously. The city of St Louis – lying slap-bang in the middle of the US in the state of Missouri – has always been at the central crossroads of creativity, and of business and trade.
It’s no surprise, then, that this Midwest metropolis on the Mississippi River spawned the likes of musical legend Chuck Berry and TS Eliot. The latter may have moved on to England to secure his literary legacy, but old Chuck, now in his 83rd year, is still belting it out on stage in his home city. Add to Berry the likes of Miles Davis and Tina Turner, who also have ties to St Louis, and you realise how this “culture clash” city has been a unique contributor to America’s history.
Not only did it grow as an east-west crossing point for the wagon train, but also as the heart of the south-north route along the Mississippi and the equally important Missouri River. So it seems appropriate that St Louis’s iconic symbol is the 193m-tall Gateway Arch, towering above the Mississippi. Even the great flocks of migrating birds pass overhead, using the Mississippi as their “flyway” from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
But it was human migration that turned St Louis into the transportation and business hub that made it what it is today. The compact city has a population of only 355,000, but Greater St Louis, which stretches way into Missouri, accounts for nearly three million people. Even so, the importance of this charming and relaxed city goes way beyond the numbers game.
The old song Meet Me in St Louis, Louis still has a resonance more than a century after becoming popular in 1904. That year, St Louis – pronounced “Lewis” by the Missourians – hosted the World’s Fair and the Summer Olympics, being America’s fourth-biggest city at the time. The river traffic was immense, with the fur and timber trade from the northern states being a major player. So was
the overland trade along the pioneer routes of the Oregon Trail to the Pacific coast, and the Santa Fe Trail to the mineral riches of the south-west, both of which started out in Missouri.
With the huge influx of German, Czech and Irish immigrants, the city’s industries grew swiftly in the 19th and 20th centuries, none more so than brewing. Even today, more than 11 billion bottles are brewed a year at the Anheuser-Busch plant, which helps to supply Budweiser and Michelob to a thirsty nation. The company was bought for US$52 billion by the Belgium-based InBev giant in 2008, but you can still tour the impressive red-brick brewery.
Transportation has always been a key component in the story of St Louis. After the covered wagon came the steamboat era and then the train, though by the time the Eads Bridge had been built across the Mississippi, Chicago, a few hours’ drive north, had grabbed the major share of the railhead and stockyard action.
When the petrol-powered vehicle came along, St Louis made its mark. It boasts that it had the nation’s first gasoline station and even the first recorded automobile accident. With its cross-nation routes passing through, it seems appropriate that the city, and other centres in Missouri, should end up assembling vehicles.
Inevitably, the automobile industry has been hit by the global downturn, with the recent Automotive Jobs Task Force Report indicating that 60 percent fewer vehicles were being assembled in Missouri compared with four years ago, and that the number of auto-workers has plunged by 35 percent to less than 25,500.
The skill base and manufacturing assets are still there, however, as shown by the production of Ford pick-up trucks and the Escape SUV at the company’s plant near Kansas City. Meanwhile, General Motors maintains a holding at Wentzville, west of St Louis, and Fiat/Chrysler has reopened a facility near Jefferson City, Missouri. The report says Missouri still has 250 auto manufacturing hubs and is the eighth-largest state in terms of automotive employment.
This is also good news for the aircraft and defence-based industries that have deep roots in the region. Aircraft manufacturer and defence contractor McDonnell Douglas emerged in the late sixties and established itself as a mainstay of the local economy, with a base at what is now Lambert-St Louis International airport. In 1997, the company merged with Boeing and today has about 16,000 workers in the St Louis Integrated Defence Systems unit, although this could be hit by government cutbacks on fighter planes such as the C-17
and F/A-18.
Perhaps surprisingly, Missouri’s non-profit art and culture organisations support more than 5,000 full-time equivalent jobs and generate more than US$1 billion in economic activity a year. Recent findings by the Missouri Arts Council also revealed the importance of the tourist dollar, with out-of-state visitors spending almost twice as much as locals at events. In addition, banking, finance, medicine and biotech businesses have seen growth, with major regeneration projects lifting the city to national attention.
It’s just as well that the industrial pollution referred to in TS Eliot’s first major poem, The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock, is no more. “The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window pane” has disappeared and, consequently, the view from the top of the stylish Gateway Arch is a must. Look out over the city and you’ll see its historic buildings and the 526ha of lakes, lawns and trees that make up Forest Park, a worthy rival to New York’s Central Park.
St Louis’s fading downtown area has been given a new lease of life, with regeneration guru Jim Cloar leading the way. Cloar, the recently retired president and chief executive of the Partnership for Downtown St Louis, says: “St Louis is a hidden gem. Ten years ago, we had more than 70 abandoned buildings – gorgeous, characterful old structures. Now, there is only a handful unused.
“Entrepreneurs like these things too – the heritage, the vitality and the opportunities. It’s a unique place, positioned right in the middle of the country. We say it’s the northernmost southern city and the southernmost northern city, and the same applies east-west as well. Often, St Louisians have been accused of looking to the past, but there’s now a new crop looking to the future. Our latest concept is the Gateway Mall between the arch and the old Union station.”
Sport is also a big draw, with the St Louis Cardinals baseball team drawing three million people a year to the new Busch stadium. Ballpark Village is part of a master plan to incorporate shops, offices, restaurants and housing on the site of the old stadium, but construction has taken a back seat since the downturn.
Another practical visionary is Joe Edwards, owner of the Blueberry Hill club (www.blueberryhill.com) on Delmar Boulevard, where his friend Chuck Berry appears every month. Edwards is credited with invigorating the once run-down boulevard situated between a black and a white neighbourhood. In 2007, it was voted one of the top 10 US streets by the American Planning Association, alongside the likes of Chicago’s North Michigan Avenue and Miami’s Ocean Drive.
Edwards, who has just opened a luxury boutique hotel, the Moonrise (www.moonrisehotel.com), on the boulevard, says: “When ‘white flight’ took root in the sixties, we thought it was crazy. We said: ‘Stay and embrace it all. Be open-minded and tolerant.’ People stayed and this is what America should be.”
The surrounding state has major attractions in its own right – the town of Hannibal, for example, trades off once being the home of Mark Twain. President Harry Truman was also from Missouri and you can visit his home in Independence and his birthplace in Lamar. Truman took responsibility for dropping the atomic bomb on Japan to end the Second World War, initiated the Marshall Plan to revive Europe’s battered economy, and generally re-booted America. Yet, when he finished his two terms in office, he signed the visitor’s book “Retired farmer”. A true Missourian.
For more information, visit www.explorestlouis.com or www.visitmo.com about Missouri.
Not only did it grow as an east-west crossing point for the wagon train, but also as the heart of the south-north route along the Mississippi and the equally important Missouri River. So it seems appropriate that St Louis’s iconic symbol is the 193m-tall Gateway Arch, towering above the Mississippi. Even the great flocks of migrating birds pass overhead, using the Mississippi as their “flyway” from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.
But it was human migration that turned St Louis into the transportation and business hub that made it what it is today. The compact city has a population of only 355,000, but Greater St Louis, which stretches way into Missouri, accounts for nearly three million people. Even so, the importance of this charming and relaxed city goes way beyond the numbers game.
The old song Meet Me in St Louis, Louis still has a resonance more than a century after becoming popular in 1904. That year, St Louis – pronounced “Lewis” by the Missourians – hosted the World’s Fair and the Summer Olympics, being America’s fourth-biggest city at the time. The river traffic was immense, with the fur and timber trade from the northern states being a major player. So was
the overland trade along the pioneer routes of the Oregon Trail to the Pacific coast, and the Santa Fe Trail to the mineral riches of the south-west, both of which started out in Missouri.
With the huge influx of German, Czech and Irish immigrants, the city’s industries grew swiftly in the 19th and 20th centuries, none more so than brewing. Even today, more than 11 billion bottles are brewed a year at the Anheuser-Busch plant, which helps to supply Budweiser and Michelob to a thirsty nation. The company was bought for US$52 billion by the Belgium-based InBev giant in 2008, but you can still tour the impressive red-brick brewery.
Transportation has always been a key component in the story of St Louis. After the covered wagon came the steamboat era and then the train, though by the time the Eads Bridge had been built across the Mississippi, Chicago, a few hours’ drive north, had grabbed the major share of the railhead and stockyard action.
When the petrol-powered vehicle came along, St Louis made its mark. It boasts that it had the nation’s first gasoline station and even the first recorded automobile accident. With its cross-nation routes passing through, it seems appropriate that the city, and other centres in Missouri, should end up assembling vehicles.
Inevitably, the automobile industry has been hit by the global downturn, with the recent Automotive Jobs Task Force Report indicating that 60 percent fewer vehicles were being assembled in Missouri compared with four years ago, and that the number of auto-workers has plunged by 35 percent to less than 25,500.
The skill base and manufacturing assets are still there, however, as shown by the production of Ford pick-up trucks and the Escape SUV at the company’s plant near Kansas City. Meanwhile, General Motors maintains a holding at Wentzville, west of St Louis, and Fiat/Chrysler has reopened a facility near Jefferson City, Missouri. The report says Missouri still has 250 auto manufacturing hubs and is the eighth-largest state in terms of automotive employment.
This is also good news for the aircraft and defence-based industries that have deep roots in the region. Aircraft manufacturer and defence contractor McDonnell Douglas emerged in the late sixties and established itself as a mainstay of the local economy, with a base at what is now Lambert-St Louis International airport. In 1997, the company merged with Boeing and today has about 16,000 workers in the St Louis Integrated Defence Systems unit, although this could be hit by government cutbacks on fighter planes such as the C-17
and F/A-18.
Perhaps surprisingly, Missouri’s non-profit art and culture organisations support more than 5,000 full-time equivalent jobs and generate more than US$1 billion in economic activity a year. Recent findings by the Missouri Arts Council also revealed the importance of the tourist dollar, with out-of-state visitors spending almost twice as much as locals at events. In addition, banking, finance, medicine and biotech businesses have seen growth, with major regeneration projects lifting the city to national attention.
It’s just as well that the industrial pollution referred to in TS Eliot’s first major poem, The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock, is no more. “The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window pane” has disappeared and, consequently, the view from the top of the stylish Gateway Arch is a must. Look out over the city and you’ll see its historic buildings and the 526ha of lakes, lawns and trees that make up Forest Park, a worthy rival to New York’s Central Park.
St Louis’s fading downtown area has been given a new lease of life, with regeneration guru Jim Cloar leading the way. Cloar, the recently retired president and chief executive of the Partnership for Downtown St Louis, says: “St Louis is a hidden gem. Ten years ago, we had more than 70 abandoned buildings – gorgeous, characterful old structures. Now, there is only a handful unused.
“Entrepreneurs like these things too – the heritage, the vitality and the opportunities. It’s a unique place, positioned right in the middle of the country. We say it’s the northernmost southern city and the southernmost northern city, and the same applies east-west as well. Often, St Louisians have been accused of looking to the past, but there’s now a new crop looking to the future. Our latest concept is the Gateway Mall between the arch and the old Union station.”
Sport is also a big draw, with the St Louis Cardinals baseball team drawing three million people a year to the new Busch stadium. Ballpark Village is part of a master plan to incorporate shops, offices, restaurants and housing on the site of the old stadium, but construction has taken a back seat since the downturn.
Another practical visionary is Joe Edwards, owner of the Blueberry Hill club (www.blueberryhill.com) on Delmar Boulevard, where his friend Chuck Berry appears every month. Edwards is credited with invigorating the once run-down boulevard situated between a black and a white neighbourhood. In 2007, it was voted one of the top 10 US streets by the American Planning Association, alongside the likes of Chicago’s North Michigan Avenue and Miami’s Ocean Drive.
Edwards, who has just opened a luxury boutique hotel, the Moonrise (www.moonrisehotel.com), on the boulevard, says: “When ‘white flight’ took root in the sixties, we thought it was crazy. We said: ‘Stay and embrace it all. Be open-minded and tolerant.’ People stayed and this is what America should be.”
The surrounding state has major attractions in its own right – the town of Hannibal, for example, trades off once being the home of Mark Twain. President Harry Truman was also from Missouri and you can visit his home in Independence and his birthplace in Lamar. Truman took responsibility for dropping the atomic bomb on Japan to end the Second World War, initiated the Marshall Plan to revive Europe’s battered economy, and generally re-booted America. Yet, when he finished his two terms in office, he signed the visitor’s book “Retired farmer”. A true Missourian.
For more information, visit www.explorestlouis.com or www.visitmo.com about Missouri. 
