Collection of 'Look Back' articles
A Look Back • Golden Eagle steamboat sinks in 1947
Everyone escaped to the muddy, isolated safety of Grand Tower Island.
May 20, 2012 | 9:00 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Nudity of statues at fountain dedication causes a ruckus
Anatomically complete sculptures of a man make a big splash at 1940 dedication.
May 13, 2012 | 12:15 am | Loading…
A Look Back • American Legion's founders, returning veterans, crowd downtown St. Louis
They help welcome home the 138th Infantry in a raucous celebration in 1919.
May 06, 2012 | 12:10 am | Loading…
A Look Back • St. Louis public schools drop introductory German
World War I brought big changes to a heavily German population.
Apr 29, 2012 | 12:10 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Undertaker from Texas tried to move Moses Austin's grave from Missouri in 1938
Overseeing the work was Thurlow B. Weed, an undertaker from Texas who claimed to be on official business.
Apr 22, 2012 | 12:05 am | Loading…
A Look Back • James Earl Ray, King's assassin, was small-time robber here
Drifter was born in Alton and spent pieces of his disjointed life in St. Louis.
Apr 15, 2012 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A Look Back • 1829 building, said to be home of the hot dog, demolished in 1947
A butcher bought the house in 1874 and turned it into his meat shop, where he and his partner made sausage.
Apr 02, 2012 | 12:05 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Ignored safety rules lead to mine blast that kills 111
Posted at the site were inspection reports, dating to 1945, warning of excessive dust, bad ventilation and high risk of explosion.
Mar 24, 2012 | 11:20 am | Loading…
A Look Back • 1943 blaze claims the St. Louis fire chief
Fire and collapse of the Goodwill Industries building killed Joseph W. Morgan.
Mar 18, 2012 | 12:15 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Waitresses prevail in long, tense strike at popular restaurant
In 1941-42, hamburger eatery was the target of harsh words, fistfights, stink bombs and a real bomb.
Mar 11, 2012 | 12:05 am | Loading…
A Look Back • W.C. Handy, composer of a song for the ages knew hard times in St. Louis
He was a successful band leader and composer in Memphis when he published the "St. Louis Blues" in 1914.
Mar 03, 2012 | 12:15 pm | Loading…
A Look Back • Two mobsters found guilty in East St. Louis in 1962
A week after the trial, one was shot to death along with his body guard.
Feb 26, 2012 | 12:05 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Victory at Fort Donelson makes U.S. Grant a hero
Former St. Louis farmer and cordwood dealer led Union to 1862 victory in Tennessee.
Feb 19, 2012 | 9:00 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Lemp Mansion, home of beer dynasty and suicide
Four fatal gunshots ended the lives of Lemp family members.
Feb 12, 2012 | 12:15 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Josephine Baker returns, rips St. Louis' racial discrimination
Singer became a sultry sensation in France.
Feb 05, 2012 | 12:15 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Marine Sgt. Rocky Sickmann returns home from Iran to cheers, ribbons
In 1979 and '80, he was one of 52 Americans held hostage for 444 days.
Jan 28, 2012 | 1:45 pm | Loading…
A Look Back • Evicted sharecroppers live on roadsides in 1939
Exodus of homeless in southeast Missouri was an unintended consequence of changes in federal crop assistance.
Jan 22, 2012 | 12:05 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Poet T.S. Eliot visits his home town in 1933
Famed author banters with admiring reporters in first trip here in 19 years.
Jan 15, 2012 | 12:05 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Gen. Halleck establishes system of Union control of St. Louis
He was a stern, unlovable lawyer who published numerous heavy-handed edicts and methodically enforced them.
Jan 08, 2012 | 12:05 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Prohibition-era raid on New Year's party sparks mayhem
At the newly opened Chase Hotel in 1922, angry tipplers start a brawl with 'dry agents' looking for hootch.
Dec 31, 2011 | 11:45 am | Loading…
A Look Back • St. Louis Christmas carolers sing out in their 100th season
The Children's Aid Society, helpers of orphans and poor children, organized its first carolers in 1911.
Dec 25, 2011 | 9:00 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Eugene Field's birthplace, almost demolished, opens as museum in 1936
Famed poet wrote 'Little Boy Blue' and 'Wynken, Blynken and Nod.'
Dec 18, 2011 | 9:30 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Locomotive is called 'new epoch' for Missouri
First passenger train west of the Mississippi got its start on Dec. 9, 1852, as part of westward expansion.
Dec 10, 2011 | 12:00 pm | Loading…
A Look Back • Shocked moviegoers, angry recruits downtown react to Pearl Harbor
Newspaper offices were swamped with calls from people begging to be told the bulletins weren't true.
Dec 06, 2011 | 9:45 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Service cars operated like small buses
Many people called them "jitneys" — old slang for a nickel.
Nov 26, 2011 | 12:30 pm | Loading…
A Look Back • Suffragists meet in St. Louis in 1872
At group's third annual convention here, activist tried to register downtown to vote but was rebuffed.
Nov 19, 2011 | 12:05 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Gangster turns stool pigeon in 1924 trial
Ray 'the Fox' Renard broke the mobster code and testified against notorious Egan's Rats.
Nov 13, 2011 | 12:03 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Crusading editor is killed in growing battle over slavery
Elijah P. Lovejoy, known for righteous and unforgiving prose, was almost 35 when he was killed Nov. 7, 1837.
Nov 06, 2011 | 12:10 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Union retaliatory execution in St. Louis part of Missouri's own brutish civil war
The war split Missouri without the clarity of battle lines. It divided neighbors, even families, in almost every town and county.
Oct 30, 2011 | 12:15 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Beer wins the applause in 1932 presidential campaign
In the midst of the Depression, unemployment was at 24 percent, soup lines were long and Prohibition was unpopular.
Oct 23, 2011 | 12:10 am | Loading…
A Look Back • 1950s expressway gave a taste of a bigger system to come
2.3-mile-long, six-lane Third Street Highway knocked 10 minutes off the commute to Gravois Avenue.
Oct 16, 2011 | 12:05 am | Loading…
A look back • '44 World Series was played in an October chill
In the only all-St. Louis Series ever, 31,630 fans cheered both teams at old Sportsman's Park.
Oct 09, 2011 | 8:45 am | Loading…
A look back • Climatron, inspired by R. Buckminster Fuller, is a novel and enduring hit
World's first geodesic greenhouse came to life at Missouri Botanical Garden in 1959-60.
Oct 01, 2011 | 12:10 pm | Loading…
A look back • Confederate spy's fateful bid to hook up with invading army in 1864
James Morgan Utz was carrying a hidden stash of medicine and secret messages.
Sep 24, 2011 | 12:05 pm | Loading…
A Look Back • Archbishop Ritter integrated Catholic schools, warns opposition
700 parents who resolved to take him to court were threatened with excommunication.
Sep 18, 2011 | 7:00 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Downtown landmark was demolished with little public ado in 1957
The St. Louis Merchants Exchange building, an 82-year-old downtown landmark in carved stone and hardwood, fell to the wreckers. For the next 26 years, the site at Pine and Third streets was a humble parking lot.
Sep 11, 2011 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Civil War gunboats built in Carondelet by James B. Eads
Future bridge-builder won a contract to construct seven burly gunboats from a novel design.
Sep 04, 2011 | 12:10 am | Loading…
A Look Back • St. Louis mobster's quiet death at home unleashes war
A car bombing on Interstate 55 in 1980 set off St. Louis' last big-time gang war.
Aug 27, 2011 | 11:56 am | Loading…
A Look Back • River Des Peres floods after record downpour in 1915
Death and destruction led to a bond issue to tame the drainage ditch.
Aug 21, 2011 | 12:05 am | Loading…
A look back • Party starts early in St. Louis with word of Japanese surrender
Word arrived here at 2:30 a.m. Aug. 14, 1945, and the revelry started soon after.
Aug 13, 2011 | 1:15 pm | Loading…
A look back • Relentless, withering heat wave of 1936 killed 479 in St. Louis
Area was hit with 37 days of triple-digit temperatures, a record that stands today.
Aug 06, 2011 | 12:00 pm | Loading…
A Look Back • High-flying pair break record in air over St. Louis
Gawkers jammed Lambert as pilots stayed aloft for 17 days, beating rivals in other cities.
Jul 31, 2011 | 3:30 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Egotistical general was put in his place
Gen. Fremont's short, unhappy reign in St. Louis during the Civil War.
Jul 23, 2011 | 1:45 pm | Loading…
A Look Back • A raging fire in 1963 ended 67 years of fun at the Highlands
Landmark St. Louis amusement park across from Forest Park became the site of a St. Louis Community College campus.
Jul 17, 2011 | 3:00 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Searing heat wave killed 153 in St. Louis in 1980
Many victims were poor, elderly and lacked air-conditioning.
Jul 10, 2011 | 12:00 pm | Loading…
A Look Back • Tony Faust's Restaurant was St. Louis' premier place to be seen
Dedicated clientele included the wealthy and powerful and athletes and dandies of all sort.
Jul 03, 2011 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Airline hijacking at Lambert in 1972 turns bizarre
Air pirate needed a second 727 plane after man crashed his Cadillac into landing gear.
Jun 25, 2011 | 12:30 pm | Loading…
A Look Back • Couple win landmark housing-rights case, never get dream house
In a 7-2 ruling, Supreme Court ordered that mixed-race couple from St. Louis could buy a home.
Jun 18, 2011 | 2:00 pm | Loading…
A Look Back • Democrats punted on women's vote
Party convention here in 1916 renominated Wilson as suffragettes pressured delegates.
Jun 12, 2011 | 12:10 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Fateful meeting in a St. Louis hotel: 'This means war'
Missouri's role in the Civil War became clear after June 1861 session.
Jun 05, 2011 | 12:05 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Great Cyclone of 1896 killed 255
Super tornado formed near Hampton Avenue and churned toward East St. Louis.
May 29, 2011 | 12:20 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Fair held here in 1864 raised $550,000 to aid Union troops
The fair raised money to give Union soldiers hospital care, clean garments and warm meals.
May 22, 2011 | 7:45 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Great Fire of 1849 ravaged riverfront
Blaze on steamboat sparked inferno that changed the face of downtown St. Louis.
May 15, 2011 | 12:15 am | Loading…
A Look Back • P-D reporter who reached Berlin blocked by Army censors
Virginia Irwin, tough and irreverent, was one of few women correspondents overseas in World War II.
May 08, 2011 | 12:10 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Vietnam War era violence hits home
After a decade of assassinations, racist brutality, urban riots, hippies, hard hats and a stalemate war in faraway jungles, everybody's nerves were raw.
May 01, 2011 | 12:05 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Fast action foils bank robbery in 1953
Dramatic attempt by masked men at Southwest Bank fails, but it leads to a movie starring Steve McQueen.
Apr 24, 2011 | 12:20 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Ralph Clayton gave land for county seat
After St. Louis city and county split, a new courthouse was built on land donated by a farmer.
Apr 17, 2011 | 12:15 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Dedication of Municipal (Kiel) Auditorium was major celebration
Thousands jammed downtown for the parade on April 14, 1934, then rushed to Market and 14th streets for the event.
Apr 10, 2011 | 12:15 am | Loading…
A Look Back • After the Rev. King's murder, St. Louis marched and prayed
While rioting plagued other cities in 1968, residents here showed restraint.
Apr 03, 2011 | 6:00 am | Loading…
A Look Back • St. Louis made tap water clear just in time for World's Fair
A new water works with six massive settling tanks opened in 1894, but the city still had plenty of work to do.
Mar 27, 2011 | 12:20 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Secessionist strategy in 1861 helped form city police board
Governor sympathetic to Confederacy backed bill that allowed him to appoint commissioners in St. Louis.
Mar 20, 2011 | 12:05 am | Loading…
A Look Back • First toast to St. Patrick here was in 1820
Irish then were a small part of city's 4,400 residents, and the marching would come later.
Mar 13, 2011 | 3:00 pm | Loading…
A Look Back • 150 years ago, St. Louis was scene of secession struggle
Most convention delegates owned slaves but few favored a break from the Union.
Mar 06, 2011 | 12:03 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Arena makes historic final curtain call
On Feb. 27, 1999, the giant humped roof of the Arena disappeared into a roiling sea of gray dust, and witnesses roared with delight.
Feb 27, 2011 | 12:25 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Gen. Sherman's funeral in 1891 drew thousands
Funeral procession for Civil War hero and occasional St. Louisan featured a procession of 12,000 soldiers, veterans and notables on a winding, seven-mile path from downtown to Calvary Cemetery.
Feb 20, 2011 | 5:00 am | Loading…
A Look Back • 'Whiskey ring' corruption case was a national sensation
1876 trial here involved President Grant's aide, who was accused of being ringleader.
Feb 13, 2011 | 12:10 am | Loading…
A Look Back • When the Mississippi River froze over
The winter 1936, the third coldest on record here, had shoved the temperature below zero on a dozen nights.
Feb 06, 2011 | 12:25 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Old Cathedral’s new name kept secret
Pope John XXIII decreed that the historic riverfront church would become the Basilica of St. Louis
Jan 30, 2011 | 12:20 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Doctrinal split led to schism at Concordia Seminary
On Jan. 21, 1974, students voted 274-92 to boycott classes, pledging to stay out until their church leadership "publicly declares which members of the faculty, if any, are to be considered as false teachers."
Jan 23, 2011 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Out-of-work women occupy aldermanic gallery during Depression
On Jan. 13, 1939, dozens who lost their WPA jobs filled the gallery inside City Hall, demanding relief.
Jan 16, 2011 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Book lovers brave cold to attend dedication of library
In January 1912, nearly 1,000 people trudged downtown to dedicate the new structure.
Jan 09, 2011 | 12:20 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Computer worries, and reveling, at the Millennium
ST. LOUIS • Extra fire trucks idled in reserve. Hospitals double-staffed emergency rooms. Computer techies hunkered in offices, scanning clocks and screens.
Jan 01, 2011 | 10:15 am | Loading…
A Look Back • During Depression, St. Louis Christmas dinners fed thousands
ST. LOUIS • On Christmas 1932, a hodgepodge of charities here offered hot meals to the city's destitute. With unemployment rising to 23.6 percent, their earnest efforts were hopelessly insufficient.
Dec 26, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Railroad commuting gave residents time for laughter, cards and drinks
St. Louis once had a thriving network of local passenger trains that connected downtown to the suburbs; by December 1961, the service had ended.
Dec 19, 2010 | 12:10 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Black fighter pilot honored with his own day at City Hall
ST. LOUIS • The Sumner and Vashon high school bands belted patriotic melodies as 2,500 admirers jammed the City Hall rotunda. Nathaniel Sweets, publisher of the St. Louis American, stepped forward with a gift-wrapped watch from the "negroes of St. Louis," according to the…
Dec 12, 2010 | 12:10 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Times Beach disappeared after 1982 flood
A month earlier, residents had learned that oil used to spray the town's many dirt lanes had been laced with dioxin, a toxin deadly to animals.
Dec 05, 2010 | 12:25 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Animal lovers tried to ease Phil the Gorilla's final days in 1958
For almost two decades, Zoo patrons had flocked to his cage hoping to catch some of his antics.
Nov 28, 2010 | 12:15 am | Loading…
A Look Back • St. Louisans stood dazed in rain, headed for churches when president was killed
With the first news bulletins, frantic people grabbing for telephones overwhelmed the circuits. They gathered around office radios and jammed appliance stores to follow the jumbled live TV news reports.
Nov 22, 2010 | 8:45 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Gen. Doolittle, Tokyo raider, returns for big parade in 1945
On Nov. 12, 1945, Gen. James H. "Jimmy" Doolittle led the Armistice Day parade, a grand celebration in that first November of peacetime following World War II.
Nov 13, 2010 | 12:00 pm | Loading…
A Look Back • Metro area backed Abe Lincoln in 1860, but Missouri didn't
St. Louis, long a Southern-inclined river town in a slave state, had tilted more northerly with the arrival of German immigrants and Yankee industry.
Nov 07, 2010 | 10:00 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Vice president met, married St. Louis widow in 1949
Truman's No. 2 man kept calling until the couple, separated by 34 years, tied the knot in November 1949.
Oct 31, 2010 | 12:10 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Coast-to-coast airline service had a local stop
Lambert Field was a historic place on Oct. 25, 1930.
Oct 24, 2010 | 5:45 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Frankie shot Johnnie in St. Louis, but didn't win her lawsuit
Frankie Baker and Allen Britt had a lovers' spat. He went to a piano bar. She went home alone and angry, telling a neighbor she might "blow up" two rival women.
Oct 17, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Demolition cleared way for Gateway Arch
Mayor Bernard F. Dickmann kept the first brick for himself. The second, he said, was for President Franklin Roosevelt. Soon, the mayor was autographing bricks as fast as he could knock them loose.
Oct 10, 2010 | 12:20 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Statue of King Louis IX unveiled, becomes city's symbol
Big crowd in 1906 witnessed the event, followed by a long parade.
Oct 03, 2010 | 6:00 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Thomas Hart Benton's infamous fatal duel on Bloody Island
Thomas Hart Benton was an ambitious newcomer who had wounded Gen. Andrew Jackson in a Tennessee tavern brawl. Charles Lucas was the cultivated son of a prominent local family. Their clashes were played out in dramatic fashion.
Sep 26, 2010 | 5:00 am | Loading…
A Look Back • In 1954, seething inmates went on a rampage
Two inmates lured a guard into their cell, jumped him and took his keys. They jumped another guard, freed their cohorts and grabbed sledgehammers from a machine shop. As pilfered keys were used to spring more cellblocks, the small band headed toward Death Row.
Sep 19, 2010 | 12:15 am | Loading…
A Look Back • St. Louis forms its fire department, takes on volunteer units
As the city grew in bounds, so did its fire department.
Sep 12, 2010 | 5:00 am | Loading…
A Look Back • A new Missouri River bridge hastened migration to St. Charles County
24-mile expressway from downtown into St. Charles was the first spoke in the pinwheel of today's regional system of superhighways.
Sep 04, 2010 | 12:00 pm | Loading…
A Look Back • Zooline was popular from its first run
The zoo's ever-popular Zooline entered the railroad business on Aug. 29, 1963, with a ceremony at the original station near the bear pits. Zoo director Marlin Perkins and zoo board chairman Howard Baer whacked at a "golden spike" to complete the 1.5-mile loop of track.
Aug 29, 2010 | 12:10 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Ulysses Grant's marriage here was a quiet affair
Future Civil War general and president found a romance that endured for 36 years.
Aug 22, 2010 | 12:15 am | Loading…
A Look Back • East St. Louis blacks protested over lack of jobs
The years after World War II were hard on this gritty smokestack town. Major industries closed. Residents who could afford to began moving "up the bluff."
Aug 15, 2010 | 12:15 am | Loading…
A look back • Irish immigrants fight back in 1854 nativist riots
Ireland's potato famine, beginning in 1845, propelled thousands of refugees into the crowded tenements near Washington Avenue. The Irish were poor, suddenly numerous and drank in public after Mass on Sundays.
Aug 08, 2010 | 12:30 am | Loading…
A look back • Historic flood crest in 1993 smashes one man's farm, spares a city homeowner
ST. LOUIS • Weary flood-fighter Dennis Collins stood atop a makeshift wall barely holding against backwater from the surging Mississippi River. Behind him was his ranch home, dry but vulnerable.
Aug 01, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Pruitt and Igoe started strong, but in the end failed
ST. LOUIS • During World War II, the crowded city's 860,000 residents included many newcomers who found jobs in defense plants and housing in grim 19th-century tenements. War's end ignited demand for better places to live.
Jul 25, 2010 | 12:10 am | Loading…
A look back • Cholera epidemic hit a peak here in 1849
The epidemic inflicted its worst in late July with a weekly toll of 640, seven times the city's normal death rate.
Jul 18, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • Military records center fire burned for two days, destroying millions of files
OVERLAND • The U.S. Military Records Center was packed with more than 35 million files about the nation's former military personnel. Employees received almost 5,800 letters every day and dutifully tried to answer them within 24 hours.
Jul 11, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • Forest Park golf a testament to Dwight F. Davis' drive for sports
ST. LOUIS • Standing at the first tee, Mrs. E.H. Farrar "whirled a golf stick through the air and sent a ball soaring in the direction of Skinker."
Jul 04, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • St. Louis factory loaded America's weapons during World War II
ST. LOUIS • Stamping machines punched cartridge casings from brass sheets. Automatic loaders rammed in powder and slugs. Boxes clanged along conveyors. Test firings added to the whirling racket.
Jun 27, 2010 | 12:08 am | Loading…
A look back • Homer G. Phillips was a leader among blacks in St. Louis
ST. LOUIS • Homer G. Phillips grew up in Sedalia, Mo., son of a Methodist minister who had been a slave. Phillips studied law at Howard University in Washington and moved here just before the World's Fair in 1904. He married Ida Perle Alexander, an actress, and establishe…
Jun 20, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • Scott Air Force Base began in a wheat field
BELLEVILLE • The big news came by telegram on June 14, 1917, from businessman Edward Daley, who had been in Washington for a week lobbying to snare a new military base.
Jun 13, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • Chimp kidnap caper stranger than the 'Monkey Show'
ST. LOUIS • An old summertime hit at the zoo was the chimpanzee show, known to many fans simply as the "monkey show." Dressed in zany costumes, the chimps drove little cars, played baseball, teased their trainers and performed other vaudevillian stunts that probably would…
Jun 06, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • 1914 pageant in Forest Park helped reshape city government
ST. LOUIS • In 1911, Progressive Era reformers asked voters to reorganize city government. Working-class residents, sniffing an elitist power grab, trounced it by almost 3 to 1.
May 30, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • Hodiamont Line streetcar closed out 107 years of service
ST. LOUIS • Mr. and Mrs. Leslie Heinz stepped aboard clad in the same tuxedo and beaded dress they had worn to a New Year's Eve party 36 years before. Railroad enthusiasts took pictures at every stop. A young man brought a case of beer.
May 23, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • Inspector's hammer kept Admiral moored, but old boat endures
ST. LOUIS • The news on May 16, 1979, was grim for a venerable summertime tradition: A Coast Guard inspector's hammer had gone right through the thin, corroded hull of the S.S. Admiral. Its owners announced cruises would end that year.
May 16, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • Bloody street strike in 1900 rips open class divide
ST. LOUIS • In 1899, a few powerful men consolidated the city's streetcar lines. They made the workdays longer, fired union organizers and threatened wage cuts. They made a public feint of settling with the union, then reneged.
May 09, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A Look Back • 1904 World's Fair drew big crowds from the start
ST. LOUIS • People began stepping from trolleys and Wabash Railroad shuttles before dawn. A glorious sunrise splashed the dew-covered grass. More than 300 police officers milled about the main gate on Lindell Boulevard.
May 02, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • Reporter got his story first, then took kidnapping victim home
ST. LOUIS • In April 1931, headlines chronicled the kidnapping of Dr. Isaac Kelley Jr., a prominent surgeon. He had driven from his home at 32 Portland Place after getting a mysterious call to help a sick child in Clayton. His car was found in Jennings.
Apr 25, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • Thomas Hart Benton's funeral was a three-day affair
ST. LOUIS • Clouds filled the sky on the morning of April 16, 1858. The Missouri Democrat newspaper described the weather as "almost tearful, as if in sympathy."
Apr 18, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • Luther Ely Smith got the Gateway Arch grounds going
ST. LOUIS • On April 11, 1934, lawyers filed incorporation papers for the new Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Association. Its charge was to develop "a suitable and permanent public memorial" to President Thomas Jefferson along the city's dingy riverfront.
Apr 11, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • 1976 fire along Locust Street was one for the ages
ST. LOUIS • In 1971, a fire broke out in the vacant Heyday Shoe building, once a maker of women's wear. Smoke rose high above the old manufacturing district west of downtown.
Apr 04, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • Santa Maria had a brief stay on St. Louis riverfront
ST. LOUIS • It was an odd scene at an old steamboat landing — a harbor tug pushing a replica of Christopher Columbus' sailing ship Santa Maria alongside the S.S. Admiral. A small crowd braved windy 30-degree weather to mark its arrival downtown on March 29, 1969.
Mar 28, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • Carry Nation carried her fight to a St. Louis bar owner
ST. LOUIS • Carry Nation, the hatchet-swinging temperance crusader, smashed her first tavern in Kiowa, Kan., in 1900. Newspapers chronicled her travels with an electric sense of anticipation.
Mar 21, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • A prosecutor who went after a political boss
ST. LOUIS • Joseph W. Folk, a young reform-minded lawyer who helped resolve a bitter streetcar strike in 1900, offered himself that year as a Democratic candidate for city circuit attorney. Party boss Edward Butler, distracted by other campaigns, went along with putting F…
Mar 14, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • Sit-down strike at Emerson was one of nation's longest
ST. LOUIS • During the Depression, Emerson Electric Co. had a "company" union called the Employees' Plan of Representation. One union leader called its office "a nice place to smoke a cigarette on company time, and nothing more."
Mar 07, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Crash here killed two astronauts
ST. LOUIS • Astronauts Elliott See Jr. and Charles Bassett II were the lead crew for Gemini IX, a mission scheduled for May 1966. They were to rendezvous with a satellite and give Bassett a space walk, all part of the learning curve in the race to the moon.
Feb 28, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • Lawsuit led to major changes in the way area students are educated
ST. LOUIS • Parents of five black public school students in the city went to federal court on Feb. 17, 1972, alleging that their schools were inferior to those in white neighborhoods. Lawsuits need names, and somebody had to go first. The honor went to Craton Liddell, 12.
Feb 21, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • Shocking outcome for a Busch
ST. LOUIS • August A. Busch Sr. lay uncomfortably in his bed at Grant's Farm. In pain from heart disease and gout, he had endured a bad night. When his chauffeur, Anton Feichtinger, entered the bedroom about 8 a.m., Busch asked him to turn on the radio "and get some music."
Feb 14, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back: Monster 1982 snowfall began as a rainstorm
Sound familiar? It started out wet, then dumped 14 inches of snow on St. Louis.
Jan 31, 2010 | 5:00 am | Loading…
A look back • Pope's visit to St. Louis in 1999 was a whirlwind 31-hour visit
ST. LOUIS • The Pink Sisters prayed for good weather. Stagehands at America's Center tore down a car show and put up an altar, framed by a 45-foot-tall arch. There was too much talk of highway gridlock.
Jan 24, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • In the 1950s, air raid sirens gave St. Louisans a chance to practice for an evacuation
ST. LOUIS • At 9:45 a.m. on Jan. 16, 1954, the area's new air-raid sirens began wailing for three harrowing minutes. It was the dreaded "red alert," the warning that a Soviet air attack was imminent.
Jan 17, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • 1962 explosion in bitter cold headlined a wild day for St. Louis fire department
ST. LOUIS • On Jan. 10, 1962, all the talk was about bitter cold. At 3 p.m., with the temperature only 4 degrees, Carson Crocker was cutting a customer's hair at 702 Chouteau Avenue. Police officer Kenneth Jones tried to stay warm in his patrol car one block away. Major N…
Jan 10, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • 5,000 settle in shacks along the Mississippi during the Great Depression
ST. LOUIS • The Great Depression had settled in hard by the first dawn of 1931. Unemployment, already at 15 percent, would climb relentlessly toward a crushing 24.9 percent two years later. Relief programs were well-intended but scant, and jobless families lost homes, apa…
Jan 03, 2010 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • Black St. Louisans got a showcase hospital when Homer G. Phillips opened in 1937
ST. LOUIS • In 1923, city voters approved an ambitious building program that included $1.2 million for a new hospital for blacks. It would replace City Hospital No. 2, an old structure in the Mill Creek neighborhood that once housed a medical college. Grand juries routine…
Dec 13, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • Plagued by a shortage of money, the free 'people's bridge' finally opened in 1917
ST. LOUIS • A century ago, an association of railroad barons owned both bridges over the Mississippi River and charged high rates for anything that crossed by train or wagon.
Nov 22, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • With help of federal money to stimulate economy, the flowery Jewel Box opened in Forest Park in 1936
ST. LOUIS • Mayor Bernard F. Dickmann stood amid 3,500 chrysanthemums that splashed the bright room with colors from pure white to dark crimson. Rising 50 feet above him was a towering new structure of arched steel and glass. Mainly glass.
Nov 15, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • Aggressive measures helped hold down number of deaths from 1918 Spanish flu
ST. LOUIS • In the first week of November 1918, the headlines were all about the collapse of the German lines after four years of exhausting, ghastly World War. Inside pages carried daily local death tolls from the Spanish flu pandemic, which killed many millions more wor…
Nov 08, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Truman called memorable photo 'one for the book'
A look back at how a newly elected President Truman called memorable photo in 1948 'one for the book'
Nov 01, 2009 | 10:15 am | Loading…
A look back • October 1963 protests at Jefferson Bank led to major changes in hiring practices in St. Louis
ST. LOUIS • By early October 1963, the demonstrations at Jefferson Bank & Trust Co. had gone on almost daily for more than a month. Civil rights groups demanded that the bank, which had only two black employees, hire four more for office jobs. Bank executives said the…
Oct 11, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • 1953 Bobby Greenlease Jr. kidnapping ended in the Missouri gas chamber
KANSAS CITY • On the night of Oct. 4, 1953, Carl Austin Hall drove his rented Ford along a wooded stretch of U.S. Highway 40 east of Kansas City. He turned down a quiet county road toward a bridge but didn't see the duffel bag he expected.
Oct 04, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • After Daniel Boone's 1799 move, frontiersman's legacy endures here
DEFIANCE • In 1799, frontiersman Daniel Boone was tired of the crowds and land-deed finagling in Kentucky. He shook the bluegrass from his boots and moved to the quieter wilderness of the future St. Charles County, Mo. He hunted, reunited warmly with Shawnees who had capt…
Sep 27, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • St. Louis car-making dates back 111 years
HAZELWOOD • On Sept. 21, 1948, Benson Ford, 29-year-old grandson of Ford Motor Co.'s legendary founder, stood before a crowd at the company's new factory in the St. Louis suburbs. The $12 million assembly plant was part of Ford's muscular postwar expansion.
Sep 20, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Kennedy made trip here as part of space race
ST. LOUIS • By September 1962, the United States had made it into space but still trailed the Soviet Union. Scott Carpenter, the fourth American astronaut, circled Earth three times in May. The Soviets countered by putting two cosmonauts into simultaneous separate orbits,…
Sep 13, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • The Fox's 1982 rebirth revived midtown
ST. LOUIS • On Sept. 7, 1982, in the hours before the grand reopening of the Fox Theatre in midtown, Mary Strauss fussed over an unpolished brass rail and minor flaws in color schemes. She and her husband, developer Leon Strauss, had made restoring the lavish old movie pa…
Sep 06, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • Union Station turned city into a national crossroads
ST. LOUIS • On Sept. 1, 1894, newspapers carried detailed instructions for carriages approaching 18th and Market streets. No one would get through without a pass.
Aug 30, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • St. Louis' split from county provoked a bitter fight
ST. LOUIS • On Aug. 22, 1876, voters in St. Louis and St. Louis County went to the polls to decide the region's most fateful ballot question - the "Great Divorce," or whether to split the city away from the county.
Aug 23, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • In 1942, blacks marched for jobs
ST. LOUIS • In August 1942, U.S. Marines landed on Guadalcanal. The Germans were grinding toward Stalingrad. Back home in the "Arsenal of Democracy," many booming war factories refused to hire black Americans.
Aug 16, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • Clearing of Mill Creek Valley changed the face of the city
ST. LOUIS • In the years after World War II, civic leaders believed in solving big problems with sweeping projects. That sort of thinking, after all, had won the war.
Aug 09, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • Lambert Field's co-founder and the St. Louis mayor among 10 killed in catastrophic glider demonstration
ST. LOUIS • Maj. William Robertson, an aviation pioneer here and co-founder of Lambert Field, had a factory that built gliders for World War II. Mayor William Dee Becker was a big promoter of the airport.
Aug 02, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A Look Back • 1877 railroad strike paralyzed city, spread to foundries, canneries, docks and more
ST. LOUIS • The summer of 1877 simmered in the fourth year of a depression. When the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad cut pay another 10 percent, outraged depot workers in Martinsburg, W.Va., stopped the trains.
Jul 26, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • In '37, motorists in St. Louis got their first superhighway
ST. LOUIS • Rain slowed traffic to 25 mph. There was a jam at the Vandeventer Avenue stoplight. Motorists couldn't resist the grand opening of the last big stretch of the Express Highway, the city's original superhighway — a road that eventually would become part of Highw…
Jul 19, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • On July 14, 1954, residents fought a battle to survive the hottest day in recorded history here
ST. LOUIS • The sun rose hard and glaring on Wednesday, July 14, 1954. The temperature already was 85 degrees at 7 a.m. It broke 100 before noon and kept climbing.
Jul 12, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • In an 1870 race, the famed Robert E. Lee outlasted the Natchez
ST. LOUIS • The first wisps of black smoke downriver brought cheers from rooftops and across the wide cobblestone levee, where thousands of giddy people had gathered for a special steamboat a'comin' — the majestic Robert E. Lee.
Jul 05, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • New cathedral had to wait 12 years before consecration
ST. LOUIS • Cardinal John Bonzano, personal representative of Pope Pius XI, stepped from a special train near Forest Park and into a waiting convertible. Beside him was St. Louis Archbishop John Glennon. They turned east onto Lindell Boulevard, driving slowly amid thousan…
Jun 28, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • Thousands gather after Charles Lindbergh flies back in his Spirit of St. Louis
ST. LOUIS • The silver airplane broke through mist and smog over East St. Louis and headed for the Eads Bridge. Crowds of skywatchers cheered. Whistles screamed, horns honked and two Naval Reserve submarine chasers fired salutes. Behind it flew a buzzing swarm of Army pur…
Jun 21, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • Truman dedicates Arch site, talks tough on the Soviet Union
ST. LOUIS • President Harry S Truman took this town by his usual storm 59 years ago this week. He shared ham and eggs with his war buddies, dedicated the future site of the Gateway Arch and delivered a major speech of tough talk to the Soviets.
Jun 07, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • Eads' bold solution to span the Mississippi
ST. LOUIS • The first teamster in line was Joseph Gartside, a coal hauler, who had decorated his four horses and wagon with flags and streamers. He paid the 50-cent toll and waited.
May 31, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • F-4 Phantom II became one of the great success stories of military aviation
ST. LOUIS • On the first flight, a hydraulic line broke. Test pilot Bob Little brought the burly prototype jet fighter back to Lambert Field after only 21 minutes in the air. But he had a good feeling about his hot new ride.
May 24, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • In May 1961, city aldermen banned racial discrimination in places of public accommodation
ST. LOUIS • It passed by a wide margin with little debate or dissent. The moment offered barely a hint of the long, difficult effort to achieve simple fairness at city lunch counters.
May 17, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • Early clash here in Civil War
ST. LOUIS • In the first weeks of the Civil War, St. Louis was in a turmoil of divided loyalty. Gov. Claiborne Jackson schemed to add Missouri to the Confederacy. Congressman Frank Blair Jr. and Army Capt. Nathaniel Lyon worked to save it for the Union.
May 10, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • City's hardscrabble newsboys played role in reforming child labor laws
ST. LOUIS • They put on the airs of young toughs, cutting jaunty poses and puffing roll-their-own cigarettes. But they were little boys, many of them orphans, scratching livings off penny tips by hawking big-city newspapers.
May 03, 2009 | 12:30 am | Loading…
A look back • Fighter pilot from south St. Louis was honored here in 1942
ST. LOUIS • The first months after America's entry in World War II were filled with bad news overseas and worry on the home front. German submarines roamed the Atlantic. The Japanese navy sank Allied cruisers in the Java Sea. Remnants of the U.S. Army in the Philippines r…
Apr 26, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back: When Titanic sank in 1912, P-D reporter Carlos Hurd landed the story of a lifetime
ST. LOUIS • St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter Carlos F. Hurd and his wife, Katherine, left New York harbor on April 11, 1912, for a two-month holiday in Europe. Four days later, he woke up amidst one of the most stunning events of the 20th century.
Apr 19, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • Planetarium here beamed its first star show this week in 1963
ST. LOUIS • The new Planetarium gave a grand show of stars and galaxies that was splashed across its high domed ceiling by a strange 8,000-pound gizmo called a star projector. The machine was the latest marvel in an age when space was king.
Apr 12, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • Heroes from 1877 fire remembered
ST. LOUIS • In the years after the Civil War, the finest lodging downtown was the six-story Southern Hotel, at Fourth and Walnut streets. It took up most of the block where the Stadium East Garage stands today. Next door was Tony Faust's Oyster Bar, the city's best restau…
Apr 05, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A Look Back • Prohibition dampened New Year's Eve partying
ST. LOUIS • On the night of Dec. 31, 1919, the New Year's Eve bash in the Hotel Statler downtown was heavy with lament over the looming imposition of Prohibition. A partygoer stood unsteadily atop his table and demanded that everyone sing "How Dry I Am."
Dec 27, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
A look back • In postwar St. Louis, downtown was the place to be at Christmas
ST. LOUIS • Back when baby boomers were youngsters, downtown was a Christmas wonderland.
Dec 20, 2009 | 12:00 am | Loading…
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