Lafayette Square (St. Louis)
| Lafayette Square | |
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 Houses in Lafayette Square |
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| Location in St. Louis | |
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| Basic data | |
| State : | United States |
| State : | Missouri |
| Coordinates : | 38 ° 37 ′ N , 90 ° 13 ′ W |
| Residents : | 1,761 (as of: 2000) |
| Population density : | 2,001.1 inhabitants per km 2 |
| Area : | 0.88 km 2 (approx. 0 mi 2 ) of which 0.88 km 2 (approx. 0 mi 2 ) is land |
| Postal code : | 63104 |
| Area code : | +1 314 |
| GNIS ID : | 2469193 |
| Website : | stlouis.missouri.org/lafayettesquare/ |
Lafayette Square is a neighborhood in St. Louis , Missouri . It is bounded to the north by Chouteau Avenue and to the south by Interstate 44 , to the east it extends to Dolman Street and to the west to South Jefferson Avenue. It surrounds Lafayette Park. This is the oldest public park in St. Louis and was created in 1836, and accordingly the neighborhood is also one of the oldest in the city. When the neighborhood was created, it was one of the most modern in St. Louis. After a tornado devastated the area in 1896, it began to decline. The stresses caused by the industrialization of the surrounding area and the construction of highways did not exactly help the development of the streets around Lafayette Square. But since the 1970s, residents have been buying and renovating the older houses in the neighborhood. Most of the houses have now been restored and the district consists of many shops and restaurants.
history
From the beginning of the colonization of Saint Louis by French settlers in 1764, the land that is now Lafayette Square was used as common pasture for the settlers' cattle. It was never privately owned. This area became the camp of highwaymen who robbed travelers through the area. Under US rule, Mayor Darby obtained approval from the state government to sell the area in order to drive the criminal elements out of the area. When the city began with the sale, the reserved Board of Aldermen about 30 acres (about 12 hectares ) for general recreation. This park was bordered by a road on each side, with the road to the south being named in honor of General Marie-Joseph Motier, Marquis de La Fayette , who had visited Saint Louis a few years earlier.
A housing panic in 1837 forced those who had bought land around the square to stop paying so the land was returned to the City. In the early 1850s, after the courts cleared the ownership of these properties, several prominent Saint Louis citizens acquired most of the land that bordered the southern end of the park. They built expensive homes on Lafayette Avenue and insured themselves through state law that "all nuisance within 600 feet of the park" was prevented . On November 12, 1851, the park was named "Lafayette Square" by City Charter No. 2741. In 1856, contractors had started selling lots on the western edge of the park, along Missouri Avenue, and in 1858 building lots were also sold on the east side of Mississippi Avenue. On Park Avenue on the northern edge of the park, the parcels were developed in the 1870s.
From the 1850s to the 1870s, local and city funds were used to upgrade the place. These improvements included the planting of trees and bushes, the graveling of paths and fences, and the organization of open-air concerts. Calling for more funds for improvement, one newspaper wrote that the place just "needs some major improvement to be one of the most attractive places in the United States." During the Civil War , Lafayette Square was spared the riots that plagued other city parks. After the end of the war, martial law was repealed and property trading resumed its normal course.
The first concert stage was built in 1867, which coincided with the opening of Benton Place, a private street off Park Avenue. In 1868, between 25,000 and 40,000 people gathered to watch the unveiling of a bronze statue of Senator Thomas Hart Benton . The following year, one of six copies of Houdon's life-size marble sculpture by George Washington was placed in the park . In the late 1860s, the architect Francis Tunica won the design competition to build an iron fence around the square. This was completed in 1869.
The Daily Democrat newspaper wrote on June 27, 1870:
“When you look around town and see the improvements, we are delighted with the great progress that has been made in the area around Lafayette Park. Within two years, some of the most beautiful residences in the city have been built and work is continuing. The beauty of the site, the location above the city, the character of the buildings, the pretty, shady trees, wide streets and the accessibility of the center by two horse-drawn tram lines, the restrictions (by the statutes) with regard to the construction of controversial buildings or the execution of controversial trades, all together should make this area one of the most desirable residential areas in town. "
The 1870s marked a time in which the square and its surroundings flourished, especially with the development of Benton Place on its north side and the regular square concerts on Thursdays and Sundays, which attracted thousands of strollers. In the meantime the park was maintained by thirteen gardeners. In the 1880s and 1890s, the neighborhood grew and local churches and schools became more important.
On May 27, 1896, Lafayette Square was largely destroyed by a tornado . The property damage ran into the millions and the effects of the tornado killed a number of local residents. Almost all the trees in the park and on Benton Place were uprooted, the fence was damaged and the stage of the band was destroyed by the tornado. The Union Club and the Methodist Church at the intersection of Jefferson and Lafayette Avenues were also destroyed. The Presbyterian Church and many houses on the square were also damaged . The roof of the Unitarian Church was covered. Some of the residents moved away, the others stayed and began with the reconstruction, which had progressed so far in 1904 that the place received special praise from visiting foreign landscape architects at the 1904 World Exhibition .
In 1923 the Missouri Supreme Court ruled the 1918 zoning plan unconstitutional, and businesses began buying lots in the neighborhood. What the tornado of 1896 had started and continues to spread to gas stations and grocery stores accelerated the Great Depression . At the end of the Second World War , the district that was once the pearl of the city had reached its lowest point where only the poor and the hapless lived.
literature
- National Register of Historic Places - Nomination Forms:
- Lafayette Square (PDF; 3.8 MB) Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved May 30, 2008.
- Lafayette Square Historic District (PDF; 17.9 MB) Missouri Department of Natural Resources. Retrieved May 30, 2008.
- David T. Beito: The Private Places of St. Louis . In: Beito, Peter Gordon, Alex Tabarrok: The Voluntary City: Choice, Community, and Civil Society . University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 2002, pp. 47-75.
- John Albury Bryan: Lafayette Square: The Most Historic Old Neighborhood in St. Louis . 2 nd ed. Rev. Landmarks Assn. of St. Louis, 1969. Lafayette Square Press, 1962.
- Timothy G. Conley: Lafayette Square: An Urban Renaissance . Lafayette Square Press, 1974.
- Tim Fox (Ed.): Where We Live: A Guide To St. Louis Communities . Missouri Historical Society Press, 1995.
- Russell Kirk's short story Lex Talionis . In: Ancestral Shadows: An Anthology of Ghostly Tales
Web links
- Lafayette Square (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Census Summary By Neighborhoods ( Memento of the original from July 18, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Neighborhood Data Profile for Lafayette Square ( English ) who ?. Archived from the original on November 4, 2007. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved June 29, 2009.
- ↑ City of St. Louis v. Evraiff, 256 SW 489 (Mon. 1923)
