Luther Ely Smith

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Luther Ely Smith (born June 11, 1873 in Downers Grove , † April 2, 1951 in St. Louis ) was an American attorney and founder of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial .

Life

Smith attended the Williston Northampton School in Easthampton (Massachusetts) and studied law at Amherst College , where he was classmate of the future Chief Justice of the United States, Harlan Fiske Stone . He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in 1897. As a volunteer he took part in the Spanish-American War .

After the war, he began practicing as a lawyer in St. Louis and became involved in urban issues. In 1914 he started a masked procession on the wooded hillside Forest Park and an open-air theater company. In 1916, he became chairman of the city ​​planning commission - St. Louis was the first city in the United States to create such a full-time position. After the First World War , he founded the Memorial Plaza , a collection of various structures such as the Civil Courts Building and the Kiel Auditorium . In 1920 he was appointed to the commission for the establishment of the George Rogers Clark National Historical Park . Although efforts were made in the 1930s to erect a memorial to President Thomas Jefferson in Washington, DC , which was later implemented in the Jefferson Memorial , Smith pursued the idea of ​​a memorial at the historic site of the Louisiana Purchase in St. Louis to build. It was from here that the Lewis and Clark expedition began , which led to the western expansion of the United States. Smith first turned to the then Mayor of St. Louis Bernard F. Dickmann with his idea . Both pursued the idea further and founded the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Association in April 1934 . The project was carried partly by the federal government and partly by the city. The then President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued an executive order on December 21, 1935, approving the construction of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial.

Luther Ely Smith died of heart failure in 1951 at the age of 77 and is buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Grave of Luther Ely Smith
personal data
SURNAME Smith, Luther Ely
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American attorney and founder of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial
DATE OF BIRTH June 11, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Downers Grove
DATE OF DEATH April 2, 1951
Place of death St. Louis