Once one of old St. Louis' better known hotels, on Fourth between Morgan (now Delmar) and Franklin, the St. Nicholas began losing its glory in the 1870s when this photo was made. On Jan. 4, 1884, the structure, then occupied by stores, was burned to the ground. Fire department records list it the most difficult in history. It was fought during a "veritable Arctic blizzard" with temperature standing at 26 degrees below zero.
Fourth and Washington, looking south. Miss Elizabeth A. Mageon, Milliner right, is listed at 709 North Fourth in 1878 and J.H. Crane, Furniture wholesale and retail, Fourth, cor. of Washington, was one of the big advertisers in the 1878 directory. Crane's name can be made out on the store at the left. The Benton Bellefontaine horse car and Fourth street horse car a renegotiating the busy intersection without help of a traffic officer. The building housing Miss Mageon's ship was the National Guard Armory.
To the rivermen, whose steamers delivered the cargo that made St. Louis one of the nation's largest thoroughfare. But to the people who lived in this booming metropolis in the 1870s, Fourth... Fourth street, the commercial artery of St. Louis, had everything- from fancy milliner... the Benton Bellefontaine and Fourth street horse cars negotiating the busy intersection...
Fourth was "The Street" to residents of this booming metropolis in the 1870's. This scene, looking south from Washington avenue, shows the busy commercial artery which had everything, from millinery rooms to hack stands.