A decorative arch, put in place for the visiting Elks, as pictured at Anheuser-Busch Brewery in 1899. Image from St. Louis Mercantile Library collections.
Two original captions: "This is the Anheuser-Busch brewery, photographed in 1899, with a decorative arch in place in honor of visiting Elks, who held their national convention in St. Louis in June of that year. Malt house and grain elevators may be seen in the background." "The Anheuser-Busch brewery in 1899. The decorative arch welcomed visiting Elks who held their convention in St. Louis in June of that year. The bank partly visible at right is the Old South Side Trust Company."
Place: Broadway and Chestnut street. Time: The gay nineties [(1890s)], when this arch of gas lamps bridged Broadway.
Oldtimers say this old print looks north on Broadway. A Broadway cable car is in the foreground and a Pine street trolley car has just crossed (to the right) behind it. The horse (left) is waiting in front of the Ohio & Mississippi Railway ticket office, now a parking lot. The buildings on the right are the Clifton House, a furniture store; Mills & Averill, tailors, and, beyond Pine street, the old Post-Dispatch building and the American Central Building. The Telegraphers' National Bank now stands on the site of Mills & Averill. The gas-lamp arch bears portraits of all the Presidents up to and including Benjamin Harrison and Grover Cleveland...
Broadway and Washington, looking north. The I. B. Rosenthal Millinery occupied the corner store at 421-423 Washington and one of St. Louis' largest luggage emporiums was at 608 North Broadway and blazoned his merchandise with a big sign reading "Trunks". This picture was taken in 1891 and shows the ill-advised Broadway cable car completed at great expense in the very year when the trolley car made its successful debut on the Hodiamont line.
Symbolic of the old and new in the year 1891 is this scene at Broadway and Washington where the modern and "speedy" trolley cars are seen crossing the double tracks of the expensive and short-lived Broadway cable transit line.
