Two original captions: "Jefferson Barracks, showing the old Guard House. Besides many other incidents, amusing and tragic, the old Guard House was the genesis of the new Jefferson Barracks. Spurred by reports of low morale in the Army during its longest period of peace from 1865 to 1898, a St. Louis newspaper reporter enlisted, was assigned to the barracks, deserted, and kept his newspaper columns hot with the insides story of Army life. Besides a slight upping of allowances and promise of other reforms, the War Department inaugurated a rebuilding of Jefferson Barracks where the controversy was centered and within a decade had razed the historic quadrangle of limestone and substituted a new post of pressed brick." "The old guard house was the genesis of the "new" Jefferson Barracks of the 1900s. Spurred by stories of low morale at the Barracks, a reporter enlisted in the 1890s and then deserted. The natural course of events followed and soon his newspaper was publishing the inside story of the army life. Before long soldiers' pay was upped and many structures were rebuilt. The Spanish-American War further emphasized the need for modernization and by 1905 all but one of the old buildings had been replaced."
This map, plotted out by Norbury Wayman, shows the various locations of steamboat lines and related companies on the St. Louis levee, detailing three periods of time; before 1865; 1865 - 1900; and 1900 - 1953. Lines and companies are donated by name, location and years of operation. Nearby streets are mapped as well, for easy frame of reference. Scale in feet: 100 ft. = 1 inch.
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.
Broadway looking south from Washington. The illumination bug bit St. Louis in 1882 when 140 plumbers scurried to set up gas pipes for lamplit arches along 44 blocks of the business section. At a cost of $20,000, 21,000 globes of different colors were set twinkling above the streets.
"Tens of thousands of spectators gazed with admiration on the display evening after evening," wrote a contemporary observer. "Thousands of European tourists, who were attracted by the novelty and magnitude of the undertaking, pronounced it the most gorgeous street spectacle they had ever witnessed and so infinitely superior to the best Old World productions as to make anything in the nature of comparison out of the question."
The illuminations continued for a decade in what St. Louisians proudly called the "Carnival City of America", and were climaxed by gas and electric illuminations put on in the autumn of 1892. This pictures shows the arches on Broadway in the early 1890s.
Broadway looking south from Washington, 1898. Cable car + illumination.
The illumination bug bit the festivities association hard and it ordered set up on 44 blocks in the downtown section 21,000 gas lights with different colored globes. The display was so spectacular that it was made an annual event for 10 years. Photo shows the gas light arches on Broadway in early 1890s.