The working library of noted railroad executive John W. Barriger III (1899-1976) was acquired in 1982, the generous donation of his family. Widely recognized as one of the twentieth century's best-known and most distinguished railroad executives, Mr. Barriger was also an avid scholar, book collector, and photographer. His collection of books, papers, photographs, and memorabilia - collected over an active career of 50 years - forms the nucleus of the Library's railroad collections, one of the largest rail transportation collections in the world.
St. Louis was a lively town in the '60s. This old photograph (at the left) shows traffic congestion on Fourth street. The first two buildings on the right are ticket offices advertising through cars to Vandalia and the Chicago-Cairo short route. A "Museum" is six houses down and has big signs floating from its roof and upper porch. Note the tree on the corner of Chestnut street at the extreme left of the picture; the wagon, the buggy and the coach on the right; and the early horse car lurching along on uneven tracks. Above: the same place today.
Fourth and Chestnut streets about 1870, showing the traffic congestion which existed then.
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...