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On my living room wall, I have a framed St. Louis street map from about 1903. It's fascinating to look at because, for starters, highways hadn't been built yet, so you get can see how St. Louis neighborhoods looked before they were sliced and diced by various interstates.
The second reason I like the map is because it maps out the various streetcar lines that criss-crossed the City. Street cars really were everywhere. From what I can tell, you were always within a few blocks of a street car line. An exception to this is in southwest city, which wasn't covered as well as other parts of the City at that time.
In 1903, the whole city had pretty much been built out except for parts of southwest and northwest City. My neck of the woods barely existed on this map. Southampton was nothing more than Bancroft on the north and Nottingham on the south, with Sulphur and Kingshigway being the west and eastern borders.
I would have been 2 blocks from a street car...it appears that a line ran down Devonshire. I wonder if that's why Devonshire is wider than all the other streets that surround it.
Can you imagine street cars in St. Louis once again? How easy life could be if they were still running. Just the social interaction you'd get on a street car would be worth the price of admission. Moving around the city back then seemed so easy...maybe I'm just looking at the whole thing through rose-colored glasses and it wasn't as great as it seems. It's hard to believe St. Louis demolished a really extensive street car system for...well, for what?
The second reason I like the map is because it maps out the various streetcar lines that criss-crossed the City. Street cars really were everywhere. From what I can tell, you were always within a few blocks of a street car line. An exception to this is in southwest city, which wasn't covered as well as other parts of the City at that time.
In 1903, the whole city had pretty much been built out except for parts of southwest and northwest City. My neck of the woods barely existed on this map. Southampton was nothing more than Bancroft on the north and Nottingham on the south, with Sulphur and Kingshigway being the west and eastern borders.
I would have been 2 blocks from a street car...it appears that a line ran down Devonshire. I wonder if that's why Devonshire is wider than all the other streets that surround it.
Can you imagine street cars in St. Louis once again? How easy life could be if they were still running. Just the social interaction you'd get on a street car would be worth the price of admission. Moving around the city back then seemed so easy...maybe I'm just looking at the whole thing through rose-colored glasses and it wasn't as great as it seems. It's hard to believe St. Louis demolished a really extensive street car system for...well, for what?
3 comments:
By 
Keith Krueger, at
11:49 AM
Here are some St. Louis street car info links...
www.usgennet.org/usa/mo/county/stlouis/streetcar.htm
http://hometown.aol.com/chirailfan/stlmain.html
By 
Brick City, at
11:56 AM
Great links, thanks!
By
Keith Krueger, at
11:47 AM
I think it's an interesting topic. I remember seeing a channel 9 documentary on St. Louis street cars once. Here are some St. Louis street car info links...
www.usgennet.org/usa/mo/county/stlouis/streetcar.htm
hometown.aol.com/chirailfan/stlmain.html