The history of St. Louis, Missouri, from 1905 to 1980 saw declines in population and economic basis, particularly after World War II. Although St. Louis made civic improvements in the 1920s and enacted pollution controls in the 1930s, suburban growth accelerated and the city population fell dramatically from the 1950s to the 1980s. Like many urban areas, St. Louis experienced high unemployment during the Great Depression, then expanded its industrial base during World War II. The city became home to Gateway Arch National Park (then known as the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial) during the 1930s, and during the 1960s the Gateway Arch was built on the memorial grounds. St. Louis City and St. Louis County made multiple attempts at consolidation during the period, but none were particularly successful. Despite attempts at urban renewal that included public housing projects such as the Pruitt-Igoe complex, the city continued to lose population to county cities.
Civic improvements and pollution control Starting in 1903, local civic groups began building small parks and playgrounds in deteriorating residential neighborhoods to promote free play and directed activities among youth; by 1909, St. Louis had gained 16 parks totaling more than 150 acres.Primm (1998), 397. Among the progressive social reformers on the city parks committee during this time was Charlotte Rumbold, who later was an officer of the Playground Association of America with Jane Addams. To encourage physical activity, Parks Commissioner Philip Scanlan ordered the construction of baseball fields and tennis courts in major St. Louis parks.Primm (1998), 398. Scanlan's successor, Dwight F. Davis, continued the development of recreational facilities during the early 1910s, expanding tennis facilities in particular.Primm (1998), 406. Davis also ordered construction of a public 18-hole golf course in northwest Forest Park, replacing an earlier semi-private 9-hole course.Primm (1998), 407.
A zoo was first established during the 1870s at Fairground Park, but it closed in 1891 and its animals were sold to local collectors who then began housing them in Forest Park. Starting in 1910, the St. Louis Zoological Society was formed to collect money to purchase animals and lobby the city to reopen a zoo.Primm (1998), 408. After the election of Henry Kiel as mayor in 1913 (who supported the creation of the zoo), St. Louis supplied 77 acres of land in Forest Park for the creation of a zoo, and in October 1916, a zoo tax was passed to provide continual maintenance for the facility. In 1919, the zoo completed its bear pits, which were designed with the assistance of Carl Hagenbeck.Primm (1998), 409. In 1923, St. Louis passed an $87 million bond issue to fund civic improvements, the largest such city debt issue in the country at the time.Tranel (2007), 90. The improvements came to infrastructure, parks, public safety, hospitals, and a downtown auditorium and plaza (known as Kiel Auditorium and Aloe Plaza). The bond issue also paid for the first ten blocks of what would become known as the Gateway Mall, a one-block wide park extending nearly uninterrupted from the riverfront some twenty blocks.Garvin (2002), 87.
Since the 1890s, the St. Louis Board of Health had passed anti-smoke regulations, but little reduction was made in the problem of coal smoke pollution.Primm (1998), 447. In 1906, the St. Louis Public Library was forced to repair its collection due to smoke damage, by 1910 smoke pollution had killed trees in Forest Park, and during the 1920s, evergreens no longer grew near the city and the Missouri Botanical Garden was considering a move away from the city.Primm (1998), 448. Studies revealed that in 1926, St. Louis had an annual soot deposit of 870 tons per square mile, far above Chicago and Pittsburgh.Primm (1998), 449. Despite efforts at reducing pollution by washing coal prior to burning it, St. Louis smog continued unabated. Among the worst episodes was the 1939 St. Louis smog, which blackened the sky during the day of November 28 and lasted for three weeks.
Only a citywide ban in December 1939 on burning low-quality Illinois coal made a significant change in the pollution, forcing homeowners and businesses alike to switch to cleaner-burning Arkansas coal. The result of the ban was significant: during the winter of 1939–40, St. Louis experienced 177 hours of thick smoke pollution, while in the winter of 1940–1941, only 17 hours of thick smoke was reported.Primm (1998), 450. In addition, the Laclede Gas Company began to supply cleaner-burning natural gas to customers starting in 1941, which largely rectified the problem of smoke pollution by the late 1940s.
Segregation and the East St. Louis Race Riot
After Reconstruction through 1900, St. Louis saw little of the racial violence that engulfed Southern states, due to the stability and relatively small size of the St. Louis black community.Primm (1998), 410. Most black residents lived in the northern edges of downtown along the riverfront or in the area of Chestnut Valley and Mill Creek Valley, near the wharf and railroads for employment. Municipal segregation laws (known as Jim Crow laws) were relatively inconsistent; while blacks could not enter white hotels, restaurants or barber shops, they could enter department store elevators with whites or attend St. Louis theater shows in separate sections.Primm (1998), 411. Streetcar seating also was integrated, and there were no efforts to enforce residential segregation prior to 1911.
In the early 1910s, however, predominantly white areas of St. Louis that bordered the black community formed the United Welfare Association (UWA), a group dedicated to lobbying for a segregation ordinance. Although the municipal government rejected the group's petitions, the UWA succeeded in gathering enough signatures for a direct initiative election on the ordinance in February 1916. The NAACP in St. Louis opposed the law by distributing pamphlets arguing that the ordinance was un-American and by filing a lawsuit against it that ultimately failed.Primm (1998), 412. 23 of 28 aldermen and Mayor Henry Kiel publicly opposed the ordinance, while both major dailies (the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the St. Louis Globe-Democrat) wrote editorials against it.
In spite of the anti-segregationist opinions, St. Louisans overwhelmingly supported the ordinance at the polls, passing the first initiative-based segregation ordinance in the country by a vote of 52,220 to 17,877.Primm (1998), 413. Lower class white wards adjacent to the black community voted for segregation by a margin of eight to one, and the wealthy and elite Central West End voted in favor by four to one. Only predominantly black wards showed a majority in opposition. According to the law, no person could move onto a block where 75% of that block's inhabitants were of a different race. However, a court injunction filed by the NAACP invalidated the ordinance in April 1916, and after a Supreme Court decision in 1918, the injunction was made permanent. Although the ordinance was invalidated, private restrictive covenants began appearing in St. Louis real estate transactions that limited the ability of white owners to sell to blacks.Primm (1998), 414.
Concomitant with the segregation ordinance and the rise of restrictive covenants was the beginning of the Great Migration of African-Americans to northern cities.Primm (1998), 414. Many thousands moved to the city of East St. Louis, Illinois, where they often were employed at low wages as strikebreakers.Primm (1998), 415. Between June 30 and July 2, 1917, a violent race riot in East St. Louis broke out when a mob of white attackers (including police and National Guardsmen) destroyed 300 houses, wounded hundreds, and killed 39 blacks and 8 whites. Unofficial estimates placed the number of victims of the race riot far higher, but because many bodies were disposed of in the river, accurate counts were difficult. For its part, St. Louis was a haven during the riot, as St. Louis police shepherded fleeing blacks across the Eads Bridge to shelter and food provided by the city government and the American Red Cross.Primm (1998), 416.
Due to an influx of refugees from East St. Louis and the general effects of the Great Migration, the black population of St. Louis increased more rapidly than the whole during the decade of 1910 to 1920. However, St. Louis's overall population rank declined from the fourth largest in the United States to sixth.
St. Louis in World War I Upon the outbreak of World War I, the U.S. government maintained a neutral stance toward the belligerents; by the end of the war's first year, however, public opinion in St. Louis had shifted toward the Allies.Primm (1998), 433. St. Louis newspapers began running anti-German editorials, prompting the St. Louis German community to rally in support of neutrality, and starting in 1915, German cultural groups raised funds for German war widows.Primm (1998), 434. The St. Louis Irish community also joined in support of neutrality, primarily to oppose the British. However, public attacks on President Woodrow Wilson and the British caused divisions in the German community, and prominent German businessmen participated in Wilson's "Preparedness Day" parade on June 3, 1916.
In spite of this show of support for Wilson's policies, non-German St. Louisans began to embrace nativism and distrust the intentions of the Germans, especially after U.S. entry into the war in April 1917.Primm (1998), 435. Non-naturalized Germans were required to register as enemy aliens, German-language newspapers were censored, high schools ended the teaching of German, the St. Louis Symphony stopped playing German compositions, and the St. Louis Public Library removed German-language books from circulation. Two city streets were renamed: Berlin Avenue in the Central West End became Pershing, while Van Verson Avenue in the West End became Enright.
In addition, citizens began reporting suspicious conversations overhead on streetcars or public streets, submitting names for prosecution under the Espionage Act of 1917. Several German immigrants or members of the German-American community were arrested and charged for violations, and although some were freed, others remained imprisoned for the duration of the war. St. Louis commerce, for its part, was not dramatically affected by the war.
Industry between the wars and the Great Depression After World War I, the imposition of Prohibition meant that the St. Louis brewing industry suffered significant losses.Primm (1998), 436. Anheuser-Busch remained in business by selling malt syrup and Bevo, a legal near beer, while most brewers simply closed. Certain other industries filled the gap left by the brewers during the 1920s, including light manufacturing of shoes and garments (particularly along Washington Avenue and by companies such as Brown Shoe), electrical parts (by companies such as Emerson Electric), and automobile parts. The automobile industry in St. Louis included local brands such as Moon Motor Car and Gardner Motor Car, in addition to assembly plants for Ford and General Motors. Tobacco processing remained a significant industry in Mill Creek Valley, and St. Louis ranked seventh in the country in 1929 in value of its manufactured products.