Introduction:
This map allows the user to walk
again on the streets of Colonial St. Louis, a vanished world
now largely occupied by the grassy grounds of the Gateway
Arch. It was created by Historian Bob Moore at Jefferson
National Expansion Memorial using information reprinted
in J. Thomas Scharf, History of St. Louis City and County,
Vol. I Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts & Co. 1883. This
information includes an 1804 census of property owners and
sizes, styles and materials of houses standing in the town
at that time. Most of the houses drawn here are speculations
based on the verbal descriptions on the 1804 list. A few
of the houses survived into the era of photography or were
drawn by artists in the 19th century, and these are rendered
as closely as possible to the original sketches. Overall,
each of the buildings standing in St. Louis in 1804 is rendered
here. The viewer will see the houses of rich and poor, tradesmen
and residential buildings, all intermixed as they really
were in 1804. As the viewer uses the mouse to virtually
"walk the streets" and "knock on the doors"
of these houses, they will discover that a lot of information
is known about some owners and relatively little about others.
However, this map will give the viewer the opportunity to
learn about a vanished culture and society and "meet"
some of the characters of early St. Louis encountered 200
years ago by Lewis and Clark.
The map can be viewed in several
ways. At the top of this page, a simplified map provides
access to every house and building in Colonial St. Louis,
just by putting the mouse's arrow on the structure and clicking.
The Expanded
St. Louis Map requires the
Macromedia
Flash 5 Plug-in/Player.
In the "Expanded
St. Louis Map" section, entered by clicking on
the text in quotes just above or through the menu list at
the top left of this page, the viewer can see enlarged sections
of the map with trees, gardens and people. These expanded
maps also include the modern street names in the City of
St. Louis, to better identify the site of each house. Each
of these expanded maps has an arrow which can be clicked
to move to the next map section to the right or the left.
There are nine section maps altogether, and the houses and
buildings on them can be clicked to see the same information
available through the simplified map above.
Enjoy exploring St. Louis
in 1804!
