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Survey of Historic Sites and Buildings
This memorial celebrates the vision of President
Jefferson, the architect of westward expansion, and all aspects of that
vital national movement.
St. Louis, "gateway to the West," was founded in 1764
by Frenchmen from New Orleans and became a center of French-Canadian
culture and Spanish governmental control. Conveniently located in
relation to the mouths of the Ohio, Missouri, and other Mississippi
tributaries, it became the hub of midcontinental commerce,
transportation, and culturethe point where East met West and
jumping-off place to the wilderness beyond. A base of operations for
traders, travelers, scientists, explorers, military leaders, Indian
agents, and missionaries, it was also headquarters of the western fur
trade and focus of advanced scientific and political thought in the
West.
Along the St. Louis waterfront, hulking steamboats
from the East and South met the riverboats that served the frontier
communities and outposts on the upper Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.
At this major transfer point, a small but teeming city, mercantile
establishments, boatyards, saloons, and lodginghouses accommodated and
supplied the westbound settlers and other frontiersmen who congregated
there before setting out across the Plains. Oregon and California
pioneers and gold seekers bought tools, wagons, guns, and supplies;
lumbermen, planters, farmers, and fur dealers sold their products; and
artisans fashioned Newell & Sutton plows, Murphy wagons for the
Santa Fe trade, Grimsley dragoon saddles, Hawken "plains" rifles, and
the cast-iron stoves of Filley, and Bridge & Beach.
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Gateway Arch and Old Courthouse,
Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. (photo M. W. Williams,
National Park Service) |
To dramatize westward expansion and the great
cultural, political, economic, and other benefits that followed in the
wake of the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, an extensive development program
for the memorial is being undertaken by the National Park Service and
the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Association, a nonprofit
organization of public-spirited citizens. Crowded, obsolescent
industrial buildings have been cleared away as part of a broad urban
renewal program.
The dominant feature of the memorialon the site
of the original village of St. Louisis a 630-foot-high stainless
steel arch, designed by the noted architect Eero Saarinen, and completed
in 1965. Rising from the west bank of the Mississippi River, it
symbolizes the historic role of St. Louis as gateway to the West. It
contains an elevator system enabling the visitor to reach an observatory
at the top. Scaled to the heroic dimensions of such structures as the
Washington Monument, the Eiffel Tower, and the Statue of Liberty, the
arch ranks with them in size and grandeur.
An underground visitor center, featuring a Museum of
Westward Expansionoriginally located in the Old Courthouseis
located at the base of the arch. Exhibits portraying the experiences and
contributions of western explorers, fur traders, statesmen, overland
emigrants, soldiers, miners, Indians, cattlemen, and farmers will
present our western heritage in new dimensions. Guided, as well as
self-guided, tours for visiting groups will be provided. The devices and
services used in telling the story of westward expansion will be
enriched through the years by continuing historical research.
Two historic buildings are preserved at the memorial.
One is the Old Courthouse, constructed during the period 1839-64. It was
the scene of the first trial in the famous Dred Scott case and the
dominant architectural feature of the town during the years that St.
Louis was "emporium of the West." Its rotunda resounded with the oratory
of Thomas Hart Benton and other famed speakers of the 19th century. At
the courthouse Senator Benton delivered his well-known oration, using as
his theme Bishop Berkeley's poetic phrase "Westward the course of
empire." The second historic structure is the Old Cathedral, built
during the period 1831-34 on church property set aside at the time of
the founding of St. Louis. It was at one time the seat of the
archdiocese, but is now a shrine and place of worship.
NHL Designation: 05/28/87 (Gateway Arch)
http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/soldier-brave/sitea15.htm
Last Updated: 19-Aug-2005
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