Illustration by Joel Kimmel
A microcosm of St. Louis, the Arch embodies the best and worst of our city.
It’s sited where our humble burg began, on the banks of the river that helped St. Louis grow into the fourth-largest city in the nation. When the Great Fire of 1849 decimated those first warehouses, homes, and offices, we quickly rebuilt them to be taller and stronger. The area became our first arts district, where fur traders and bookbinders worked throughout the day and writers and artists gathered at night. It was the heart of a growing city.
Then, in the 1930s, city leaders decided that the area was no longer impressive enough. They bulldozed nearly 40 blocks (with a questionable mandate), displacing thousands of workers and destroying some of our most historic buildings to make way for a bigger project—that magic bullet that would transform the face of our city. Details and funding remained elusive, however, and the grounds sat empty for decades. There was talk of a landing strip, a parking facility, a stadium… “It has become obvious to all persons interested that a memorial must be developed in some way, or St. Louis will become a laughingstock,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote in 1945. Still, the project wouldn’t be completed for another two decades, with delays resulting from scarce funding and fractured race relations.
So the journey was rough, plagued by periods of impulsivity and paralysis. But when the last piece of the Gateway Arch was dropped into place, in October 1965, the world saw St. Louis in a new light. Eero Saarinen’s design was brilliant in its simplicity, unadorned, free of fuss or frills. It stood as a beacon of modernity, a singular symbol unlike anything else in the U.S. It embodied some of America’s greatest principles: freedom, exploration, ingenuity. It was the masterpiece of an architect who dared to dream, a courageous construction crew, a small group of visionaries. It became St. Louis’ icon, the fixed point by which we navigate.
Now, as the Arch turns 50 and the grounds surrounding it undergo a dramatic overhaul, we’re finally completing the dream, connecting that icon to the city that it embodies.
