A love letter to the Lou

St. Louis was born (fittingly) on Valentine’s Day in 1764! Today it’s exactly 257 and 1/2 years old. (Long-time readers may recall that I am quite fond of the half- birthday  https://www.fromthelou.com/my-wife-the-nurse-august-26-2017/) Although I’ve written more than 75 blogs over the past five years, I have never devoted one specifically to my hometown. So, I thought it was time for the Lou to get its due. 

Note: This blog is not about St. Louis exceptionalism. I’m not claiming that the Lou is the best city in America or better than your hometown for my readers not from here. Nor am I advocating that St. Louisans secede from the nation, Texas-style (though separating from the State of Missouri and the stranglehold that some right-wing political crazies have over our city is of increasing appeal). I’m also fully aware that our fair city has more than its share of serious problems. Just sayin’ that the Lou is a special place that is highly underrated as a city. 

So here are 10 (apologetically lengthy) reasons to throw some love the way of the city where I was born and reared and returned to after seven years of educational servitude in Austin, Texas:

1. It’s interesting history. St. Louis was officially formed when French fur traders Gilbert Antione de St. Maxent, Pierre Laclede and his 14-year-old stepson Auguste Choteau (kids sure grew up quicker then) sought an outpost for their operations. The place they selected – on a bluff on the Western side of the Mississippi River – had fertile land and nearby timber, a large water supply and a natural transportation route. And it was available at a cheap price (like much of America, they simply grabbed it from Native Americans). The trio barely had time to name the place after a French King (Louis IX) before having to relinquish the territory to Spain as part of the Seven Years War. Three decades later, France formed a secret alliance with Spain against Great Britain and got the land back in the deal. But the French didn’t recognize a good thing when they saw it. In 1803 they turned around and sold our city to the United States, along with portions of what are now 15 states representing more than one fourth of the current mainland in what became known as the Louisiana Purchase.  At a cost that calculates to less than 3 cents per acre, it was arguably the greatest real estate deal in the history of the World. 

St. Louis became the capital of the new territory, the center of western commerce and the launch point for the Lewis and Clark Expeditions, leading to its nickname as the “Gateway to the West.” With the development of the steamboat and the largest and busiest railway station in the U.S. for a time, St. Louis emerged as a manufacturing metropolis – famously first in shoes and first in booze and second only to Detroit in car manufacturing. At the turn of the 20th Century, St. Louis was truly booming. Indeed, by 1900 the Lou was the 4th most populous city in the country – only New York, Chicago and Philly were larger. 

And in 1904, St. Louis hosted at Washington University and Forest Park this country’s first ever Olympic Games – only the third held, after Athens and Paris. Adding to the rivalry with Chicago, St. Louis stole the Games from the Windy City where they had been scheduled – persuading Olympic organizers that it would improve attendance and the Games’ popularity to have it in the Lou instead because we were already hosting the World’s Fair that summer. The World’s Fair was far more popular than the Olympics at that time with 50 foreign nations staging exhibits in 1500 buildings. 19 million people attended! A lot of the great architecture and cultural institutions in this town can be traced to the edifices that were built for the Fair and the wealth and philanthropy that ensued from those early glory years.

2. It’s unique location. That’s right. It’s hard to beat the Western U.S. in terms of sheer beauty with its majestic mountains and imposing canyons that stretch from Colorado to California. And living near an ocean can afford a different kind of captivating awe along with a more temperate climate. But there are also stunning (more subtle) views in the Nation’s heartland – in the valleys, hills, rivers and “amber waves of grain.” And there is a far better chance that our homes and forests will not be wiped out by deadly wildfires or swallowed by rising seas as humanity continues to largely ignore global warming. 

Moreover, St. Louis has a unique geographical feature that no other place in the country can boast. It sits essentially at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers – the two largest rivers in the U.S. and collectively the fourth largest in the entire world (behind only the Nile, Amazon and Yangtze). You may find it interesting that the Missouri River tributary, which begins in southwestern Montana and crosses through five states before reaching the Mississippi near St. Louis, is actually about 100 miles longer than the Mississippi, which runs from Lake Itasca in Minnesota to New Orleans. And further that the Mississippi River and its tributaries cover over 2300 miles and drain the water of 31 states and even two provinces in Canada!

3. The Arch. No discussion of the Lou is complete without mention of the City’s most iconic structure. At 630 feet (requiring 900 tons of steel) it is the single tallest monument in the nation and arguably the most recognizable symbol of any U.S. city outside of New York’s Statue of Liberty (which is less than half the size and was not built in America). The Arch is truly a remarkable architectural feat – engineers designed two separate legs exactly 630 feet apart and curved them toward each other, inserting the last of the 142 steel sections perfectly in between (had they been off by as little as 1/64^th of an inch it wouldn’t have worked). Equally impressive were the efforts of the daring workers who built the structure hundreds of feet above ground without safety belts or nets (the film in the Arch Museum showing these folks hanging off the sides during construction is not to be missed). And yet somehow no one was killed in the process – the insurer for the construction had projected 13 deaths!

4. It’s major musical contributions.  When folks think of great music they typically think of places like New Orleans, Nashville, Austin, Memphis, Seattle, and New York. But St. Louis is no musical slouch and its history and musical breadth is arguably as impressive as anywhere. 

The Father of Rock and Roll according to many, including none other than John Lennon, was St. Louis’ own Chuck Berry. The Father of Ragtime? Scott Joplin, who wrote many of his best-known works (including the classic “The Entertainer” used in the movie “The Sting”) while living in St. Louis. Jazz you ask? The legendary Miles Davis, whose album “Kind of Blue” remains today (62 years later!) the best-selling jazz album of all time, hailed from the area. So did Josephine Baker, one of the greatest jazz singers, dancers and entertainers of all time and a civil rights champion – so beloved in France that she was the first American woman to be buried there with full military honors. Hip-hop? There’s local legend Nelly (though he was actually born in my second home of Austin and moved to the Lou as a teenager). Classical? The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is the second oldest symphony orchestra in the United States, eclipsed only by the New York Philharmonic. Finally, St. Louis has long been associated with the blues, as Saint Louis was a major hub of black musical activity dating back to the 1860’s. Indeed, the Saint Louis Blues composed by W.C. Handy, and sung by Bessie Smith with Louis Armstrong on cornet, was the first massive hit in this musical genre. The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame (twice) and the city’s beloved hockey team was named after it. 

5. It’s many sports successes. Any true sports fan knows of the St. Louis Cardinals and their distinctive uniform with the birds on the bat- what some consider the best uniform in the game. For more than a century the Redbirds have been Major League Baseball’s most successful franchise outside of New York City. The Yankees are unquestionably the greatest team in history with 27 World Championships, thanks in no small part to St. Louisan Yogi Berra who caught for 11 of those teams (the most World Series wins of any player in history). But after that, it’s the hometown squad with 11 World Series Championships and with more Hall of Famers than any non-New York team. The Cardinals also routinely draw the most fans of any team on a per capita basis. Attendance routinely exceeds that of teams from New York, Boston and Chicago and indeed every team in the League except the LA Dodgers – playing in a city more than 5 times the size of the Lou. In fact, for 50 years St. Louis had two teams in the Major Leagues before the St. Louis Browns took their lovable losing act to Baltimore where the Orioles have managed to continue that tradition quite well. 

But the Lou isn’t just about baseball. The city is also a big hockey town. The Blues have been thrilling (and disappointing) fans for over a half century, finally capturing their first Stanley Cup in 2019 in miraculous fashion. Following their implausible victory, the team put on the best celebration of any championship team in any sport – with every player abandoning protocol and getting off their truck in the parade route to mingle, drink and revel with the crowd – something that I expect will never be repeated in the post-COVID era. Many of the game’s retired hockey stars have also settled in the Lou and have helped develop some of the best youth hockey in the world. At no time was that more apparent than a few years ago when 5 of the first 16 first round NHL draft picks in 2016 were from the Lou – more than any city in the U.S. and even Canada that year! 

St. Louis is also famous for Soccer. Did you know that St. Louis University owns more NCAA National Division 1 Men’s soccer championships than any university in the country – 10! Or that the captain of the Women’s 2016 Gold Medal Olympic squad – Becky Sauerbrunn, essentially grew up in my backyard. And a new MLS team will be paying in the Lou beginning in 2023.

Tennis? Dwight Davis, the guy who started the Davis Cup, the World Cup of tennis, was born and reared in the Lou as was Jimmy Connors in nearby Belleville. The great humanitarian and tennis star Arthur Ashe also spent his senior year of high school in St. Louis under the tutelage of local mentor Richard Hudlin. 

Track? Gold medalists Al Joyner, Dawn Harper-Nelson and three-time gold medalist Jackie Joyner-Kersee all come from the area.

And then there’s boxing. The Lou may the only city in the world that has had three citizens who became heavyweight Champions of the World – Sonny Liston, Leon Spinks and brother Michael Spinks. It was also the hometown of light heavyweight world champion Archie Moore and welterweight world champions Henry Armstrong and Cory Spinks. 

While some naturally may point to the absence of an NFL and NBA team in the Lou, several of their stars come from the Lou (Jayson Tatum, Bradley Beal, Zeke Elliot, etc.) and those decisions were made by businessmen (some might say greedy lying businessmen). But before abandoning the city in 1968 and 2015 respectively, the St. Louis Hawks won an NBA crown and the St. Louis Rams won a Super Bowl. In a stroke of poetic justice, neither team has won a Championship since they left. 

And as for broadcasting the games we love, has any city’s residents announced more national major sporting events – World Series, Super Bowls, NBA Championships, Stanley Cups and Olympics than St. Louis’ Joe Buck, Jack Buck, Joe Garagiola, Dan Kelly and Bob Costas?

6. It’s free cultural attractions. While a lot of cities have great cultural attractions, you would be hard-pressed to find one that offers more for less than the Lou. It starts with the St. Louis Zoo, widely regarded among the best zoos in the country. The San Diego Zoo is certainly impressive but it charges a whopping $62 just to get in the door. The St. Louis Zoo, of comparable quality, is completely free. Then there’s the first-class St. Louis Science Center and Planetarium, the impressive Missouri History Museum, and the highly-rated St. Louis Art Museum – all free (though some special exhibitions and movies have charges). And there’s the Muny Opera – a great venue that has put on off-Broadway shows outdoors for decades and where 1500 seats (of the 11,000) are offered free of charge each night on a first come-first serve basis. All of the aforementioned are located within Forest Park – one of the best public parks in America, and nearly twice the size of Central Park, and also containing two golf courses, two sets of tennis courts, miles of biking and walking trails, canoe and paddle boat excursions, a fish hatchery and the largest outdoor skating rink in the Midwest.

Other free attractions in other parts of the city include Grant’s Farm (a farm built by President Ulysses Grant housing nearly 1000 animals), the updated Museum at the Gateway Arch (very impressive), the Old Courthouse (containing cool exhibits and where the infamous Dred Scot decision was heard before making its way to the Supreme Court and what is widely considered the worst Opinion ever written by that Court), the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis (another architectural marvel) and the Anheuser-Busch brewery tour (with even free beer at the end). Naturally all these things cost significant money to maintain but are paid for by generous donors and/or tax paying citizens, enabling anyone and everyone to enjoy these cultural assets without regard to the ability to pay. It’s also a great windfall for our out-of-town visitors. 

7. It’s the Chess capital of the country. Say what? Yes indeed, chess is King in the Lou. It is the home to the “World Chess Hall of Fame” and also the Chess Club and Scholastic Center, which has become a headquarters for teaching chess in America. Several of the best grandmasters in the country reside here. Local Webster University won a record five consecutive National College chess championships from 2013 to 2017. And St. Louis hosts an annual international tournament, the Sinquefield Cup, featuring the top chess players in the world. Now that Chess is considered cool – thanks to Covid and The Queen’s Gambit– that should make the Lou more dope than usual.

8. It’s diversity. In its manufacturing and commercial heyday, St. Louis attracted lots of folks from various parts of Europe in search of a better life. As a result, the city has large concentrations of German, Italian, Polish, Irish and other nationalities that have made their mark on the City’s neighborhoods and cultural flavor. In more recent decades St. Louis has benefitted from the influx other immigrant groups that have made the Lou their home, including significant numbers of Vietnamese, Chinese, Mexicans and Russian Jews. The largest and perhaps most surprising immigrant group in the Lou are Bosnians. From a group of about 15 families that settled here in the 1960’s the group has mushroomed to 70,000, representing the largest number of Bosnians outside their homeland in the world.

St. Louis also has a very significant African- American population – roughly 500,000 or 18% of the population of the Metropolitan area. The circumstances of many blacks initially arriving in St. Louis (slavery and efforts to run from slavery in the South) is a horrific stain on our city. But African -Americans have played a major role in developing the city and enhancing the cultural experience of St. Louis. 

9. It’s Libation. St. Louis based Anheuser Busch was the largest beer company in the U.S. for more than six decades. Although the company was acquired in 2008 by the Belgian/Brazilian In-Bev, St. Louis remains the domestic hub of what is now the largest brewer in the world and still boasts the largest beer plant in the U.S. Given these roots it’s not surprising that the Lou has been rated as one of the biggest drinking cities in the U.S. St. Louis also hosts the nation’s largest and wildest Madi Gras festivities outside of New Orleans. Pretty sure that these two are related. 

In addition to beer, St. Louis has been a significant producer, distributor and marketer of distilled beverages and liqueurs, and is responsible for the development of that flavorless grain alcohol “Everclear” that caused so much havoc at frat parties in the 70’s. 

It may also surprise some that the St. Louis area has a distinguished wine history. Indeed, Hermann, Missouri (a beautiful hilly town founded by German settlers in the 1830’s about an hour from the Lou) was once the single largest wine producing region in the nation before Prohibition destroyed its business. In more recent decades it has begun to make a comeback, and one large real estate investor is betting heavily on neighboring Augusta becoming the Napa Valley of the Midwest – buying up numerous wineries and announcing his intention to invest $100 million to create a 700-acre winery with a five-star hotel, championship style golf course and cruises along the Missouri River.

10. It’s Home Sweet Home. And the best part about the Lou for ME?  It’s where I developed life-long great friends, met and married my inspiring wife, and raised our wonderful kids – even though one of them has decided that the purple mountains majesty of Montana trumps the fruited plains of Missouri. Can’t win them all.