Louis is a vibrant metropolis in the heart of the United States, with its fiercely independent border town roots mixed with the modesty of the Midwest. Commonly referred to as the “Gateway to the West”, this eclectic city is famous for its iconic Gateway Arch, fiercely loyal sports fans, and blues music scene. The 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis was a place of firsts, including the first appearances of many technological devices, but one of the most beloved and, let's face it, still useful inventions that were introduced at the fair was the ice cream cone.
Although a New Yorker invented the cone in 1896, it was created independently in the St. Louis Fair, where it became popular. To make the creamy dessert more portable (and tasty) for customers, an ice cream vendor bought waffles from a pastry chef next door, wrapped them in a cone shape and voila, a practical edible container. The story of Louis, which inspires much less pride than the Gateway Arch, is his role in the United States of 1857. Dred Scott, a slave, had been brought by his owner from Missouri, a slave state, to live in Illinois and then Wisconsin, where slavery was illegal.
Scott and his wife unsuccessfully sued for their freedom in Missouri at the Old Courthouse in St. Louis in 1846 on the grounds that their residence in Illinois and Wisconsin had freed them from slavery. The case reached the Supreme Court, which ruled that slaves who had resided in a free state or territory were therefore not entitled to their freedom and, moreover, that African Americans could never be citizens of the United States. Louis is home to Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. It was founded in the 1860s by German immigrants Eberhard Anheuser and Adolphus Busch.
Today, visitors can tour the original brewery in St. Louis. Visit the historic Soulard neighborhood of Louis and visit the world famous Clydesdale draft horses in their 1885 brick and stained glass stable. Educator Susan Blow, who was born in Carondelet (now in St. Louis), was very interested in German educational ideas, in particular those of Friedrich Froebel, who had established revolutionary methods for teaching young children.
Froebel had established a nursery school in Prussia, originally called Child Nurture and Activity Institute, which was later renamed Kindergarten or “Children's Garden”. He called it “a school for the psychological training of young children through play”.After studying with a Froebel disciple in New York for a year, in September 1873 Blow opened the first public daycare center in the United States at the Des Peres school in St. The following year he established a training school for kindergarten teachers and, within a few years, St. Louis had become the focal point of the United States for early childhood education. In its more than 200-year history, St.
Louis and his people have achieved much in art, architecture, culture, athletics, music, and food. The city is located on the eastern edge of Missouri, where the Mississippi and Missouri rivers meet, just across the Illinois border.
So What Makes St. Louis So Popular?
St. Louis is known for its steamboats; its 1904 World's Fair legacy with iconic attractions like The Gateway Arch and Forest Park; its unique foods like toasted ravioli and gooey butter cake; its music scene with blues legends like Chuck Berry; its breweries like Anheuser-Busch; its baseball team The Cardinals; its shoe factories like International Shoe Company; its sculpture gardens; and its historic landmarks like Eads Bridge. St.Louis was established as a city in the 1760s by French merchants. There was confusion about which colonial government was in charge of him until 1800 when France officially took control just before selling it to the United States as part of the Louisiana Purchase. As it was located on two major rivers - Mississippi and Missouri - steamboats formed a large part of St. Louis' commerce and identity.
The city hosted two major events that brought international attention: The 1904 World's Fair and Olympic Games which spurred development of many cultural attractions that still stand today such as Forest Park - home to a zoo, an art museum and science center - making it a tourist destination again more than 100 years after The Fair. Before construction of The Gateway Arch, Eads Bridge was enduring symbol of St. Louis built in 1874 straddling Mississippi River connecting Illinois to Missouri. It was world's first arched steel truss bridge an important connection for commerce in eastern United States.
