Historical October 1988 report or notice. Original dates, prices and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
If you asked any St. Louisan which was the most important street in St. Louis. answers would include Market, Broadway, Tucker. Washington; Grand, perhaps even Lindbergh or Clarkson or Olive Street Road. Actually, that question is probably unfair since “importance” is relative to the topic. What we are talking about here is the street that historically saw more traffic regarding -the opening of the West, since St. Louis is the Gateway to the West. Rather than telling you which street is most significant for the opening of the West, let’s explore some of its characteristics.
It never did go all the way to the river.
It began at block 66. That block, in some of the oldest street maps and reconstructed street maps, had a turn-around in it, like a large horseshoe or court yard. Block 66 was not very large either; it had no great houses or even warehouses.
In fact for years it was the outskirts of the village.
The street is currently cut up rather severely and does not even permit constant travel from block -66 to Tucker Boulevard.
The street is St. Charles.
It is virtually the only street which has the same name from before the time when Mayor Carr-Lane and Alderman von Puhl, both from Pennsylvania. renamed all the streets after those of Philadelphia in 1826. Block 66 is the northwest corner of the Arch grounds.
The Spanish called St. Charles Street Chemin Royale. Those going by wagon westward would take the road to St. Charles, and it began at St. Charles Street.
It left from what we now call Third Street, then Rue de Granges (Street of the Barns), on the west side of block 66.
It went virtually due west and around the north side of Stoddard’s Mound which was just west of Jefferson at what is now the end of St. Charles Street.
From Jefferson Street west, it was called the St. Charles Rock Road.
The stretch from Jefferson to the City Limits is now called Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard.
At the Missouri River, where the St. Charles Rock Road Bridge is now, a ferry took the wagoneers across the river. Let’s pick up some details. Stoddard’s Mound is not a known landmark these days. Captain Amos Stoddard came to St. Louis in 1804 as the representative of both the French and the American governments to transfer formally Upper Louisiana from the Spanish to the French to the United States.
All of that happened on March 9 and 10, 1804. Stoddard was the territorial military and political leader for about a year.
During that time he lived west of the city with his military detachment, his own headquarters being atop what was for years referred to as Stoddard’s Mound. None of it remains now.
We need to continue with St. Charles Street.
After crossing the Missouri, the road westward was called the Boonslick Road.
It followed the course of the river to Franklin. Independence, Westport, and Kansas City.
At these locations, the various trails west, known to history as the Santa Fe Trail, the Oregon Trail, the California Trail, and the Bozeman Trail originated.
At these locations, as well as Council Grove, Kansas. the various wagon trains formed in their final arrangement, elected captains, and headed toward their destinations.
Some or as much as all of the wagon trains first assembled in smaller units on block 66 and came all the way to the other side of Missouri before joining companion groups of wagons to make the larger trains for the crossing of the plains and the mountains. Some, of course, had money and were able to go by boat from St. Louis to Westport where they attached themselves to the larger trains west. Block 66 was not significant for the entire period of the wagon trains west prior to the Civil War.
When the County Courthouse, now called the Old Courthouse, was completed with its West Wing able to at least partially function, the wagons assembled just to the west of that building, across what is now Broadway in Kiener Plaza.
The reason was simple: the basement of the west wing of the’ County Courthouse had two large latrines, one for men (north side) and one for women (south side). That was before the days of running water, so the system included hand emptying of the pots. Court records show that one David Hunt was paid $3.00 a month to sweep the latrines every day and empty the pots once a week.
This was in the 1840s before the cholera epidemic of 1849 taught everyone the importance of cleanliness.
By the way, Mr. Hunt was given Sunday off even though the latrines were open that day as well. Apparently Mondays were pretty “blue” for Mr. Hunt, but the wage was a good one for that time.
So the wagons assembled just west of the County Courthouse because of the public facilities.
They headed to St. Charles Street at what is now 11th and St. Charles where they followed the road west to the Oregon Country, the California gold fields, or the Santa Fe mercantile empire of Bent, St. Vrain and Company. Eventually the cattle country of Wyoming and Montana would be as significant as the other lands had been.
The coming of the railroads put an end to the great wagon movements of the midnineteenth century. St. Charles Street and block 66 faded into the past. Today hardly anyone in downtown knows that the “alley” called St. Charles is one of the most important streets in the westward expansion of the United States. Maybe someday it will be marked for what it was.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, October 1988.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Archival transcription note: Historical interpretations and figures remain the author’s 1988 account, not an independently re-researched modern history.
Original source: SD_Times1988_10.pdf, printed page(s) 6; PDF page(s) 6.
