USA > Missouri > St Louis County > St Louis City > The story of a great city in a nutshell : 500 facts about St. Louis > Part 7
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RABBIT ISLAND IN DEER PADDOCK LAKE, FOREST PARK.
III
PARKS AND GARDENS
Carr Square, between Wash, Carr, Fourteenth and Sixteenth Streets ; Clifton, at Simpson and Bowman Avenues ; Fountain, at Bayard and Fountain Avenues ; Frisco, at Clifton and Wilson Avenues ; Gamble, be- tween Gamble and Dayton Streets and Glasgow and Garrison Avenues ; Gravois, on Louisiana Avenue, be- tween Potomac and Miami Streets; Hyde, between Salisbury and Bremen and Blair Avenue and Twentieth Street; Jackson Place, Eleventh and North Market Streets ; Kenrick Garden, Lindell Boulevard and Van- deventer Avenue ; Klondike, Grand Avenue and Mer- amec; Laclede, Iowa Avenue near Osage ; Lafayette, between Mississippi, Lafayette and Park Avenues; Lemp's, Thirteenth near Utah Street; Lyon, on Broad- way, between Arsenal and Utah Streets ; O'Fallon, on Broadway near Bircher Street; South St. Louis Square, between Broadway, Courtois and Pennsylvania Avenue ; St. Louis, between Benton, Hebert and Twenty-first Streets. In addition to these are the great Fair Grounds and New Sportsman's Park, in Northwest St. Louis ; Cherokee Garden, and other pleasure retreats, where entertaintment is offered amid the refreshing odors of foliage and flowers.
But St. Louis has not ceased making parks nor stopped its efforts to beautify the community. A beautiful park is being laid out at Chain of Rocks, overlooking the Mississippi in North St. Louis ; and a great project is under way for a riverside drive that will lead from the center of the city along the western bank of the Father of Waters to Jefferson Barracks on the south, and to the Water Works on the north.
EDUCATION AND LITERATURE.
T URNING from a scrutiny of material conveniences to the higher needs of mind and soul, one is struck by the educational and moral advantages of St. Louis. The best tribute to its public school sys- tem is found in the fact that numbers of other cities have followed its lead along various plans of education. St. Louisans point to no valued possession of their city with more pride than to its public schools. And this is justly so. No city in the world can boast a better plan of public education more extensively applied.
Under the direction of a Board of Education, whose officials seek constantly to keep abreast of the times, not only in the matter of curriculum, but in the spirit, means and methods of instruction as well, the public school system of St. Louis easily becomes a source of interest to educational circles throughout the world. For in- stance, an experiment, which is being closely watched by the school boards of a number of the larger cities of the country, is in progress in St. Louis. It consists of
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EDUCATION AND LITERATURE.
the construction and use of portable schools to meet the changing necessities of the scholastic population in the outlying districts. This venture, which was planned and first placed in operation in 1899, is proving emi- nently satisfactory.
There are 125 public school buildings in St. Louis, containing 1, 275 separate rooms. These school houses are massive structures, acknowledged models, and the High School on Grand Avenue is a veritable palace of learning. In 1901 there were 1,638 teachers, with an enrollment of over 112,000 pupils. In the higher-grade schools, manual training and domestic science have been added to the course of study. Educators of in- ternational reputation have acknowledged that the methods pursued in these schools are excelled nowhere in the world. The range of instruction is considered sufficiently comprehensive to well fit an ambitious youth for a creditable struggle in life. And, indeed, the more liberal plans that obtain nowadays in the uni- versities of the country, a diploma from the St. Louis High School is regarded as sufficient equipment to gain admission to almost any of them.
Every phase of the student life has been and is closely studied by those who direct the city's public schools. Not only are the mental and moral elements carefully looked after, but the physical well-being of every pu- pil is safely guarded. Hygiene and physical culture are prominent features of the public schools' manage- ment.
So broad is the scope of instruction that at the High
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School a military training is furnished. There, as at all the other larger educational institutions of the city, is stationed a United States Army officer, who serves as a military instructor. The arms and accouterments are furnished by the Federal Government, while the other expenses of this branch of training are defrayed by the Board of Education, in the case of the High School, and by the universities, colleges and academies them- selves in the cases of the other institutions.
Students from every zone and every country attend these latter institutions. The fame of Washington and St. Louis Universities extends to the remotest corner of civilization.
Universities these great establishments are in every sense that their name implies, embracing as they do teachings and students of the whole universe. No study is absent from their curriculum, from the last sciences to the most modern utilities. Washington University is credited with one of the largest aggregate endow- ments ever possessed by an educational establishment. Just beyond Forest Park, work has been commenced on a series of mammoth structures in which are to be assembled the University and its auxiliaries, now domi- ciled at Seventeenth Street and Washington Avenue and in other buildings near the center of the city. An idea of the extensiveness of the institution is given by the statement that it comprehends the following estab- lishments: Undergraduate Department, including the College and the School of Engineering, at Washington Avenue and Seventeenth Street; Henry Shaw School of
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EDUCATION AND LITERATURE.
Botany, 1724 Washington Avenue; St. Louis School of Fine Arts, Nineteenth and Locust Streets; St. Louis Law School, 1417 Locust Street; St. Louis and Mis- souri Medical College, 1806 Locust Street; and Mis- souri Dental College, 1814 Locust Street. The follow- ing schools have also been organized under the charter of the University : Smith Academy, Washington Avenue and Nineteenth Street; Mary Institute (for girls), at Locust and Beaumont Streets ; and the Manual Train- ing School, at Washington Avenue and Eighteenth Street.
All the funds required for the establishment of the University on its new site beyond Forest Park are al- ready in the hands of the Board of Directors. The ground, covering 153 acres, admirably adapted to uni- versity purposes, was purchased for $350,000, sub- scribed by citizens of St. Louis. The new buildings will be as follows: A hall, which will include the ad- ministration offices of the University, and rooms for such subjects of instruction as do not require labora- tories, to cost $250,000, the gift of Mr. Robert S. Brookings; two buildings for the engineering depart- ment-civil, mechanical and electrical-together with the architectural branch, to cost $250,000, the gift of Mr. Samuel Cupples ; a building devoted to chemistry, to cost $100,000, the gift of Mr. Adolphus Busch ; and a dormitory, to cost $100,000, the gift of Mrs. John E. Liggett. The Board also holds the gifts of the late Stephen Ridgley, amounting to $100,000, to be ex- pended in the construction and maintenance of a library
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building. All the new structures are to be ready for occupancy by September, 1901.
Washington University was incorporated under the State laws on February 22, 1853.
Considerably older, with a superb structure at Grand Avenue and West Pine Boulevard, is the St. Louis Uni- versity. It was founded as the St. Louis College by the Jesuit Fathers in 1828, and on December 28, 1832, the state legislature granted the institution a charter under its present title. The magnificent domicile in which the University is conducted was built in 1888. In extent, proportions and beauty of design, it is one of the architectural prides of the city. Year by year the great structure has been added to, until the series of buildings now occupies the greater part of an unusually spacious block. Some of the most famous men in Missouri's history have claimed St. Louis Uni- versity as their alma mater. One of the prettiest fea- tures of this great University is furnished by its military element. The cadets are regularly organized into military companies in regimental formation, with a drum and bugle corps.
One of the most famous educational institutions in the West is the Christian Brothers' College, located on a peculiarly favorable site in the northwestern portion of the city, on Easton Avenue. It was founded in 1851 at the request of Archbishop Kenrick, by Brothers Patrick, Dorothy, Paulian, Barbas and Noah, of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. The estab- lishment was incorporated by the state legislature in
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EDUCATION AND LITERATURE.
1855, being empowered "to grant diplomas, confer degrees and bestow all literary honors usually conferred by universities of learning." The aim of the College is to give the highest type of liberal education in liter- ature, the sciences and commerce. The most lavish encomiums are well deserved by its conscientious corps of instructors, and no institution of learning in the world has won a relatively larger measure of success than the Christian Brothers' College. The faculty pays close attention to physical culture and discipline. More than ten acres of the College grounds have been converted into ball fields, tennis courts and athletic arenas, and there are, in addition, two fully-equipped gymnasiums. All the students are required to take part in the regular gymnastic training.
Not one whit behind the universities and colleges for boys are St. Louis' great institutions of learning for girls. Mary Institute and Forest Park University are known from one end of America to the other. But it is to the convents of St. Louis that one is naturally di- rected by mention of establishments for the instruction of girls. The sweet incense of maidenhood that lingers around those sacred edifices is mingled with an exalt- ing sense of the great work that is done inside their cloistered halls. The Academy of the Sacred Heart at Maryville in South St. Louis is indissolubly linked with the educational achievements of the Mound City. It is conducted by the Religious of the Sacred Heart, under direction of a Mother Superior. The beautiful grounds surrounding the Academy contain twenty-two
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acres of wood and lawn on a bluff overlooking the Mis- sissippi River. A unique feature of the institution is that the French language is the only tongue heard within its portals, save in the class-rooms.
No less picturesque is the Young Ladies' Academy of the Visitation in Cabanne Place, between Belt and Union Avenues. Its Sixty-Eighth Annual Commence- ment exercises were held in June, 1901. The Aca- demy is conducted by the Religious Sisters of the Order of the Visitation, founded in 1610 in Haute- Savoie, France, by St. Francis, Count of Sales, and Ste. Jane Frances, Baroness of Chantal. It is located on an elevated site, with shaded walks, ample grounds, an extensive and commodious range of buildings, and a gymnasium and bowling alley for exercise in incle- ment weather. Of course, as in all similar institutions, music, deportment, the polite languages and everything that goes to make up the complement of womanly ac- complishments, receive especial attention in the course of instruction.
Another hilly eminence in St. Louis is adorned by the Ursuline Academy, at Twelfth Street and Russell Avenue. It was opened as a modest school on No- vember 2, 1848, on Broadway-then Fifth Street-by four Sisters of the Ursuline Order. On January 2, 1850, the site of the present Ursuline Academy was selected by Archbishop Kenrick. The building is spacious, and the appointments of the most carefully selected character.
St. Vincent's Seminary and a number of other con-
CIRCLE LAKE IN FOREST PARK.
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EDUCATION AND LITERATURE.
vents amplify the capacities of the city for the educa- tion of girls, while several hundred private and paro- chial schools are distributed throughout St. Louis. Beside these are numbers of business, independent and technical colleges, among them being the Barnes Medi- cal College, Bishop Robertson Hall, Marion-Sims Col- lege of Medicine, Hosmer Hall, and the St. Louis Col- lege of Physicians and Surgeons.
Closely allied to the educational system of the city, if not properly a part thereof, are the public libraries. There are a number of these with a scope of books suf- ficiently extensive in range to meet the tastes and wants of the best educated community in the world, and with a population twice as numerous as that of the Mound City. The Public Library, in the Board of Education Building at Ninth and Locust Streets, was established in 1865 by the School Board It now contains 140,000 volumes and 27,000 pamphlets. The reading-room is supplied with 549 regularly-furnished periodicals and twenty-one daily newspapers. Admission to this world of literature and knowledge is absolutely free. The total issue of books and periodicals at the Public Library aggregates 1,000,000 annually.
Rivaling the Public Library in every way is the Mer- cantile Library, at Broadway and Locust Street. In 1901 it numbered 3,700 members, who had access to upward of 112,000 volumes and 480 regularly-furnished periodicals. The annual attendance at the Mercantile Library approximates 125,000.
Of course, every institution of learning in St. Louis
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has its library, but in addition to these are a number of public collections of books attached to various organi- zations and establishments. Among these are the St. Louis Law Library, established in 1838, having 26,000 volumes in 1900; the Odd Fellows' Library, at Ninth and Olive Streets; and the Young Men's Christian Association and St. Louis Turn Verein Libraries.
With its schools and libraries, the Mound City pos- sesses an abundance of encouragement for literature and the arts. Indeed, St. Louis ranks among the most generous patrons of the worlds of letters and ideals. She has set some of the brightest figures in the dramatic and literary firmaments, while sculptors and painters have gone forth from the Mound City to lasting fame. The success that St. Louisans have won in the literary field has been fostered and is reflected by the city's press. St. Louis boasts eight daily newspapers, each of which is conducted on the most progressive metro- politan plans. The St. Louis Globe-Democrat, the or- gan of Missouri Republicans, is one of the world's foremost morning newspapers. Its energetic com- petitor, the St. Louis Republic, founded in 1808, rep- resents the Democracy in the morning newspaper field. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, one of the leading after- noon newspapers of the country, is famous for its ear- nest championship of the Democratic party ; while one of its competitors, the St. Louis Star, is equally as zealous in the support of Republicanism. The St. Louis Chronicle, also an afternoon newspaper, maintains an independent attitude in political affairs, though being recognized as an organ of the masses.
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EDUCATION AND LITERATURE.
The Westliche Post, a morning newspaper printed in German, has an extensive circulation. By many it is accounted the foremost German-American daily news- paper. Its local competitor in the morning newspaper field, the Amerika, is devoted largely to German reli- gious affairs. The Abend Anzeiger, really the after- noon edition of the Westliche Post, is an influential paper with marked energy and progress. The Daily Hotel Reporter occupies a field all its own.
A number of high-class weekly, semi-monthly and monthly periodicals add to the current literature of St. Louis. Some of these are technical publications. Others are devoted to certain cults and societies, and a number of them are printed in foreign tongues. Al- together, the Mound City has 267 regular publications.
CHURCHES OF ST. LOUIS.
S T. LOUIS is as much a stronghold in religious af- fairs as it is a giant in educational matters. This is readily seen from the statement, that there are more than three-hundred places of divine worship in the Mound City. As one looks down on St. Louis, with sweeping gaze from some eminence-say from the roof of one of the many-storied Olive Street Buildings-count- less spires are seen on every side, marking like index fingers the religious zeal of the people. Faiths of every kind find here a liberal support. Money has been spent lavishly on church buildings, and on the works of beneficence and philanthropy which emanate from the churches. Nor do the spires indicate all the com- panies of worshipers. In plainer buildings there as- semble the followers of many new faiths, of philosophical cults, and of societies for mutual improvement. The many forms into which religious thought has crystallized, and the cordial assistance which is given to each faith, are alike characteristic of the earnest-minded people of this city.
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CHURCHES OF ST. LOUIS.
Owing to the geographical situation of St. Louis, it happens that the Northern and Southern divisions into which the Baptist, Methodist Episcopal and Presbyterian Churches were rent on account of the Civil War, meet here on common ground. The enmity that caused the separation has long since ceased to exist in St. Louis, and the prediction has been made by those who see the signs of the times that, if the old sectional barriers are ever swept away, St. Louis may claim the merit of having first set the example of "malice toward none, and charity for all." In no other city would this great achievement be possible, for St. Louis is the only reli- gious center in the Union in which one branch or the other of these great denominations does not so far exceed and outweigh its opposite as to make the elimination of prejudice a most difficult task.
St. Louis is strong in its Roman Catholic Churches. It has been the center of the St. Louis archdiocese since 1826, and its old Cathedral, on Walnut Street, is a time-honored landmark of the city. Farther west is a large tract of ground which has been purchased for the building of a new Cathedral, and on which the hand- somely equipped Cathedral Chapel already stands. The archiepiscopal palace on Lindell Boulevard, which was the gift of St. Louis citizens-Protestants and Catholics alike-is the home of an Archbishop renowned in the ecclesiastical councils of the country. Another splendid residence is occupied by the Vicar-General, it having been recently presented to him by the Ursuline nuns, whose mother-house has stood on South Twelfth Street for fifty years.
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Many religious orders are represented in St. Louis. The School Sisters of Notre Dame have here their mother-house for the whole of the South and West, and there are other large convents occupied by the Sisters of St. Joseph, the Carmelites, the Sisters of Charity, the Sisters of Loretto, the Visitation nuns, and the Ladies of the Sacred Heart. Kenrick Theological Seminary, conducted by the Lazarist Fathers, graduates a large class each year, and has sent out priests to all parts of the world, some of whom have suffered martrydom for their faith. A large monastery for novices in the Jesuit order is just west of the city, and near by stands the monastery of the Passionists, famed for their missions. The Franciscan monks, with their old-world friars' gowns and sandaled feet, have their home on Mera- mec Street.
Each of the sixty-five Catholic Churches of the city is well built. One of them, the Church of Holy Trinity, is a massive stone structure which cost almost a quarter of a million dollars, and which is unequaled in Gothic architecture by anything west of New York City. Paro- chial Schools are now attached to every church in the city, and the excellence of these institutions was so highly commended by Cardinal Sartolli, when he visited St. Louis, that the title of Monsignor was conferred on three rectors of the city in consequence. The various sodali- ties and societies of the Church have each a large en- rolment of members, and in St. Lawrence O'Toole's parish there exists every Catholic society that is known in the world.
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CHURCHES OF ST. LOUIS.
St. Louis is a see city of the Protestant Episcopal Church. The wonderfully wrought $5,000 stained glass window in Christ Church Cathedral is only one of the many beauties of that grand old building. At the head of the Cathedral staff is the zealous Bishop Tuttle, who, although ranking third in seniority among all the Episcopal Bishops of the country, is still a hale and vigorous man, widely known for his astuteness as well as for his benevolence. The Dean of the Cathedral has two able assistants, and the parish house of the Cathed- ral (called the Schuyler Memorial House in honor of the late Dean) is the center of scores of charitable en- terprises. St. Thomas' Mission for the Deaf, with its deaf-mute pastor, is an example of the many practical lines of effort which go forth from the Cathedral.
Among the twenty-two Episcopal Churches of the city, one may freely take his choice between "high " and " low church," for the extremes of both are to be found here, as well as the golden mean between the two. The Episcopal Church has reached out her arms in mission work all over the city. The effectiveness of this work has been enhanced by the excellence of the parish choirs, which in every instance have been of great assistance to the clergy.
The Presbyterian Church in St. Louis, like the South- ern Methodist, the Christian and the Baptist Churches, has a depository which carries on a thriving business, and is the headquarters of the denomination in the city and suburbs. Northern and Southern Presbyterian ministers have so far forgotten old divisions that the
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pastors of all the thirty-two Presbyterian Churches meet weekly at the depository for conference, although the Presbyterial meetings are held separately.
Some of the most eminent Presbyterian divines of the country have their home in St. Louis. Notable among these is Rev. Samuel J. Niccolls, D.D., some- times spoken of as "the Bishop of the Presbyterian Church," to whom attaches the honor of being the youngest man ever chosen as Moderator of the General Assembly. Dr. Niccols is pastor of the Second Church, whose new $100,000 house of worship is now just finished for occupancy. The entertainment provided for the Presbyterian General Assembly, which met in St. Louis in the spring of 1900, was commented on at the time as being the most lavish and hospitable that the Assembly has ever known. The Women's Board of Presbyterian Missions of the Southwest has its offices in the depository building, and a number of missionaries are sent out from St. Louis each year by the women.
A resident Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Bishop J. N. Fitzgerald, is staitioned in St. Louis, and three presiding elders-for the German, the English- speaking, and the colored churches-have their homes here. Beside these, there is the presiding elder of the Southern Methodist Church. The two great branches of Methodism are about evenly divided as to churches, there being a score of each. The Southern Methodist denomination is especially proud of two of its local in- stitutions-its church newspaper, and the palatial Or- phans' Home on Maryland Avenue, which was the gift
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CHURCHES OF ST. LOUIS.
of a wealthy member of the church. The Marvin camp- grounds, owned by the Southern Methodist Church, have formed the scene of many notable camp-meetings.
To the Baptist Church of Fee Fee, a suburb of St. Louis, belongs the honor of being the oldest Protestant church west of the Mississippi. St. Louis' sixteen Baptist Churches have gained a reputation for their zeal in inissions and in educational advancement. The latter may be due in part to the work of the editor of the church newspaper which is published in St. Louis, since he is regarded as one of the foremost scholars of the Church.
Like the Baptist Churches, each of the twenty Con- gregational and twelve Christian Churches has its own local government. The Congregationalists entertained in Pilgrim Church the convention of the American Board in October, 1900.
Beside the German Catholic Churches, there are many fine church buildings and parochial schools, as well as two theological seminaries, supported by the German Evangelical and the German Evangelical Lu- theran churches respectively.
There are a dozen Jewish synagogues and temples in the city, frequented by the followers of the Orthodox and of the Reformed Hebrew faith. The two Unitarian Churches and the Ethical Society have large congrega- tions. A pastor has recently come to St. Louis to take charge of the disciples of the Greek Church. There is a place of worship also for the Syrians, who claim that theirs is the language which was spoken by Jesus Christ.
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