When was St. Louis founded and by whom?

French fur traders Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau established the settlement on the 14th of February 1764.

What is the population of St. Louis according to the 2020 Census?

The city had 301,578 residents remaining as of the 2020 Census after losing 64.8% of its population since 1950.

How tall is the Gateway Arch in St. Louis?

The Gateway Arch completed the 28th of October 1965 stands at 630 feet making it the world's tallest arch and tallest human-made monument in the Western Hemisphere.

Where is Forest Park located relative to St. Louis?

Forest Park occupies 1,400 acres on the western edge of the city and houses five major institutions including the St. Louis Art Museum and the Missouri History Museum.

St. Louis: the story on HearLore

On the 14th of February 1764, French fur traders Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau established a settlement on an elevated bluff overlooking the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. They named this new outpost for King Louis IX of France, creating what would become St. Louis. The area had been home to Native American cultures for thousands of years before European arrival. The Mississippian culture built numerous earthwork mounds in the region, earning the city its later nickname as the Mound City. Sugarloaf Mound in South St. Louis was repatriated to the Osage Nation in 2025 after being part of the city's landscape for centuries. The early economy relied heavily on the fur trade with the Osage people and other tribes along the Missouri River. French families used African slaves as domestic servants and workers during these formative decades. In 1780, British-allied Native Americans unsuccessfully attacked the settlement during the Battle of St. Louis. For the first few years, no government officially recognized the town, leaving Laclède to assume civil control through communal meetings. By 1765, representatives from British, French, and Spanish governments began visiting the growing community. The land eventually passed from Spain to France, then to the United States in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase.

Steamboats arrived in St. Louis in 1817, transforming it into a major port connecting New Orleans and eastern markets. The city elected its first municipal legislators called trustees in 1808 and incorporated as a city in 1822. Immigrants from Ireland and Germany arrived in significant numbers starting in the 1840s, driving population growth from less than 20,000 inhabitants in 1840 to more than 160,000 by 1860. The completion of the Eads Bridge on the 22nd of August 1876, linked industrial developments on both banks of the Mississippi River. This engineering marvel became a symbolic image of the city until the Gateway Arch Bridge was constructed in 1965. An estimated 8,500 vehicles pass through the bridge daily today. Industrial production increased throughout the late 19th century with companies like Anheuser-Busch brewery and Ralston Purina company establishing operations. The Wainwright Building designed by architect Louis Sullivan rose in 1892 as one of the earliest skyscrapers. By the 1900 census, St. Louis ranked as the fourth largest city in the country.

In 1916 during the Jim Crow Era, St. Louis passed a residential segregation ordinance requiring that if 75% of neighborhood residents were of a certain race, no one from a different race could move in. The NAACP challenged this law successfully, leading to racial covenants preventing house sales to persons not of Caucasian race. These covenants were ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1948 in Shelley v. Kraemer. During World War II, the NAACP campaigned to integrate war factories. In 1964, civil rights activists protested at the construction of the Gateway Arch to gain entry for African Americans into skilled trade unions where they remained underrepresented. The Department of Justice filed the first suit against these unions under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. De jure educational segregation continued into the 1950s while de facto segregation persisted through the 1970s. Students have been bused mostly from the city to county school districts seeking integrated classes since then.

St. Louis reached its peak population of 856,796 at the 1950 census when it was 82% White and 17.9% African American. Suburbanization from the 1950s through the 1990s dramatically reduced the city's population alongside industrial restructuring and job losses. As of the 2020 Census, St. Louis has lost 64.8% of its population since 1950 with only 301,578 residents remaining. The small geographical size resulting from the 1877 decision to become an independent city exacerbated suburbanization effects by limiting annexation options. One prominent example of failed public housing was Pruitt, Igoe constructed in 1954 which became a symbol of failure before being torn down less than two decades later. The degradation and razing of Mill Creek Valley featured as an example of disenfranchisement in the 2024 Reparations Commission Report. Between 2013 and 2018 over $50 million worth of residential construction appeared in the Forest Park Southeast neighborhood where population increased by 19% from 2010 to 2020.

The gross domestic product of Greater St. Louis reached $226.6 billion in 2023 according to recent estimates. Major companies headquartered in the region include Centene Corporation Reinsurance Group of America Emerson Electric Edward Jones Graybar Electric and Ameren among six Fortune 500 companies. Additional area companies listed on the Fortune 1000 include Post Holdings Olin Corporation Core & Main Stifel Financial Peabody Energy Arch Resources Energizer Holdings Caleres Spire and Belden. Cortex Innovation Community founded in 2002 within the Central West End neighborhood has become a multi-billion dollar economic engine hosting offices for Microsoft Boeing Square Aon and Centene. Cortex generated 3,800 tech jobs in 14 years and projects creating 13,000 jobs upon full development. The Washington University Medical Center hosts an agglomeration including Barnes-Jewish Hospital which is the fifth largest hospital globally. The McDonnell Genome Institute at Washington University played a major role in the Human Genome Project while Pfizer Bayer Sigma-Aldrich and other biotechnology firms maintain operations throughout the region.

The Gateway Arch completed the 28th of October 1965 stands as the world's tallest arch and tallest human-made monument in the Western Hemisphere at 630 feet. Forest Park located on the western edge occupies 1,400 acres making it almost twice as large as Central Park in New York City. The park houses five major institutions including the St. Louis Art Museum designed by Cass Gilbert the St. Louis Zoo the Missouri History Museum and the Muny amphitheatre.

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