Founded from New Orleans in 1764, by Pierre Làclede-Liguest and Auguste Chouteau, St. Louis remained a fur-trading post until the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Its first era of marked development began with the arrival of the first steamboat, 1817. Steam navigation of its river connection made it the most important point in the settlement of the trans-Mississippi West. It had repeatedly doubled its population before the first period of German immigration, following the German revolution of 1848. In 1875 St. Louis was separated from the County of St. Louis and given an independent government of its own. In 1896 the city was swept by a destructive tornado. In 1903 an exposition was held in St. Louis to celebrate the Louisiana Purchase.
Its population of American birth heavily predominates, but its German population is large and every element of European population is represented, with a recent increase from Southern Europe and Russia in excess of all other elements.
St. Paul, Minn. [Named from the Chapel of St. Paul, a log chapel erected here by Roman Catholics. Indian name, imnijaska, “white rock,” a reference to the sandstone bluff on which the city stands.]
It is the capital of Minnesota, and located on both banks of the Mississippi River, immediately below Minneapolis, the suburbs of the “Twin Cities” being contiguous.
It has a picturesque site at an elevation of six hundred and seventy to eight hundred and eighty feet above sea level on a series of terraces, the highest of which is two hundred and sixty-six feet above the river. The two divisions of the city are connected by three municipal bridges. In addition to these there are a number of railway bridges and scores of smaller bridges over ravines, valleys, railway crossings, etc. The municipal limits include the suburbs of Merriam, St. Anthony, Union, Groveland, Macalester, and Desnoyer Parks, Arlington Hills, and others.
Of the three plateaus, the first contains the railway yards, Union Station, wholesale houses and factories. Above the flats are the business section and part of the residential district; still higher are the bluffs, the most fashionable residential quarter, with extensive views of the river and the lower terraces.
The business part of the town is well built and regularly laid out, and the suburban quarters contain many fine streets and handsome residences.
The new State Capitol, erected in 1898-1906, at a cost of four million five hundred thousand dollars, is a large and handsome edifice of granite and Georgia marble, with an unusually successful central dome.
The most impressive parts of the interior are the central rotunda, the two great staircases, the Supreme Court, and the Senate Chamber. The dominant note in the color scheme is furnished by Minnesota yellow limestone. The mural paintings are by La Farge, Simmons, Blashfield, Garnsey, Kenyon Cox, and H. O. Walker. In the Governor’s reception room are paintings by F. P. Millet, Howard Pyle, Douglas Volk, and others. The State Law Library and that of the State Historical Society are both housed in the Capitol.
Four blocks to the south of the Old Capitol are the Custom House and the City Hall, the latter a handsome building erected at a cost of one million dollars. Among other important buildings in the business quarter are the Public Library; the Auditorium, a hall for meetings and theatrical performances; the new Y. M. C. A. Building; the New York Life Insurance Building, corner Sixth and Minnesota Streets; the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Paul, Sixth Street, corner of St. Peter Street; the High School, corner Tenth and Minnesota Streets; the Globe Building, Fourth Street, corner Cedar Street; the Germania Life Insurance Office; the former Bank of Minnesota, now used for various offices; the Manhattan Building, corner of Fifth and Robert Streets; the Gilfillan Building; the Endicott Arcade; the Central Presbyterian Church; the Bethel Hotel, resembling the Mills House of New York; the Minnesota Club House; the People’s Church; the Field, Mahler & Co. Building, Fourth Street; and the Great Northern and the Northern Pacific Railway Offices.