Downtown St. Louis

In Downtown St. Louis, author NiNi Harris follows the evolution of Downtown St. Louis from colonial days when French traders and craftsmen planted maize on the prairies that stretched from 4th Street west to Jefferson Avenue to millennials and empty nesters living in castle-like warehouses converted into 21st century lofts. Downtown St. Louis recalls when Native Americans arrived by canoe to attend a grand council and the sounds of Italian street vendors in the 1870s. It describes the street celebration that erupted at 8th and Olive Streets at the news the Japanese had surrendered ending World War II. All the while, generations of St. Louisans were building and rebuilding a spectacular Downtown - with ornate Victorian architecture reflected in the sheer glass walls of International style skyscrapers, with the nation's first skyscraper, with lavish Art Deco civic buildings, and with a train station modeled after a walled, medieval city. Downtown St. Louis recalls tells of the building of the Gateway Arch, the 630 foot shimmering sculpture that embodies the history of St. Louis while framing Downtown s skyline.