Laclede's Landing
The history
Nine square blocks of cobblestone street and cast-iron-fronted brick warehouse immediately north of the Arch — the only piece of the original riverfront that was not levelled in 1939 for the memorial. Pierre Laclède picked this bank in 1764 and sent his fourteen-year-old stepson Auguste Chouteau ahead to clear it. Most of what stands went up between 1850 and 1890 for the tobacco, fur and produce trades; Raeder Place at 727 North First Street, built in 1874 for the Christian Peper Tobacco Company, is the best of them. The Eads Bridge lands right on top of the district.
In brief
Laclede's Landing (), colloquially "the Landing", is a small urban historic district in St. Louis, Missouri. It marks the northern part of the original settlement founded by the Frenchman Pierre Laclède, whose landing on the riverside the placename commemorates. Originally he tasked his 14-year-old stepson, Auguste Chouteau, with the task of preparing the land that sat 10 miles south of the Mississippi-Missouri area. A stone house was erected and named Laclede's home in the village he named "St. Louis" as a homage to King Louis IX of France. Initially, fur trade and trapping was the economic interest that would spark Pierre's interest in using the landing and making his stepson the richest citizen. The area is now decorated with 19th century warehouses and other period buildings. Located just north of Gateway Arch National Park (separated by the overland spans of the Eads Bridge) on the
Read more →The archival photograph
