1,000 Years of St. Louis Area History in 10 minutes! (1904 Worlds Fair Footage!)

From Pyramids to a sprawling metropolis, the St. Louis area has been occupied for over 1,100 years by various cultures. Join us to learn about how the city was founded and what was here before. At the end of the video, we've included retouched footage of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition / 1904 World's Fair. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss part 2, enjoy!
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Original 1904 Opening Ceremony Footage: www.loc.gov/item/00563603/
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1,000 Years of St. Louis Area History in 10 minutes! (1904 Worlds Fair Footage!)
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Chapters:
Intro 0:00
900 0:17
1500 0:35
1673 1:24
1682 1:32
1700s 1:43
1730s 1:52
1764 2:03
1765 3:42
1800 4:07
1803 4:15
1804 4:30
1808 5:03
1817 5:09
1821 5:12
1822 5:15
1840-1860 5:23
1876-77 5:41
Late 1800s 5:54
1904 Worlds Fair Footage 6:11
For inquiries contact: [e-mail]
This House Media LLC
© 2021
Creative Commons Images from: Library of Congress and Wikipedia
Music from Epidemic Sound

[@ThisHouse]

At 4:33 we say that Lewis and Clark departed along the Mississippi River. We meant to say MISSOURI River!

[@Turk380]

To say they departed from the Mississippi isn't ENTIRELY wrong, it just depends on what you consider to be the "official" starting point. The expedition camped in several places along the Ohio, and coming up the Mississippi stopping at Ste Genevieve & River Dubois in particular.

[@MrLdevelle]

Starting point of the Ms River is in Minnesota… you can dispute where Missouri starts

[@BornInSCLA]

My family moved to St. Louis from Germany in 1858, I was given my great grandfathers pin from the 1904 worlds fair that has been passed down. Cool to see the footage where he was

[@andrewthesixth]

What high school did you go to?

[@aidanlandwehr8295]

Born and raise in stl Missouri should be a foreign German capitol you can see the German influence all over the state and especially Missouri Rhineland. My grandpa fled the germany in the 1920s it’s sad the German immigrants hid their nationality to escape being affiliated with a war mindset from 3000 miles away.

[@Taintlouis]

STL history in one sentence: We used to make everything here until we built an arch and everyone moved away.

[@ramencurry6672]

Visited St. Louis for the first time last week. Check out Imos pizza.

[@Taintlouis]

@@ramencurry6672 Imo's is an abomination in the eyes of God.

[@hhrswazy]

At least you got an arch 🤷‍♂️

[@aidanlandwehr8295]

I’m glad we didn’t become Chicago at least St. Louis corrupted officials don’t know how to hide it😂😂😂😂 bring back business

[@robertherer9268]

I feel like it’s such an underrated city. Sure it’s has its ups and downs but what city hasn’t ?

[@Timmyval123]

I lived in Brentwood St. Louis this summer for work, really cool city. I was born and raised in the Denver area, we simply don't get old historic and beautiful architecture like that. Super cool

[@catebar9204]

Really nice job in less than ten minutes, Ken. It is a shame that Missouri and St. Louis History are not taught in our schools. History has become the 'missing link' in our education systems thanks to those who wish to extinguish our memories that could empower us. I remember going on Architectural tours in Downtown St. Louis where some of the old commercial buildings have quite a History. You have much material for your future tours for this is indeed a very historic city. I always look forward to each of them. Thank you for your thoroughness and knowledge of St. Louis History and architecture.

[@ThisHouse]

I'm so glad that you enjoyed this video. It is so important that we continue to learn history and tell the stories of days past so that we can not only know where we came from, but grow from it as well. Thank you for watching, Ken

[@betsyh2503]

If it makes you feel any better, Power Homeschool (an on-line home school curriculum) has Missouri history 😃

[@s.i.john16.33]

I remember hearing a bunch of this in school growing up in St. Louis. It's been in the state education standards, though there's too much crammed in there overall to dig very deeply into the content.

[@jeffking4176]

When I was growing up in U. City, we were taught History quite thoroughly, including St.Louis, and Missouri History. But that was in the 1960’s. We learned about both Good and Bad parts of the History. 📻🙂

[@lotanowo]

I mean, considering how little time there is in school, it only makes sense that not every city's history can be taught in schools.

[@russbilzing5348]

As a part of the 1904 World's Fair was the 'World's largest Ferris Wheel' , the enormous axle of which was so heavy that it lay where it fell in Forest Park for many decades because moving it was just such a bitch. I don't know if anyone ever DID move it.

[@ThisHouse]

That's really fascinating! We'll see if we can dig up pictures of that!

[@russbilzing5348]

@@ThisHouse Thank you. Just a bit of odd trivia from an old fart's memory. I'm native to St. Louis.

[@lennoxchong]

These people didn’t build a inch of these structures neither that Ferris wheel

[@justinzeid212]

Actually that's not true. It was transported back to Chicago (it had been transported from there before the fair) where it is though that it was cut up for scrap during World War I.

[@SpanishEclectic]

Nice job, Ken. Glad to see your emphasis on Cahokia and the Caddoan culture. I recently found a commemorative coin from the 1904 St.Louis Fair in my grandmother's things. She never mentioned attending the fair (she was 10 years old and living in Wisconsin), but I believe her oldest brother must have, and brought back the souvenir. I discovered you through Kaleb Higgins' channel, and have learned so much about St. Louis history from you both. I love those antique 'bird's eye view' maps, and the one you used even shows that the buildings right on the river were built on stilts! I understand the need for waterfront redevelopment (we have it here in San Diego as well), but I'm always happy to see old buildings preserved and incorporated into new projects. Sadly, that is a rare sight in many places.

[@ThisHouse]

I'm so glad that you are able to learn about the history of St. Louis through each of our respective channels. Thanks for watching! -Ken PS: sorry it took so long to respond, I didn't see this comment until this evening because KZbin decided to hold it for review

[@SpanishEclectic]

@@ThisHouse And then in your next video you explained about the FIRE! A bit of rebuilding needed after that! :0

[@ThisHouse]

@@SpanishEclectic Absolutely!

[@bigk746]

Very informative and easy to understand, love the format of following the timeline. Well done and subscribed!

[@ThisHouse]

Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed it!

[@mariakettlehut7399]

Ken is the go to man for housing and history in STL

[@ThisHouse]

Thank you!

[@leasoup]

Always appreciate your videos, whether they be about the history of the area, cool landmarks around town, or house tours. Thank you!

[@ThisHouse]

I’m glad you are enjoying the variety!

[@DougVarble]

Outstanding history lesson! Thanks

[@ThisHouse]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@OKconnectmelove]

Nicely done! Thank you Ken. 💞

[@ThisHouse]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@jennafallert736]

My family is originally from Saint Genevieve, had been there since the French and then later German immigration. It’s amazing to hear it mentioned in this video not many people now about Saint Gen. and her history

[@ThisHouse]

Ste Genevieve played a crucial role for French Settlers, while it may be overlooked by most, it's impossible to ignore her significance. We hope to feature some of the older cottages from the 1700s this summer.

[@mre7438]

How can you discover somewhere people already live?

[@vickiephilpitt7697]

Very well done Ken. It was nice to "re-learn" the history of an area that has only been given "in passing" in American history (Lewis & Clark). I also never knew about the Olympics being held in the city (then again I don't know - -remember - what cities they've been held in recently 😉)! Can't wait to learn more in part 2. Thank you.

[@ThisHouse]

I'm so glad you enjoyed it! -Ken

[@ronaldwinker2197]

CBC Highschool team won the Silver Medal for soccer. That was a time when real nonprofessionals played and competed.

[@josh63br4]

with the current condition of the city it would be best to treat it as a pass through city... new motto come to st louis for the food and history, stay because your car got jacked

[@tiaonelpn]

You speak history!😁 Very cool! More please. 🤗

[@ThisHouse]

Thanks! Stay tuned for part 2!

[@d.g.n9392]

Very good video. There’s some fairly nice preservation spots in Ste. Genevieve that can be visited. Long histories a long the Mississippi.

[@pablobruning4508]

The Corps of Discovery was a select group of U.S. Army and civilian volunteers under the command of Captain Meriwether Lewis and his close friend Second Lieutenant William Clark. Clark, along with 30 others, set out from Camp Dubois (Camp Wood), Illinois, on May 14, 1804, met Lewis and ten other members of the group in St. Charles, Missouri, then went up the Missouri River.

[@jeffking4176]

Great job. Very concise. I’m now waiting for the “Full” Documentary [series]. 📻😁

[@oldworldmichigan705]

Nice one Ken. Very cool fair video

[@lindabb621]

Thank you for a wonderful insight. Damn our History is AMAZING!

[@larryrowe5259]

The recreated encampment of Lewis and Clark, opposite the mouth of the Missouri River in Illinois, is worth the visit.

[@ThisHouse]

Thanks for the suggestion!

[@bonnieikamas1201]

Magnificent! The best thing about living in Southern Illinois was the ability to visit St. Louis; I miss it!!! Grateful for your efforts!!!🌹

[@waynermcmahon8214]

Cherokee Indian and Irish born an raised stl mo 314 tell us sum more of this history💯

[@AlexMathiesen]

But you didn't mention the tartatians who really built the world's fair buildings. Just kidding, good video.

[@ThisHouse]

LOL I needed that laugh. Cheers!

[@wdgbirmingham2]

I love this video!! I was born in Missouri and have always been mesmerized by the Arch. There's definitely some behind the scenes ley lines being tapped into...

[@sandiegan3788]

My father worked on the Arch. Up close you see sheets of rippled metal. Dad said the sheets were not expected to ripple like they did. Oh well.

[@wdgbirmingham2]

@@sandiegan3788 A very cool (no pun intended!) fact about the Arch is when they put the final piece in back in the 60's they had to constantly run water from firehoses on either side to cool the metal, otherwise in the heat of the sunlight the metal would have expanded and the keystone wouldn't have fit 😎

[@sandiegan3788]

Ha! Interesting.

[@sylviamayo379]

Thanks Very much !!!!

[@ThisHouse]

Our pleasure!

[@bobroberts2581]

STL “got no money? Neat. We don’t charge for museums, zoos, animal sanctuaries, or most small music shows. Also, we have live music 7 days a week, again, largely with no door charge.”

[@thisisntsergio1352]

3:48 oh, so that's who Pontiac is.

[@CJColvin]

That's where GM named one of there car brands after a Native American chief in St.Louis.

[@thisisntsergio1352]

@@CJColvin I know about the car brand. That's where I first knew of it.

[@CJColvin]

@@thisisntsergio1352 Oh ok

[@josephspruill1212]

I love how they like to show pictures of down town like it’s the only part of the city. If they had to show other pictures of the city they would see how these beautiful buildings have been neglected for decades. They don’t take down condemned buildings. They just leave them as they are. It’s very sad to see this beauty go to waist.

[@lynntaylor7513]

I LOVE St. Louis!!!

[@rqhstlouis]

I love your videos!!! Off the subject but are you able to find any history on the address 3109 Taylor 63115? It was supposedly built in 1890, but I haven’t been able to find any other details on the property.

[@simritnam612]

Of note, contemporary indigenous did NOT visit Cahokia Mounds, IL, because of the legendary demise of the habitation. Much like the ancient cliff dwellings of the SW, they were considered haunted/holy/spirited.

[@Cmarier2]

Do I see a giant person in front of a building with columns and tall door he walks through?!!😮

[@betsyh2503]

I’m in Oregon, I love having a connection to Missouri :) Great video on the history of St. Louis, she sure moves to the beat of her own drum! ❤️

[@ThisHouse]

I'm glad you enjoyed it from the other side of the Country! -Ken

[@pp7x79]

Well this is quite a quality video. i didn't know a thing about st Louis and i'm curious what the place is like these days.

[@pp7x79]

apparently also quite known for a lot of crimes! interesting

[@itgetsbetter4923]

@@pp7x79 yeah very known on both sides of the river I grew up living walking distance from Cahokia mounds

[@genekennebrewthomas4486]

Kanye wasnt lying

[@ryanhilliard1620]

Sad that nothing remains of the early settlement. Where did Lewis and Clark live in St Louis?

[@jeremybrown459]

Impatching 1:22 of videos to in vate a video you can find under saint louis revel 212-20 bypass

[@michaelleroi9077]

I see a starfort in the map at 3:40. Could you translate that to the modern location?

[@ThisHouse]

The starfort was located where the modern day intersection of 8th and Market is.

[@Shs_21]

there is so much info that doesnt line up w the dates given. c- doc

[@sethc4758]

ill never understand why we've always felt the need to graze the landscape to build our cities... there is a big hill there? well build some where else in the city that is flat and save yourself a whole lot of excavation costs. At least if you're going to ruin a historic 1,000 year old mound, build something that adds to it, instead of taking it away. Im much more of a fan of the Frank Lloyd Wright ideas on architecture and natural architecture that if youre going to build something it should add to the landscape and be set natural on the landscape as if it were naturally made to be a part of the landscape and enhance it rather than just doing mass excavation to level everything flat.

[@KurtSchwind]

When you say 'ACE' are you trying to say 'CE' as in common era? I'm not familiar with 'ACE' to describe a year.

[@andrewk3350]

Part 2 when?

[@michellejacobcik4244]

You forgot to mention that S t Louis was sight of a Revolution War Battle.

[@CJColvin]

So basically GM name of there car brands after a Native American Cheif in St.Louis

[@bingbongmcgee]

What does A.C.E mean? Do you mean B.C.E? Is that some new pc term? I can't find anything on Google which is why I ask... Also as a StL native I love the look of the arch and the symbol that people can kind of rally around (sort of) and the fact that we have a nice big park right in the downtown core, but I wish it had never been built on that location. It destroyed a large portion of the city's history for a freaking vanity project. Even though across the river is in Illinois, they should have had it built on the other side of the river (assuming no major settlement was there, all I see today are unsightly corporate businesses there...) which might have inspired another downtown core to be settled around the arch there! A major cultural hub not constrained by the river but enhanced by it. Idk I could rant all day about things that should have been done (like StL being more accepting of certain infrastructure that could have made it what Chicago is today) or the placement of certain major roadways smack dab in the city center... but I guess its all piecemeal politics that have gotten us where we are.

[@sirblack1619]

Laclede stated that "this place might become one of the finest cities." Sad that my hometown never reached that level although it had great potential. When the imaginary line was formed between the city and the county that pretty much set the course for what STL would become. Confused as to why you totally left off the fact the slavery was alive and well in STL until emancipation? That is part of the cities history.

[@johnmarvin146]

It's crazy how we are still here but thy won't give us reparation credit our true & rightful names im a copper native I am Indigenous to this land

[@renijabarnes3852]

Exactly

[@connerkirk1043]

How did they cut the grass on those grassy mounds?🤔

[@itgetsbetter4923]

They just use tractors now seems like a week long job back in the day though😂

[@dustincastillo9935]

STL BRED RIGHT HERE

[@ai3985rghh]

900 ACE? Guess I need to go back to indoctrination school and rid myself of wrong-think.

[@DIYDr.]

ACE?

[@johnflinn100]

The farmers farm.???

[@romulus62moondust]

What happened to the indigenous people? Thousands of them

[@AnubisSativa]

It must have always been a great life changing experience to witness how important this place has been. For millennia it was a central place where peoples from all four corners of Turtle Island met to share ideas in philosophy, science, spirituality, land stewarding, and trade routes extending as far as Brazil. Unfortunately it fell victim to an infestation of colonizing insects from the east that completely consume an area of life and resources to build their vast overpopulated hives on the wasteland that's left over.

[@fortgaming9058]

Copium

[@leroybrown505]

Those were not Native pyramids, they were pre flood tartarian from a ancient civilization. Pre Flood

[@StLProgressive]

Great content, but you might want to rethink your music choices. They did nothing to add to the content, and made it hard to hear what you were saying.

[@jackson5116]

The Native American history here is one that's fascinating, both because they're all gone now, and because only some artifacts remain to tell us about their history.

[@HallofFamerMichael]

No one's using BCE. And AD and get it over with

[@kolddemonstration]

That background music is really distracting guys … would love more videos though ❤️

[@yolondastewart1854]

People wake up research this place it was once a human zoo they put a black person in a cage with a monkey the documentary name is Human zoo.

[@sirblack1619]

Exactly! He whitewashed this entire history.

[@sallybartholomew8470]

A couple of boo boos. Lewis and Clark went down the Missouri river not the Mississippi. The Mississippi is on the eastern side.

[@christopherhoppe7508]

We say BC and AD

[@malcontender6319]

My, aren't we plural today? Desert grifter isn't fooling anyone, anymore.

[@bmbirdsong]

What does ACE mean? Is this ACE Hardware reckoning? Or, do you mean CE? It kind of ruined the video for me, I couldn't take you seriously.

[@ThisHouse]

ACE stands for After Common Era.

[@bmbirdsong]

@@ThisHouse This IS the Common Era. We are not AFTER the common era, we are in it. The correct term is CE. Or AD if you prefer.

[@jerrymcconico4841]

Lies

[@Miguel_and_The_Microbes]

The narrator doesn’t know how to pronounce Campbell? 😅😂

[@D.Garcia007]

Too bad they didn't know what kind of sht hole it was going to turn to

[@jc22-y]

whitewashed

[@mikeaaron9053]

Hmm since the city of st louis voted to leave the county then its right to never join together again just cause the city cant pay their bills. Great video and great channel.

[@pchts1]

It seems that you put a lot of thought and research into making this video then messed it all up in editing by putting in that extremely distracting music its so loud that its too hard to understand what is being said! So I'm giving this video the first thumbs down in 1,222 views , 17 comments and 75 thumbs up!

[@lightgoc8914]

I didn't have that problem. Try adjusting your sound settings, the music is pretty quiet in the background

[@pchts1]

@@lightgoc8914 then possibly it’s me then. It may be that the music is mainly in the left channel / speaker and your voice is right I’m 98% deaf in the right ear!

[@michaelleroi9077]

@@pchts1 then possibly you could remove your thumbs down or perhaps give it a thumbs up. Compared to most vids on STL this one ranks very high. The gent who made it deserves a good grade for his efforts even if the end might have been loud for you. It seems a bit harsh to judge the whole thing based on just one technical issue that may have been yours all along. I've tried making videos. It's REAL hard!!

[@leowasescha4658]

ACE? Cut the atheist BS. It’s AD.

[@skenzyme81]

Settlers. Not colonizers. There is a difference.

[@ThisHouse]

Thank you for the clarification.

[@sirblack1619]

No they were colonizers.

[@eddier7525]

It's bc and. Ad take your bce and shove it buddy

[@davidallen9526]

ACE..... no thank you

[@CaptainMorgan43]

The video had a good foundation for the information presented, BUT it was expressed more as a schools homework assignment than an educational video about St. Louis. It shouldn't have been made as a compression to St Louis's actual History. St Louis's has an astounding history that shouldn't be compressed into a 10 minute video, because there is just too much history that describes St Louis. You do St Louis a disservice by compressing a partial synopsis of it's History.

[@ThisHouse]

We agree! This was more of a "timeline" of events than a breakdown of those events. That is why we have many history videos about St. Louis. Some are broad history and some are very specific events. Check out some of our other history videos if you are interested in more detailed history of other St. Louis events! Thanks for watching.

[@spinningballwithcurvedwater]

Hahaha retouched footage? You made the footage 5x shittier. (on purpose)

[@michellejacobcik4244]

You forgot to mention that S t Louis was sight of a Revolution War Battle.

[@ThisHouse]

We will be covering that in great detail in an upcoming video, stay tuned!

[@johnmarvin146]

It's crazy how we are still here but thy won't give us reparation credit our true & rightful names im a copper native I am Indigenous to this land