CENTRAL PARK TERRACE, NEW YORK
CENTRAL PARK TERRACE, NEW YORK
The Metropolitan Museum contains paintings, statuary, ivories, tapestries, porcelains, Greek, Roman, and Egyptian antiquities. Beginning with one structure erected by the city at a cost of five hundred thousand dollars in 1880, it now comprises a series of buildings which cost several million dollars. The collections of paintings, sculpture, antiquities, porcelains, jades, armor, etc., are valued at ten million dollars, most of which has been contributed by art lovers of the city. In 1903 the institution received a bequest of six million dollars from the well-known locomotive builder John T. Rogers, which has enabled it to compete with other great museums.
At the corner of Morningside Avenue and One Hundred and Twelfth Street is the new Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine, designed by Heins and La Farge, the corner-stone of which was laid in 1892, but the building of which has not progressed very far. The Crypt, including the curious Tiffany Chapel of mosaic glass, and the Belmont or St. Saviour’s Chapel are the only portions completed. To the north of this, in the block bounded by Morningside Avenue, Tenth Avenue, One Hundred and Thirteenth Street, and One Hundred and Fourteenth Street, is the large building of St. Luke’s Hospital, constructed of white marble and white pressed brick, with a tower and clock over the main entrance.
To the northwest of this point, on a magnificent site extending from One Hundred and Fourteenth Street to One Hundred and Twenty-first Street, one hundred and ten to one hundred and fifty feet above the Hudson River, are the new buildings of Columbia University, the oldest, largest, and most important educational institution in New York. The finest building in the center of the group is the Low Memorial Library, built at a cost of one million dollars.
On a commanding site bounded by One Hundred and Thirty-eighth Street, Amsterdam Avenue, One Hundred and Fortieth Street, and St. Nicholas Terrace, are the imposing new buildings of the College of the City of New York, erected in 1903-1908 by Mr. George B. Post, in the low-arch Gothic style, at a cost of nearly five million dollars, and notable for their uniformity of design and symmetry of grouping.
Among other educational institutions are the Normal College, at Sixty-ninth Street and Park Avenue; the College of Physicians and Surgeons; the New York University; Cooper Union, in which nearly all the courses are free; St. John’s (Fordham), Manhattan, and St. Francis Xavier, Roman Catholic colleges; the National Academy of Design; Society of American Artists; the Art Students’ League; Chase Art School; New York Institute of Music, and various theological schools.
Riverside Drive or Park, skirting the hills fronting on the Hudson from Seventy-second Street to One Hundred and Twenty-seventh Street, affords beautiful views of the river and is one of the most striking roads of which any city can boast. It has become, perhaps, the most attractive residential quarter of New York, though a great architectural opportunity has been lost in the buildings that border it, these consisting largely of apartment hotels, remarkable mainly for their size.
Near the north end of the drive, on Claremont Heights (West One Hundred and Twenty-second Street), is the Tomb of General Ulysses S. Grant, a huge and solid mausoleum of white granite, erected in 1891-1897 at a cost of six hundred thousand dollars, from a design by J. H. Duncan. The monument consists of a lower story in the Doric style, ninety feet square, surmounted by a cupola borne by Ionic columns. The total height is one hundred and fifty feet.
John Verrazani, a Florentine navigator, was the first European who entered New York Bay (1525). In 1614 the Dutch built a fort on Manhattan Island, and in 1623 a permanent settlement was made, named Nieuw Amsterdam. In 1674 Manhattan Island came into the possession of Great Britain. At the Revolution the population was less than that of Philadelphia or Boston. It was evacuated by the forces of Great Britain in 1783, and from 1785 to 1789 was the seat of government of the United States. The opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 gave a vast impetus to New York City’s growth. The city by 1874[613]had extended beyond the Harlem River and a part of Westchester County was incorporated in it. In 1896 a law was passed consolidating with New York City, Brooklyn (Kings County), Long Island City, Staten Island, Westchester, Flushing, Newtown, Jamaica, and parts of Eastchester, Pelham, and Hempstead. By the charter adopted in 1897 this territory was divided into the boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx, Richmond, and Queens. A new charter was secured in 1907 under which the mayor presides over the entire city, with absolute power of appointment and removal of the heads of all city departments. In 1911 a new charter was drawn up which evoked considerable opposition, as it seemed to place still greater powers in the hands of the mayor.
GRANT’S TOMB, RIVERSIDE DRIVE, NEW YORK
GRANT’S TOMB, RIVERSIDE DRIVE, NEW YORK
Philadelphia(fĭl-ȧ-del´fĭ-ȧ),Pa.[The “Quaker City”; named from two Greek words meaning “loved or friendly,” and “brother,” applied as “brotherly love.” The Indian name of the locality wasCoaquannok, “grove of tall pine trees.”]
The chief city of Pennsylvania and the third city in population and importance of the United States, it is situated on the Delaware River, about one hundred miles by ship-channel (via Delaware Bay) from the Atlantic Ocean, ninety miles by railroad southwest of New York City, and one hundred and thirty-six miles northeast of Washington.
The city occupies mainly a broad plain between the Delaware and the Schuylkill Rivers. It is twenty-two miles long from north to south and five to ten miles wide, covering one hundred and thirty square miles, and is laid out with chessboard regularity. The characteristic Philadelphia house is a two-storied or three-storied structure of red pressed brick, with white marble steps. The two rivers give it about thirty miles of water-front for docks and wharfage, and it is the headquarters of two of the greatest American railways—the Pennsylvania and the Reading.
The great wholesale business thoroughfare is Market Street, running east and west between the two rivers, while Chestnut Street, parallel with it on the south, contains the finest shops, many of the newspaper offices, etc. Broad Street is the chief street running north and south. Among the most fashionable residence quarters are Rittenhouse Square and the west parts of Walnut, Locust, Spruce, and Pine Streets. Eighth Street is the great district for shops and amusements.
The City Hall (or Public Buildings) is in the center of the city at the intersection of Broad and Market Streets. The structure is the largest exclusively municipal building in the world. It is built of white marble upon a granite base, in French Renaissance style, and covers an area of four hundred and eighty-six by four hundred and seventy feet. The height of the tower and dome is five hundred and thirty-seven feet four and one-half inches; or five hundred and seventy-three feet four and one-half inches with the colossal figure of Penn (thirty-six feet), to surmount the whole. The entire cost, when completely furnished for occupancy, was estimated at twenty-five million dollars.
The broad pavement round the City Hall is adorned with statues of General Reynolds, General McClellan, Stephen Girard, John C. Bullitt, President McKinley, and Joseph Leidy, the naturalist, and with the “Pilgrim” by Saint-Gaudens.
On the west side of City Hall Square, opposite the City Hall, is the enormous Broad Street Station of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The waiting-room contains a large allegorical relief, while one wall is covered with a mammoth railway map of the United States. On the north side of the square, at the corner of Broad Street and Filbert Street, is the Masonic Temple, a huge granite structure with a tower two hundred and fifty feet high and an elaborately carved Norman porch.
On the east side of the square, occupying the block bounded by the square, Market Street, Thirteenth Street, and Chestnut Street, is Wanamaker’s Store, one of the largest in the United States. On the south side of the square is the Betz Building, with heads of the Presidents of the United States in the bronze cornice above the third-story windows.
Chestnut Street is the chief street of Philadelphia, containing many of the handsomest and most interesting buildings. To the left, at the corner of Broad Street and adjoining the Betz Building, is the Franklin National Bank, while to the right rises the fine office of the Real Estate Trust Co. At the corner of Twelfth Street is the tall Commonwealth Trust Building, and at the corner of Tenth Street, on the same side, is the New York Mutual Life Insurance Co.
Between Tenth and Ninth Streets, to the left, are the Mortgage Trust Co., the Penn Mutual Life Building, with an elaborate facade, and the office of thePhiladelphia Record. At the corner of Ninth Street, extending on the north to Market Street, is the Post Office, a large granite building in the Renaissance style, erected at a cost of five million dollars. It also contains the United States Courts and the offices of various Federal officials. In front of the Post Office is a colossal seated figure of Benjamin Franklin. Between Eighth and Seventh Streets is the ornamented[614]front of the Union Trust Co. This neighborhood contains several newspaper offices. At the corner of Sixth Street, on the Public Ledger Building, is another statue of Franklin.
In Seventh Street, a little to the north of Chestnut Street, is the Franklin Institute with a library, museum and lecture-hall.
Between Fifth and Sixth Streets is Independence Hall, or the old State House, a modest brick edifice (1732-1735), which is in some respects the most interesting building in the United States. Here the Continental Congress met during the American Revolution (1775-1781), and here, on July 4th, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted. In 1897-1898 the whole building was restored as far as possible to its original condition.
The Custom House, with a Doric portico, was originally erected in 1819-1824 for the United States Bank. It is copied from the Parthenon, and considered one of the best examples of Doric architecture in the world.
A lane diverging to the right between Fourth and Third Streets, opposite the Fidelity Trust Co., leads to Carpenters’ Hall, where the First Colonial Congress assembled in 1774. It contains the chairs used at the Congress, various historical relics, and the inscription: “Within these walls Henry, Hancock, and Adams inspired the delegates of the colonies with nerve and sinew for the toils of war.” Chestnut Street ends at the Delaware River.
Walnut Street runs parallel to Chestnut Street, one block to the south. In this street, at the intersection of Dock Street and Third Street, is the Stock Exchange, formerly the Merchants Exchange, with a semi-circular portico facing the river. Near it, in Third Street, is the Girard Bank, built for the first United States Bank and long owned by Stephen Girard. At Fourth Street is the building of the Manhattan Insurance Co.
Walnut Street now crosses Broad Street, to the west of which it consists mainly of private residences. Between Eighteenth and Nineteenth Streets we pass Rittenhouse Square, a fashionable residence quarter.
At the corner of Broad and Chestnut Streets are the white marble building of the Girard Trust Co., with a rotunda, and the tall Land Title Building.
North Broad Street, beginning on the north side of the City Hall Square, a handsome street one hundred and thirteen feet wide, contains in its upper portion many of the finest private residences in Philadelphia. To the right, at the corner of Filbert Street, is the Masonic Temple, which is adjoined by the Arch Street Methodist Episcopal Church. On the opposite side of the street are the tall buildings of the United Gas Improvement Co. and the Fidelity Mutual Life Association. To the right is the Odd Fellows’ Temple.
To the left, at the corner of Cherry Street, is the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, a building in the Venetian style of architecture. The Academy was founded in 1805. Besides its collections it supports an important art-school, the lecture hall of which is adorned with effective decorations by the pupils. Its collections include five hundred paintings, numerous sculptures, several hundred casts, and fifty thousand engravings. The early American school is especially well represented.
On the west side of Broad Street, between Race and Vine Streets, are the Hahnemann College and Hospital, one of the chief homœopathic institutions of the kind. To the right, at the corner of Spring Garden Street, is the Spring Garden Institute for instruction in drawing, painting, and the mechanic arts. Opposite are the Baldwin Locomotive Works, a highly interesting industrial establishment.
A little farther on is the Boys’ Central High School, an unusually large and handsome structure, and the Synagogue Rodef Shalom, in a Moorish style.
Farther up Broad Street are numerous handsome private houses, churches, and other edifices. At the northwest corner of Broad Street and Girard Avenue is the handsome Widener Mansion, presented to the city and used as a branch of the Free Library. Beyond Master Street, to the left, is the elaborate home of the Mercantile Club. Beyond this Broad Street runs out to Germantown, six miles from the City Hall.
Girard Avenue runs west from North Broad Street to Girard College, one of the richest and most notable philanthropic institutions in the United States. It was founded by Stephen Girard, a native of France, for the education of male orphans. The original bequest of over five million dollars has increased to about thirty-five million dollars.
The main building is a dignified marble structure in the Corinthian style, resembling the Madeleine at Paris. In the vestibule are a statute of Stephen Girard, and his sarcophagus. A room on the ground floor contains several relics of him.
Market Street is the chief wholesale business thoroughfare of the city. A little to the east of City Hall Square it passes the Philadelphia & Reading Railway Station, a tall Renaissance building with a train shed little smaller than that of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The department store of Gimbel Brothers, on the south side of the street, between Eighth and Ninth Streets, is one of the largest in the world. The Penn National Bank, at the corner of South Seventh Street, occupies the site of the house in which Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence.
South Broad Street leads to the south from City Hall Square. Its intersection with Chestnut Street, just to the south of the City Hall, is environed with tall office buildings. To the right is the annex of the Land Title Building, extending to Sansom Street. Opposite, adjoining the Real Estate Trust Co., is the North American Building, named after the newspaper which occupies it. Below is the Union League Club, the chief Republican club of Pennsylvania. On the same side is the large Bellevue-Stratford Hotel, the leading hotel of Philadelphia, and one of the great hostelries of the country. Farther on, to the right, is the Art Club, in the Renaissance style, in which exhibitions of paintings, concerts, and public lectures are held. At Locust Street, to the right, is the Academy of Music, while to the left is the Pennsylvania School of Industrial Art, incorporated in 1876, with a special view to the development of the art industries of Pennsylvania. A characteristic feature is the department of weaving and textile design. The Industrial Museum Hall is connected with this excellent institution.
Below Pine Street, Broad Street contains few important buildings. Of special note, however, is the Ridgway Library, which stands to the left, between Christian and Carpenter Streets, nearly one mile from the City Hall. This handsome building was erected with a legacy of one million five hundred thousand dollars left by Dr. Rush in 1869, as a branch of the Philadelphia Library. Adjoining the main hall is the tomb of the founder.
Broad Street ends, four miles from the City Hall, at League Island Park, three hundred acres in extent. League Island itself, in the Delaware, contains a United States Navy Yard.
West Philadelphia, the extension of the city beyond the Schuylkill, contains many of the chief residence streets and several public buildings and charitable institutions.
The University of Pennsylvania, founded in 1740, and removed to West Philadelphia in 1872, occupies a group of more than thirty buildings scattered over an area of sixty acres bounded by Woodland and Cleveland Avenues and Pine and Thirty-second Streets.
The College, the Medical School, Dental School, and Law School, are all provided with spacious and well-equipped buildings. Houston Hall, behind College Hall, is the social center of the University student life. The Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology is recognized as the headquarters of anatomical research in the United States and contains the first museum of human anatomy founded in America. The Morgan Laboratory of Physics, the Harrison Laboratory of Chemistry, the Gymnasium, and the Dormitories are all notable structures. Franklin Field, adjoining Thirty-third Street, is the athletic ground of the University and contains a large stadium.
The Museum of Science and Art occupies a tasteful building in South Street, owing part of its inspiration to the Certosa at Pavia, and is divided into five sections. Its value is largely due to the fact that many of its contents were found by expeditions organized by the University itself.
A little to the northeast, at the corner of Chestnut Street and Thirty-second Street, is the Drexel Institute, founded by A. J. Drexel, and opened in 1892. The total cost of buildings and equipment was four million five hundred thousand dollars.
Fairmount Park, the chief park of Philadelphia, is one of the largest in the world, and covers an area of three thousand three hundred and forty acres. The park proper extends along both banks of the Schuylkill for about four miles, and the narrow strip along the Wissahickon, six miles, and one of the noted drives of the world, is also included in the park limits. The principal entrances are at the end of Green Street, which is connected with the City Hall by the wide Park Boulevard, and at Girard Avenue.
In this park, in 1876 was held the Centennial Exhibition; and in its environs are the Zoological Garden, the Fairmount Waterworks, which supply to the city one hundred million gallons of water daily, the beautiful Horticultural Hall and Memorial Hall, built as part of the Centennial Exhibition of 1876 at a cost of one million five hundred thousand dollars, and now containing a permanent collection of art and industry known as Pennsylvania Museum of Industrial Art.
At Sackamaxon, in Beach Street, is the small Penn Treaty Park, supposed to occupy the spot where Penn made his treaty with the Indians in 1682, under an elm that has long since vanished, a treaty, in the words of Voltaire, “never sworn to and never broken.”
In its manufacturing products Philadelphia ranks next to New York. There are upward of twenty thousand manufacturing establishments, the combined output of which amounts to more than eight hundred million dollars. The chief products are locomotives, sugar and molasses, men’s clothing, foundry and machine-shop products, carpets and rugs, hosiery and knit goods, woolen and cotton goods, malt liquors, morocco, chemicals, packed meat, refined petroleum and silk, and silk goods. The great Cramp ship-building yards are on the Delaware River. The Baldwin Locomotive Works are the largest in the world.
Philadelphia was founded by William Penn in 1682, the year after was made the capital of Pennsylvania, and soon became a place of importance. It was the central point in the War of Independence, where the first Continental Congress met, September 4, 1774, and where the Declaration of Independence was adopted in 1776. At Philadelphia, also, the Federal Union was signed, in 1778; and here, too, the Constitution of the United States was framed, in 1787. An interest of another kind attaches to the fact that the Protestant Episcopal Church of North America was organized here in 1786. From 1790 to 1800 Philadelphia was the Federal Capital; and the first mint was established here in 1792. Later events have been the holding of the Centennial Exhibition, in 1876, and the commemoration of Penn’s landing in 1882.
Pittsburgh, Pa.[The “Smoky City,” “Iron City”; named in 1758, when the French had been driven out by Washington; Fort Pitt, after William Pitt, Earl of Chatham, the name Pittsburgh being adopted in 1769.]
It is the second city of Pennsylvania and one of the chief industrial centers of the United States, and occupies the tongue of land between the Monongahela and the Allegheny, which here unite to form the Ohio, and also a strip of land on the south side of the Monongahela. The sister city, Allegheny, situated on the north bank of the Allegheny and extending down to the Ohio, was incorporated with Pittsburgh in 1907 and is now known as the North Side. The rivers are crossed by numerous bridges.
Smithfield Street, diverging from Liberty Avenue, not far from the Union Station, leads to the river Monongahela, on the other side of which, from Washington Heights, may be obtained a fine view of the city. On Liberty Avenue, to the right, is the City Hall a fine structure of white sandstone. A little farther on, to the left, is the Post Office. At the bridge are the Monongahela Hotel and the Baltimore & Ohio Station.
Crossing the Smithfield Street Bridge, Mt. Washington (three hundred and seventy feet) may be ascended by one of the three inclined railways on this side. These interesting, but at first somewhat startling, pieces of apparatus are worked by cables and transport horses and carriages as well as persons.
The finest building in Pittsburgh is the Allegheny County Court House, in Grant Street, a splendid example of H. H. Richardson’s treatment of Romanesque, erected in 1888 at a cost of two million five hundred thousand dollars. The massive Prison is connected with the Court House by a finely handled stone bridge. The main tower is three hundred and twenty feet high. The government building cost one million five hundred thousand dollars.
Other buildings of importance are the Frick Building, a granite office structure of twenty stories at the corner of Fifth Avenue and Grant Street; the Carnegie Building and the Farmers’ Bank Building (these two also in Fifth Avenue); the Union National Bank Building and the Commonwealth Trust Co. Building, in Fourth Avenue; the First Presbyterian Church, in Sixth Avenue; the Fulton Building, and the Bessemer Building (the last two at the corner of Sixth Street and Duquesne Way).
More to the east are the Academy of Our Lady of Mercy and the new Calvary Episcopal Church (at the corner of Shady Avenue and Walnut Street), a beautiful example of thirteenth century Gothic. The Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Paul stands in Fifth Avenue, at the corner of Craig Street.
To the east of the city lies Schenley Park, containing the fine Phipps Conservatory and the Hall of Botany. Near the Forbes Street entrance to the Park is the great central building of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, in which are housed not only the main collection of the library, but also two of the three departments of the Carnegie Institute. The structure, originally built in the Italian Renaissance style at a cost of eight hundred thousand dollars, was remodeled[616]and enlarged in 1904-1907 at an additional cost of five million dollars. The city is also the seat of Pittsburgh University, Holy Ghost College, and Penn’s College for Women. The great iron and steel works have made the prosperity and reputation of Pittsburgh. Among these are the Edgar Thomson Steel Works, the Homestead Steel Works, the Duquesne Steel Works, the American Bridge Co., the Jones & Laughlin Works, the Oliver Iron & Steel Co., the Crescent Steel Works, and the Pressed Steel Car Co.
Its manufactures include everything, indeed, which can be made of iron, from a fifty-eight-ton gun to nails and tacks; steel in its various applications; electrical machinery and appliances; all descriptions of glass and glassware; silver and nickel-plated ware; Japan and Britannia ware; pressed tin, brass, copper, bronzes; Portland cement, earthenware, crucibles, fire-pots, bricks; furniture, wagons and carriages; brushes, bellows, mechanical supplies of all kinds; natural-gas fittings, and tools for oil and gas wells. Pittsburgh has, also, the largest manufactory of cork, and the largest pickling and preserving establishment in the world.
In 1754 a few English traders built a stockade here, but were driven away by the French. The latter replaced the stockade by a fort, which, in honor of the Governor of Canada, they called Duquesne. In 1758 it was taken by the English, who next year commenced a large and strong fortification, which, in honor of the elder Pitt, then Prime Minister, they called Fort Pitt. The settlement became a borough in 1804, and in 1816 was incorporated as the city of Pittsburgh. In 1872 the limits of the city were extended across the Monongahela, and by 1906 it extended over twenty-eight square miles. In 1907 Allegheny City (in spite of the opposition of a large majority of its inhabitants) was annexed; the Supreme Court of the United States declared the act valid, and thus Allegheny became the North Side of the present Pittsburgh.
Richmond, Va.[Named from Richmond-on-the-Thames, a suburb of London; the name suggested owing to analogy in situation.]
It is the capital of Virginia, on the left bank of the James River, at the head of tide water, one hundred and fifty miles from its mouth, and one hundred and sixteen miles by rail south of Washington. It is a port of entry, and vessels drawing sixteen feet of water can come up to the lower end of the city, where there are large docks. Richmond is picturesquely situated on a group of hills, and fine water power is afforded by the James River, which descends one hundred and sixteen feet in nine miles.
Near the center of the city, on Shockoe Hill, is Capitol Square, a tree-shaded area of twelve acres. The Capitol, or State House, partly designed after the Maison Carrée at Nîmes, France, occupies the highest point of the square and dates from 1785. The wings were added in 1906.
In the Central Hall, surmounted by a dome, are Houdon’s statue of Washington (which Washington himself is said to have seen in its present position) and a bust of Lafayette by the same artist. The Senate Chamber, to the right, was used as the Confederate House of Representatives during the Civil War. The House of Delegates, to the left, contains portraits of Chatham and Jefferson, and was the scene of Aaron Burr’s trial for high treason in 1807, and of the State Secession Convention in 1861.
Capitol Square also contains a fine equestrian statue of Washington, with figures of Patrick Henry, George Mason, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Nelson, Andrew Lewis, and Chief Justice Marshall round the pedestal; a statue of Stonewall Jackson; a statue of Hunter Holmes McGuire, the most noted surgeon of the South; and a statue of Henry Clay. At the northeast corner of the square stands the Governor’s Mansion.
On the north side, in Broad Street, is the City Hall, a handsome Gothic structure with a clock-tower. To the east of the Capitol is the State Library. In Twelfth Street, at the corner of Clay Street, a little to the north of Capitol Square, is the Jefferson Davis Mansion, or “White House of the Confederacy,” occupied by Mr. Davis as President of the Southern Confederacy. It is now fitted up as a Museum of Confederate Relics.
St. John’s Church, erected in 1740, but since much enlarged, is at the corner of Broad and Twenty-fourth Streets. The Virginia Convention was held in this church in 1775, and it was here that Patrick Henry made his famous “give me liberty or give me death” speech.
On Monument Avenue (a prolongation of Franklin Street) is the equestrian statue of General Lee. Adjacent is an equestrian statue of General J. E. B. Stuart, and a half mile farther on, at the west end of the avenue, is the Jefferson Davis Monument, consisting of a semi-circular colonnade with a pillar supporting an allegorical female figure and inscribed “Deo Vindice,” with a heroic statue of the ex-president in front. A little to the east of the Lee Statue is Richmond College, a leading educational institution of Virginia.
Among other points of interest in Richmond are the Westmoreland Club, at the corner of Grace and Sixth Streets; the Commonwealth Club, at the corner of Franklin and Madison Streets; the Virginia Club, 2311 East Grace Street; Chief Justice Marshall’s House; the Tobacco Exchange, Shockoe Slip; the University College of Medicine; the Medical College of Virginia; the National Cemetery, two miles to the northeast of the city; the Sheltering Arms Hospital, and Idlewood Park, a favorite summer-resort, close to the city on the west.
Hollywood Cemetery is the most interesting of the cemeteries. Near the west gate of the cemetery is the Confederate Monument, a rude pyramid of stone ninety feet high, erected as a memorial to the sixteen thousand Confederate soldiers buried here. On President’s Hill, in the southwest corner of the cemetery, overlooking the river, are the graves of Monroe and Tyler, two of the seven presidents born in Virginia. John Randolph, Jefferson Davis, General Pickett, General J. E. B. Stuart and Commodore Maury are also buried here. Patrick Henry is buried in St. John’s Churchyard.
During the last three years of the Civil War (1862-1865) battles raged all round Richmond, and remains of the fortified lines constructed to protect the city are visible in various parts of the environs.
The leading industry is the manufacture of tobacco. Other important products are lumber and planing-mill supplies, foundry and machine-shop products (including locomotives), fancy and paper boxes, packing boxes, saddlery and harness, carriages and wagons, confectionery, flavoring extracts, patent medicines and compounds, etc. There are also large railroad repair shops, establishments for grinding and roasting coffee, etc. Richmond was formerly noted as a center of the flour-milling industry.
Richmond was settled in 1733 and incorporated in 1742. Captain John Smith’s settlement of “None Such” in 1609 and Fort Charles, erected in 1645, were both near the site of the present city. In 1779 it became the capital of the state. During the American Revolution the place was taken by a British force under Benedict Arnold, January 5, 1781, and the warehouses and public buildings were burned. The following year the city was chartered. Richmond, as the capital of the Confederacy, was the main objective of Federal[617]operations during the Civil War. It was evacuated April 2, 1865. The warehouses and a considerable part of the business section of the city were burned by the Confederates.
Salt Lake City, Utah.[The “City of the Saints;” named for the famous lake of that state.]
It is the chief town and ecclesiastical capital of the State of Utah, and is situated on the river Jordan, eleven miles from Great Salt Lake. It is built at the base of the Wasatch Mountains, four thousand three hundred and thirty-four feet above sea-level. The valley is world-famed for its beauty, resources, climate, and health-giving properties. By rail it is thirty-six miles south of Ogden, on the Union Pacific Railroad; eight hundred and thirty-three miles from San Francisco, and one thousand and thirty-one miles from Omaha.
The city is regularly laid out and the streets are wide and shaded with trees. Each house in the residence quarters stands in its own garden.
Temple Block, “the sacred square of the Mormons,” covering ten acres, is the center of the city. Here are the Great Temple, and the Tabernacle, the latter one hundred and fifty by two hundred and fifty feet, with a self-supporting roof shaped like a tortoise shell, supported by forty-four sandstone pillars, and having a seating capacity of eight thousand, accommodations for twelve thousand, and one of the finest pipe organs in America.
A little to the east of the Tabernacle is the Temple, a large and handsome building of granite, erected at a cost of over four million dollars. At each end are three pointed towers, the loftiest of which, in the center of the east or principal facade, is two hundred and ten feet high and is surmounted by a colossal gilded figure (twelve and one-half feet high) of the Angel Moroni, by C. E. Dallin. The interior is elaborately fitted up and artistically adorned.
The Assembly Hall, to the south of the Tabernacle, is a granite building with accommodation for three thousand people, intended for divine service.
At the corner of North Temple and Main Streets stands the Latter-Day Saints University. At the southeast corner of Temple Square is the Pioneer Monument, surmounted by a copper statue of Brigham Young, which was unveiled in 1897.
On South Temple Street towards the east is the Deseret News Block, a large brown-stone building where the oldest newspaper to the west of the Missouri is published. To the left are the Tithing Office and Tithing Storehouse where the Mormons pay their tithes in kind. A little farther on, also to the left, are the Lion House, one of the residences of Brigham Young; the office of the president of the Mormon Church; and the Beehive House, another of Brigham Young’s houses. On the opposite side of the street are the huge shoe-factory and warehouse of Zion’s Coöperative Mercantile Institution; the office of the Juvenile Instructor; the office of the Historian of the Mormon Church; and the Gardo House, or Amelia Palace, opposite the Beehive House.
A little farther to the northeast, through the Eagle Gate, is Brigham Young’s grave, surrounded by an ornamental iron railing.
The imposing City and County Building is in Washington Square, and the Federal Building is in Main Street, between Third and Fourth South Streets. A new Capitol is in contemplation in Capitol grounds, near Prospect Hill. Among the educational establishments are the Utah State University, to the east of the city, near Fort Douglas, and the High School, in Union Square. The Roman Catholic Cathedral and several other religious edifices also are represented, including Presbyterian, Congregationalist, and Methodist churches. St. Mark’s Cathedral is a handsome building. Other noteworthy edifices are those of the museum, the Mining Institute, St. Mary’s Hospital, the University of Utah, and the theaters and opera house.
The city is more important as a trading center than for manufactures. The leading industries are beet-sugar refining, smelting, salt making, and the manufacture of boots and shoes, glass, woolens, paper, cutlery, pottery, etc. A large business is done in bullion and mining stocks. The city has a large jobbing trade, being the distributing center for an immense mining agricultural and stock raising region in Utah, West Wyoming, South Idaho, and East Nevada.
Salt Lake City was founded in 1847 by Brigham Young and incorporated in 1851. Until 1870 it was almost wholly a Mormon city.
San Antonio(săn ăn-to´nĭ-ō),Texas. [Named for the Roman Catholic mission, San Antonio de Valero, otherwise the Alamo.]
After Dallas it is the largest city in the state, and is located on the San Antonio River, two hundred and ten miles by railroad west of Houston, one hundred and eighty-eight miles west of Galveston, on both banks of the San Antonio Creek, at the mouth of San Pedro River. Built on a level plateau, with an elevation of six hundred and sixty feet above the sea, it includes the old Mexican town of San Fernando, west of San Pedro Creek, inhabited chiefly by Americans and largely rebuilt since 1860. The San Antonio River winds for thirteen miles through the city, and San Pedro Creek for ten miles. These are spanned by numerous little bridges. It is one of the most interesting in the United States.
The first object of interest in San Antonio is the Church of the Mission del Alamo, situated in the Alamo Plaza, in the quarter to the east of the San Antonio River. The church, which seems to have derived its name from being built in a grove of alamo or cottonwood trees, is a low and strong structure of adobe, with very thick walls. It was built in 1744, but has lost many of its original features. It is now preserved as a national monument for its historical interests.
At the north end of the Alamo Plaza, in Houston Street, is the handsome Federal Building. On the west side of the plaza is the building containing the San Antonio Club and the Grand Opera House.
Houston Street towards the west crosses the San Antonio and reaches Soledad Street, which leads to the left to the Main Plaza (Plaza de Las Yslas), pleasantly laid out with gardens. On its south side rises the imposing Court House and on its west side stands the Cathedral of San Fernando, dating in its present form mainly from 1868 to 1873, but incorporating parts of the earlier building, where Santa Ana had his headquarters in 1836. To the west of the Cathedral is the Military Plaza (Plaza de Armas), with the City Hall.
The Military Post (Fort Sam Houston), on Government Hill, one mile to the north of the city, costing over two million dollars, is one of the largest in the United States and deserves a visit. The tower (eighty-eight feet high), in the center of the quadrangle, commands a splendid view of the city and its environs.
The old Spanish Missions near the city most often visited are the First and Second Missions, but, the Third and Fourth Missions have much interest also.
The Mission of the Conception, or First Mission, lies about two and a quarter miles to the south of the city (reached via Garden Street), dates from 1731 to 1752, and is well preserved. The church has two towers and a central dome. The Mission San Jose de Aguayo, or Second Mission, four miles to the south of the city, dates from 1720 to 1731 and is the most beautiful of all.
OLD SPANISH CHURCH OF THE ALAMO, SAN ANTONIO, TEXASDuring the war of Texan independence, the Alamo, then converted into a fort, was the scene of an extraordinary conflict, the fort being held by Colonel David Crockett and Colonel James Bowie. Though almost continually assailed from February 23 to March 6, 1836, it only yielded when the defenders were all slain but five; these were captured by the Mexicans and cruelly slain. “Remember the Alamo,” thereafter became a war cry, and the place itself has been called the “Thermopylæ of America.”
OLD SPANISH CHURCH OF THE ALAMO, SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS
During the war of Texan independence, the Alamo, then converted into a fort, was the scene of an extraordinary conflict, the fort being held by Colonel David Crockett and Colonel James Bowie. Though almost continually assailed from February 23 to March 6, 1836, it only yielded when the defenders were all slain but five; these were captured by the Mexicans and cruelly slain. “Remember the Alamo,” thereafter became a war cry, and the place itself has been called the “Thermopylæ of America.”
Among the educational institutions are St. Louis College (Roman Catholic), St. Mary’s Hall, St. Mary’s College, Wolfe Memorial School, and the Ursuline Convent and School.
San Antonio is the natural trading center for an immense area, its jobbing houses have an extensive trade in Mexico as well as in Texas. The industrial establishments are machine shops, foundries, breweries, flour mills, binderies, cotton presses, ice plants, tanneries, marble works, cement works, and manufactories of brooms, carriages and wagons, candy, soda and mineral waters, mattresses, bricks and tiles. It is a leading cattle, horse, and mule market, ships large quantities of cotton, wool, and hides; and is the financial center of the largest stock raising interests of the Southwest. The surrounding district, irrigated by water, obtained from deep artesian wells, is extensively engaged in truck farming for Northern markets.
Although the Spaniards built a fort at San Antonio in 1689, its real settlement began in 1714. In 1718 the Franciscan mission of San Antonio de Valero was founded, and, about 1722, on another site was built the Alamo, the “cradle of Texans’ liberty,” in which in 1836 a garrison of about one hundred and eighty men, among them Davy Crockett and James Bowie, for eleven days resisted General Santa Ana’s Mexican army, numbering thousands of men. Eight battles for independence were fought in or near San Antonio between 1776 and 1836, successively under Spanish, French, Mexican, and Texan flags. It received a city charter in 1873.
San Francisco, Cal.[The “City of the Golden Gate”; said by some to have been named for the old Spanish mission of San Francisco de Assisi, by others to have been named for the founder of the order to which Father Junipero, the discoverer of the bay, belonged.]
It is grandly situated at the north end of a peninsula thirty miles long, separating the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco Bay, two thousand four hundred and thirty-four miles west of St. Louis, and three thousand four hundred and fifty-two miles from New York. The city lies mainly on the shore of the bay and on the steep hills rising from it, but is gradually extending across the peninsula (here six miles wide) to the ocean. On the north it is bounded by the famous Golden Gate, the narrow entrance (one mile across and about five miles long) to San Francisco Bay. The commercial part of the town is fairly level and lies along the bay. The chief business thoroughfare is Market Street, three and one-half miles long, with which the streets from the north and west hills intersect. This feature gives the city a striking skyline.
San Francisco Bay, a noble sheet of water, gives San Francisco one of the finest harbors in the world and affords numerous charming excursions. It gives the city much of its commercial importance, also, and extends from Fort Point past the city in a southerly direction for about fifty miles, varying in width from six to twelve miles. Northward this bay connects by a strait with San Pablo Bay, ten miles in length, having at its northerly end Mare Island and the United States Navy Yard.
Across the bay are Oakland, Alameda, and Berkeley.
In 1906 a large part of the city was destroyed by earthquake and fire, the estimated loss reaching over three hundred million dollars. The business district has since been largely rebuilt, and many costly buildings of marble, granite, and terra cotta, and iron and steel-framed “skyscrapers” have been constructed. Before the earthquake of 1906 the most conspicuous public buildings were the City Hall, erected at a cost of six million dollars, and which occupied twenty-five years in building; the Post Office, completed at a total cost of five million dollars; the Hall of Justice, the Custom House, a Mint and a Sub-treasury; the building of the Society of California Pioneers, and stock and merchants’ exchanges; and the Ferry Building containing a display of the mineral resources of California.
NIGHT VIEW, SHOWING ILLUMINATION OF SOUTH GARDENS AND MAIN ENTRANCE, PANAMA-PACIFIC INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION, SAN FRANCISCO, 1915The Panama-Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco was open from February 20 to December 4, 1915. The total attendance was 18,871,957. The last day made the record, 458,558 persons having passed through the turnstiles. The Fine Arts Palace remained open until May 1, 1916.
NIGHT VIEW, SHOWING ILLUMINATION OF SOUTH GARDENS AND MAIN ENTRANCE, PANAMA-PACIFIC INTERNATIONAL EXPOSITION, SAN FRANCISCO, 1915
The Panama-Pacific International Exposition at San Francisco was open from February 20 to December 4, 1915. The total attendance was 18,871,957. The last day made the record, 458,558 persons having passed through the turnstiles. The Fine Arts Palace remained open until May 1, 1916.
Market Street, the chief business thoroughfare, extends to the southwest from the Union Ferry Depot, a handsome structure, with a tower two hundred and fifty feet high, to a point near the twin Mission Peaks, a distance of about three and one-half miles.
Following Market Street towards the southwest, at the intersection with Battery Street is the Labor Monument, a vigorous bronze group dedicated to the memory of Peter Donahue of the Union Iron Works. At the southwest corner of Market and Montgomery Streets stands the Palace Hotel, opposite which is the Union Trust Building, the first of the buildings whose steel and concrete frame withstood the fire. Close by, at the corner of Montgomery and Post Streets, are the Crocker Building, another survivor, and the new stone structure of the First National Bank.
At the corners of Kearney and Third Streets rise the Chronicle Building and the tall Spreckels or Call Building, the top of either of which affords a good bird’s-eye view of the city.
Market Street, towards the southwest from the Chronicle Building, contains many large office buildings, including the tall Humboldt Savings Building. At the corner of Fourth Street is the Pacific Building, a huge structure of re-enforced concrete, with a facade of green and brown tiles. In the same block is the Emporium, which has been rehabilitated since the disaster of 1906. On the right, at the corner of Powell Street, is the large Flood Building, another survivor of the fire. It is chiefly occupied by railway offices.
Powell Street leads to Union Square, with the St. Francis Hotel and a Naval Monument commemorating the exploits of the United States fleet in the Philippines during the war with Spain (1898).
At the junction of Market Street with Mason Street is a monument commemorating the admission of California to the Union (1850). To the left, at the corner of Seventh Street, we catch a glimpse of the long frontage of the Post Office with its fine granite carvings. Just beyond this corner, in a small triangular park, is the large Californian Monument, presented to the city by James Lick. The stately monument erected in honor of the achievements of the navy in the Spanish-American war remains uninjured.
The district containing the United States Appraisers Stores and the large new Custom House was spared by the great fire.
The United States Branch Mint, in Fifth Street, at the corner of Mission Street, contains interesting machinery and a collection of coins and relics. The effect of the fire may be clearly seen on the granite at the north end of the building.
Montgomery Street and the southern part of Sansome Street, form the center of the banking district. On the former is the Union Trust Building, and a series of large office buildings, of which the most important are the Mills Building, corner of Montgomery and Bush Streets; the Merchants Exchange, California Street, near Montgomery Street; Kohl Building, corner Montgomery and California Streets; Italian-American Bank, a one-story building with Doric columns, corner Montgomery and Sacramento Streets; and the Bank of Italy, corner Montgomery and Clay Streets. At the northeast corner of Sansome and California Streets rises the tall Alaska Commercial Building, with the handsome Bank of California opposite.
Nob Hill was the name given about 1870 to that section of California Street, between Powell Street and Leavenworth Street, containing many of the largest private residences in San Francisco. Most of these were of wood, and no expense was spared to make them luxurious dwellings, but with unfortunate architectural results. Few relics of these are now extant. The hill is crowned by the huge Fairmont Hotel, opposite which is the Hopkins Institute of Art.
The present fashionable residential quarter is on[620]Pacific Heights, including the western parts of Jackson Street, Washington Street, Pacific Avenue, and Central Avenue.
The educational institutions of San Francisco, include the Academy of Sciences, endowed by James Lick; the Hopkins Art Academy, situated on Nob Hill; Memorial Museum, in Golden Gate Park; Mechanics’ Institute, which contains property valued at two million dollars, and a library of seventy thousand volumes. Other fine libraries are the Sutro library of two hundred thousand volumes, the public library of one hundred thousand volumes, while the California Historical Society, San Francisco Medical Society, the San Francisco Law Library; the French and Mercantile libraries all have collections of more than thirty thousand volumes. The California School of Mechanical Arts, Cooper Medical College, Cogswell Polytechnic School, College of Notre Dame, Sacred Heart Academy, Irving Institute, the medical and law faculties of the University of California, are also located here.
The city was always conspicuous for its fine churches. The most prominent of these were the Roman Catholic Cathedral, the Jesuit Church of St. Ignatius, and the Mission Dolores, a survival of Spanish occupation.
The largest of the city parks is Golden Gate Park, covering more than one thousand acres and redeemed from a waste of sand-dunes, now one of the most beautiful in the country. It extends from Stanryan Street to the Pacific Ocean, a distance of three miles. Its fine trees and shrubbery, semi-tropical plants and flowers, artificial lakes and Japanese tea gardens combine to make it a veritable wonderland. Through the park a broad, smooth, and well-kept speedway runs out to the ocean beach, and the famous old Cliff House, the Sutro Heights, on the hills of the west or ocean side, from which is a magnificent view of the Seal Rocks and Pacific Ocean.
To the north of the park, beyond the intervening Richmond district, lies the Presidio, the United States military reservation. Here are the harbor fortifications with their big and powerful rapid fire machine guns, the officers’ quarters with picturesque gardens and hedgerows, and the hospital and barracks for the soldiers, while down at the water’s edge is old Fort Mason, a circular brick structure now used as a storehouse.
The population is very heterogeneous, every European nationality being represented here, to say nothing of the Mexicans, Chinese, Japanese, Negroes (relatively few), Filipinos, Hawaiians, and other non-European races.
The Chinese Quarter, rebuilt since the fire, is still one of the most interesting and characteristic features of San Francisco. It lies, roughly defined, between Stockton, Sacramento, Kearney, and Pacific Streets, and now consists mainly of large modern store buildings in a modified Oriental style, and of tall tenements, swarming with Chinese occupants. Chinatown contains about ten thousand inhabitants.
To the north of Chinatown, spreading about the base of Telegraph Hill, is the so-named Latin Quarter, peopled by Italians, Greeks and Mexicans. Their houses, shops, and restaurants are most characteristic. The Japanese Quarter is bounded by Van Ness, Fillmore, Geary, and Pine Streets.
In the pretty park that separates busy Kearney Street from Chinatown, the beautiful golden galleon monument to Robert Louis Stevenson still stands.
San Francisco as the western terminus of the great continental railroads and of many short lines, has important steamship communication with the ports of the world. The bay is accessible to the largest vessels. It is one of the most important grain ports in the United States; and gold and silver, wine, fruit, and wool are exported. There are large sugar refineries, foundries, shipyards, cordage works, wood factories, woolen mills, and many others.
A Spanish post and mission station were established on the site of San Francisco in 1776. The mission was secularized in 1834, and a town was laid out in 1835. A United States man-of-war took possession of it in 1846, and it became an important place in 1849 on account of the discovery of gold (1848). It was devastated by fires, 1849-1851. In 1850 it was incorporated as a city. The original name of the place was Yerba Buena (Spanish, “good herb”). It was changed to San Francisco in 1847. In 1869 railway connection was established with the eastern United States. In 1877 Denis Kearney began a violent agitation against the competition of Chinese labor. This was known as the “sand lots” movement, from the name of the place where the meetings were held. On April 18, 1906, the city was visited with a severe shock of earthquake, and the resultant fires destroyed much of the business section and one-third of the residence portion of the city.
Berkeley, across the Bay from San Francisco, is the seat of the Colleges of Letters and Science of the University of California. The University, founded in 1868, has played a very important part in the educational development of California and of the Pacific Slope. Its other departments are at San Francisco and the Lick Observatory, with the great telescope, is at Mt. Hamilton.
A number of the buildings at Berkeley are handsome, and the picturesque grounds, two hundred and fifty acres in extent, command a splendid view of the Golden Gate and San Francisco. The very interesting open-air Greek Theater, built in 1903 on the general type of the theater at Epidaurus, accommodates twelve thousand spectators and is used for university meetings, commencement exercises, and concerts. The museums, the library, and the laboratories are admirably adapted to their uses.
At Palo Alto, thirty-four miles south of San Francisco, one mile from the station is the Leland Stanford, Jr. University, founded by Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford in memory of their only son and endowed by them with upwards of thirty million dollars. The buildings were mainly designed by H. H. Richardson, who took the motif of their architecture from the cloisters of the San Antonio Mission. The material is buff, rough-faced sandstone, surmounted by red-tiled roofs, producing brilliant effects of color in conjunction with the live oak, white oak, and eucalyptus trees outside, and tropical plants in the quadrangle, and the blue sky overhead. In the earthquake of 1906 the buildings suffered severely, the damage done being estimated at nearly two million dollars. Much, however, has been restored or rebuilt. The buildings include a low quadrangle, enclosing a court five hundred and eighty-six feet long and two hundred and forty-six feet wide, with a beautiful colonnade on the inner side; an outer, two-storied quadrangle, with cloisters on the outside; a Chapel; various dormitories; an Art Museum; a mechanical department; and a village of professors’ houses.
Seattle(sē-ăt´t´l),Wash.[Named for the chief of the Duwamish tribe of Indians,See-aa-thl.]
It is finely situated on Elliot Bay, an arm of Puget Sound, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight miles from St. Paul. It occupies a series of terraces rising from the shore of the Sound, with steep hills rising from the water, the heights commanding superb views of the snow-crowned Olympic Mountains and the Cascades, including Mounts Rainier and Baker.
The residence streets run up the slope of a hill, with the business portion built on the level ground at the foot, stretching along the excellent harbor, with its many wharves.
Among the finest edifices are the Roman[621]Catholic Cathedral, the Union or King Street Passenger Station, with Carnegie Library, the American Bank, and the Alaska, Lowman, White, Central, and Empire Buildings.
Its notable buildings include, also, the County Court House, County Almshouse, Opera House, High School, and Hospital. The city is beautified with monuments and statues, unique among which is the Totem Pole, in Pioneer Square, near the Union Station, which was brought from Alaska and is one of the best examples of its kind. There is a good statue of Wm. H. Seward, by Richard Brooks, and in the campus of the University of Washington is a colossal statue of Washington, by Lorado Taft.
The University has grounds three hundred and fifty-five acres in extent, and furnished the site for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition of 1909.
Other leading educational institutions are Seattle Seminary (Methodist), Seattle Female College, College of the Immaculate Conception and Academy of the Holy Name (both Roman Catholic).
There are several fine parks connected, together with the lakes, by a system of boulevards. Fort Lawton, a military post, is within the city limits.
The harbor, which is in Lake Washington and is four miles long and two miles wide, admits the largest vessels at all times. As the terminal of two transcontinental railroads and as an oceanic seaport, Seattle has extraordinary commercial advantages. It has direct steamship lines to Japan, China, the Philippines, and to Honolulu, and is also connected with European and South American ports. It is the chief outfitting port for the Yukon and Alaskan gold fields, and the chief trading center for the numerous ports on the extensive coast-line of Puget Sound. It has abundant electric power generated by falls in the rivers of the Cascades at a very low cost. Snoqualnite Falls, nineteen miles distant, are one hundred and twenty-six feet higher than Niagara, and supply an immense power.
Seattle largely owes its phenomenal growth to the lumber trade. The manufactures include beside, flour, iron and steel products, boots and shoes, beer, etc. Other industries are bridge-works, shipyards, meat-packing, and fish-canning. The city has also smelting and refining works, and a United States assay office. The chief exports are lumber, coal, meats, fruits, wheat, and hops.
Seattle was first settled in 1852. The place was laid out in 1853 and was incorporated in 1865 as a town and in 1880 as a city. In 1889 it was almost wiped out by fire, but one business building escaping destruction. From June 1 to November 30, 1909, the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition was held here, the average daily attendance being twenty-eight thousand. In the spring of 1910 a Municipal Plans Commission of twenty-one members was created by an amendment to the city charter of Seattle, and in 1911 their report was issued containing sketches and plans illustrating their proposals for the beautification and future growth of the city.
St. Louis(sānt lōō´ĭsorlōō´ĭ),Mo.[Named in honor of Louis XV. of France; the name originally applied to a depot established at this point February 15, 1764, by Pierre Láclede Liguest.]
It is the principal city of Missouri, and is located on the west bank of the Mississippi River, twenty-one miles south of the mouth of the Missouri River, and by rail one thousand one hundred and eight miles southwest of New York, two thousand four hundred and thirty-four miles east of San Francisco, and six hundred and ninety-six miles north of New Orleans. It has a frontage of nearly twenty miles on the river and rises from it in three terraces, the third of which is about two hundred feet above the river level.
The city is regularly laid out, on the Philadelphia plan, Market Street running east and west, being the dividing line between north and south. The streets running north and south are numbered, though many of them are also known by names. Broadway or Fifth Street is the chief shopping thoroughfare, while other important business streets are Fourth Street, Olive Street, Washington Avenue, Third Street, and First Street (or Main) and Second Streets. The city is also divided into a north and south section by the valley of Mill Creek (now filled in), which is spanned by seven bridges. The city has recently extended greatly to the west, and commerce is steadily encroaching on the residential quarters.
The Court House, in Broadway, between Market and Chestnut Streets, is a substantial building in the form of a Greek Cross. It is surmounted by a dome, one hundred and seventy-five feet high, the gallery of which commands an excellent view of the city and river. A little to the east, in Third Street, corner of Chestnut Street, is the Merchants’ Exchange, the main hall of which, with a painted ceiling, is two hundred and twenty feet long. The grand ball of the Veiled Prophet is held here. The Cotton Exchange is at the corner of Main and Walnut Streets.
By following Market Street to the west from the Court House, the square, named Washington Park, is reached, and also the City Hall. A little to the south, in the square enclosed by Clark Avenue and Spruce, Eleventh and Twelfth Streets, are the so-called Four Courts, built on the model of the Louvre, in Paris, with a large semi-circular jail at the back. A little to the north of the City Hall runs the busy Olive Street, which toward Broadway, passes the Post Office on the left. Among the numerous substantial business buildings in this part of Olive Street are the Star, Century, Frisco, Chemical, Missouri Trust, Commercial, Laclede, Commonwealth Trust, National Bank of Commerce, and Third National Bank, a large and very fine structure. In Broadway, at the corner of Locust Street, is the Mercantile Library, which contains one hundred and fifty thousand volumes, statues by Harriet Hosmer, and others.
Other important buildings in this business section of the city are the Security Building (at the southwest corner of Fourth and Locust Streets); the Mercantile Trust Co., at the northeast corner of Eighth and Locust Streets (with vaults closed by a circular steel door of marvelous mechanism weighing four and one-half tons); the St. Louis Union Trust Co., at the northwest corner of Fourth and Locust Streets; the Mercantile Club, southeast corner of Seventh and Locust Streets; the Public Library, Locust Street, corner of Ninth Street; the Lincoln Trust and Wainwright Buildings, corner of Seventh and Chestnut Streets; and the Missouri Pacific Building, northwest corner of Market and Seventh Streets.
On the block between Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Olive and St. Charles Streets is the new Carnegie Central Library, erected at a cost of one million dollars.
At the corner of Locust and Nineteenth Streets is the handsome School of Fine Arts, which is connected with Washington University.
The Episcopal Cathedral, the Roman Catholic Cathedral, old and new, and many of the new Protestant churches in the West End are architecturally striking.
The parks of St. Louis are among the most notable in the United States, and their area (two thousand three hundred acres) is exceeded by those of Philadelphia alone. The finest are Forest Park (one thousand three hundred and seventy acres); Tower Grove Park (two hundred and sixty-six acres); Carondelet Park, O’Fallon Park, and the Missouri Botanical Garden, which is one of the foremost in North America.
To the west of Forest Park is the new home of Washington University, forming one of the most[622]successful and appropriate groups of collegiate buildings in the New World. They were designed by Messrs. Cope & Stewardson in a Tudor-Gothic style and enclose several quadrangles. The material is red Missouri granite. Among the buildings already completed are University Hall, the Chemical and Physical Laboratories, the Architectural and Engineering Buildings, the Chapel (resembling King’s College Chapel at Cambridge, England), the library (with a fine reading room), various dormitories, and the gymnasium. The university grounds are one hundred and ten acres in extent.
The other institutions of higher education are St. Louis University, the College of the Christian Brothers, Maria Consilia Convent, training school for nurses, several medical colleges, dental college, the theological seminaries, manual training school, the State School for the Blind, and the St. Louis Day School for Deaf Mutes.
In Forest Park, not far from the University, is the handsome Museum of Fine Arts, originally erected as the Fine Arts Building of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. In front of the entrance is a colossal equestrian bronze statue of St. Louis.
The great St. Louis or Eads Bridge, across the Mississippi, is deservedly one of the monuments of the city. It was designed by Capt. James B. Eads and was constructed in 1869-1874 at a cost of ten million dollars. It consists of three steel spans (center five hundred and twenty feet, others five hundred and two feet each) resting on massive limestone piers. The total length is two thousand and seventy yards. The bridge is built in two stories, the lower for the railway, the upper for the roadway and foot passengers. Trains enter the lower track by a tunnel, one thousand six hundred and thirty yards long, beginning near the corner of Twelfth and Cerre Streets. The highest part of the arches is fifty-five feet above the water.
The Merchants’ Bridge, three miles farther up the river, is a steel truss bridge, and was built in 1889-1890, at a cost of three million dollars. It is used by railways only. It has three spans, each five hundred feet long and seventy feet high.
St. Louis ranks fourth among the manufacturing cities of the United States. It is the largest tobacco manufacturing city in the world, and also has a large production of malt liquors, flour, boots and shoes, hardware, stoves, railways and electric cars, woodenware, brick, biscuit, crackers, etc. The city is also the largest mule mart in the world, and noted as a drug market.
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.
The finest residence street is Summit Avenue. It begins at Wabasha Street and runs from Summit Park along a high ridge. The most prominent dwelling is the large brown stone mansion of the late James J. Hill, containing a good collection of paintings by Corot, Delacroix, Courbet, Troyon, Decamps, etc.
A Roman Catholic Cathedral is being erected at Summit Park; and to the west of the town, near the west end of Summit Avenue, by the river, is the extensive Roman Catholic Seminary of St. Thomas Aquinas. On the bluff above, at the end of Grand Avenue (parallel to Summit Avenue) are the various buildings of the Hill Seminary.