These cast-iron columns once supported the front porch of the Clemens House, a now-demolished St. Louis mansion. Now they’re in the collection of the National Building Arts Center.
Photography by Virginia Harold. Collection of the National Building Arts Center
Picking Up the Broken Pieces of St. Louis
The new exhibit “Urban Archaeology” shows off architectural relics salvaged from buildings destroyed during the city’s urban renewal era.
In the depths of the Great Depression, St. Louis began to demolish 40 of its oldest city blocks in order to make way for what’s now known as Gateway Arch National Park. By 1942, 486 buildings had been leveled along the giant riverfront site, including the Merchants Exchange Building (1875) and the National Hotel (1847). It was an act of self-inflicted urban destruction that dramatically reshaped the city’s downtown and its image.
It also created an enormous cache of valuable rubble, in the form of timber, brick, limestone and cast-iron building materials.