Richard W. Lemen, This is the view northeast overlooking the stone quarry of the St. Louis City Workhouse at SE corner of South Broadway & Meramec Street. The gasometer in the upper left corner was located at the SE corner of Piedmont Ave. & Gasconade Street (north of Meramec Street). c. 1925. Lemen Streets and Sewers Collection, Rare Books and Manuscripts, St. Louis Public Library, Lemen 234.
It never ceases to amaze me that there was once a gigantic quarry along the riverfront just to the east of South Broadway, more or less where Interstate 55 now cuts through.
St. Louis Water Division, View of quarry with around 50 men working or supervising, and 5 carts drawn by mules or donkeys waiting to be loaded. The men are strewn out along a ledge in the quarry. February 24, 1904. Rare Books and Manuscripts, St. Louis Public Library. D07818.
It was the Workhouse Quarry, and for around a century inmates broke up rock for use in the roads around St. Louis just like you would see in old movies and cartoons. Roads were made in the Macadamized method, requiring large amounts of small stone. I wrote an article about it in St. Louis Magazine a few years ago. I get the impression it was never very well run.
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, Vol. 8 pl 62. Rare Books and Manuscripts, St. Louis Public Library.
The map above show the general layout of the complex and its relation to the Iron Mountain Railroad tracks and below is a map of where inmates who were interned there came from within the City. It’s perhaps a little shocking to see just how concentrated the crime was just north of downtown, but also not really, knowing what I know about the history of St. Louis. Neighborhoods like Carr Square have been rough since before the Civil War.
St. Louis City Plan Commission. Census Tract Map of St. Louis City showing home location of Municipal Work House Cases. Total committed = 2,092. Total plotted = 1,761. Total from outside city or with insufficient address = 331. 1931. Rare Books and Manuscripts, St. Louis Public Library, MSES_128.
The workhouse was torn down for the new “Workhouse” on Hall Street in the mid-Twentieth Century, and I don’t think there’s any trace of it left.
St. Louis Water Division, Image of the Office at the front gate to the St. Louis City Workhouse. Five men dressed in suits stand on the porch of the building. Rare Books and Manuscripts, St. Louis Public Library, D07827.
The cell houses were ancient and modest in design. They also must have been in bad condition by the time they were demolished.
St. Louis Water Division, Side view of Men’s Prison Workhouse in February of 1904, February 1904. Rare Books and Manuscripts, St. Louis Public Library, D07811.
The superintendent’s house was on the grounds, and apparently had nice gardens around it where he lived with his family.
St. Louis Water Division, View of house with porch and yard of the St. Louis Workhouse Superintendent in 1904. February 24, 1904, Rare Books and Manuscripts, St. Louis Public Library, D07812.
But apparently inmates frequently escaped through his gardens.
Richard W. Lemen, View of the front yard at the Superintendent’s residence of the St. Louis City Workhouse at the southeast corner of S. Broadway & Meramec Street. A woman sits with a small dog and a man stands near a double seated glider. The residence at center background with tower is 2722-2724 Meramec Street. c. 1925. Lemen Streets and Sewers Collection, Rare Books and Manuscripts, St. Louis Public Library, Lemen 231.
Richard W. Lemen, Looking southwest from the Superintendent’s residence of the St. Louis City Workhouse at the SE corner of South Broadway & Meramec Street. The view is southwest down South Broadway. The building with the pointed tower at center is the Home of the Friendless at the NW corner of South Broadway & Dakota Street (later the Charless Home – 4431 South Broadway). The tall building left of that is the Mt. Pleasant School at 4528 Nebraska Ave. c. 1925. Lemen Streets and Sewers Collection, Rare Books and Manuscripts, St. Louis Public Library, Lemen 233.
I wonder if there was the ability to dock barges at the Work House.
St. Louis Riverfront Lantern Slides, The St. Louis City Workhouse was located at 4200 South Broadway at Meramec Street, above the Mississippi River. A quarry was located below the workhouse.. 1930. Rare Books and Manuscripts, St. Louis Public Library, D04835.
You can see one of the dormitories below from the river in this photograph.
St. Louis Riverfront Lantern Slides. The St. Louis City Workhouse was located at 4200 South Broadway at Meramec Street, St. Louis, Missouri. Shanty houses appear below the workhouse. 1930. Rare Books and Manuscripts, St. Louis Public Library, D04823.
Yeah, a many years gone South City Workhouse Quarry was definitely one of the more municipal/micro-county government property parts of Saint Louis City’s long ago political economy. Along with the more asylum “patient work” aspects of that former Arsenal Street address located Sanitarium beyond it’s over ornamented, one storey too high to be in a Scandinavian City’s skyline, neoclassical themed exterior. Many miles away of a pre provincial statehood Oklahoma Territory.
Plus those many decades ago published, anti muckraker like commentay stances of an also bygone Saint Louis Globe Democrat don’t surprise for a carpetbagger city that somewhat represented the worst of Stephen Douglas’s America
Chris, the Sanborn map shows the shanty neighborhood on the river at the foot of Osceola St. My great grandfather was a German immigrant who built a shanty there about 1900. The city directory in 1903 has him listed as a quarry worker. He raised my grandfather, who in turn raised my dad and his 8 older siblings on the river. I have been trying to research info on that neighborhood, but I need to dig deeper, as I have not found much about it.
This is the post I didn’t know I needed. I kept reading about the old workhouse and the cliffs of the quarry but to see it and really visualize it is such a help. Thank you!
Amazing. I’ve been researching family history, and there are a lot of folks who go to the workhouse (and escape from the workhouse) and I was assuming they were up on Hall Street. This has changed my view entirely of where they were and what kind of work was happening. Priceless.
The workhouse dormitory photo shows a bell in a cupola on the roofridge, with its rope running over a pulley at the gable end to the ground — most unusual. Probably it was used to signal shift changes, meal times, etc.
Yeah, a many years gone South City Workhouse Quarry was definitely one of the more municipal/micro-county government property parts of Saint Louis City’s long ago political economy. Along with the more asylum “patient work” aspects of that former Arsenal Street address located Sanitarium beyond it’s over ornamented, one storey too high to be in a Scandinavian City’s skyline, neoclassical themed exterior. Many miles away of a pre provincial statehood Oklahoma Territory.
Plus those many decades ago published, anti muckraker like commentay stances of an also bygone Saint Louis Globe Democrat don’t surprise for a carpetbagger city that somewhat represented the worst of Stephen Douglas’s America
Chris, the Sanborn map shows the shanty neighborhood on the river at the foot of Osceola St. My great grandfather was a German immigrant who built a shanty there about 1900. The city directory in 1903 has him listed as a quarry worker. He raised my grandfather, who in turn raised my dad and his 8 older siblings on the river. I have been trying to research info on that neighborhood, but I need to dig deeper, as I have not found much about it.
Oh wow, that’s so cool! And the workhouse quarry probably had civilian workers who kept the inmates working and organized.
This is the post I didn’t know I needed. I kept reading about the old workhouse and the cliffs of the quarry but to see it and really visualize it is such a help. Thank you!
They’re pretty striking photos, aren’t they?
Amazing. I’ve been researching family history, and there are a lot of folks who go to the workhouse (and escape from the workhouse) and I was assuming they were up on Hall Street. This has changed my view entirely of where they were and what kind of work was happening. Priceless.
The workhouse dormitory photo shows a bell in a cupola on the roofridge, with its rope running over a pulley at the gable end to the ground — most unusual. Probably it was used to signal shift changes, meal times, etc.