Update: I revisited Laclede’s Landing in extensus in November of 2022, starting with this introductory post. Hit the next post button to see the rest of the posts after jumping to the new post.
Laclede’s Landing gets ridiculed so much because of its failed attempts at revitalization back in the 1980’s, that we forget that what still stands is really incredible.
Ignore the tourists, and get down there and remind yourself that there used to be literally a thousand more blocks in St. Louis that once looked like this, and are gone forever.
Update: See extensive coverage of the buildings above and below in this post from November of 2022.
Perhaps Laclede’s Landing is at a cusp of losing its old image as a crumby, depressing bar district and instead is about to come a real neighborhood with real residents.
We can only dream, can’t we?
I don't frequent the bars there anymore but what GREAT history and it's always refreshing to see the core of old St. Louis still standing proud.
For those who group up on the Landing in the 1980's, I don't think it was the failure some revisionist-historians are trying to make it. Almost any weekend night of the year from about 1982 – 1990's that place was packed with people and many tourists. Some recent books don't even get the facts correct.
typo=grew up
I agree with you that the Landing was successful in the 1980's, but it's not the 1980's any more. Pretty much everything that I remember going to back then is now gone, except for maybe the Spaghetti Factory and the Wax Museum. My friends were recently down on the Landing for a bachelorette party on a weekend night, and they said just about every place they went was dead and the bouncers at other clubs were begging them to come in.It's time for a new vision for the Landing, as the Landing you and I knew is not there anymore.
Agreed. As I stated it ended sometime in the 1990's and I think a case could be made for a correlation in the rise of Wash Ave and the decline of the Landing. I would like to see more residential there and hopefully when the elevated and sunken highways get removed it will let the Landing blossom even more…
We are lucky to have at least a sliver of our original riverfront district. It's more than most cities can say.
Just returned from dinner down there. DEAD. On a Friday night. Granted it was early but….so many empty buildings and occupied bars/restaurants that no one was in. Yep, I don't remember 1983 down there as a failure… 😉
So excited to find your post. Do you have more information on your 3rd photo? I photographed this building when we were there and have been looking for information on it. I hope we get back to St. Louis some day as there is so much to see.
Cheryl, unfortunately I don't know alot about the individual buildings on the Landing. I just know they're some of the oldest surviving buildings in the city.