Designed by William B. Ittner, Madison Elementary once sat in what was a bustling, crowded and dense neighborhood.

Now, the stretch of South 7th Street is sits on is desolate, largely devoid of buildings, and certainly empty of the residences that were once full of thousands of residents whose children attended this school.

But these children existed, and they lived in what was a rough and tumble neighborhood, close to the Levee and other dirty industry to the south of Downtown.

Peter Tao, a Chinese American architect here in St. Louis, has done extensive research about the children who attended school here; Hop Alley, the “Chinatown,” was just to the north so Madison was the logical school for this community.

Also, it’s important to remember there was a large Lebanese population in this area, and St. Raymond’s is a relic of when that community once lived in LaSalle Park, or Frenchtown as it is sometimes known. It was all knocked down for failed urban renewal.