A little known fact: the grassy area around City Hall is technically Washington Square Park, and on its western side, in the former right-of-way of 13th Street is the monument to Pierre Laclede, which interestingly enough ignores the contribution of Auguste Chouteau.

I didn’t realize this, but the dedicatory text doesn’t lie: this was installed to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the incorporation of St. Louis in 1809, not the founding of the city in 1764. While the sculpture was for the centennial in 1909, it was not unveiled until 1914. It sculpted by George Julian Zolnay, who also was the sculptor of the former Confederate Monument in Forest Park.