hello my name is nathan jackson and this is nathan's neighborhood history today we'll be
featuring the lasalle park neighborhood which comprises of two historical areas both at one
point known as old Frenchtown old Frenchtown was the name of this neighborhood found as early in
city directories as 1866. the old Frenchtown area consisted of the Julia Soulard art edition to the
south and the daniel d Page addition to the north the dividing line for these two areas is
park avenue first we'll be starting with the julia soulard addition which also includes the Soulard
neighborhood but this section of the neighborhood was cut off from the rest of Soulard in 1952 when
highway 55 originally known as the third street expressway was built the first building that we'll
be featuring is the saint vincent de paul catholic church the story behind the church begins in the
late 1830s when bishop joseph rosati wanted to dedicate a church to the south of downtown
to feed the ever-growing population of st louis keep in mind that st louis was rapidly growing in
1830 it had 5 000 people by 1840 it was up to 16 000 by 1850 it reached 77 000 people and by 1860
it had reached 160 000 people mind you at this time it was actually a much larger city than
chicago which in 1860 had 112 000 people the need for a church to feed the growing population of st
louis was necessary originally he wanted the church to be named holy trinity but the people
who were organizing that had their plans fall through and so he asked Julia Soulard to dedicate
some land in her new edition back in the late 1830s early 1840s and in 1843 she donated this
plot of land across the street from her home had the vincentians grouped from France who had an
organization that specialized in helping the poor and they were from France and julia soulard was
also French with her blessing they were able to start this parish right here in 1844 within a year
of that the church was constructed in the greek revival style the two architects of the church
were george i barnett and meriwether lewis clark george i barnett was a famous st louis architect
and is well known for many buildings across the city including this church here as well as many
buildings in the missouri botanical gardens as well as henry shaw's city and country homes
the missouri governor's mansion in jefferson city and he is also known for creating the grand avenue
water tower the largest corinthian column in the world george barnett continued to create
many buildings throughout the city of st louis and is one of the most influential architects
of mid 19th century st louis merriweather lewis clark is most notable for being the son
of william clark of the famed lewis and clark expedition lewis and clark had their expedition
between 1804 and 1806 explored the louisiana purchase in western half of the united states
after they finished the expedition william clark actually settled here in st louis and he named his
son after his partner mary weather lewis his son became an architect and in 1845 helped to complete
the construction of this church the saint vincent de paul church was completed on november the 10th
1845. in 1849 the church had an updated front facade and steeple added by another German
architect named franz sailor it was around this time that st louis had a population boom after a
book was written calling st louis and missouri america's rhineland this area quickly became
a center for saint louis' german population thus this church became german catholic church
in 1859 the church also built a catholic school building which you can see
over here the catholic school building was built also in the greek revival style in 1859
it is one of the oldest surviving catholic school buildings in the city the church itself
is actually the fourth oldest catholic church in the city in 1896 there was a devastating tornado
that came through this area killing 300 people to demonstrate the power of the tornado we have
to look at what happened to the catholic school building the catholic school building as you can
see has a hipped roof which is actually a rebuild from after the tornado but the original roof to
the school building was torn off by the tornado and carried all the way one mile away to lockheed
square by the powerful winds of the tornado after the third street expressway was built in 1952
the church's parish began to decline in population this continued until the 1970s in the late 1970s
as the Soulard and lasalle park neighborhoods began to be restored this church changed its
mission and began to start helping and feeding the homeless and after starting its homeless outreach
the parish started to grow again up till today and the church is now one of the largest catholic
parishes in the area join us on friday for the full tour of the lasalle park neighborhood