As children and as we grow, history is presented to our developing minds as endlessly banal and soporific, almost as if on purpose. As if the teaching of it is specifically designed to induce tears of boredom, and a lifelong hatred of the subject. Everyone, almost to a person, appears to be conditioned to never look for more than a moment at historical anomalies. The strange fact that Corinthian columns, Second Empire and Beaux Arts architectural design, and enormous Gothic arches exist throughout the world, as if built around the same time period, and with the same horse-and-buggy tools that apparently were used to construct the colossal Gothic masterpieces of Medieval Europe.
Look at St. Louis, Missouri, before the intentional destruction of these masterpieces. You’d assume these had stood for 500 years if you didn’t realize it was 19th century America. Maybe you’d be correct.
Merchants Exchange
Old Four Courts (demolished):
Fullerton Building (demolished)
Basilica of St. Louis (still standing):
The Missouri Republican Building, demolished to make space for the St. Louis Arch:
Through the 1930s, over 400 similar buildings were demolished along the St. Louis riverfront, as part of a supposed riverfront revival, severing a physical link to an enshadowed past. What could have been the real reason for the deliberate destruction of such priceless works of art? Is it really possible to believe that these were built with the limited tools of the period?
