St. Louis

It was just a four hour drive from Memphis, Tennessee to St. Louis, Missouri, so I took my time. Arriving at the Courtyard by Marriott, my hotel in downtown, the first thing that hit me was how few people were around downtown. It was Sunday, but in all honesty that did not change during the week. Evidence of the impact of the coronavirus is again obvious in the closed businesses and how restaurants, museums and tourist venues have had to streamline their openings or keep their doors closed. Even my downtown hotel with 160 plus rooms, had less than 20 rooms occupied. Ghost town or not, I enjoyed my 4-night stay in St. Louis, which gave me time to casually enjoy the less than crowded sites.

Gateway Arch National Park

The Gateway Arch National Park operated by the National Park Services in St. Louis, which includes an underground museum and the opportunity to take a tram ride to the top of the curved, 630-foot tall stainless steel Arch, a monument built in the form of a weighted catenary arch to celebrate the western expansion of the United States. The Arch, located at the site of St. Louis’s founding on the West Bank of the Mississippi River, was designed by Finnish-American architect Eero Saarinen in 1947; construction began on Feb. 12, 1963 and was completed on Oct. 28, 1965. The Arch is considered the symbol of “The Gateway to the West.”

The Old Courthouse and Dred Scott at the Gateway Arch National Park & the Basilica of Saint Louis

The Old Courthouse, built in 1828, is now part of the Gateway Arch National Park operated by the National Park Services in St. Louis. This is where in 1846, a slave named Dred Scott sued for his and his wife’s freedom at the St. Louis Courthouse. His case went to the Supreme Court, where the verdict set the stage for the Civil War. The case was ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1857 Dred Scott v. Sandford, which ruled against the Scotts, saying they did not have grounds as citizens to sue.

The Basilica of Saint Louis, fondly known as the Old Cathedral, dates back to 1764, was the first cathedral west of the Mississippi River. The present building is the fourth church to be erected on the site. Construction began in 1831 and the church was dedicated in 1834. The current structure (built 1831-1834) is surrounded by the Gateway Arch National Park but the church is not part of the park. Because of its historical significance the church was left intact while neighboring buildings were demolished to make way for the Gateway Arch.

Downtown St. Louis

Citygarden

I’m a sucker for a city park and this Citygarden did not disappoint with its two blocks of contemporary sculptures and less than a 10-minute walk from my downtown hotel. 

Kiener Plaza

The Scott Joplin House State Historic Site

Known as the “King of Ragtime,” Scott Joplin an American composer and pianist lived in St. Louis for about two years and is best known for his lively ragtime compositions, especially Maple Leaf Rag and The Entertainer.

Known as the “King of Ragtime,” Scott Joplin an American composer and pianist lived in St. Louis for about two years and is best known for his lively ragtime compositions, especially Maple Leaf Rag and The Entertainer. Born in Linden, Texas, around 1868, Joplin grew up in a musical family of railway laborers in Texarkana, Arkansas. Joplin was the second of six children born to Giles Joplin, a former slave from North Carolina, and Florence Givens, a freeborn African-American woman from Kentucky. These posters can be seen on Delmar Boulevard by the rooming house where Joplin once lived.

Based on its style, the house is estimated to have been built around 1860, and is known to have been standing in 1874. It is a typical tenant rowhouse built in the city during this period. Originally built as a single family house, it was divided into two flats. The house on the right wasn’t divided and retained a single front door. It is significant as the only known surviving residence associated with African-American composer Scott Joplin (c. 1867-1917). Joplin lived here, as a tenant who rented a room, from 1900 to 1903. While living here, he wrote what is perhaps his best-known piece, “The Entertainer,” which earned new recognition for the composer, 56 years after his death, when it was used as theme music in the 1973 film, The Sting.

The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis

The Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis, built in 1907, contains one of the largest collections of mosaics in the world. Created by 20 different artists, covering 83,000 square feet, the installation of the mosaics began in 1912 and was completed in 1988 by the Ravenna Mosaic Co. In recognition of its beauty and the historical significance of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, Pope John Paul II designated the Cathedral of St. Louis, a Basilica in 1997. 

George Boyer Vashon Museum 

As much as I enjoyed my stay in the downtown area of St. Louis, due to the Coronavirus, it really wasn’t bustling, in fact, it was quite the opposite. And even though a couple of the places I wanted to see, like the Griot Museum of Black History, was closed, so many other places were open with either small or no visitors.

The George Boyer Vashon Museum houses an incredible collection of African American history artifacts. Curator, Calvin Riley, Jr. is a retired educator and lecturer of Black memorabilia and purchased the mansion located at 2223 St. Louis Ave. to safeguard and exhibit the collection of historical artifacts. The museum is named after abolitionist and legal scholar, George B. Vashon (1824-1878). From 1867 to 1868, Vashon taught at Howard University, becoming the university’s first black professor. He was also instrumental in establishing the Howard University Law School.

Soulard neighborhood

The Soulard neighborhood in St. Louis, with its red brick homes, offices, restaurants and bars is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city, being first laid out in the early 19th Century just south of what was the original core of St. Louis. Many of the houses date from before the Civil War.

Walking along the sidewalks of the beautiful mid to late 1800s restored red brick Victorian and Federal-style homes in the Soulard, considered one of the oldest neighborhoods just south of downtown St. Louis.

Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site

Although it was about a 15-minute drive from my St. Louis downtown hotel, the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site is located across state lines in Illinois in the city of Collinsville.  Cahokia Mounds is also a National Historic Landmark and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

The first settlements at Cahokia were around 700 AD by Late Woodland Indians. Living in small villages along Cahokia Creek and the surrounding areas, they hunted, gathered plants and cultivated crops.  From around 1000 AD, the Mississippian culture began as highly structured communities arose with complex ranked social and political systems. They grew corn, squash and seed-bearing plants. This stable food base combined with hunting, fishing and gathering, enabled them to support larger populations in more permanent communities. 

Cahokia was the largest prehistoric Indian community in America north of Mexico. It covered an area of six square-miles, including at least 120 mounds of different sizes and functions. Initial occupation during Late Woodland Indians (700 to 800 AD) included small settlements along Cahokia Creek. These expanded and merged during early Mississippian times (800 to 1000 AD) and the population and community increased, reaching a peak between 1050 to 1150 AD with an estimated population of 10,000 to 20,000. A period of change and population decline began in the 1200s and by 1350 to 1400 AD, Cahokia had been abandoned. 

Cahokia was the center of a large complex chiefdom that had ceremonial and trade connections to other Mississippian sites throughout the Midwest and Southeast. 

The decline of Cahokia may be attributed to a combination of many factors, including depletion of resources in the region; internal social and political unrest; external friction and conflicts with other groups; climatic changes affecting crops and local flora and fauna; soil exhaustion due to intensive agriculture; and loss of control and influence over contemporary sites and groups. 

The Cahokia Mounds was my last stop in the St. Louis area before heading on to Kansas City.

Kansas City

After St. Louis, which I enjoyed, coming to Kansas City was more about seeing extended family and checking out the American Jazz Museum and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, housed in the same building but with separate entrances and fees. And, like most of the places I’ve visited on this trip, not many people were  present and the wearing of masks and social distancing was required. 

Kansas City was home to many legendary jazz musicians who became world renowned for their blues-based jazz style. The distinct sound was perfected in the nightclubs on 12th Street and in the 18th & Vine District, the place where Charlie Parker, Count Basie, Big Joe Turner, Jay McShann and hundreds of other jazz masters made the music that defined the Kansas City jazz style. 

In segregated America, the nation’s pastime was played behind a rigid color barrier so the black community built its own sports world. Black baseball teams played without any league structure until 1920, when the first Negro League was formed. The term “Negro League Baseball’ describes the highest level of baseball played by segregated black teams that operated on a level parallel to the white major leagues. From 1920 to 1955, more than 30 communities were home to teams organized into six different leagues. These communities were located primarily in the Midwest, Northeast and South. 

Memorabilia throughout the 10,000 square-foot multimedia exhibit chronicle the history and heroes of the leagues from their origin after the Civil War to their demise in the 1960s. It’s timeline, of the Negro Leagues, is laid out along with the history of racism, segregation and reconstruction in American.

Editor’s Note: In December 2020, the Major League Baseball in the USA reclassified Negro Leagues as major league and added their stats to the record books. Willie Mays will add some hits to his record, Monte Irvin’s big league batting average should climb over .300 and Satchel Paige may add nearly 150 victories to his total.

American Jazz Museum

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

The 18th & Vine Historic District

Located just east of downtown Kansas City, 18th and Vine became the downtown activity center for the black community. Surrounded by densely populated neighbors, 18th & Vine is known for the creation of a pioneering style of jazz during the 1920s and 1930s and located nearby the original baseball stadium for the Negro Leagues’ Monarchs. Kansas City brought to life a new style of jazz, a riff-based and blues-influenced sound developed in jam sessions in the district’s crowded clubs. Many notable jazz musicians of the 1930s and 1940s lived or got started here at the intersection where music, art, sports and cuisine collide.

The George Washington Carver National Monument in Diamond, Missouri

Although the area is named in honor of George Washington Carver, the property was owned by Moses and Susan Carver  who raised George, born into slavery on the Carver farm in Diamond Grove, Missouri, about 1864.  

When George was an infant, outlaws kidnapped him and his mother, Mary. George was found in Arkansas and returned to the Carvers, orphaned and nearly dead from whooping cough. His mother was never found and he did not know the identity of his father, although George believed he was a slave on a nearby farm. 

George’s frail health freed him from many daily chores, giving him time to explore. “Day after day I spent in the woods alone in order to collect my floral beauties and put them in my little garden I had hidden in brush.”  The flowers thrived under his care and George acquired the nickname, “The Plant Doctor” in his community. George left the farm about 1875. He never again lived with the Carvers, but many of his values were shaped during his years on the farm. 

The Carver farm became the George Washington Carver National Monument by an act of Congress in July 1943.  When Congress authorized the farm as a monument for George, the United States was deeply embroiled in the bloodshed and hatred of World War II. American soldiers, sailors and airmen, as well as society, were still segregated. The monument is the first park of the National Park Service dedicated to honor an African American scientist, educator and humanitarian. 

In 1896, Booker T. Washington, the first principal and president of the Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) a renowned school for African Americans, invited George to head its Agriculture Department. He taught there for 47 years, developing the department into a strong research center and working with two additional college presidents during his tenure. As the most prominent black scientist of the early 20th century, George was an inventor who promoted alternative crops to cotton and methods to prevent soil depletion.  He was best known for transforming peanuts into products like ink, paper, soap, glue, dyes, massage oil, milk cosmetics and much more.  George Washington Carver died Jan.  5, 1943, at the age of 78 from complications resulting from a fall. He was buried next to Booker T. Washington at Tuskegee University.

Stopping in Diamond to see the monument was just a a slight detour on my way home to Dallas and though secluded, the peacefulness of the farm and the opportunity to walk along the  one-mile, self-guiding loop of the Carver Trail was so worth the stop.