Every city has a history filled with facts and figures; what they also have in common are bits and pieces of interesting information. St. Louis has its own story to tell. Find out about some of the fun facts that tell the tale.
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Wainwright Building
As skyscrapers go, there are more than a few towering buildings around the world that stand tall into the sky; many competing with the clouds. In St. Louis, there’s a 10-story high-rise called the Wainwright Building. Designed in 1891 by architects Sullivan and Adler, this National Historic Landmark has the distinction of being one of the first high-rise buildings in the world. You can visit the Wainwright Building in downtown St. Louis.
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Grant’s Farm
Since 1852, Anheuser Busch has made its home in St. Louis. One of the most popular attractions of the major brewing company through the years has been its stable of Clydesdales. The horses are housed nearby at historic Grant’s Farm, named after Ulysses S. Grant, who originally owned the property.
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Peanut Butter
Peanut butter has a very long history that begins with ancient Aztec and Incas who turned the crunchy peanut into a palatable paste. Fast forward to 1903 when Dr. Ambrose Straub of St. Louis, developed and patented a machine that turned peanuts into today’s version of peanut butter.
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Waffle Ice Cream Cones
A year after Italo Marchiony was awarded a patent for producing the first ice cream cone, in 1904 at the St. Louis World’s Fair, the waffle cone came into creation by Ernest A. Hamwi. The invention wasn’t planned. During the fair, an ice cream vendor whose booth was next to Hamwi who was selling pastries, ran out of cups to serve fairgoers fresh ice cream. Seeing the dilemma, Hamwi rolled up one of the waffle pastries he was baking to form a cone, also referred to at that time as a cornucopia. The vendor took it, filled it with ice cream, and the rest is history.
In 1906, Stephen Sullivan of Missouri became one of the first independent entrepreneurs serving ice cream in creative cones at Missouri events. While Sullivan was busy serving cones, Hamwi started the Cornucopia Waffle Company and later the Missouri Cone Company.
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The Naming of St. Louis
Before becoming the busy metropolis it is today, St. Louis was a fur-trading village founded by Frenchmen Pierre Laclede and Auguste Chouteau. When choosing a name for the village, Laclede chose St. Louis in honor of French King Louis IX, an acknowledged Anglican patron saint.
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Brown Shoe Company
Back in the day, shoes men’s and women’s shoes weren’t always discernible from one another and they weren’t created for the difference between the right and left foot. In 1878, George Warren Brown changed the “sole” of the industry when he formed the Brown Shoe Company with the focus on designing shoes for men and women and creating them to fit properly for each foot. In 1913, the company made it to the New York Stock Exchange. In 2015, the company changed its name to Caleres, which means “passionate to glow.”
Take a trip through time and uncover the many interesting fun facts that will have you coming back to discover more.
Image via Flickr by Akihito Fujii | CC BY-SA 2.0.
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