by Tim O'Neil --- It was called the oldest dwelling in the city. Local tradition claimed the hot dog was invented within its limestone walls. None of that was enough to save the Jean Baptiste Roy home, a crumbling and vacant two-story structure at 615-17 South Second Street that dated to 1829. Despite earnest efforts to preserve it, demolition began March 31, 1947.
3/30/2012
Album ID: 1442290
Photos by Post-Dispatch staff photographers
Look Back: Centralia coal mine disaster, 1947
26 photos
for sale
by Tim O'Neil --- It was almost quitting time for 142 men working 540 feet below ground in Centralia Coal Co.’s Mine No. 5. In operation since 1908, the mine’s tentacles ran three or more miles from the elevator shaft into the coal seams. At 3:27 p.m. March 25, 1947, coal dust exploded deep inside. Thirty-one survivors all reached surface shortly after the blast, but 111 miners were dead or dying.
3/23/2012
Album ID: 1438230
Photos by Post-Dispatch staff photographers
Look Back: Fire Chief Joseph W. Morgan, 1943
5 photos
for sale
by Tim O'Neil --- The fire began in a waste-paper shredding machine. It flashed quickly through old clothing, furniture and other goods stacked inside the Goodwill Industries building at 713 Howard Street. As Fire Chief Joseph W. Morgan stepped along on the second-floor escape platform, the wall collapsed into a jumble of brick, heavy timber and billowing mortar dust. Morgan was, and is, the only St. Louis fire chief to be killed in action since the department was established in 1857.
3/19/2012
Album ID: 1431607
Photos by Post-Dispatch staff photographers
Look Back: Medart's Restaurant strike, 1942
6 photos
for sale
Medart’s restaurant, at 7036 Clayton Avenue and Skinker Boulevard, glorified the American hamburger and was a hit with the after-theater crowd and college kids. But frustrated by long hours and low pay, Medart’s waitresses went on strike in July 1941, eventually settling on March 16, 1942. They got most of what they wanted.
3/9/2012
Album ID: 1430015
Photos by Post-Dispatch staff photographers
Look Back: W.C. Handy, 1932
10 photos
for sale
William Christopher Handy stood before the live microphone of KMOX on March 5, 1932, raised a cornet to his lips and blew "St. Louis Blues", the bouncing melody that made him rich. W.C. Handy’s first visit to St. Louis in winter 1893 was all about blues, nothing of riches. Shivvering with other homeless men on cobblestone riverfront, Handy probably did "hate to see that evening sun go down," as the lyrics go.
3/2/2012
Album ID: 1425671
Photos by Post-Dispatch staff photographers
Look Back: East side mobsters, 1962
19 photos
for sale
East Side mob boss Frank "Buster" Wortman and sidekick Elmer "Dutch" Dowling awaited the verdict with stiff-jawed scowls, just like tough guys should. If they were surprised to hear the word "guilty," they didn’t show it. Wortman, Dowling and a third man were found guilty Feb. 26, 1962, of conspiracy to avoid income taxes.
2/24/2012
Album ID: 1421406
Photos by Post-Dispatch staff photographers
Look Back: U.S. Grant at Fort Donelson
7 photos
On Feb. 16, 1862, Gen. U.S. Grant’s army of Midwestern soldiers, working closely with new ironclad gunboats that James B. Eads built in Carondelet, forced the surrender of the Confederacy’s Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River, near the Kentucky-Tennessee border. The next day, news of a great victory clacked across the telegraph at Benton Barracks, in today’s Fairground Park. Once a struggling farmer and cordwood dealer in St. Louis County, Gen. Grant had become a Union hero.
2/17/2012
Album ID: 1415920
Photos by Library of Congress and Missouri History Museum
Look Back: William J. Lemp Sr., 1904
16 photos
for sale
On the morning of Feb. 13, 1904, brewery owner William J. Lemp Sr., killed himself with a gunshot to his right temple. He was the first of four in this family to commit suicide, three of them at the family mansion at 3322 South 13th Street (now Demenil Place), next to the Lemp brewery. Restored as the Lemp Mansion Restaurant & Inn, it is a favorite haunt of ghost enthusiasts.
2/13/2012
Album ID: 1414226
Photos by St. Louis Post-Dispatch staff and files
Look Back: Josephine Baker returns to St. Louis, 1952
21 photos
Josephine Baker's show on Feb. 3, 1952, in Kiel Auditorium was noteworthy mainly for occurring at all. Baker, who became a sensation for sultry dances wearing only a few feathers or a skirt of bananas, hadn’t performed in her native city since achieving worldwide fame in Paris in 1925. She had plenty of opportunities, but refused to play for racially segregated audiences.
2/3/2012
Album ID: 1408175
Photos by Larry Coyne
The storm of 1982
13 photos
for sale
The nearly 14 inches of snow that fell the night of January 30, 1982, was the third-heaviest snowfall ever recorded in St. Louis, beaten only by 20.4 inches on March 30-31, 1890, and 15.5 inches on Feb. 20, 1912. Hundreds of motorists abandoned vehicles on highways and streets. Buses and heavy trucks got stuck in traffic lanes.
