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Look Back: Great Cyclone of 1896
Date: 5/27/2011 Album ID: 1255833
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by Tim O'Neil --- On May 27, 1896, a super tornado called the Great Cyclone killed 255 people as it churned like a turbine through St. Louis and East St. Louis. Its wide path, running roughly along today’s Interstate 44 and across the Mississippi River at the Arch, was a ruin of 7,500 buildings destroyed or damaged, sheared trees and trains tossed from tracks.
A collage of images from the super tornado that struck St. Louis and East St. Louis on May 27, 1896. The squat, churning tornado blasted through the area like a turbine, killing 137 in St. Louis and 118 across the Mississippi River. It was known locally as the Great Cyclone, and is the third deadliest single tornado in United States history. The scenes are of the destruction across south St. Louis, the riverfront and the East St. Louis rail yards, and the centerpiece is of the tornado churning across the Mississippi River. (Kurz & Allison/Library of Congress)
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The route of the Great Cyclone, a super tornado that killed 137 in St. Louis and 118 in East St. Louis on the late afternoon of May 27, 1896. The storm is the third-deadliest single tornado on record in the United States. (Post-Dispatch graphic produced in 1996)
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Almost 500 workers were building a factory and warehouse for Liggett & Myers Tobacco Co., when the tornado struck shortly after 5 p.m. Foremen shouted the alarm, but 13 workers died as scaffolding, girders and unfinished brick walls collapsed onto them. The Liggett & Myers plant, at 4300 Folsom Avenue, was repaired and completed. Some of it still stands. (Missouri History Museum)
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The wreckage at Ohio Avenue and LaSalle Street, just southwest of Jefferson and Chouteau avenues. Three blocks south of this scene, at 1418 Ohio, Lillie Bene hustled her two young sons into a hallway. Sylvester, 5, panicked and ran into the kitchen. Lillie ran after him, and both fell into the basement as the house collapsed. Sylvester was killed, Lillie injured. Oliver, 3, survived, protected by the family Irish setter. (Missouri History Museum)
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A wrecked home in the city. Note the lamp still standing inside a back room. (Missouri History Museum)
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The unroofed remains of Mt. Calvary Episcopal Church, southwest corner of Jefferson and Lafayette. The tornado destroyed six churches and heavily damaged 15 others. All that remained of St. John Nepomuk Church, at Lafayette and 12th (Tucker) Boulevard, was a jagged piece of its spire. (Missouri History Museum)
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The scene at Jefferson and Lafayette, looking east. At near right is the Union Club, which lost its top floor. (Missouri History Museum)
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The ruins at 1801 Park Avenue of the People's Railway Co., a cable-car trolley system on the south side. The tornado destroyed the car shed and powerhouse, exposing the wheels that pulled the cables through grooves beneath the pavement. (Missouri History Museum)
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The tornado bored through Lafayette Park, snapping almost every tree and destroyed pavilions and gazebos. In the background is the statue of U.S. Sen. Thomas Hart Benton. (Missouri History Museum)
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The buildings of City Hospital, at 14th and Lafayette avenues, were destroyed or heavily damaged, although only two patients were killed. Rescue workers at first thought the toll was much higher, but 50 patients who couldn't be found turned up later. They had fled before the tornado struck. (Missouri History Museum)
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Another view of the battered City Hospital complex. (B.W. Kilburn/Library of Congress)
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The jagged remains of St. John Nepomuk Church, Lafayette and 11th Street, which exploded as the tornado passed directly overhead. It also wrecked the school, across 11th from the church, that had been filled only two hours before with 800 children from the Bohemian community that ringed the church. Both church and school were rebuilt. (Strauss/St. John Nepomuk Church)
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The scene at the southwest corner of Seventh and Rutger streets (left foreground), the deadliest spot along the tornado's 10-mile path. Seventeen people were killed when a three-story tenement building collapsed. Frederick Mauchenheimer, who ran a tavern on the ground floor, was playing cards with two patrons when the storm hit. They were among the dead. Across the street, another six died. (Missouri History Museum)
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Another view at Seventh and Rutger. (B.W. Kilburn/Library of Congress)
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After grinding through the Soulard neighborhood, the tornado wrecked the Iron Mountain Railroad yards along the river. This scene is south of downtown. (Missouri History Museum)The tornado bored through Lafayette Park, snapping almost every tree and destroyed pavilions and gazebos. In the background is the statue of U.S. Sen. Thomas Hart Benton. (Missouri History Museum)
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The wreckage of the steamboat City of Vicksburg on the the St. Louis riverfront. Most of the 16 boats on the landing were wrecked, as were five of the six Wiggins Ferry Co. boats that ran across the river from East St. Louis to St. Louis. There was no trace of 20 families who lived on shanty boats tied to the riverfront. (Missouri History Museum)
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The tornado ripped away part of the street level of the Eads Bridge at the East. St. Louis riverbank. In the foreground is a wrecked ferry. (Strauss/National Weather Service)
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The tornado knocked the Alton & Southern Railroad's train Nov. 7 from the approach to the Eads Bridge on the East St. Louis side. Caught on the bridge heading eastbound as the tornado approached, engineer William Swoncutt opened his throttle to get away, but the storm derailed part of his train. Everyone on board survived, but teamster Adolph Guttman was blown into the river from his wagon on the bridge and drowned. (Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville)
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Remains of part of the East St. Louis railyards. The switching yards and freight stations there were among the nation's busiest, and they were wrecked by the Great Cyclone. Among the dead were 15 of the 35 workers at the St. Louis, Vandalia & Terre Haute Railroad depot which was blown apart. Other railroad buildings and workers' hotels in the area between the riverfront and downtown East St. Louis were obliterated, as shown here. (Missouri History Museum)
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Another view of the debris in East St. Louis. (B.W. Kilburn/Library of Congress)
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