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Look Back: American Legion, 1919
Date: 5/4/2012 Album ID: 1464058
Photos by Post-Dispatch files and the Missouri History Museum
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by Tim O'Neil --- The veterans of World War I who formed the American Legion first met on American soil in a theater downtown on May 8, 1919. The killing had ended six months before. They adopted a national constitution, promoted employment for veterans and cheered Col. Theodore Roosevelt Jr., a war hero and son of the late former president.
St. Louis' own 138th Infantry Regiment returns from World War I with a parade through the city on May 9, 1919. The formation is marching south on 12th Street (now Tucker Boulevard) at Olive Street. Just out of view to the left was the Shubert-Jefferson Theater in the Union Electric Co. building, where organizers of the American Legion were holding their first meeting in American on the same day. The city had erected the pillars to make 12th Street a hall of honor for veterans returning from the Great War. (Post-Dispatch)
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Another view of the 138th Infantry Regiment's homecoming parade on May 9, 1919, looking north on today's Tucker Boulevard. (Missouri History Museum)
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Delegates to the American Legion caucus in St. Louis May 8-10, 1919, at the Shubert-Jefferson Theater, on 12th Street (Tucker Boulevard) near Olive Street. Legion organizers fist gathered in Paris two months before and decided to reconvene in St. Louis. The 1,079 delegates met in the theater, on the main floor of the Union Electric Co. building. (American Legion National Headquarters)
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Legion caucus leaders on the stage of the Shubert-Jefferson. Delegates adopted a constitution and rules for state associations and local posts. It adopted a preamble for God and country. They also voted not to meet in Chicago as long as William Thompson was mayor. Thompson had wanted America to remain neutral in the war. The Legion held its first convention in November 1919 in Minneapolis. (American Legion National Headquarters)
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Capt. Alexander Rives Skinker of St. Louis, who fought for the 138th regiment and was killed in action on Sept. 26, 1918, leading an attack upon a German machine-gun emplacement in France. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. (Missouri History Museum)
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Members of the American Legion in St. Louis show off their replica of a French train in September 1933. It was named the 40 and 8 because of the French railroad boxcars they rode to the front. The boxcars could hold 40 soldiers or eight horses. (Post-Dispatch)
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American Legion delegates and hangers-on play craps on the sidewalk at 12th (Tucker) Boulevard and Locust Street on Sept. 22, 1935, during the legion's national convention underway here. The game is near the site of the Legion's organizing caucus, held here May 8-10, 1919. The Legion returned to St. Louis for national conventions in 1953 and 2003. (Post-Dispatch)
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The Union Electric Co. headquarters at 12th (Tucker) Boulevard in 1940. The American Legion's organizing caucus was held on its first floor in the Shubert-Jefferson Theater, which had closed before this photograph was taken. Union Electric moved its headquarters to Gratiot Street near Chouteau Avenue in 1967. The building was built in 1912 and demolished in 1976. (Post-Dispatch)
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A monument to the founding of the American Legion was unveiled in September 1942 at 14th and Pine streets. (Post-Dispatch)
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More than 1,600 new members of the American Legion was sworn in on May 8, 1944, in Kiel Auditorium downtown during a ceremony commemorating the 25th anniversary of the legion's organizing caucus in St. Louis in 1919. (Post-Dispatch)
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Soldiers of the 138th Infantry Regiment, Missouri National Guard, assemble outside their armory at 3676 Market Street on Aug. 15, 1948, to prepare for training camp. The 138th, now based in Kansas City, has a St. Louis unit. The armory, near Vandeventer Avenue and U.S. Highway 40, no longer is in use. (Post-Dispatch)
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Veterans of the 138th Infantry action in France during World War I hold a reunion in the York Hotel, 8 South Sixth Street, on Nov. 11, 1949, to commemorate Armistice Day. The shooting ended on the 11th hour of that date in 1918. At right front is Paul Sheridan of Webster Groves, unit president. Standing beside him is president-elect Joseph P. Flood of Maplewood. (Post-Dispatch)
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L. Eldon James, national commander of the American Legion, places a wreath on May 15, 1966, at the site of the legion's first meeting in America. The ceremony was held at a plaque commemorating that event which was on the front of the Union Electric Co. headquarters, on 12th (Tucker) Boulevard at Olive Street. with him is Dr. Rudolph Zern, chairman of the founders' day ceremony. One year later, UE moved its headquarters. The building was demolished in 1976. (Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch)
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Another view of the 138th Infantry Regiment's homecoming parade on May 9, 1919, looking north on today's Tucker Boulevard. (Missouri History Museum)
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