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Look Back: 1954 St. Louis Heat Wave
Date: 7/10/2009 Album ID: 794396
Photos by Post-Dispatch files
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The summer of 1954 saw temperatures climb to 115 degrees in St. Louis. A week-long heat wave beginning July 14 took 104 lives.
FILE JULY 12, 1954- Thousands fled sweltering homes to try to sleep in parks. Mr. and Mrs. Pleasant Earls and daughters, Shirley, 11 and Linda, 6, rest in Forest Park on July 12, 1954, when the temperature didnŐt fall below 100 until 9 p.m. They were from Hawk Avenue, just east of the park. Floyd Bowser/Post-Dispatch
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July 14,1954--A massive buckling of College Avenue and Emily Street, caused by heat, draws the sweating curious on July 14. Post-Dispatch photo
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1954--Sealtest milkman Kenneth Hogan gives away chunks of cold, slippery ice to grateful children near the Clinton- Peabody public housing just south of downtown during the July 1954 heat wave. The old delivery trucks kept milk and other dairy products cold with ice, and drivers always made themselves popular among kids with gifts that they'd chop from the big ice blocks. Renyold Ferguson/Post-Dispatch
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July 14,1954-- Sallie Bacon (left) and Christine Meyer, employees of the main library downtown, cool their feet in the fountain on the shady side of the library, at 1301 Olive Street, on July 14, 1954. Relief was relative -- the high that afternoon was 115 degrees. Post-Dispatch photo
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July 13,1954--Children at the John J. Cochran public housing north of downtown happily jostle for relief from the spray of a fire hose on July 13, 1954. It did beat the heat, as long as the water was on. Post-Dispatch photo
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1954: Here's an idea: beat The Muny heat by pouring a thin film of water over the concrete slabs under the seats. This turns out not to work as well as everyone had hoped, as the combination of water and St. Louis summers can make things steamy. Still, while the water runs the performers enjoyed it. Lunch hour brings a break from the heat to singers Barbara Craven (top), Sara Smith (seated below Craven), Kaye Geith (left, second row), Harlene Pomroy (right, second row) and Carolyn Hill (first row). Post-Dispatch photo
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