Skip to Content
Streetsblog USA home
Streetsblog USA home
Log In
St. Louis

Historical Photos of St. Louis Capture the Great Violence of “Urban Renewal”

output_CBcozg

Some of these images, dug up by Alex Ihnen at NextSTL, almost look like a war zone. Buildings exploding. Entire city blocks reduced to ghost towns. Families out on curbs, carrying all their belongings in suitcases.

It wasn't a war, though -- it was mid-century St. Louis. Perhaps no other American city more enthusiastically embraced the development strategy known as "urban renewal," a euphemism for wide-scale demolition to clear land for rebuilding on a blank slate. Today we look back on this era as a moral and social catastrophe of our own government's design.

Urban renewal's fiercest critic was Jane Jacobs, who was born 100 years ago this week. In recognition of Jacobs, Ihnen unearthed these images of the urban renewal era that she rebelled against, complete with scenes of powerful, confident men standing around neat little models. They are pretty remarkable.

Gateway-Mall-demo-1
st-louis-riverfront-before-clearance_8904995691_o-1
The same church, before and after.
It's the same church in both photos.
The same church, before and after.
st-louis-riverfront-before-clearance_8905611846_o-1

Of course, much of the destruction was to make way for a car-based city. Here are a couple of particularly heinous examples:

Before
Before.
Before
After
After. (For context, look for the church with the two spires in the top photo. In the bottom photo, you can see one of the spires.)
After
Before
Before
After
After

Urban renewal wreaked an enormous human toll. An estimated 1 million people in 993 neighborhoods across the U.S. were forced to relocate by urban renewal policies, most without any compensation. A disproportionate number of them were poor or black. Here is one family in St. Louis who were uprooted.

Pruitt-Igoe-9-768x604-1

Here are the "visionaries" behind Pruitt-Igoe, the gigantic housing project that later came to stand for everything wrong with the towers-in-a-park model. In Death and Life, Jacobs wrote about why the variety and fine-grained detail of city streets matter -- qualities that were swept away here to make room for monotonous buildings and sterile green space. The scene of planners toying with neat, orderly models, oblivious to the effect on actual people, captures the antithesis of what Jacobs stood for.

Pruitt-Igoe-2-1
Pruitt-Igoe-6-1024x576-1

As Ihnen notes, "people did fight back. Residents did oppose demolition. Activists did go to the courts and seek relief and the protection of their rights." But the legacy of urban renewal has been tough to overcome. St. Louis has lost 63 percent of its population since 1950.

These photos powerfully evoke what Jacobs fought against and remind us that it's the street-level, human details that make a city great, not mega-projects imposed on a map.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog USA

Highway Shakedown: How Local Road Users Are Subsidizing State Highway Investments

States across America are breaking the "user-pay" promise. A new report argues it's time to change that.

April 30, 2025

Wednesday’s Headlines Say Smaller is Better

Driving is not ideal, but if you need a car or truck, it would be nice to have a reasonably sized and affordable option.

April 30, 2025

Breaking: House Moves to Rescind $3.1B for Reconnecting Communities Divided by Highways

The House Transportation Committee wants to slash funding for one of America's most critical equity-focused grant programs — unless advocates speak out and get them to reverse course.

April 29, 2025

Op-Ed: What Amtrak Privatization Advocates Miss

Americans overwhelmingly want modern passenger trains operating on a system that connects cities efficiently, reliably, and faster than a car. This writer argues that privatizing Amtrak won't get us there.

April 29, 2025

This Parking Bill Could Help Solve the Housing Crisis

Washington state just passed a package of reforms that could juice housing production and get landlords to give non-drivers a break on their rent. But will other states go even further?

April 29, 2025
See all posts