ST. LOUIS - The Gateway City is preparing for its 250th anniversary three years from now.
Missouri History Museum president Robert Archibald, who is leading the planning group, said the working name for the celebration was "STL250," though it might change.
"Some say it sounds like a NASCAR race, but it would stick in people's minds," Archibald said.
There's some debate over the actual date of the founding. Some say it was Feb. 14, 1764. Others say it was Feb. 15.
Whichever day it was, Pierre Laclede and his stepson, Auguste Chouteau, founded St. Louis at the limestone bluff along the spot that is now the site of the grounds of the Gateway Arch.
Kansas City celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2000, an observance pegged to its incorporation in 1850.
St. Louis was incorporated as a town in 1809 and as a city in the early 1820s, according to the city's website.
The celebration in 2014, however, is to mark the start of its physical existence in 1764.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch noted that the city had celebrated its nativity only a few times, partly because circumstances intervened.
When St. Louis turned 100 in 1864, the city was divided by the Civil War.
On the day before the sesquicentennial in 1914, a 13-inch snowfall buried the area. Civic leaders had already decided to skip the actual birthday in favor of a May celebration. Some 7,500 residents staged a four-hour show that was attended by more than 400,000 people over four nights.
The bicentennial in 1964 included a banquet attended by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
The Kansas City Star contributed to this report. |
