Ted Drewes' Frozen Custard on Chippewa has kept summertime cold along Route 66 since the early 1940s. |
County: NoneWelcome to Saint Louis: Gateway to the West. In the early days of the United States this Missouri city was the preferred stop for almost all headed westward to settle the lands of the Louisiana Purchase and beyond, and this attraction coupled with its convienent placement along the Mississippi River caused scores of railroad lines to pass through "Mound City" and by the beginning of the twentieth century the city was the fourth largest in the United States, drawing the 1904 World's Fair and stealing the Third Olympiad away from Chicago that same year. Logically Route 66 would have to pass through such a community.
When the road actually did pass through the city - rather than skirting the north and west edges of town on the Bypass - it was a heck of a treat. Winding through southtown streets, travelers were given numerous treats to view long before the Gateway Arch was erected as Route 66 cruised through numerous middle class neighborhoods, their homes stacked up one after another in an effort to jam as many residences into the city as possible. A slight detour north onto Hampton even afforded you access to The Hill, home to a zillion delicious Italian restaurants. Businesses of course cropped up along the busy stretch, serving not only Mother Road travelers but also the hundreds of thousands of city residents; the most famous of these establishments was certainly Ted Drewes' Frozen Custard, a St. Louis institution that serves up creamy treats to this day and is one of the most well-known landmarks anywhere on Route 66. Sleepy heads could duck into the art deco Coral Court motel right on the west edge of the city, though the inclusion of a private garage with every room implied that families weren't quite the only audience this business catered to.
Route 66 always seemed to be more of a pain for the city to deal with, one of a number of US highways (40, 50, 61, 66, 67) that shuttled traffic onto the already busy St. Louis streets, and the road was shuffled around from place-to-place over the years. All told, the city route in its fifty-one years covered four bridges, five different alignments and at least twenty-one different streets - and that's a conservative estimate. Whew.
The alignment now considered the "primary" city route was the one first signed in 1933 that followed Gravois to Chippewa/Watson which was later replaced with the Missouri 366 moniker after I-44 took over the heavy traffic duties in the corridor. MODOT also signs the Manchester Road alignment, but since unlike Illinois they do not provide consistant directional signs - only reassurance - getting around St. Louis can be quite confusing. Just don't cop out and take the Bypass. Please.
Where. To. Begin.
Missouri and the City of Saint Louis could never ever make up their minds where they wanted the Mother Road to go, and if one attempts to travel along each of the route's varying pathways through Mound City you'll get the sampler's platter view of the south half of the city.
For the brave who wish to know every St. Louis alignment, Stefan Joppich has an excellent map at his Route 66 Web & Atlas site. Jim Ross also has a map in the Fall 1996 Route 66 Magazine (which can be ordered as a back issue.)
For those who want a very basic outline of the city routes, here you go: in 1926 the original alignment came over the McKinley Bridge in Venice and traveled roughly Salisbury -> Natural Bridge -> Grand or Vandeventer -> Delmar -> Sara -> Olive - Boyle -> Clayton -> McCausland -> Manchester. There's probably a street missing in there because, well, yeah. Around '29 the road started using the Macarthur Bridge to the south and followed Choteau Avenue to Boyle and then resumed its old course. Finally in 1933 the road found Gravois -> Chippewa, which became the City standard. (Chippewa becomes Watson Road at the Saint Louis city limit.)
But...there's more. There was also a City alignment in the late 30's that came over the Chain of Rocks Bridge and followed Riverview Drive south to Broadway and zig-zagged its way south to Gravois. Traveling this alignment today is not super safe but not necessarily dangerous either, and some of the blighted north city neighborhoods can be quite interesting to view (if for unfortunate reasons).
Summary: take Gravois to Chippewa. Eat at Ted Drewes. See, the Saint Louis City alignments can be quite simple!
