Quote:
Originally Posted by suburbanite
I dig it. I'm guessing it developed at least somewhat independently from St. Louis given the pre-war housing stock in the surrounding area.
That's the kind of thing we're missing in Canada. Our cities weren't large enough to develop independent pre-war urban cores of that scale that were eventually swallowed up by the growing metro. New Westminster might be the closest thing we have.
|
it's complicated but another sort of lower mid-atlantic-y thing...theres st. louis city and st. louis county...st. louis city was carved out of st. louis county in the 1870s and a brand new st. louis county county seat established at clayton, with a new courthouse... instead of st. louis. st. louis city became its own city-county, like baltimore city and not entire unlike d.c. proper (which is even more complicated, though). pretty much off the bat, though, clayton was a suburb of st. louis, but grew into more of a powerful satellite city.
the clayton pre-war housing stock was largely built as "suburban" housing stock for st. louis city, though, as clayton didn't really become a center of gravity of its own until the 1960s when the first taller residential highrises and corporate buildings started going up...before that the downtown was just a small business district serving the county courts at the edge of the built area of metro st. louis, while the clayton housing stock and apt districts "served" st. louis proper.
Threaded Mode