Ray Suarez’s 1999 book, The Old Neighborhood: What We Lost in the Great Suburban Migration, 1966-1999, identifies a persistent pattern in city after American city: the heyday of the old urban neighborhood, the decline and loss of that neighborhood, and the subsequent ghetto that took its place. Suarez describes the tight-knit urban communities that many […]
As I reported last week, Wagner Electric – once a mainstay of Wellston residents’ employment – closed its doors in 1981. What happened next is one of the most tragic stories in Wellston history. “When Wagner Electric abandoned Wellston,” writes U.M.-St. Louis historian Andrew Hurley in his outstanding 1997 Environmental History article, “Fiasco at Wagner […]
Continue reading about Wagner Electric and Brownfield Redevelopment
In 1891, Herbert Wagner and Ferdinand Schwedtman started Wagner Electric, a small motors company. Located in downtown St. Louis, the small company quickly grew and, according to historian Andrew Hurley, “became one of St. Louis’s most prominent manufacturers.” In his article, “Fiasco at Wagner Electric: Environmental Justice and Urban Geography of St. Louis,” Hurley goes […]
This week, I’ve asked an old friend to contribute the first guest blog post to The Wellston Loop. Nan Sweet has taught English – poetry, Romanticism, and women’s writing – at U.M.-St. Louis since 1981. She publishes widely on the newly recovered woman Romantic poet Felicia Hemans. Her poetry chapbooks, Mix of Securities and Rotogravure, embrace […]
Continue reading about “John Frederick’s Daughters”: Pearl, Amanda, Della
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