Downtown St. Louis Parks
The City of St. Louis has carved green space from the concrete and bricks that make up the downtown business district. From the Mississippi River on the east to 21th Street on the
west, parks create an oasis in the middle of the urban environment.
When the Gateway Arch was built in 1965, it provided the eastern link for a plan to create a green corridor along Market Street. The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (Gateway Arch) and its grounds are owned and maintained by the National Service.
The City of St. Louis built Kiener Plaza in 1962, creating the park with the most beautiful and historic view in the city. Sitting in the heart of downtown St. Louis, Kiener
Plaza and the Morton D. May Amphitheater command a dramatic view of the Old Court House
and the Gateway Arch. The park’s centerpiece is a pool and fountain containing a statue known as “The Runner” by sculptor William Zorach.
The parks between Market and Chestnut streets from 7th to 11th streets are known collectively as "The Gateway Mall," although several have their own names and identities.
In 1983, the Pride of St. Louis Redevelopment Corporation demolished the Title Guaranty Building on Seventh and Chestnut to construct the Gateway Mall complex. Pride eventually tore down the Buder and International buildings also on Seventh and Chestnut. It built One Gateway Mall on half of the block at 7th and Market. The remaining land on that block and running to 10th street are the Gateway Mall parks.
The block between 10th and 11 streets is Serra Sculpture Park, named for Richard Serra who created the large sculpture known as "Twain" on the block.
The Civil Court building occupies the block from 11th to Tucker streets but the parks resume on the other side of Tucker and run non-stop to 21th Street.
The central corridor of St. Louis, from Tucker Boulevard (formerly Twelfth Street) on the east to Grand Boulevard on the west, was densely populated at the turn of the twentieth century. The area was a mixture of mansions and tenements, shops of all kinds, businesses, factories, dance halls, taverns, clubs, restaurants, churches, schools and other institutions.
Civic Improvement League, organized in 1901, called for razing the area to create a central parkway. The 1920s saw the clearing out of a portion of the area with the creation of the Soldiers' Memorial and Plaza, Kiel Auditorium and the widening of Market Street.
Development of the Aloe Plaza was made possible by an $87 million bond issue in 1923. The funds were used for widening Olive Street and the clearance and development of land for several plazas in the area bounded by Market, Chestnut, 12th and 20th Streets.
The Land Clearance for Redevelopment Authority in 1953 bought and cleared the area between Chestnut and Olive and developers built the Plaza Square apartments. Also in 1953, a $1.5 million bond issue realized a 40-year-old city beautification dream---the completion of a continuous green-belt mall from Aloe Plaza to Soldiers' Memorial at 13th Street.
The parks on the west side of Tucker Boulevard are collectively known as the "Memorial Parks," although many have been renamed. The park between Tucker Blvd. and 13th Street is "Poelker Park," named in 1986 for John Poelker, who served as mayor from 1973-77. To the north is a one-block park called "Kaufmann Park," named for former Mayor Aloys P. Kaufmann, the last Republican mayor of the city, who served from 1943-47.
The World War II Memorial stands in the park between Market and Chestnut and 13th and 14th streets. Built by the St. Louis War Memorial Committee, it was dedicated May 30, 1948.
Eternal Flame Park, named by the Board of Aldermen in 2003, gets its name from the flame on the American Legion Founding Commemorative Monument. It was built on the park land between Olive and Pine and 13th and 14th streets by the Monument Builders of America after a convention in St. Louis in 1942.
Memorial Plaza continues from Market to Chestnut and from 14th to 18th streets. Aloe Plaza contains the historic fountain, named "The Meeting of the Waters, which depicts the union of the Missouri and the Mississippi Rivers.
Aloe Plaza West is the continuation of the parks to its intersection with highway ramps at 21st Street.
 Official Web Site of the City of St. Louis
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