Cochran Gardens was a public housing complex on the near north side of downtown St. Louis, Missouri. Construction was completed in 1953.[1] The complex was occupied until 2006.[citation needed] It was famous for its residents' innovative form of tenant-led management. In 1976, Cochran Gardens became one of the first U.S. housing projects to have tenant management.
Built by the same firm, Leinweber, Yamasaki & Hellmuth,[2][3] as the infamous Pruitt–Igoe complex, Cochran Gardens was more successful than its ill-fated sister project. In the mid 1970s, Bertha Gilkey and a group of friends successfully led a community driven rehabilitation effort; in 1976 she won a property management contract from the city.[4] Independent management improved Cochran Gardens and created small business jobs in the neighborhood.[5] President George H. W. Bush visited the site in 1991, commending tenant management and Bertha Gilkey. However, in 1998 city authorities took over Cochran Gardens, citing tax mismanagement by the tenant association. The buildings rapidly deteriorated. By 1999 vacancy rate increased from under 10% to one-third.
Another angle of the demolition in progress
Cochran Gardens, which survived into the 21st century, was demolished in 2008.[6]
Illinois is a state in the Midwestern United States. The Great Lakes are to its northeast and the Mississippi River to its west. Its largest metropolitan areas are Chicago and the Metro East region of Greater St. Louis. Other metropolitan areas include Peoria and Rockford, as well as Springfield, its capital, and Champaign-Urbana, home to the main campus of the state's flagship university. Of the fifty U.S. states, Illinois has the fifth-largest gross domestic product (GDP), the sixth-largest population, and the 25th-largest land area.
St. Louis is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It is located near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while its bi-state metropolitan area, which extends into Illinois, had an estimated population of over 2.8 million. It is the largest metropolitan area in Missouri and the second largest in Illinois.
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It was officially named the North Central Region by the U.S. Census Bureau until 1984. It is between the Northeastern United States and the Western United States, with Canada to the north and the Southern United States to the south.
The Wendell O. Pruitt Homes and William Igoe Apartments, known together as Pruitt–Igoe, were joint urban housing projects first occupied in 1954 in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. At the time of opening, the complex, which consisted of 33 eleven-story high rises designed in the modernist architectural style by Minoru Yamasaki, was one of the largest public housing developments in the country. It was constructed with federal funds on the site of a former slum as part of the city's urban renewal program. It almost exclusively accommodated African Americans despite being legally integrated.
Southern Illinois, also known as Little Egypt, is a region of the U.S. state of Illinois comprising the southern third of the state, principally along and south of Interstate 64. Part of downstate Illinois, it is bordered by the two most voluminous rivers in the United States: the Mississippi below its connecting Missouri River to the west and the Ohio River to the east and south, with the Wabash as a tributary.
The year 1954 in architecture involved some significant events.
The Eads Bridge is a combined road and railway bridge over the Mississippi River connecting the cities of St. Louis, Missouri and East St. Louis, Illinois. It is located on the St. Louis riverfront between Laclede's Landing, to the north, and the grounds of the Gateway Arch, to the south. The bridge is named for its designer and builder, James Buchanan Eads. Work on the bridge began in 1867, and it was completed in 1874. The Eads Bridge was the first bridge across the Mississippi south of the Missouri River. Earlier bridges were located north of the Missouri, where the Mississippi is smaller. None of the earlier bridges survive, which means that the Eads Bridge is also the oldest bridge on the river.
The Alton Railroad was the final name of a railroad linking Chicago to Alton, Illinois; St. Louis, Missouri; and Kansas City, Missouri. Its predecessor, the Chicago and Alton Railroad, was purchased by the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in 1931 and was controlled until 1942 when the Alton was released to the courts. On May 31, 1947, the Alton Railroad was merged into the Gulf, Mobile and Ohio Railroad. Jacob Bunn had been one of the founding reorganizers of the Chicago & Alton Railroad Company during the 1860s.
The history of St. Louis began with the settlement of the area by Native American mound builders who lived as part of the Mississippian culture from the 9th century to the 15th century, followed by other migrating tribal groups. Starting in the late 17th century, French explorers arrived. Spain took over in 1763 and a trading company led by Pierre Laclede and Auguste Chouteau established the settlement of St. Louis in February 1764. It attracted French settlers leaving Illinois after their defeat in the Seven Years' War. The city grew in population due to its location as a trading post on the Mississippi River, as the western fur trade was lucrative. The city played a small role in the American Revolutionary War and became part of the U.S. through the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
Leon Hermant (1866–1936) was an American sculptor best known for his architectural sculpture.
James "Jim" R. Martin is an American writer, independent producer, director, and documentary filmmaker. He is best known for his PBS feature-length documentary Wrapped In Steel, broadcast nationally in 1984–85, and PBS documentary Fired-Up Public Housing is my Home broadcast nationally in 1988–89. Both Wrapped In Steel and Fired-Up were nominated for Emmy. Fired-Up won an Emmy for Best Independent Network Documentary, Chicago. Author, Create Documentary Films, Videos, And Multimedia: a comprehensive guide to using documentary storytelling techniques for film, video, Internet and digital media projects. ISBN 978-0-9827023-0-7, Actuality Interviewing and Listening 2017 ISBN 978-0-9827023-6-9, Documentary Directing and Storytelling 2018 ISBN 978-1-7216794-6-1, Listen Learn Share 2018 ISBN 978-0-9827023-8-3.
The architecture of St. Louis exhibits a variety of commercial, residential, and monumental architecture. St. Louis, Missouri is known for the Gateway Arch, the tallest monument constructed in the United States. Architectural influences reflected in the area include French Colonial, German, early American, European influenced, French Second Empire, Victorian, and modern architectural styles.
Bertha Gilkey was an African-American activist of tenant management of public housing properties. She set up the first tenant management association in St. Louis, Missouri, which successfully rehabilitated the once decrepit Cochran Gardens public housing project, and managed it for more than 20 years.
First Church of Christ, Scientist, is an historic Christian Science church edifice located at 475 North Kingshighway Boulevard, corner of Westminster Place, in St. Louis, Missouri. Built in 1903–1904, it was designed as a stone building in the Classical Revival style of architecture by Edward Gordon Garden of Mauran, Russell & Garden and was the first institutional commission of that fledgling firm. Cost concerns, though, resulted in it being built of brick. It is a contributing property in the Holy Corners Historic District which was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 29, 1975.
Eugene B. Redmond is an American poet, and academic. His poetry is closely connected to the Black Arts Movement and the city of East St. Louis, Illinois.
The history of St. Louis, Missouri, from 1905 to 1980 saw declines in population and economic basis, particularly after World War II. Although St. Louis made civic improvements in the 1920s and enacted pollution controls in the 1930s, suburban growth accelerated and the city population fell dramatically from the 1950s to the 1980s. Like many urban areas, St. Louis experienced high unemployment during the Great Depression, then expanded its industrial base during World War II. The city became home to Gateway Arch National Park during the 1930s, and during the 1960s the Gateway Arch was built on the memorial grounds. St. Louis City and St. Louis County made multiple attempts at consolidation during the period, but none were particularly successful. Despite attempts at urban renewal that included public housing projects such as the Pruitt-Igoe complex, the city continued to lose population to county cities.
The Pruitt-Igoe Myth is a 2011 documentary film detailing the history of the Pruitt–Igoe public housing complex in St. Louis, Missouri, and the eventual decision to raze the entire complex in 1976.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of St. Louis, Missouri, United States.
The Manhattan Club, also called Club Manhattan, was a nightclub located at 1312 Broadway in East St. Louis, Illinois. The club has a prominent place in Greater St. Louis music history. It is best known for being the club where teenaged Tina Turner met her future husband, bandleader Ike Turner. The building was destroyed by fire in 2010.
The Congress of Socialists of the United States, better known as the 1881 Chicago Social Revolutionary Congress, was a meeting of anarchists and socialists in Chicago in October 1881 to organize the new social revolutionary groups splintered from the American Socialistic Labor Party.
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