Historic Sites in St. Louis: An Olympic Stadium Still in Use, an Unmarked Hero's Grave
Revised November 5, 2026
What is the oldest part of St. Louis?
The downtown riverfront, where founders Pierre Laclede and Auguste Chouteau set aside land for the church in 1764. The building on that ground today is the Old Cathedral at 209 Walnut Street, the fourth church on the site. Construction began in 1831, it was dedicated in 1834, and it still holds Mass a short walk from the river.
Keep reading ↓The whistle goes, the WashU Bears break the huddle, and hardly anyone in the stands is thinking about who ran on this grass first. Francis Olympic Field, on Washington University’s campus, was the main venue of the 1904 Olympic Games. WashU calls it the oldest modern Olympic stadium still in active use. Football, soccer, cross-country and track teams still play their home games there.
Here is the part worth repeating at dinner. The man the field is named for, fair president David Rowland Francis, is buried across town at Bellefontaine Cemetery, under a dark bronze figure widely known as The Perpetual Mourner. The stadium still roars. The man it honors rests in a hush of old oaks. Our guide to the St. Louis World’s Fair covers the rest of what the fair left behind.
That is how St. Louis history works. The famous pieces get the postcards. The stranger, more human stories sit where the lists never send you: a pioneer church in Florissant, two cemeteries on West Florissant Avenue, an unmarked grave off Lucas and Hunt Road, and a stone staircase down a bluff near where Lewis and Clark made their first camp. Several of them cost nothing to walk into.
This one is for the St. Louisan who has done the big museums and wants what’s underneath.
What is the oldest part of St. Louis?
The downtown riverfront, where founders Pierre Laclede and Auguste Chouteau set aside land for the church in 1764. The building on that ground today is the Old Cathedral at 209 Walnut Street, the fourth church on the site. Construction began in 1831, it was dedicated in 1834, and it still holds Mass a short walk from the river.
The oldest places you can still walk into
Push the heavy door of a frontier church and the air changes: cool, still, a little dusty. You get that at Old St. Ferdinand Shrine, 1 Rue St. Francois in Florissant, a parish established in 1789. Tours walk you in the footsteps of St. Philippine Duchesne. Tours are free, and donations are appreciated; call 314-837-2110 to schedule one. Make a day of it with our Florissant city guide.
On the south side, the Thomas Sappington House at 1015 S. Sappington Road is red brick laid by hand in 1808, a Federal-style house that still stands in Sappington Park. Hours are limited, so call 314-822-8171 to reserve before you drive out.
If your own house has you wondering, here’s how to find the history of your St. Louis house.
Where are famous people buried in St. Louis?
Mostly in two big cemeteries on West Florissant Avenue, and the quiet out there is the kind you can hear: gravel under your shoes, crows in the oaks, traffic gone faint behind the stone walls.
Bellefontaine Cemetery, 4947 W. Florissant Ave., has served St. Louis since 1849, when it became the first rural cemetery west of the Mississippi River, and it now covers 314 acres. The obelisk and bust of explorer William Clark is its most visited memorial. William S. Burroughs lies beside the obelisk of his wealthy inventor father, and fans still leave pens and notes on the writer’s stone. The Perpetual Mourner stands over the Francis family plot, and the Wainwright Tomb by Louis Sullivan and Dankmar Adler is worth the walk for its architecture alone.
The strangest stop runs on the sun. At solar noon on the spring and fall equinoxes, the Severson Monument works as a sundial and throws a cross of light on the ground. The cemetery invites the public to watch at solar noon on the solstices and equinoxes, so check its event calendar before you go.
Also on West Florissant Avenue, Calvary Cemetery spreads across 470 acres. It started in 1853, when Archbishop Peter Richard Kendrick bought 323 acres from Senator Henry Clay. Walk its lanes on a gray morning and the hush feels older than any of the stones. Dred Scott, Kate Chopin, Tennessee Williams and Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman are buried here. These are working cemeteries, so go in daylight and give funerals a wide berth.
Where are the Underground Railroad sites in St. Louis?
Stand on the riverbank north of the Merchants Bridge and feel how wide and fast the Mississippi runs here. Mary and her husband, John Berry Meachum, devoted their lives to educating and freeing enslaved people, and after John died in 1854 she continued their work. On May 21, 1855, she tried to help a small group of enslaved people cross it to Illinois from this spot, now the Mary Meachum Freedom Crossing. Slave owners and police caught at least five of them, and Mary was charged in criminal court. In 2001, the National Park Service recognized the site as part of the Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.
Then the grave almost nobody visits. Archer Alexander died in 1880 and was buried at St. Peter’s U.C.C. Cemetery, 2101 Lucas and Hunt Road, without any stone to mark the spot. You have probably seen his likeness: the rising freedman with broken shackles on the Emancipation Memorial in Washington, D.C., was modeled after him. His burial site is now listed on the Network to Freedom, and a new memorial designed by St. Louis sculptor Abraham Mohler is planned for the cemetery.
Dred and Harriet Scott filed for their freedom downtown, and the first two trials of their case were held at the Old Courthouse in St. Louis. For a day trip with more local history, see our guide to things to do in Kirkwood.
Two cemeteries before lunch? Where St. Louis locals actually eat
What Civil War sites can you visit in St. Louis?
The best cluster sits in south St. Louis County, a short drive apart.
Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site, 7400 Grant Road, is White Haven, the Dent family home where Grant first met Julia. From 1854 to 1859 the Dents, the Grants and an enslaved African American workforce lived on the property. Entry is free, and the visitor center is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. except Thanksgiving, December 25 and January 1. One tip straight from the Park Service: GPS often sends drivers to the back gate or to Grant’s Farm, which is not part of the park, so use the directions on the park’s own site.
Missouri Civil War Museum, 222 Worth Road, is a short drive away. It’s open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with last tickets at 3 p.m.
Are there free historic sites in St. Louis?
Yes. These cost nothing to walk into:
- Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site
- Old St. Ferdinand Shrine tours (donations appreciated)
- The Mary Meachum Freedom Crossing on the riverfront
- Fort Belle Fontaine Park and its stone staircase
The one almost nobody has heard of is Fort Belle Fontaine, about 20 miles north of St. Louis. Built in 1805, it was the first U.S. military installation west of the Mississippi River. Lewis and Clark’s expedition first camped on an island opposite Coldwater Creek on May 14, 1804, and on September 22, 1806, on the way home, they reached the new fort. In 1936 the WPA built a grand limestone staircase down the bluff. Walk it slowly: worn stone steps, the river glinting through the trees. Today it’s a 305-acre county park. If ruins are more your speed, we keep a separate list of abandoned places in St. Louis you can legally see.
Pair a cemetery morning or a Florissant church tour with lunch nearby. St Louis Near Me Directory has where-to-eat guides for every town and neighborhood, so the walk ends at a table instead of a drive-through.
If you run the cafe, the shop or the tour near any stop on this list, the people walking out of these gates are hungry and deciding where to go next. Put your business where they look and get more customers from the history crowd: list your business with us.
Towns near St. Louis that hold its history
Ste. Genevieve, established by 1750, was the first permanent European settlement in Missouri, older than St. Louis itself. Our guide to things to do in Ste. Genevieve sorts out which houses earn a ticket.
The next county over has its own old river town and a long main street to wander; our list of free things to do there shows where to start.
Kimmswick keeps a rare old bridge. The Windsor Harbor Road bridge there was built in 1874, now spans Rock Creek, and is the oldest known wrought iron span in Missouri. Here’s more on Kimmswick’s 1874 iron bridge.
For more places like these, our guide to the small towns outside St. Louis worth a day goes town by town.
For a newer landmark downtown, read our story on St. Louis City Hall. For a neighborhood the city lost, read the story of Mill Creek Valley and where to remember it today.
Frequently asked questions
Are there any buildings left from the St. Louis World's Fair?
A few, and one of them is full of birds. The Smithsonian Institution commissioned the Flight Cage for the 1904 World’s Fair and meant to move it to the National Zoo afterward; it stayed, and today you can walk through it at the Saint Louis Zoo. Francis Olympic Field, the main venue of the 1904 Olympics, still hosts WashU games.
What is the oldest neighborhood in St. Louis?
Carondelet was founded in 1767 under the name Louisbourg, commonly called Vide Poche, and the City of St. Louis annexed it in 1870. Our Carondelet neighborhood guide covers what to see.
Is there a Civil War Museum in St. Louis?
Yes. The Missouri Civil War Museum is at 222 Worth Road in south St. Louis County. It’s open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; call 314-845-1861 for current ticket prices.
What is the best Civil War site to visit?
For a first trip, start at Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site, 7400 Grant Road. It’s free, the visitor center is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. except three holidays, and it tells the story of the Dents, the Grants and the enslaved people who lived at White Haven. Then drive to the Missouri Civil War Museum nearby.
What is the history of St. Louis, Missouri?
St. Louis began in 1764, when founders Pierre Laclede and Auguste Chouteau laid out a village on the Mississippi and set aside the land where the Old Cathedral stands today. The city went on to host the 1904 World’s Fair and Olympic Games.
How many people attended the 1904 World's fair in St. Louis?
An estimated 20 million people had visited by the time the fair closed on December 1, 1904, according to the Missouri Historical Society. Organizers put up nearly 1,500 buildings across 1,270 acres of a newly redesigned Forest Park, and the opening day crowd alone was 200,000.
Where did Route 66 go through St. Louis?
The route shifted over the years, and its best-known river crossing is the one you can still walk. Route 66 was rerouted over the Chain of Rocks Bridge in 1936. Halfway across, the bridge bends, and the Park Service says the rock under the river is part of the reason. A new bridge carrying the interstate opened upstream in 1967, and the old one closed in 1968. In the 1970s, Army demolition teams considered blowing it up just for practice. It reopened to the public as part of the Route 66 Bikeway in 1999.
What are some attractions along Route 66 in St. Louis?
Start at the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge, now part of the Route 66 Bikeway. Then head west to the Route 66 State Park visitor center in Eureka, the former Bridgehead Inn, a 1935 roadhouse on the original road.
Which neighborhood in St. Louis is historically Black?
The Ville, in north St. Louis. Sumner High School opened in 1875 downtown, became the first high school west of the Mississippi River to graduate African American students, and moved to 4248 Cottage Ave. in the Ville in 1910. The neighborhood had Black colleges, churches, Black-owned businesses and health care. Our guide to the Ville has more.
Written by a dedicated team of St. Louis locals who live, work, and play right here in the St. Louis metro. Founder Lane Forman and team are committed to building the region’s most trusted directory by verifying listings and connecting local businesses with loyal customers across Missouri and Illinois.