A historical odyssey in St. Charles
The road between them is just over 20 miles long, but if you travel from St. Louis to St. Charles, Mo., you’ll find the two cities are hundreds of years apart. one might expect that a town of 65,000 would be little more than a bedroom community to the modern, metropolitan St. Louis. But with a rich history and a restored downtown that brings the past into the present, St. Charles is a destination unto itself.
The Lewis and Clark Center is one of dozens of historical buildings preserved in downtown St. Charles. The city was a jumping-off point for the Lewis and Clark expedition, which camped there in 1804. Every year, re-enactors sail replicas of the keelboats the crew set out in (inset).
Historic Main Street
On the way into the center of St. Charles, you’ll pass by the shopping malls and housing developments typical in any middle-American suburb; once you reach downtown, however, the common clutter fades, and the heart of historic St. Charles emerges. “Our buildings go back to the late 1700s and early 1800s,” said Donna Costellia, assistant director of the Greater St. Charles Convention and Visitors Bureau.“Almost every building on this street has a ghost.”
After St. Charles was founded by French fur traders in the middle of the 18th century, the town quickly grew, thanks to its position on the Missouri River at the entrance to the western territories of the Louisiana Purchase. St. Charles became a popular stop for tens of thousands of pioneers and travelers headed west, leading to the creation of a downtown corridor along what is now Main Street.
Today, many of those buildings constructed by pioneer merchants are still standing and have been restored to give the town a historic feel. The 14-block area, now on the National Register of Historic Places, is the largest historic district in the state, and has been called the “Williamsburg of the West.”
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Courtesy of grouptravelleader.com
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