Data and Population:
In 1870 St. Louis had a population of 351,189 people out of the 1,721,295 people in Missouri. More people were going to school during this decade as well, going up to 24,347 and 4,362 students respectively. A black high school was opened, which added to the expansion of students. Om 1848 Friedrich Hecker fled Germany and found himself in St. Louis. He became an avide abolishonist and a colonel for the Union Army. In 1880 a statue of him was built in Benton Park. About 46 percent of the public school population was German during this time. During the 1870's there was a large need for factory workers and Eastern Europe answered. They lived in tenements and worked long hours in sweat shops and factories. The great majority of the immigrants were German and Czech.
Landscape:
In 1870 St. Louis, Missouri began entering the Progressive Era, the time when machinery began to boom in North America. This changed the outlook for businesses everywhere. During the 1870's St. Louis became the nation's fourth largest city, behind Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York. During this time the St. Louis park system began to expand with the additions of Forest Park and Tower Grove Park. As well, United States' very first public kindergarten, under the teaching of Susan Blow, was added. The library system that was being thought about before the Civil War was now established. The school library separated and became it's own entity known as St. Louis Public Library during this Era. On the other side of education, most of the colored schools were operating illegally, but in 1875 the local high school opened up a summer school for blacks and it became the first black high school. During the 1870's St. Louis became well known for their whiskey distilleries and worked with other local distilleries to defraud the government of taxes, they all got busted later of course. In May of 1874, the insurance companies in St. Louis created a new way to reduce the impact of fires in the city called the Underwriters Salvage Corps. During the time immediately following the war, Fourth Street became home to the City's principal hotels,office buildings, banks and retail stores. There was land being plotted and soiled for the building of subdivisions, by this time period there was a record high of 58 subdivisions that were plotted; compared to the 46 that were plotted during the 1860's. The City's limits reached up to 17.98 sq. miles. One of the city's final expansions was in 1876 when the city officially separated from St. Louis county, pushing the limits of the city. In 1878 St. Louis introduced telephones to the city, with 12 subscribers from the start. At this time St. Louis tried to enter the use of steam powered street cars, however the experiment failed due to the horse drawn carriages and the scare the horses got from the steam cars.