Source: Mercantile Library Collection

For most of the 1950's citizens of St. Louis anxiously awaited progress on the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. City leaders and leaders within the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Association had spent the decade lobbying the federal government for the financial support for the project that was promised back in 1930's. The memorial grounds had been cleared of dilapidated buildings by 1942 and for most of the 1950s the area served as a municipal parking lot.

On June 23, 1959 the city of St. Louis finally began to see the light at the end of the tunnel with the ground-breaking ceremony to celebrate the beginning construction of the memorial. Over the previous decade many within the city had begun to criticize the federal government's commitment to the project. Problems with a concern for a lack of parking, coupled with issues concerning the placement of railroad tracks had stalled the project for much of the 1950's. By 1959 plans for an underground parking garage and the relocation of rail lines, along with the financial assistance of the federal government, finally allowed the construction for the foundation of the Saarinen Arch to begin.

Visit Mayor Tucker who presided over the ceremony at City Hall.