The Rise and Fall 1900-1932

The momentum of the 1890s carried on into the new century. St. Joseph was optimistic, and there was a considerable amount of building. The beautiful banking house of Tootle, Lemon & Company was completed in 1899. The Public Library was built in 1902 and the building of the National Bank of St. Joseph at Fourth and Felix Streets, now occupied by the First National Bank, was erected in I103.

Also in 1903 Mr. Louis T. Golding became associated with the St. Joseph Daily News. He had been employed by New York City papers, but he wanted to get out into the country, so he spent some time touring the nation seeking a newspaper in a community of his liking. He stated to friends that in St. Joseph he had found a town that met his standards, where the crimes of violence, bribery, and dishonesty so common in many cities were not prevalent, where the extremes of wealth and poverty were not so great as in the big cities, and where the population of the community was composed of the best elements in American life.

In 1906 the Auditorium was built and the Bartlett Trust Company organized. In 1908 came the erection of the Robidoux Hotel and an eight-story addition to the building of the Wheeler & Motter Mercantile Company, the largest of the wholesale dry goods firms. In 1909 St. Joseph was the fourth largest dry goods market in the nation, coming after New York, Chicago, and St. Louis. The firms were Wheeler & Motter Mercantile Company;John S. Brittain Dry Goods Company; Tootle, Campbell & Company; Richardson, Roberts Dry Goods Company; Hundley Dry Goods Company; and R. L. McDonald Manufacturing Company.

In 1910 the Corby-Forsee office building, St. Joseph's tallest with twelve stories, was erected. In 1911 the beautiful new First Presbyterian Church was completed. The interurban trolley line to Savannah started in 1911 and in 1913 the interurban to Kansas City was opened. In 1912 the YMCA building was erected, and in 1914 the YWCA. The News-Press occupied its new building in 1913 and enlarged it in 1928. The beginnings of the St. Joseph boulevard system were in 1914; the work extended over the next decade; and the parkways were completed in 1927. In 1916 the Bartlett Trust Company erected its white flatiron building at Eighth and Felix Streets, the last important downtown structure built (1975).

The European war started in 1914. From the security of MidAmerica it seemed far away, just one more in the series of competitive squabbles between the European nations from which America was so fortunately removed. But the expanded needs of the belligerents proved a stimulus to American business and even local prices advanced. As the value of agricultural products increased, the prices of the farmland moved up to new highs. New debt based on the higher values was incurred as some producers expanded their holdings. St. Joseph wanted no involvement in the European war and apprehension developed as President Woodrow Wilson seemed to waver on the desired course of neutrality. At last his declared resolve failed, and the spirit of a New Crusade was whipped up-picturing the clean, unpolluted America going in high moral confidence to clean up a corrupt and decadent Europe. Fortunately the involvement was short, and the number of local casualties small.

But the economic legacy of the involvement was painful. As wartime demands for supplies lessened, prices began to fall, making much of the new debt unsupportable. The collapse of much of the farm debt spread its effect to the city with dire consequences for many of the businesses. At the same time as the agricultural depression a fundamental change in the national distribution system began its impact on St. Joseph. Chain stores were developing with centralized buying direct from the factories. Also many manufacturers began to ship their products in small quantities to the retailers as cheaply as they would sell larger amounts to the wholesalers. The St. Joseph wholesale houses found their traditional functions disappearing. And the older generation of business leaders began to die off. Joshua Motter and John S. Brittain died in 1917, R. L. McDonald in 1923, John D. Richardson in 1924, W. W. Wheeler in 1925, and D. L. Bartlett in 1927.

Strong efforts to combat the trend of events were made. The new boulevard system was completed and the new City Hall built in 1927. But the tide could not be stemmed, and gradually many of the old established businesses of St. Joseph were closed. In the list were Wheeler & Motter; John S. Brittain; John D. Richardson; R. L. McDonald; Nave, McCord; Carder Grocery; Letts, Melick; Mueller, Keller Candy Company; The Bartlett Trust Company, and others. The industrial depression of the nation which followed the 1929 stock market crash, when added onto the already existing local situation, brought St. Joseph in the I930s to a plight long to be remembered. Recovery was slow, and for some it never came.