MAY 1948

U. S. Navy Photo

THE MEMORIAL SITE as it appears today, with Mississippi River and Eads Bridge beyond.

COMPETITION

JEFFERSON NATIONAL EXPANSION MEMORIAL

The project to create a $30,000,000 national park and monument on the west bank of the Mississippi River at St. Louis, memorializing Thomas Jefferson and his Louisiana Purchase, recently caught coast-to-coast attention when an architect and design for the undertaking were chosen through a major competition financed by public-spirited citizens of the Midwest. The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Association, headed by Luther Ely Smith who has worked diligently for some 15 years to enlist St. Louis and national support for this memorial, is pledged to recommend to National Park Service of Department of Interior, as custodian of this officially designated Historic Site, acceptance of the winning architect and his distinguished design (see pages 54-59).

The historic importance of the city that was literally the Gateway to the West, described in the PROGRESS REPORT in our March issue and pictured in the PROGRESS REPORT for this month (see pages 14-20), called for preservation of several ancient structures within the national park. We are indebted to George Howe, F.A.I.A., Philadelphia architect who was professional adviser for the competition, for a summary of the event (see pages 68-69) in which 172 entries were received from architects with associated engineers, landscape architects, painters, and sculptors throughout the country.

Charles Peterson Photos

1839-1862 Old Courthouse

1818 Manuel Lisa Warehouse

National Park Service acquired the Historic Site under the Historic Sites Act of 1935 and cleared it of all structures but the Old Cathedral, designed by Morton & Laveille, and the stone warehouse built by the fur trader, Manuel Lisa, as river trade began its greatest era. The Old Courthouse was saved near by.

1830-1834 Old Cathedral