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TOUR 3

From East St. Louis to Granite City, through the industrial environs of East St. Louis, 12 miles round-trip, via U.S. 66.

   Note:  As you leave East St. Louis on this tour, you might want to take notice of the remnants of the National Stockyards on the east side of St. Clair Avenue.  Access to much of this area is restricted, but several photographs of the area as it appears today are available.  Click here to view some of them.

BROOKLYN, 2 miles, (pop. 2,063), is the older and larger of the two all-Negro communities in Illinois. Brooklyn is strung out on either side of U.S. 66 and its frame and tar-paper shacks present a rather poor appearance. In the outlying sections of the town, however, are substantial homes that reflect civic pride. Brooklyn was originally laid out by white settlers in 1837. For reasons that have never been explained, the village has an affinity for Negro inhabitants, and when the town was incorporated in 1874 the Negro population had increased sufficiently to elect its own candidates to town offices. By 1910 the white population had almost entirely withdrawn. Following the East St. Louis race riot of 1917, the population of Brooklyn was almost doubled by refugees. There are no large industries in Brooklyn and the town is dependent on the factories in the Tri-City area.

VENICE, 3 miles, (pop. 5,362), was so named because its nearness to the river subjected it to seasonal floods. Venice is the smallest and the oldest of the Tri-Cities, having been founded as a ferry landing in 1826. Settlement was greatly retarded by the many floods which inundated the region and when incorporated in 1873, Venice was an inconsequential village. The McKinley Bridge, which spanned the Mississippi at Venice in 1912, obviated the necessity for a ferry but, meanwhile, the Chicago & Alton and the Wabash Railroads had built switchyards in Venice, continuing and contributing to the town’s slow growth.

A levee was later built and the reclaimed lowland bordering the Mississippi was immediately occupied by Negroes and poor white "squatters" who built shacks on any site that struck their fancy. This part of town was never laid out, and today its narrow cinder roads, winding deviously among the patch-quilt shacks, present a bizarre pattern. The part of town in the shadow of the levee has a population of some 1,500 persons who pay no taxes. On the river side of the levee a number of people have built houses on stilts and in times of high water their homes are entirely surrounded by the swirling Mississippi.

MADISON, 5 miles, (pop. 7,661), is the middle unit of the Tri-Cities, Venice, Madison, and Granite City. The community came into being as an adjunct of the huge Madison Car Co. during 1890, grew rapidly, and in time became welded to nearby Granite City. Madison’s development ran exactly parallel to the fortune of its main industries—the Standard Oil Barrel Works and the Madison Car Co. When the latter of these companies closed down in 1930, the city deteriorated and its growth was severely stunted. Because of Madison’s industrial character, foreign-born inhabitants comprise a sizable percentage (18.3 percent) of the population.

Largest of the Tri-Cities, GRANITE CITY, 6 miles, (pop. 25,130), is called the Pittsburgh of the Middle West because of its steel industries. Until 1892 there was no semblance of a community at Granite City save for a post office and several small shops

to accommodate farmers in the district. The impetus which resulted in the present city was supplied by William Neideringhaus, the St. Louis capitalist who, in 1891, purchased for industrial expansion 3,000 acres of land, including the site of Granite City. The following year the National Enameling & Stamping Co. was constructed and began producing the granite ware from which the city’s name was derived. Flats were built for workers and a small mill town gradually took form.

Other industrialists were quick to note the advantages of Granite City and shortly, in succession, the plant of the Granite City Steel Co. and the American Steel Foundry were built near the Enameling & Stamping Co. By 1893 Granite City consisted of three new industries and upward of 80 flats for workers. The city was incorporated in 1896 with a population of 922.

At first a mere adjunct of its mills, Granite City grew with aall the lusty vigor of the Machine Age. Workers came by hundreds as other industries located in the town and by 1920 the population numbered more than 14,000. Acutely responsive to the fluctuations in the labor market, Granite City declined during the business slump of 1929. At that time, of the 9,948 persons gainfully employed, some 4,251 worked in the various iron and steel mills located in the city. Steel production was sharply surtailed and the distress of the population was acute. With the revival in trade, the mills reopened and the city resounded with its former clang and clamor of production.

Although an industrial town, Granite City has never been torn by prolonged or bloody strikes. Of the total population, 10.3 percent are foreign-born.

At the city limits, just north of 30^th and Madison, stands the GRANITE CITY HIGH SCHOOL, notable for its vocational school.