The first view obtained of the City of East St. Louis presents it
to the eye as a manufacturing town, the sections along the river front being conspicuously
covered with great buildings, towering smoke stacks, big freight depots, and immense
warehouses. In these very features lies the sesame of the growth and the basis of the
to-have-and-to-hold prosperity bound to be hers as the nearest neighbor of her Great
Opposite and the mistress of over twenty railroads already centering within her own gates,
superadded to which is the fact of her nearness to the great coal mines of this
tremendously rich section of Southern Illinois.
| There are over one hundred and fifty important industries already thriving
here. The greatest stock yards in the world give it an additional and unique interest to
visitors from all over the universe, and insures to East St. Louis an imposing place in
current valley chronicles. The Aluminum Works, the Malleable Iron Works, the Republic Iron
and Steel Works, the Armours, Swifts and Morrises, with the other numberless concerns are
helping make reputation for a great city, and furnishing livelihood for thousands of
earnest workers. |
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The rapid growth of the city is evidenced on every hand. Fine streets are
being developed in the residence sections, every school building is made on the best
modern lines, the new churches show how keenly religious sentiment responds to the new
era, and the homes, banks and public buildings all bespeak the fact that East St. Louis is
to be a competitor of "big calibre" in the coming twenty-five years, and that
she proposes to hold out the welcome hand for a share in all honors coming to this teeming
valley. |
The New Post Office is one of the good things just falling to her. She has a fine
public library, and is building up in all directions elegant homes.
There are three or four good hotels, the leading being the Royal in East St. Louis and
the National at the Stock Yards.
| For outing points there is Lansdowne Park with its attractive picnic
grounds, Horse Shoe Lake, Priester's Park, and what is of increasing importance and
interest fine fishing grounds at Long Lake on the Alton trolleys, Pittsburgh Lake on the
State Street trolleys, and numerous smaller lakes for the devotees of Isaac Walton. |
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CONTINUE
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