Newsgram

Happy 256th, St. Louis!

Celebrate our great city's rich history February 14-15

February 1, 2020 | 2 min reading time

This article is 4 years old. It was published on February 1, 2020.

Surveyed and designed by Rene Paul, city surveyor and commissioner

(Pictured: From Norman B. Leventhal Map Center Collection in Boston Public Library. Plan of the City of St. Louis surveyed and designed by Rene Paul (1783-1851), city surveyor and commissioner. The survey was ordered July 10th, 1823, completed in December 1823, adopted in March 1824. Revised and corrected in June 1835. It includes text on "Limits of the City of St. Louis" and references to 21 buildings.) 

The founding of St. Louis actually began in 1763 when Pierre Laclede, a successful merchant who was granted rights to set up a trading post, led an expedition along the Mississippi River to find a site for the fur-trading post. Laclede was accompanied by his young stepson, Auguste Chouteau, and together in February 1764 the site for the trading post was selected and the settlement of St. Louis was founded.

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