The Compton and Dry Map

We are so lucky here in Saint Louis that some crazies back in 1875 went up in hot air balloons and drew the whole darn city. It’s very crazy and very cool. The whole thing is digitized and available at the Library of Congress’ website at: https://www.loc.gov/item/rc01001392/. I can easily lose myself for a weekend. These are not only fun to look at, but they are useful for doing historic research. It’s literally a snapshot of Saint Louis in 1875.

Here is a plate that I pulled up that shows the location of one of our projects. The below image contains what is now Jefferson and Chippewa.

Plate #32 of the Compton and Dry Saint Louis Pictoral.

There is a bunch of more information about the maps over at Distilled History. It’s just another thing that I think makes Saint Louis a great place to be!