St. Louis Post-Dispatch
February 10, 1923

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Last having ‘broken open two safes in the vault the robbers had “jimmied”’ five filing cabinets in their search for the office, money. A .chisel belonging to the robbers was found near the -vault, What St. Louis Has Voted to Do A S a result of the passage of 20 bond issue propositions totaling $87,372 00, St. Louis soon will undergo a physical transformation, the details of which are briefiy set forth below: STREETS: The city will spend $8,650,000 for establishing, opening and widening streets. The chief item, $3,355,345, will be spent to widen Market street from 60 to 100 feet from Third and Walnut streets to Vandeventer avenue, thus pro- viding an imposing highway east and west from Union Station. Twelfth boulevard will be tinuous highway, 100 feet wide for most of its length, from the new industrial district in the northwest to Gravois avenue in the southwest. King’s highway boulevard will be completed from Penrose Park, on the north to materive Park on the south. Olive street will be widened from 60 to 100 feet from Twelfth boulevard to Channing avenue. Lindell boulevard will be widened to 100 feet from Channing to Grand. An imposing traffic circle to serve as a beautiful entrance to Forést Park will be constructed .at Lindell boulevard. The major street plan also includes the widen- ing of 15 other streets and the eonstruction of cutoffs on or the extension of 10 other streets. created as a con- NEW WATERWORKS: The present city water plant, which is reaching the limit of its capability to supply an increasing demand, pumping water from the Mississippi River, will be augmented by a new plant on the Missouri River, for which voters provided $12,000,000. The plant proper, which it is proposed to erect Charles and one mile west of Hine Station, on the Rock Island Railroad, St. Louis County, will cost $3,777,000. The remainder of this bond item will be for equipping the plant, supply mains and right- of-way through the county, a 100,000,000Q-gallon reservoir, service mains and contingencies. Engi- neers calculate there will be a gravity flow to all parts of St. Louis from this reservoir, located on ground owned by the city on Strattmann Hill near the Olive street road. The plant probably will have an initial pump- ing capacity of 60,000,000 gallons of water a day, to be increased to 160,000,000 by 1945. The maxi- mum possible capacity of the Chain of Rocks plant is 160,000,000 gallons a day. Payment of the in- terest and principal of this $12,000,000 portion of the bond issue will be made solely from Water De- partment revenue. It is calculated that this can be 6 in wat... rates.-«-—- UNION STATION PLAZA: The city will acquire ang tear down the buildings occupying the two blocks fronting Upion Station, bounded by Market street, Chestnut street, Eighteenth and Twentieth streets, and will convert the ground into a plaza, thus presenting a clean, attractive dooryard to the visitor. STREET PAVING: The sum of $5,800,000 will be expended in paving the widened and new streets authorized in the first item and in replacing worn- out paving on other streets. LIGHTING: The antiquated gas lamps now fur- nishing the chief illumination of the city will be replaced with a city-wide, modern electric light- ing system, costing $8,000,00V. A NEW COURTHOUSE: The 71-year-old civil courthouge on Broadway will be devoted to some other use and a new building fronting on the Memorial Plaza and tying in with the City Hall and the Municipal Courts Building, will be erected at a cost of $4,000,000. SEWERS—tThe sanitary system of the city will be placed in first-class condition, capable of serving all sections adequately by the expenditure of $19,- 000.000. Of this sum, $11,000,000 is to remove from Fores. Park the stench of the River des Peres and tc check floods. The river will be en- closed from the point it enters the city at Hodia- mont avenne to the point it emerges from Forest Park at Macklind avenue. For the remainder of its course to the Mississippi, the Des Peres will be given a storin channel to carry off heavy rains and beneath it « sewer will be constructed. The re- mainder of the $19,000,000 or $8,000,000 will be used to extend sewers to districts not now served and to reconstruct old sewers now a menace to public health and safety. NEW PARKS AND PLAYGROUNDS—The city will be enabled to maintain its boast of the most extensive public recreational facilities and activity of any American city, by the extension of its parks and playgrounds system in the expenditure of $3,- 800,000. his will include the purchase of new land with $1,400,000 and the expenditure of the remainder in equipping the new parks and expand- ing the facilities of those parks already established. The items include four new swimming pools and~ bath houses. AQUARIUM—Commissions from various cities have visited the Forest Park Zoo to obtain and adapt ideaa from what they have appraised as the best-planned zoo in the United States. The fame of this institution now will be enhanced by the addi- tion of an aquarium to ‘cost $400,000. POWER HOUSE, GARAGE AND LAUNDRY— There will be $1,000,000 for the »eréction of. this plant, for an economical concefitration of neces- sary functions of city departments. It is pro- posed to erect this building on the site of the old Four Courts. Twelfth street, between Clark avenue and Spruce street. Engineers estimate that its operation will result in a saving of $100,000 to $150,000 a year over the cost of running present scattered plar:ts. The plant will generate electricity for power and lights for the city hall, Municipal Courts Building, city jail and children’s building, all locat inside the four squvre blocks of City Hall Park, and for Police Headqavarters, the -new Courthouse and Morgue to te built gear the municipal group, and | the city hospital. Current for the existing build- ings. except the hospital, is now provided in an old plant in the city hall sement. Six automctile and fire apparatus repair shops will be combined. in this building. The Street De- partment paint shop will be placed there. The laun- dry will replace with modern equipment the small- er plants at the city hospital, city infirmary and workhouse. The estimated cost of the plant“is $993,750, but, as it will release for other uses or sale property valued at $529,878, it will cost in re- ality less than $500,000. —_——_— EXTENSION OF wokeervas, FACILITIES: Voters provided $4,500,000 to increase city facilities for the care and cure of the afflicted and sick whg have not the means to care for themselves. his means that overcrowding of hospitals will be ended, the fight against tuberculosis will be strengthened, negro unfortunates will be cared for on a more equable basis, conditions at the city sanitarium, where the insane are confined, that have been termed “disgraceful,” will be changed; the antiquated morgue will be replaced, and delin- quent boys and girls will receive better care. The subdivisions of this item are:, Enlargement of Koch Hospital, for the tubercular, south of Jefferson Barracks, $500,000; additions to the city hospital, $1,000,000; new hospital for negroes, $1,200,000; additions to city sanitarium, $760,000: additional building or buildings at the Isolation Hospital, $250,000; new morgue, $140,000, probably to be erected on or near site of present morgue, on old Four Courts lot; manual training schools at Bellefontaine Farm for Boys, $50,000; buildings on Meramec Hills, the new farm for delinquent girls, near Valley Park, $100,000; enlargement of the Municipal Farm for the Feeble-Minded, north of Baden, $500,000. Purchase of land is contem- plated in connection with some of these plans. »In the bond issue of 1920, $68,000 was provided for a morgue, but being an inadequate sum, was not spent; the two funds will be combined for the new building. The Farm for the Feeble-Minded was acquired through the 1920 bond issye, but the need for enlarging it~has arisen. _ MUNICIPAL AUDITORIUM—tThe long-felt want for a structure of this type will be fulfilled by the $5,000,000 of bonds voted for a Municipal Audito- rium.and Community Center. It is felt that this will constitutc a nation-wide advertisement of St. Louis. Its purposes were described in the item on the ballots, as follows: ‘“‘To be used ‘for the holding of public meetings, gatherings and conventions, for discussion of public questions, including matters submitted to the people under the referendum or the initiative, and to provide suitable places for €ducational. moral, labor and other purposes.’’ It is probable that the building may be erected on the double block bounded by Fourteenth, Fif- teenth and Market streets and Clark avenue, though among other sites considered is one com- prising two city blocks, bounded by Bighteenth. Twentieth, Chestnut and Pine streets. The former site would locate the auditorium as a part of the civic center «: which the city hall ie the nucleus, while the latter would have it facing Union Station across the j:laza to be created. It is intended that the auditorium shall have seats for 15,000 to 20.,- 000 persons, with smaller room@for smal! gather- ings. musical, industrial, MEMORIAL PLAZA: Realization of the dream of a city beautiful will be fulfilled in part by the creation of g downtown plaza, for which $5,000,000 for the purchase of ground, is provided; and on which a memorial building or monument com- memorating the deeds of Missourians in the world war will be erected. An additional $1,000,000 is provided for the’ memorial. Roughly, the plan provides for the acquisition of the land between Market and Pine streets, Twelfth boulevard and Fifteenth street, and between Pine; Olive, Thirteenth and Fourteenth : streets. This entfre tract may not be taken. The idea is to make a parkway between the Civic Center. group on the south side of Market street and the Public Library, which has the background of Lucas Garden, on Locust street. Records of Missouri soldiers in the war will be preserved in the memorial. FIRE ENGINE HOUSES AND APPARATUS— Motorization of the Fire Department apparatus will be completed by the item of $772,500 for this department, which algo provides for a new engine house in Southampton and reconstruction or replacement of nine existing engine houses. will be $487,500 of this sum for motor equipment, including 30 pumping engines. The department is 75 percent motorized at present, and horse- drawn ized in responding to alarms. Maintenance cost of automobiles is much lower than of horses, oe Panzer figures. In the 1920 bord issue there wa an item of $800,000 for impfvement of the Fire Department. ELIMINATION OF GRADE CROSSINGS: Con- tinuation of the city’s program for the eventual elimination of all railroad grade crossings here, as a safety measure, is provided for in an item of $1,600,000. The provisions under this item are: Viaduct at King’s highway over Oak Hill tracks of Missouri Pacific. $155,000; viaduct at Shaw avenue over Oak Hill tracks, $80,000; viaduct at King’s highway over Terminal Railroad. tracks, $65,000: eliminating grade crossing of Wabash Railroad with Sarah, Boyle, Newstead and Taylor avenues, $250,000; raising Missouri Pacific tracks at Southwest avenue, $50,000; eliminating various grade crossings of Oak Hill tragks between Caron- delet Park and King’s highway, $310,000;eliminat- ing various grade crossings of Oak Hill tracks be- tween Reilly avenue and Carondelet Park, $280,- 000; viaduct over Frisco Railroad and River des Peres valley at Fyler avenue, $90,000; viaduct over Frisco at Southwest avenue, $230,000. FREE BRIDGE APPROACHES: .- The Munici-. pal Bridge, which has not reached its original goal of defeating: the’ freight arbitary that taxes St. Louis industry, will be equiped with eastern and western bank connections with railroad and belt lines, which will tend to strengthen. the city’s — position in its time- old battle to defeat the arbi- trary. \ PUBLIO MARKETS: The old Paes housing four public markets of St. Louis—Union, Biddle, Soulard and South—will be replaced with modern, sightly bulldirtes, designed to provide maximum sanitation. Thousands of St. Louis Reuseweves now go to these markets. rin cold and incle : cast a total vote of 90,895 on public There equipment is much slower than the motor-. * CTY NOW EQUIPPED TO. CARRY OUT PROJECTS. NECESSARY TORONTH Approval of Greatest Bond Pro Ever Submitted at Polls Here Adequate Hospitals, Public Institu- tions, Streets, Plazas, Parks, Healt Facilities. and Recreational St. Louis soon will enter into an era of physical tranatoralig fd os tron awd development as a result of approval yesterday at rh c polls, with sweeping majorities, of 20 items of the WSS issue, aggregating $87,372,500 of the $88,372,500 program. - one item failed, the $1,000,000 Armory item site 2894 v short of the required two-thirds majority. These bond issues will open up choked traffic arteries and revive blighted districts; meet the city’s needs as to sewers, water and street lighting; provide greater hospitals, beautiful plazas and public buildings that will replace areas of squalor; protect public health and assure ad- equate welfare and recregtiones fa- cilities. Two procedehig ty the voters ent weather and improvement itenia. The first precedent was that -ot- ers in the past, with few exceptions, have rejected public improvement proposals, denying the necessary two-thirds majorities to projects of ; great public need. Yesterday they placed the stamp of approval on the bond program, the greatest by maay millions of any ever submitted in the city, with -majorities that mounted as high as 65,000. There are 95,000 taxpayers in the city. Three Most Popular Project On three proposals——the § ter- works, hospitals and ..Fire Depart-}) ment motor equipment—the majori- ties exceeded by “60, 008 or more votes the actual two-thirds require- ment, The second tradition that fell was that a light vote indicates defeat for public improvements, a precedent firmly established in past elections. the total vote of 90,895 represented slightly more than 35 per cent of the total registration of 259,330. When éarly balloting in- dicated the vote would not exceed 100,000, the Bond Issue Campaign Committee issued appeals to those favorable to the improvement proj- ects to go to the polls and vote, and it was thought the result would be close on the items, with some of them in doubt. The sweeping indorsement*of the program is attributed by cam- paign leaders to the inten- sive educational campaign . for nine* weeks in advance of the special election, declared the most 76,946 affirmative and 3%, 198° tive votes, and the sewer reco tion item, with v4.68 | firme and 15,617 ne ve votes, were in point of Defeat of the Armory 5 ; $1,000,000 was attributed in to obtain the required majority in every ward.” ee Proposal No, ae 00,000. for an aquarium, received est ms jority of the -— failed to catry in “J ze is j ; : «+: 24 “So hr ¢ \ 5 ae " : i ' 2 ca = ¢ * ‘ be a a 4: er PS Sa ae , 4 & . -. oo lt ae a : ws 4 r See Beceie ep i — : aits A " ~~ 4 ne % Ta Oe : * Tadhg ok (os eu he al Rake er = tis. Me ERIE A BE he PR OA Gr SEAS LN RS 1 a AVE oh. Rs ety PS. Ae -¢ 7 3 wig , YM : io Me, st yi Lae 1g igh ey wn ne : a ¥ ; fi) : a, a " ‘ NA aaa ago f 3 y if Cj eS at Second nehereaul * teenth and Fourteen posal for the west — =k. to-t free ee fr hehe carry in vidas was heaviest in the End wards and there Peart le ties were piled up for’ the i some inatances Ne in ' as high as’ 13 to 1. The ec ntae cca votes in'the ema 400 ‘against. — : aa were Bees nce ihe excep st jorities fonging from four toe ne ss Ser eas. eee * ky ~ + € thorough campaign of thé sort evér | conducted in the city, and the many) months of preparation since the be-/| ginning of the bond movement . in December, 1921, following a survey by the Post-Dispatch of the public |, improvement needs of the city. A Movement of the Citizens. From start to close zens. in public hearings, ordinance by the Board o after a month of public hearings, and expenditures will’ be subject to the control of a Citizens’ Supervisory Committee of 17 members, repre- sentative of all interests. Those items of the 21 which have been classed as vital public needs generally ran strongest in the vot- ing, with those classed as desirabie, but not absolutely necessary, tratfl- ing them. : The Waterworks proposal of $12,- 000,000 ran strongest, much of its popularity being attributed to the fact that the bonds for this work/ will be retired from revenues of the |™ | Water Division and not by taxation. | 77,358 Votes for Complete returns from oa preciacta give the wa an affirmative vote of 77,38 12,376 against, a 982,’ or 62,606 in esctrs pe a two-/ the bond : movement has been one. of the citi-} It was prepared by .citizens joriti of institutions, received 77,349 — and 12,956 were cant againat I - ;ar , TRA, “< . 618 eee Te ‘ ale « * } | 4 :