| THE CITY TWO MEN PUT ON THE MAP |
| In anticipation of Pope John Paul II's visit to St. Louis, Missouri in January 1999, a prestigious New York City newspaper called the city's convention and visitors commission requesting photographs of St. Louis churches for a forthcoming article. The images were FedEx'd immediately. Next day, a bright young editor, unaware much of the most glorious church architecture west of the Mississippi lies in St. Louis, called from New York with her problem: "The newspaper had wanted shots of St. Louis churches." |
|
|
| "I get it!" said the director of public relations
for the city," You want photographs of white-painted clapboard
churches with perhaps a cow tied outside?" "Exactly," was the perky reply. |
    
 |
| Were it not so confident St. Louis, Missouri (800-325-7962 www.explorestlouis.com ) could lament like Rodney Dangerfield that it "don't get no respect." It's not on America's coastline so it's not seen to have the glamour of, say, San Francisco. It's on a famous river but New Orleans downstream gets more ink. It's not a financial center like Dallas, nor an airline hub like Chicago. But it's one of the most historically important places in the United States from its portal to the Louisiana Purchase and the awesome success of Lewis and Clark two centuries ago, the hugely successful World Fair in 1904 that commemorated the event, the electrifying impact of Lindbergh's flight in 1927 in a spunky little plane financed by St. Louis businessmen to the final excitement when the Gateway Arch rose 630 feet above the city in 1965 to show its civic pride. |
 |
It took courage to put up this gleaming steel structure, the tallest in the National Park system -- more than twice the height of the Statue of Liberty. A tram ride to the top allows a panorama for 30 miles. www.stlouisarch.com St. Louis has fine churches, many museums and the Hall of Fame of Bowling. |
   
|
| PAGE 1 2 |
