Carondelet is a
neighborhood in the extreme southeastern portion of
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
,
Missouri
Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...
. It was incorporated as an independent city in 1851 and was
annexed by the City of St. Louis in 1870. As of the 2000 Census, the neighborhood has a population of 9,960 people.
Name
Carondelet was named after
Baron Carondelet, the governor of the Spanish colony
Upper Louisiana
Upper may refer to:
* Shoe upper or ''vamp'', the part of a shoe on the top of the foot
* Stimulant, drugs which induce temporary improvements in either mental or physical function or both
* ''Upper'', the original film title for the 2013 found fo ...
. The community also held a number of names and nicknames over the centuries, including: Delor's Village, Catalan's Prairie, Louisbourg, Vide Poche, and Sugarloaf.
History
Carondelet was founded in 1767 by Clement Delor de Treget who was born in
Cahors
Cahors (; oc, Caors ) is a commune in the western part of Southern France. It is the smallest prefecture among the 13 departments that constitute the Occitanie Region. The main city of the Lot department and the historical center of the Que ...
,
Quercy
Quercy (; oc, Carcin , locally ) is a former province of France located in the country's southwest, bounded on the north by Limousin, on the west by Périgord and Agenais, on the south by Gascony and Languedoc, and on the east by Rouergue and ...
in southern France. He obtained a grant from St. Ange and built a stone house. The village was first known as Delor's Village. Afterward, it was known as Catalan's Prairie, named for Louis Catalan, an early settler. Later the village was called Louisbourg, most likely in honor of
Louis XVI
Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was ...
, the king of France (1774-1793). It is said that shortly after the territory
passed from French to Spanish hands, Treget wished to have his commission as captain of the militia renewed. Since he was French and Baron de Carondelet, the governor-general of Louisiana, was in Spanish service, he feared that his commission might be refused, so he flattered Carondelet by naming the village for him and received his commission.
In the early days, the village was given the nickname Vide Poche. This name is often mistakenly translated as "empty pocket", which would rather be "Poche Vide" in French. This is a folk etymology that rests on a history of poverty among its inhabitants. As it goes, Carondelet citizens would have to buy flour from St. Louis, and often they could not pay for it, for their pockets were empty. Another explanation translates the nickname to mean "Empties Pocket," which makes sense in French, thus conveying the idea that it was a place where the pockets of those visiting would be emptied. The inhabitants of Carondelet were noted for their hospitality and fondness for all kinds of sports and amusements. The St. Louis visitor would return home with emptied pockets - the Carondelet men may have had fleeter horses or have been more skillful card players. When a St. Louisan was asked to visit Carondelet on Sunday afternoon, he would reply, "A quoi sert, c'est un vide poche." (meaning: "Of what use, is a place that empties pocket). Another nickname applied to Carondelet was "Pain de Sucre" or the "Sugarloaf."
An in-depth study of several instances of Vide Poche in North America shed light on the complex history of this place name. It turns out that this name migrated to Missouri from the Saint Lawrence Valley and initially meant "the mill", for "Vide-Poche" was documented to be a nickname in New France for the mill and the original population in the area mainly was from Canada. This St. Louis Vide Poche is indeed known to have harbored a mill in its very beginning. It seems however that another identical compound meaning "pickpocket" added to the semantic load of this place name.
In a 1799 census, Carondelet was described as "two leagues below St. Louis" and having a population of 181 white residents and 3 African slaves.
Carondelet was incorporated in 1832,
merged with the first ward of St. Louis under the name of South St. Louis in 1860, and annexed to St. Louis in 1870.
Carondelet is the first foundation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, a Congregation, with French roots, who arrived in America in 1836.
The community is particularly associated with processing lead from the
Southeast Missouri Lead District
The Southeast Missouri Lead District, commonly called the Lead Belt, is a lead mining district in the southeastern part of Missouri. Counties in the Lead Belt include Saint Francois, Crawford, Dent, Iron, Madison, Reynolds, and Washingt ...
. The affiliation began in the 1840s with the production lead shot shipped in via the
St. Louis, Iron Mountain and Southern Railway.
In 1873,
Susan Blow founded the first continuous, publicly funded
kindergarten
Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th ce ...
in the United States, at Carondolet's Des Peres School.
During the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
, 32
ironclad gunboats for the Union Army and Navy were produced at the
James Buchanan Eads
Captain James Buchanan Eads (May 23, 1820 – March 8, 1887) was a world-renowned American civil engineer and inventor, holding more than 50 patents.
Eads' great Mississippi River Bridge at St. Louis was designated a National Historic Landmar ...
-owned Union Marine Works shipyards, including four of the initial
City class ironclad
The Pook Turtles, or City-class gunboats to use their semi-official name, were war vessels intended for service on the Mississippi River during the American Civil War. They were also sometimes referred to as "Eads gunboats." The labels are ap ...
s: ''
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
'', ''
Carondelet'', ''
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Western Pennsylvania, the second-most populous city in Pennsylva ...
'', and ''
Louisville
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border.
...
''. The three other City class gunboats (''
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...
'', ''
Mound City'', and ) were subcontracted out by Eads and built in
Mound City, Illinois
Mound City is a city and the county seat of Pulaski County, Illinois, United States. It is located along the Ohio River just north of its confluence with the Mississippi River. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 588.
History
Mound Ci ...
.
From 1870-1930, Hertz Metal Company produced
baling wire
Baling wire, otherwise known as bale wire, farm wire, haywire or soft wire, is a type of wire used in agriculture and industry for many uses such as mending fences or manually binding rectangular bales of hay, straw, or cut grass. It is also us ...
and also operated a lead
smelter. In 1876 Provident Chemical Works became a world leader in the production of
phosphate
In chemistry, a phosphate is an anion, salt, functional group or ester derived from a phosphoric acid. It most commonly means orthophosphate, a derivative of orthophosphoric acid .
The phosphate or orthophosphate ion is derived from phosph ...
s from its Carondelet Plant in a process that initially involved lead. In the 1920s the plant was purchased by Swann Chemical Company, and then in 1935 by
Monsanto
The Monsanto Company () was an American agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation founded in 1901 and headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri. Monsanto's best known product is Roundup, a glyphosate-based herbicide, developed in ...
. The
River des Peres
The River des Peres (French: ''rivière des Pères'') () is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed May 13, 2011 metropolitan river in St. Louis, Missouri. It is the backb ...
was rerouted through the plant in the 1930s as part of a
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...
project. Monsanto spun off the production to
Solutia. In 2000 it became part of
Astaris and then
Israel Chemical Limited
ICL Group Ltd. (Hebrew language, Hebrew: איי.סי. אל. גרופ בע"מ) (formerly Israel Chemicals Ltd., ICL) is a multi-national manufacturing concern that develops, produces and markets fertilizers, metals and other special-purpose che ...
. The plant produces 250 million pounds per year of phosphate and phosphoric acid products.
![Carondelet Court House](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Carondelet_Court_House.jpg)
Originally, the neighborhood was populated predominantly by French and then later German immigrants. Today the neighborhood contains a mixture of industrial uses along the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it fl ...
and residential and commercial uses further from the river. Because it once existed as an independent village, the neighborhood contains some of the oldest homes in St. Louis. Most of the housing was constructed between 1880 and 1930. Housing in the area ranges from modest single-story cottages to apartment buildings, to larger single-family homes. Most of the housing is of brick construction.
Demographics
In 2020 Carondelet's population was 43.1% White, 39.3% Black, 0.5% Native American, 1.5% Asian, 9.9% Two or More Races, and 5.6% Some Other Race. 9.6% of the population was of Hispanic or Latino origin.
See also
*
Carondelet Park
*
Sugarloaf Mound
Sugarloaf Mound is the sole remaining Mississippian culture platform mound in St. Louis, Missouri, a city commonly referred to in its earlier years as "Mound City" for its approximately 40 Native American earthen structures.
Sugarloaf Mound is t ...
*
Holly Hills, St. Louis
Holly Hills is a List of neighborhoods of St. Louis, neighborhood located in South St. Louis, Missouri, near the intersection of I-55 and Loughborough Avenue. The neighborhood is defined by Bates and Walsh on the Northeast, Holly Hills on the Sout ...
*
Susan Blow
*
Henry Taylor Blow
Henry Taylor Blow (July 15, 1817 – September 11, 1875) was a two-term U.S. Representative from Missouri and an ambassador to both Venezuela and Brazil.
Early life
Henry was born in Southampton County, Virginia, to Captain Peter and Elizabeth ...
*
Quinn Chapel
*
Dred Scott
Dred Scott (c. 1799 – September 17, 1858) was an enslaved African American man who, along with his wife, Harriet, unsuccessfully sued for freedom for themselves and their two daughters in the '' Dred Scott v. Sandford'' case of 1857, popula ...
*
Neighborhoods of St. Louis
The St. Louis, City of St. Louis officially recognizes 79 neighborhoods within its limits. Census data is collected for each neighborhood, as well as Crime statistics, crime data, historic property data, and Restaurant rating, dining establishment ...
* USS ''
Carondelet'', a Civil War gunboat named after the town
References
External links
Carondeletneighborhood website
{{authority control
Neighborhoods in St. Louis
French colonial settlements of Upper Louisiana
Missouri populated places on the Mississippi River
Former municipalities in Missouri