DOGTOWN AND THE ST. LOUIS WORLD'S FAIR

The 1904 St. Louis World's Fair marks a transition period in the neighborhood of Cheltenham/Dogtown. While I'm fairly convinced that much of the Tamm and Clayton area was called Dogtown from about 1876 onward, the major transition to "Dogtown" probably occurs with and after the fair. This is not to embrace the "igorot theory" of the naming of Dogtown, which I do not hold, but there are changes in economy (away from clay mining and brick making) toward working at the fair and later using the new street cars to easily get into St. Louis to work, and working at the new Scullin's Steel. The mines and factories began to close, but the population was booming and much of the settlement of the area comes in the early part of the twentieth century.

In this section are essays on the fair itself and on Dogtown's relationship to it.


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Bob Corbett corbetre@webster.edu