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Luther Ely Smith
Luther Ely Smith (June 11, 1873 – April 2, 1951) was a St. Louis, Missouri lawyer and civic booster. He has been described by the National Park Service as the "father of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial," which was renamed as the Gateway Arch National Park in 2018. In the 1930s, he conceived of the idea of a memorial to President Thomas Jefferson in St. Louis, the starting point of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and opening of the West through the city. He chaired the Association to develop the memorial for nearly 15 years, every year but one from 1934 through 1949, after the design competition had been completed and the winner Eero Saarinen selected for his "Gateway Arch". Construction of the Gateway Arch started in 1963, after Smith's death; it fulfilled his vision of a symbol of the city to represent its role with the American West.
Luther Ely Smith was born in Downers Grove, Illinois. He attended prep school at Williston Northampton School in Easthampton, Massachusetts graduating in 1890; Amherst College, where he was a classmate of Harlan F. Stone, future Chief Justice of the United States; and a year ahead of Calvin Coolidge and Dwight W. Morrow. He graduated in 1894 and earned a law degree at Washington University School of Law in 1897.
He volunteered with the Third U.S Volunteer Engineers during the Spanish–American War (1898).
After the war Smith started a law practice in St. Louis. He also became active in various civic functions; in 1914 he started the pageant-Masques on Art Hill in Forest Park. The outdoor pageants gradually were developed as The MUNY theatre, an open-air forum.
Smith was appointed by the mayor as the chairman of the City Plan Commission in 1916. The Commission hired Harland Bartholomew as city planner that year, making St. Louis the first city to have such a full-time position.
During the Great War (World War I), he volunteered and served as a captain in the field artillery. After the war Smith turned his attention again to the development of center city St. Louis. He worked on establishing the Memorial Plaza—a collection of landmark buildings including the Civil Courts Building and Kiel Auditorium.
In the 1920s his Amherst school-mate Calvin Coolidge, then President of the United States, appointed him to a federal commission to supervise design and construction of the George Rogers Clark Memorial in Vincennes, Indiana.
In the 1930s during the Great Depression, the United States was considering construction of a memorial to Thomas Jefferson, as part of recognizing inspirational leaders. (Eventually the Jefferson Memorial was built at the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C.) Smith said that while riding a train back to St. Louis from a meeting on the Clark memorial, he was inspired by thinking that the Jefferson memorial should be placed on historic property in St. Louis where the expansion to the west had occurred. Building a memorial would provide an excuse to improve what had become a dowdy waterfront since the decline in passenger riverboats and some freight river traffic.
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Luther Ely Smith
Luther Ely Smith (June 11, 1873 – April 2, 1951) was a St. Louis, Missouri lawyer and civic booster. He has been described by the National Park Service as the "father of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial," which was renamed as the Gateway Arch National Park in 2018. In the 1930s, he conceived of the idea of a memorial to President Thomas Jefferson in St. Louis, the starting point of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and opening of the West through the city. He chaired the Association to develop the memorial for nearly 15 years, every year but one from 1934 through 1949, after the design competition had been completed and the winner Eero Saarinen selected for his "Gateway Arch". Construction of the Gateway Arch started in 1963, after Smith's death; it fulfilled his vision of a symbol of the city to represent its role with the American West.
Luther Ely Smith was born in Downers Grove, Illinois. He attended prep school at Williston Northampton School in Easthampton, Massachusetts graduating in 1890; Amherst College, where he was a classmate of Harlan F. Stone, future Chief Justice of the United States; and a year ahead of Calvin Coolidge and Dwight W. Morrow. He graduated in 1894 and earned a law degree at Washington University School of Law in 1897.
He volunteered with the Third U.S Volunteer Engineers during the Spanish–American War (1898).
After the war Smith started a law practice in St. Louis. He also became active in various civic functions; in 1914 he started the pageant-Masques on Art Hill in Forest Park. The outdoor pageants gradually were developed as The MUNY theatre, an open-air forum.
Smith was appointed by the mayor as the chairman of the City Plan Commission in 1916. The Commission hired Harland Bartholomew as city planner that year, making St. Louis the first city to have such a full-time position.
During the Great War (World War I), he volunteered and served as a captain in the field artillery. After the war Smith turned his attention again to the development of center city St. Louis. He worked on establishing the Memorial Plaza—a collection of landmark buildings including the Civil Courts Building and Kiel Auditorium.
In the 1920s his Amherst school-mate Calvin Coolidge, then President of the United States, appointed him to a federal commission to supervise design and construction of the George Rogers Clark Memorial in Vincennes, Indiana.
In the 1930s during the Great Depression, the United States was considering construction of a memorial to Thomas Jefferson, as part of recognizing inspirational leaders. (Eventually the Jefferson Memorial was built at the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C.) Smith said that while riding a train back to St. Louis from a meeting on the Clark memorial, he was inspired by thinking that the Jefferson memorial should be placed on historic property in St. Louis where the expansion to the west had occurred. Building a memorial would provide an excuse to improve what had become a dowdy waterfront since the decline in passenger riverboats and some freight river traffic.