Laclede's Landing

Cobblestones, warehouses, river trade and the oldest surviving piece of downtown St. Louis.

Laclede's Landing

Nine historic blocks beside the Mississippi preserve one of the clearest physical links between modern St. Louis and the river settlement that grew into the city.

The Story

The area now called Laclede's Landing sits beside the place where Pierre Laclède and Auguste Chouteau established the St. Louis settlement in the 1760s. Its position above the Mississippi made the riverfront central to the fur trade and later to the city's explosive commercial growth.

During the nineteenth century the district filled with warehouses, factories and businesses serving river and rail traffic. Many of those brick buildings survived later waves of demolition, leaving a compact streetscape of cobblestones, cast iron and industrial architecture beside the Gateway Arch.

Today the Landing is both a historic district and an evolving neighborhood, making it one of the easiest places to see multiple eras of St. Louis layered together.

What Remains Today

Laclede's Landing preserves nine historic blocks and numerous nineteenth-century commercial buildings immediately north of the Gateway Arch grounds.

Visiting Information

The district is public and walkable, with restaurants, businesses, residences and attractions. MetroLink's Laclede's Landing station provides direct transit access.