Long ago, the site of present-day St. Louis was once inhabited by Native Americans of the ancient Mississippian culture. Due to the area’s proximity to both the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, thousands of indigenous people frequented the location for generations. The locale held spiritual significance among the Mississippians, who constructed dozens of earthen mounds as religious monuments. Known as the “Cahokia Mounds,” the earthworks were one of the most enduring geological features in the region. Indeed, the formations even gave St. Louis the moniker of “Mound City” during its formative years. (Unfortunately, most were destroyed as St. Louis expanded in size throughout the 19th century. Only a small segment survives as the Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site.) Nevertheless, St. Louis itself first came into existence when two French fur trappers—Pierre Laclede Liguest and his stepson, Auguste Chouteau—opened a trading post in 1764. While the area was no longer under French control, Liguest proceeded to develop his small community via a land grant given to him earlier by King Louis XV of France. He subsequently began creating the village a year later, naming it after another French monarch, King Louis IX. Over time, settlers from Canada and France began to arrive in St. Louis, who were attracted by its vibrant local fur trading industry. 
St. Louis and the surrounding countryside only to returned to France during the rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. (It had originally lost it to Spain in the wake of the Seven Years’ War.) But St. Louis then became a part of the nascent United States after Napoleon sold the surrounding area to the Jefferson administration via the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. It immediately assumed great strategic importance to President Thomas Jefferson, who used it as the final launching point for the historic Lewis and Clark Expedition. St. Louis remained a gateway into the American West for many years thereafter, attracting scores of migrants from across the country over the following decades. Their numbers were supplemented by thousands of European immigrants, specifically Irish and German settlers who wished to create their own communities out on the frontier. Even though a majority of the settlers merely used St. Louis as a springboard to go further west, quite a few stayed in town and made it their home. St. Louis thus underwent unprecedented growth as its population swelled in size. In fact, the settlement had rapidly transformed into a city mere decades after the American Revolution. St. Louis continued to expand throughout the rest of the 19th century, with its residents voting to establish a home-rule charter during the Gilded Age.   

The city remained a nexus for travel toward the Pacific coast in the early 20th century, although its status as middle America’s preeminent transportation hub had been supplanted by Chicago. However, St. Louis still prospered, thanks to the emergence of largescale industrialization. Perhaps the greatest symbol of St. Louis’s economic success was the renowned Eads Bridge, which helped ship countless manufactured goods all over the nation. Its rising prestige even got it to host two major international events in 1904--the St. Louis World’s Fair and the Summer Olympics! But the city’s prosperity came to an end unfortunately, as it entered a period of decline after World War II. Undeterred, a coalition of local civic leaders and businesspeople sought to reverse St. Louis’ stagnation. Beginning in the 1960s, those concerned citizens launched dozens of construction projects that revitalized downtown St. Louis. Some of the greatest plans led to the creation of well-known landmarks like the ceremonial Gateway Arch and Busch Memorial Stadium, home to the city’s iconic St. Louis Cardinals. The redevelopment efforts worked brilliantly, which resurrected St. Louis’ identity as one of America’s leading cities by the century’s end. St. Louis is still an influential metropolis that now attracts cultural heritage travelers from across the world year after year. 

Renaissance Revival itself architecture—sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance”—is a group of architecture revival styles that date back to the 19th century. Neither Grecian nor Gothic in their appearance, Renaissance Revival-style architecture drew inspiration from a wide range of structural motifs found throughout Early Modern Western Europe. Architects in France and Italy were the first to embrace the artistic movement, who saw the architectural forms of the European Renaissance as an opportunity to reinvigorate a sense of civic pride throughout their communities. As such, those intellectuals incorporated the colonnades and low-pitched roofs of Renaissance-era buildings with the specific characteristics of Mannerist and Baroque-themed architecture. Perhaps the greatest structural component to a Renaissance Revival-style building involved the installation of a grand staircase in a vein similar to those located at both the Château de Blois and the Château de Chambord in France’s Loire Valley. This particular feature served as a central focal point for the design, often directing guests to a magnificent lobby or exterior courtyard. But the nebulous nature of Renaissance Revival architecture meant that its appearance varied widely across Europe and eventually North America. Historians today sometimes find it difficult to provide a specific definition for the architectural movement. Regardless, Renaissance Revival architecture remains one of the world’s most enduring, appearing in countless places across the globe.