ST. CHARLES COUNTY HISTORY

St. Charles was founded when a French-Canadian Fur Trader named Louis Blanchette established the first settlement on the north side of the Missouri River, west of its confluence with the Mississippi River. The small village of St. Louis was a few miles downriver on the Mississippi. In 1769, the rivers were the highways, and travel routes, of the Territory that later became the Louisiana, then Missouri Territory. Purchased from France in 1804, the great expedition made by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, established its Main Street was where about 100 families lived, according to their journals.

Today, Historic St. Charles Main Street has over 150 properties along it, with history of more than 150 years at least. If you are visiting St. Charles, the buildings that line it have intriguing history that share the stories of St. Charles back to when it was officially incorporated in 1809. If interested, the City of St. Charles has a great “app” or GIS map that you can download to your phone or computer for free, and read those stories, complete with early photos, of all 150 buildings.

Here is the LINK: https://arcg.is/1qqHzn0