The First Chain Stores...

Busch beer, the home of the clydesdales, began the corner taverns in St. Louis. Yes, they had to be on the corner - more visibility that way and all sported the huge Budweiser neon signs. It all began in the early 30's after prohibition.

The corner taverns were unique and every evening after work, neighbors gather and come carrying their little beer buckets and containers to have them filled up with iced cold draft beer.

Back then too, the breweries, even Stag, in Belleville, gave employees all the beer they wanted. If I'm not mistaken Stag, set up corner taverns too. Besides having many breweries, Star brewery being another, there were many shaft coal mines throughout the city of Belleville in the early 1900's and 20's. A streetcar ran from Belleville to St. Louis. Soon, the popular gas automobile became so popular, that the electric street cars went out of service and later buses took their place.

E. St. Louis was a prosperous rail road town with huge meat packing plants. Swifts was one of them. National Stock Yards resided in National City surrounding by E. St. Louis. There were many people living there in huge beautiful houses unique ornate triming. But, with racism in the South and no jobs there, even though in the 60's Johnson gave them the right to vote. Many locals in the South tried to make sure that they wouldn't get the chance to vote either. So many of the black community migrated up North to E. St. Louis on trains and settled there where they could find jobs on the river and in the train yards. in the 60's a great white migration from E. St. Louis up Edgemount hill into Belleville took place vowing someday to reclaim their city. The former residents of E. St. Louis were not happy and felt "forced" to move. E. St. Louis is a wreck now. But, very slowly turning around and becoming a great rehab center for commercial and home ventures for many construction investors. Slowly its turning around and pushing the poor residents there now up the hill too into Belleville. I'm curious to see what the next few years hold in store for the two communities. Will there be a complete swap in locations for each group? Will the whites reclaim E. St. Louis. But, most of those people who lived down there are dead and gone now; so, I can't see it making any difference at all...maybe to their families. Who knows. It certainly would be very close for workers and near retiring people to live in a cool riverfront condos right across from the Arch facing the downtown skyline. Cool! And I think many Illinoisans wish to remain in Illinois when retired to avoid paying state tax on their retirement income that is required in Missouri. E. St. Louis will one day be a fabulous place to live. Maybe someone should redesign and rebuild a city like "New Town, Missouri" a totally planned "town" complete with homes, condos, townhouses, post office and businesses. What a concept!