LOUIS, St., a city and river port in the state of Missouri, U.S. of North America, is situate on the right bank of the Mississippi, about 20 miles below the junction of the Missouri, and 1194 miles above New Orleans. N. Lat. 38. 37. 28., W. Long. 90. 15. 16. Next to New Orleans, this is the principal port on the Mississippi; and among the western cities it is second only to Cincinnati in population and wealth. The Upper Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri, and their numerous tributaries, furnish it with upwards of 8000 miles of connected water communication, and open up to it countries rich beyond description in mineral, vegetable, and animal products. The mineral resources of its immediate vicinity are very great, comprising iron, coal, lead, and probably copper. The town extends for nearly 7 miles along the curve of the Mississippi, and about 3 miles backward; but the dense portion of it is only about 2½ miles in length by 1¼ in breadth. It stands on two plateaux of limestone formation, the one 20, the other 60 feet above the highest flood of the river. The ascent to the first plateau is rather abrupt; the second rises more gradually, and spreads out into an extensive plain, affording fine views of the city and river. The town is well and regularly laid out; the streets, with few exceptions, being wide, and intersecting each other at right angles. Front Street, Main Street, and Second Street run parallel to each other and to the river, and are the seat of the principal wholesale business. Fourth Street
Louis. is the fashionable promenade, and contains the finest retail shops. The houses are well built and handsome, chiefly of brick, though limestone is sometimes used. The new court-house, a magnificent building, resembling in style the Capitol at Washington, is constructed of limestone, and occupies an entire square. The fronts are adorned with porticos, and in the interior is a rotunda lighted from the dome. Among the finest of the other buildings are,—the Roman Catholic cathedral, a number of the other churches, the market-house, arsenal, and several of the hotels and private residences. There are at present about 60 places of worship in St. Louis, of which 12 are Roman Catholic, 12 Methodist, 8 Presbyterian, 5 Episcopal, 2 Jewish synagogues.
The educational and literary institutions are numerous and efficient. The university of St. Louis, organized in 1832, and under the direction of the Roman Catholics, is a well-ordered and flourishing institution, having, in 1855, 20 instructors, 175 students, and 15,400 volumes in library. The medical college connected with it is also in a very flourishing condition. The medical department of the Missouri college is also located here. The Mercantile Library Association, organized in 1846 and incorporated in 1851, has recently erected, at a cost of about L.20,000, a magnificent building, four storeys in height, having a library and reading-room, lecture-room, grand hall, &c. The benevolent institutions comprise several hospitals, asylums, &c. The city hospital, long distinguished for its excellent accommodation, has recently been found inadequate to the wants of a rapidly increasing population, and the erection of new buildings is in agitation. The marine hospital, sisters' hospital, the home for the friendless, designed for aged indigent females, and the house of refuge, are all valuable institutions. Of the Roman Catholic and Protestant orphan asylums, the former is under the direction of Sisters of Charity, the latter of Protestant ladies.
The city is supplied with water from the river, raised by means of steam engines into a reservoir 250 feet square by 15 feet deep, and capable of containing 5,000,000 gallons, and thence distributed over the city by about 36 miles of pipes. It is in contemplation to construct another reservoir, 540 feet in length, 250 in breadth, and 25 in depth, and capable of containing 52,000,000 gallons. Gas-works have recently been erected here, and about 33 miles of street pipes are now laid down.
The manufactures of St. Louis, although still in their infancy, are of great importance, and rapidly increasing. The flour-mills are here more extensive than in any other city in the west. The product of the various mills for 1852 amounted to 393,184 barrels, and their daily capacity is estimated at 3000 barrels. Sugar refining is actively carried on; Belcher's sugar refinery being one of the largest in the Union. The vast mineral resources of the district are being taken advantage of, and the iron manufactures of St. Louis already exceed those of any other city on the Mississippi, if not in the west. Chemicals, oils, and tobacco are among the more important of its other manufactures. It is, however, as a commercial city that St. Louis is most important. The shipping owned in the district at 30th June 1852 amounted, according to the custom-house returns, to an aggregate of 37,861 tons, enrolled and licensed, of which 32,646 were steamers. The aggregate number of arrivals of steamers during 1852 was 3184.
St. Louis was founded in 1764, but up to 1820 it contained only 4598 inhabitants, and in 1830 only 6694. In 1840 it had reached 16,469, and in 1850, 77,854, of whom 75,204 were free and 2650 slaves; 23,774 were natives of Germany, 11,257 of Ireland, 2933 of England, and 2450 of other foreign countries. An official return of the population of St. Louis in 1855 gives the number of inhabitants in the city proper as 97,612, of whom 91,686 were free.
The entire population of the city and suburbs is estimated at nearly 120,000.
Louis, St., a small island belonging to France, on the W. coast of Africa, Senegambia, at the mouth of the Senegal River, N. Lat. 16. 5., W. Long. 16. 32. It is low and sandy, about 2 miles long by half a mile in breadth, and nearly 5 miles from the debouchment of the Senegal. Situate on the island is a town and seaport of the same name, where the governor resides; it can only be reached by vessels of light burthen. Pop. of island, 15,000, of whom 800 are whites.