Fort Belle Fontaine

Ancient ruins lie along the bank of the Missouri River in north Saint Louis County...

...but only if you consider the Depression Era ancient history (I hope you do not!).  These 'ruins' were once part of a summer retreat constructed in the 1930s by the Works Progress Administration - a government program initiated by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to help Americans get back to work by constructing large numbers of public works projects.  The photo above and the following photos are of the old showers and bath houses of Fort Belle Fontaine Park:

I thoroughly enjoyed this little discovery of mine because I am fascinated by how much these abandoned buildings look like ancient ruins one would find in the British Isles!

The history of this site owes a lot to FDR and the WPA, but its story begins long before the Great Depression.  Established as a French fur trading post in the late 1700s and named "Cantonment Belle Fontaine," it was converted into the first American military post west of the Mississippi River in the 1805.  Explorers Zebulon Pike (Pike's Peak, Colorado) and Lewis & Clark stopped here for supplies and rest on their journeys west - in the case of Lewis & Clark, this was the location of their camp on the last night of their famous Corps of Discovery expedition.  In 1826, United States military operations were moved to Jefferson Barracks (located in south Saint Louis County on the Mississippi River) and Fort Belle Fontaine was abandoned - today nothing remains of the old fort.  Interest was renewed in the area by a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project in the 1930s that turned the area into a summer retreat. All that remains are the ruins of the limestone structures you see in the photographs that were a very popular summer destitnation in the 1930s and 1940s.

Here we see a gazebo in a state of decay and disrepair, another one of the many pieces of the WPA project.

But the most impressive feature of Fort Belle Fontaine Park is the Grand Staircase:

The Grand Staircase leads visitors from the top of the Missouri River bluffs to the river's edge, where park patrons once enjoyed swimming in the cool river water.

Base of a lamp post at the bottom of the Grand Staircase.

The lowest terrace of the staircase leading to the Missouri River.

The following two photos reveal more of the faded grandeur of the park:

A basin that once housed a fountain on one of the terraces of the Grand Staircase.

Another one of the terrace basins on the Grand Staircase.

View from the top of the Grand Staircase.

"Fort Belle Fontaine - 1805-1826"