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The Battle of Camp Jackson, known to some (especially to secesh) as the Camp Jackson Massacre, took place on May 10, 1861, in a western suburb of St. Louis then known as Lindell's Grove. Here's a decent summary on the event:
As some of you Westerners may know, today the site of the encampment is owned by Saint Louis University. At the moment it's a beautiful undeveloped green space in the middle of an urban college campus. The University is now collecting public opinion on the development of the site. This is inevitable; it's prime real estate in downtown St. Louis, and in fact that space had already been developed in the past, complete with fast-food restaurants, copy shops and the like. Those eyesores were removed when SLU bought the land, and the site has remained an open grassy space since then. But now the University is going ahead.
While there's nothing that can be done about the plans to build on the site, it may be possible to influence at least the design of the architecture. Last September a group of us managed to persuade SLU to allow us to stage an authentic encampment on the site to highlight the historic nature of the space. The event received a little bit of media coverage and was well-received in the community, so I'm hoping that there's already some good will toward the notion of at least preserving the historic look and feel of the area.
I'd like to encourage all of you to consider going to this link:
and answering the questions. Most of the responses aren't relevant to the idea of preservation, but there's space to add your own ideas towrd the end of the questionnaire. It would probably be most helpful to stress the historic nature of the site, the fact that St. Louisans have been made more aware of the site's importance because of SLU's generosity in funding the encampment last fall, and the opportunity to reach out to the wider community.
Thanks for taking the time to do this.
Regards,
As some of you Westerners may know, today the site of the encampment is owned by Saint Louis University. At the moment it's a beautiful undeveloped green space in the middle of an urban college campus. The University is now collecting public opinion on the development of the site. This is inevitable; it's prime real estate in downtown St. Louis, and in fact that space had already been developed in the past, complete with fast-food restaurants, copy shops and the like. Those eyesores were removed when SLU bought the land, and the site has remained an open grassy space since then. But now the University is going ahead.
While there's nothing that can be done about the plans to build on the site, it may be possible to influence at least the design of the architecture. Last September a group of us managed to persuade SLU to allow us to stage an authentic encampment on the site to highlight the historic nature of the space. The event received a little bit of media coverage and was well-received in the community, so I'm hoping that there's already some good will toward the notion of at least preserving the historic look and feel of the area.
I'd like to encourage all of you to consider going to this link:
and answering the questions. Most of the responses aren't relevant to the idea of preservation, but there's space to add your own ideas towrd the end of the questionnaire. It would probably be most helpful to stress the historic nature of the site, the fact that St. Louisans have been made more aware of the site's importance because of SLU's generosity in funding the encampment last fall, and the opportunity to reach out to the wider community.
Thanks for taking the time to do this.
Regards,
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