Exploring a Late Nineteenth-Century German Neighborhood in Old North St. Louis

Old North St. Louis, now blighted due to a half-century of decline, was founded as an independent village in 1816. It later became a focal point of German immigration to St. Louis shortly after its annexation in 1841. Block 1136 developed from 1860 to 1910 as a densely populated neighborhood of skilled workers of German ethnicity. In 2003, excavations in a portion of this block exposed three privy vaults. These features were abandoned ca. 1875-1885 after city sewer facilities became available. This paper analyzes these features and relates them to broader issues of socioeconomics and sanitation practices.