PHOTOS: In the years after the Civil War, the finest lodging downtown was the six-story Southern Hotel, at Fourth and Walnut streets. It took up most of the block where the Stadium East Garage stands today. Next door was Tony Faust's Oyster Bar, the city's best restaurant.
In those days, hotel fires were rightly to be dreaded. The Southern proudly claimed to have a new "annunciator," an early heat-sensing alarm.
Shortly after 1 a.m. on April 11, 1877, the first alarms were screams from guests and employees who saw flames climb the freight elevator from the basement. Most of the 300 guests escaped, but the whirling blaze killed 21 guests and workers and collapsed the Southern into a jagged, smoking pile. Among the dead were eight who jumped.
Fighting the fire gave St. Louis two genuine heroes.