­ 3­ Preserving­Catholic­space­and­place­in­“The­Rome­of­the­West”­

Stainless steel and higher than any other monument in the United States, the Gateway Arch towers over the city of St. Louis as a symbol of westward expansion. Captured in its shadow along the Mississippi River’s west bank is the Catholic Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis IX, King of France-“The Old Cathedral.” Its own impressive stature long precedes that of the proximate Arch. Founded in 1770, the parish served the entire population of Catholics in St. Louis, then arriving primarily from France. Fourteen large windows and a 40-foot nave illuminated­worship­space­for­the­15,000­parishioners­it­once­claimed­as­the­only­ Catholic­church­in­the­city.­The­“mother­church”­was­the­first­cathedral­west­of­ the Mississippi, and the only building on the river’s edge to remain when the ­derelict­waterfront­was­cleared­in­1963.