STL City + County Series (Part One): The Great Divorce

A divided St. Louis City and County that comprises nearly 100 individual municipalities and two dozen school districts: How did we get here?

City/County reunification and growth are perennial talking points for St. Louisans. This program—the first of a two part series—will untangle the history of St. Louis’s fragmentation, starting with the Great Divorce that split St. Louis City and County into two nearly 150 years ago. Missouri Historical Society Public Historian Andrew Wanko will talk about the vote to divide St. Louis, its ramifications, and efforts to reunify the region in the years since.

In a time when City + County reunification and growth is in the news, this program will provide the context you need to understand how we got to where we are and contribute to the conversation on what comes next for St. Louis.

Please note: Join us for part two of our STL City + County Series on Tuesday, October 14, to explore the data behind St. Louis’s population shifts, the consequences of population declines, and St. Louis’s demographic path forward.

ANDREW WANKO
Andrew Wanko is a public historian with the Missouri Historical Society, where he has served as the content lead on exhibits including Lost Buildings of St. Louis, A Walk in 1875 St. Louis, St. Louis Sound, and Coloring STL. He authored the book Great River City: How the Mississippi Shaped St. Louis, which won a gold medal at the 2019 Independent Publishers Book Awards, and directed the feature-length documentary Show Me 66: Main Street Through Missouri, which won the 2016 Midwest Regional Emmy for Best Historic Documentary Film. He is a three-time winner of the Award of Merit from the American Association of State and Local History.

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