Local Religions: Home

The history of the Catholic Church in St. Louis is dominated by strong personalities and architectural grandeur. In Catholic St. Louis: A Pictorial History, rich text and photography capture the people and places that have defined Catholicism in a historic, and historically Catholic, city. Renowned historian William Barnaby Faherty, S.J., delivers concise historical sketches of the integral people and the landmark houses of worship; and photographer Mark Scott Abeln captures nearly forty different area churches in majestic fashion. From the eighteenth-century Holy Family Church in Cahokia to the overwhelming Cathedral Basilica to the modern St. Anselm's in Creve Coeur, St. Louis's churches are significant, not to mention spectacular. This coffee-table book truly presents Catholic St. Louis in all its splendor.

African Americans have been part of the story of St. Louis since the city's founding in 1764. Unfortunately, most histories of the city have overlooked or ignored their vital role, allowing their influence and accomplishments to go unrecorded or uncollected; that is, until the publication of Discovering African American St. Louis: A Guide to Historic Sites in 1994. A new and updated 2002 edition is now available to take readers on a fascinating tour of nearly four hundred African American landmarks. From the boyhood home of jazz great Miles Davis in East St. Louis, Illinois, to the site of the house that sparked the landmark Shelley v. Kraemer court case, the maps, photographs, and text of Discovering African American St. Louis record a history that has been neglected for too long. The guidebook covers fourteen regions east and west of the Mississippi that represent St. Louis's rich African American heritage. In the words of historian Gary Kremer, "No one who reads this book and visits and contemplates the places and peoples whose stories it recounts will be able to look at St. Louis in the same way ever again."