Culture of St. Louis

The Museum of Westward Expansion, located below the Gateway Arch, details the history of exploration and settlement of the American West.

Nearby, St. Louis Union Station is a renovated railroad terminal that includes retail shops and a luxury hotel, and the privately-owned City Museum is a playground-like funhouse attraction located in the Washington Avenue Historic District.

[3] Cahokia Mounds, located near Collinsville, Illinois, holds the ruins of the 12th-century city of the ancient Mississippian aboriginal culture.

St. Louis is home to the Fox Theatre, located in Grand Center, which presents Broadway shows and concert or speaking events.

[5] Renovations have finished on the Peabody Opera House, located in Downtown West, which allowed for the reopening of the building in October 2011.

Chuck Berry, a native St. Louisan, continued to perform in the area throughout his life, while jazz musician Miles Davis had early ties to musical clubs in the region.

The area also was home to several significant blues artists, such as Little Milton, Oliver Sain, Albert King, Henry Townsend, Johnnie Johnson, James Crutchfield, and Bennie Smith.

The region has also produced alt-country bands such as The Bottle Rockets and Uncle Tupelo, whose members went on to found Wilco and Son Volt, as well as rap and hip hop artists like 100 gecs, Nelly, Ali, Murphy Lee, Chingy, J-Kwon, Smino, and producer Metro Boomin.

Several musical clubs in the area are in the Delmar Loop, including The Pageant and Blueberry Hill.

It was built in the Byzantine and Romanesque styles with a large interior mosaic series, and it hosted Pope John Paul II in January 1999.