Red’s Giant Hamburg sometime after it closed in December 1984. [State Historical Society of Missouri, David Eslick Photograph Collection, SP0088, 1976-2001]

The original Red’s Giant Hamburg on Route 66 in Springfield, Missouri, was a legendary roadside spot for…

Hugh Robinson. [Courtesy of DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University]

Hugh Armstrong Robinson, a member of the distinguished Early Birds…

Frisco logo

The St. Louis–San Francisco Railway, popularly known as the Frisco, was a regional freight and passenger carrier…

Ted Drewes Frozen Custard on Chippewa, which was once part of Route 66 in St. Louis. [Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo by Philip Leara]

When pundits make lists of the foods most associated with St. Louis, they usually highlight such…

Van Horn Tavern in 1913

The Gentry–Threlkeld–Van Horn Tavern, usually referred to as the Van Horn Tavern, was the last known log…

William Bradford Waddell. [State Historical Society of Missouri, Waddell Smith Photograph Collection, P0727]

William Bradford Waddell typified the mid-nineteenth-century entrepreneur who shaped the…