Delmar Loop

The Delmar Loop is an entertainment, cultural and restaurant district in University City, Missouri and the adjoining western edge of St. Louis, Missouri. Many of its attractions are located in the streetcar suburb of University City, but the area is expanding eastward into the Skinker-Debaliviere Neighborhood of the City of St. Louis proper. In 2007, the American Planning Association named the Delmar Loop "One of the 10 Great Streets in America."

Origin

The area gets its name from a streetcar turnaround, or "loop", formerly located in the area.

Delmar Boulevard was originally known as Morgan Street. According to Norbury L. Wayman in his circa 1980 series History of St. Louis Neighborhoods, the name Delmar was coined when two early landowners living on opposite sides of the road, one from Delaware and one from Maryland, combined the names of their home states. The town of Delmar, Delaware, on the border between the two states, derived its name in similar fashion.

MetroLink light rail transit station is at the east side of the area. There are plans to build a 2.2-mile (3.5 km) trolley line from The Loop to the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park.

Delmar Loop (St. Louis MetroLink)

Delmar Loop is a St. Louis MetroLink Station. This station features 362 park and ride spaces. It is adjacent to the Delmar Loop entertainment district that straddles St. Louis and St. Louis County. Nearby attractions include the restored Tivoli Theater as well as the new Pageant Theater along with the numerous restaurants and shops that line Delmar Boulevard. Directly adjacent to the stop is the North Campus of Washington University.

Trolley

There will be also a station for the Delmar Loop Trolley. It will travel along Delmar Boulevard to the Loop.

External links

Coordinates: 38°39′21″N 90°17′40″W / 38.655733°N 90.294574°W / 38.655733; -90.294574

Delmar Loop Trolley

The Delmar Loop Trolley is a 2.2-mile (3.5 km) heritage trolley line under construction that will serve the Delmar Loop district in St. Louis, Missouri and University City, Missouri. The line will have 10 stations and serve the Missouri History Museum in Forest Park, Washington University in St. Louis, two MetroLink stations; Forest Park–DeBaliviere station and Delmar Loop station, University City City Hall, and all the Delmar Loop attractions. The system will use two replica-historic streetcars, instead of earlier plans to use two Peter Witt-type streetcars that were acquired and placed on display to promote the project in the mid-2000s. A grant of $25 million in Federal Transit Administration (FTA) funding for the project was approved in July 2010, as part of the FTA's Urban Circulator Grant Program. Construction began in March 2015, and opening is targeted for late 2016.

History

St. Louis ran Peter Witt-type streetcars from 1927 to 1951. Later, PCC streetcars manufactured by the St. Louis Car Company plied the streets until ultimately being shut down in the Great American streetcar scandal. The Delmar Loop originally got its name from the streetcar turnaround which occupied two oblong blocks on the north side of Delmar east from Kingsland Avenue. The loop was used by the Olive-Delmar line. The Creve Coeur line coming south up Kingsland also terminated at the Loop, with the cars backing into it from Kingsland. The loop originally was located adjacent to the Delmar Gardens amusement park, a vestige of which are Eastgate and Westgate avenues, located at the east and west gates of the park. Another streetcar line, the Kirkwood-Ferguson line, traveled north and south a few blocks east of the Loop. And a private line to what is now University City Hall extended west down Delmar.