Social Squares · Missouri · The Show-Me State
Missouri, town by town
One calm page for each Missouri town: what’s on this weekend from the library, the schools, the churches and city hall, its history, and every local shop on one hand-drawn map. Free, no ads, kept by neighbors. The fish fry, the county fair and the Friday night game, all in one place.
Tap a pin to step into that town’s Square.
Open now
Every Missouri Square, A to Z
Made in Missouri
Missouri firsts
- 1860The Pony Express St. Joseph
The first Pony Express rider set out from St. Joseph on April 3, 1860, carrying mail toward Sacramento, California. The service lasted only about a year and a half. Source
- 1873The first public kindergarten St. Louis
Susan Blow opened a kindergarten at the Des Peres School in Carondelet, then part of St. Louis, in 1873. It is called the first successful public kindergarten in the U.S. Source
- 1904The Olympics come to America St. Louis
The 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis were the first held outside Europe, and the first to give gold, silver and bronze medals for first, second and third place. Source
- 1904The ice cream cone St. Louis
A favorite story says a vendor at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis rolled a waffle into a cone when the ice cream stand next door ran out of cups. Others claim it too, and cones show up in an 1888 cookbook. Source
- 1906Walt Disney's Main Street Marceline
Walt Disney spent four boyhood years on a farm near Marceline, and the town says it inspired Main Street, U.S.A. in his parks. The Walt Disney Hometown Museum sits in the old rail depot. Source
- 1912A parachute jump from an airplane St. Louis
On March 1, 1912, Albert Berry jumped from a plane flying over St. Louis and landed at Jefferson Barracks. He is called the first to parachute from a moving airplane, though a California jump in 1911 is also reported. Source
- 1928Sliced bread Chillicothe
On July 7, 1928, the Chillicothe Baking Company sold the first bread sliced by machine, on a slicer built by Otto Rohwedder of Davenport, Iowa. It was called Kleen Maid Sliced Bread. Source
- 1932The Little House books Mansfield
Laura Ingalls Wilder moved to Rocky Ridge Farm near Mansfield in 1894 and lived there while her Little House books came out, from 1932 to 1943. The house is a museum today. Source
- 1943George Washington Carver National Monument Diamond
Near Diamond, where scientist George Washington Carver was born, stands the first national monument to honor an African American, and the first for someone who wasn't a president. Source
- 1965The Gateway Arch St. Louis
Finished on October 28, 1965, the Gateway Arch in St. Louis stands 630 feet tall, the tallest arch in the world. Source
Your town next?
Each Square opens with its own history, photos and calendar, and a neighbor to keep it. If your Missouri town isn’t here yet, tell us, or add your church’s, school’s or club’s calendar and help it open.