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 Roads and Highways

With the popularity of the automobile came new demands for better roads on which to drive. By 1902, The Automobile Club of St. Louis was already lobbying for better road conditions. Before the advent of the auto, roads were taken care of by each individual county, but this quickly changed. In 1909 a General State Road Fund was created, and in 1913 the State Highway Department was created. By the end of 1917, 11,000 miles of road had been improved. In 1921 the Centennial Road Law was passed, allowing for a state highway system to be built. The work on the state highway system was said to “get Missouri out of the mud.”

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Workers repaving Twelfth Street, no date.


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Men pulling a car out of the mud in Florissant, 1907.
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Several automobiles stopped at a crossroads on a dirt road, ca. early 1900s.
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Ashley Gray (holding pitcher) and B. F. Gray Jr. drove this Pope-Toledo from St. Louis to Columbia, 1905.

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"The Auto Review's map, the best city streets over which to reach the countryside," 1906 From The Auto Review.
 

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