Background
Merriweather Lewis Clark was born at St. Louis, United States.
Merriweather Lewis Clark was born at St. Louis, United States.
Educated for a military career at West Point, he was graduated in 1830 and served for a few years in the Army, later however resigned to return to civil life and the study of architecture.
As to his life and practice in St. Louis, one of his best known works is the Church of St. Vincent de Paul, built in 1844 at Park Avenue and Ninth Street and still standing, and across the street is the old Soulard mansion built by him a few years earlier. Mr. Clark also designed the St. Louis (Shakespeare) Theatre at the southeast corner of Third and Olive which stood from 1837 until destroyed by fire in 1855. A pretentious building in the city, it is said to have cost seventy thousand dollars.