ST. LOUIS • The forecast for Thursday, Sept. 29, 1927, was for rain. It was cloudy and 72 degrees at noon. In Central High School, 1,750 students tended to their studies.
The barometer fell steadily at the Weather Bureau office downtown in the Railway Exchange Building, where forecasters went upstairs for a look. To their west was a low, black thunderstorm charging to the northeast. Sudden torrents of rain chased them inside.
They couldn't see the tornado churning through the heart of the city. In barely five minutes, it killed 78 people and seriously injured an additional 550 along a seven-mile path.
The tornado touched down hard shortly before 1 p.m. in the industrial district near Manchester Avenue and Kingshighway, killing three men at a brick works, two in a pipe yard and three at an ice house. It bored into the mansions along West Pine and Lindell boulevards near the New Cathedral.
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Gaining power, it shattered whole blocks along Westminster Place, Sarah Street, Garfield Avenue, Page Boulevard, Cote Brilliante Avenue and other streets. At Central High, at North Grand Boulevard and Finney Avenue, it toppled a large ornamental tower into the auditorium, just missing the busy cafeteria. But principal Stephen Douglas' head count came up short.
All night, beneath the glow of acetylene lamps, rescue workers dug into the wreck of Central. They uncovered the bodies of five girls, ages 13 to 17, who had taken refuge in a biology lab.
Firefighters remove the body of one of the five female students who were killed when Central High School, then at North Grand Boulevard and Finney Avenue, was struck by a tornado on the afternoon Sept. 29, 1927. All told, 78 people were killed by the storm in 51ºÚÁÏ and in Madison County. The girls were Eva Michalske, 3; Zena Schneider, 17; Blanche Reid, 15; Alice Berner, 15; and Lois Shaw, 14. They were buried by the collapse the school's large ornamental tower, which fell into the auditorium area. Firefighters worked through the night and didn't find the last body until 26 hours after the tornado struck. (Post-Dispatch)
The storm heavily damaged six other schools, including West Belle School, where an 11-year-old girl was killed by a collapsed wall.
The tornado ripped up the pavilion at Sportsman's Park, at North Grand and Dodier Street, and mangled the Hyde Park neighborhood before crossing into Illinois, where eight more people died, including Venice Police Chief Michael Clifford and six men scalded by molten metal in a Granite City foundry.
The Missouri National Guard opened its armory at 3676 Market Street to the dispossessed. Among them was O.W. Bevan, who didn't want to impose upon relatives, "My six children are mischievous," he said.
Frustrated by jams of sightseers, Police Chief Joseph Gerk threatened, "We will give them a shovel and put them to work." On Oct. 2, a dog named Tiddles led searchers to his master, William Farnoff, whose body was found beneath two feet of broken brick at 4222 McPherson Avenue.
More than 460 homes were destroyed and an additional 800 heavily damaged in the city. Streetcar service didn't resume for four days. Central High later was moved toÌýNatural Bridge and Garrison avenues.
The storm was the second deadliest in 51ºÚÁÏ, behind only a massive tornado that killed 255 in 1896. In 1959, another tornado closely followed the 1927 path, killing 21 people.
The massive destruction of the tornado of '27
A crushed car rests on the sidewalk of the 4100 block of Olive Street. (Post-Dispatch)
Maryland Avenue at Whittier Street, looking south. (Post-Dispatch)
1927 Tornado map
An aerial view of the 3600 block of Evans Avenue, between Sarah Street and North Grand Boulevard. (Clint Murphy/Post-Dispatch)
Staircases exposed in the destruction in the 4100 block of McPherson Avenue. (Post-Dispatch)
Boy Scouts assist on one of the mobile Red Cross kitchens that served people whose homes were destroyed or damaged by the tornado. (Post-Dispatch)
The destruction on Sarah Street on the block south of Page Avenue, looking south from Page. (Post-Dispatch)
The remains of a temporary classroom outside West Belle School, 3963 West Belle Place. Lorene Thomas, 11, was killed when the walls blew apart. (Post-Dispatch)
An aerial view looking upon Fairfax Avenue at Sarah Street. A Post-Dispatch photographer took aerial photographs while riding an Army blimp from Scott Field. The Army was helping map the destruction for city officials. (Clint Murphy/Post-Dispatch)
Residents of the 4100 block of Page Avenue survey what's left of their back yards. (Post-dispatch)
Mr. and Mrs. Henry Jobe and their four children take shelter at the Missouri National Guard Armory at 3676 Market Street. Their home at 3839 Cozens Avenue was wrecked by the tornado. (Post-Dispatch)
Firefighters remove the body of one of the five female students who were killed when Central High School, then at North Grand Boulevard and Finney Avenue, was struck by a tornado on the afternoon Sept. 29, 1927. All told, 78 people were killed by the storm in 51ºÚÁÏ and in Madison County. The girls were Eva Michalske, 3; Zena Schneider, 17; Blanche Reid, 15; Alice Berner, 15; and Lois Shaw, 14. They were buried by the collapse the school's large ornamental tower, which fell into the auditorium area. Firefighters worked through the night and didn't find the last body until 26 hours after the tornado struck. (Post-Dispatch)
At 51ºÚÁÏ University High School, 4910 Oakland Avenue, broke through the roof over the main altar in the chapel. None of the students was hurt seriously. (Post-Dispatch)
Some of the destruction on Cottage Avenue west of North Grand Boulevard caused by the tornado of Sept. 29, 1927. It was the second deadliest tornado on record in 51ºÚÁÏ, second only to the Great Cyclone of May 27, 1896, which killed 255 on both sides of the Mississippi River. Many years later, the National Weather Service estimated the storm as an F-3 tornado, based mainly upon photographs such as these. The ranking system uses a scale from 0 to 5. A tornado that struck 51ºÚÁÏ on Feb. 9, 1959, closely followed the path of the 1927 storm and killed 21. (Post-Dispatch)
The storm tossed automobiles as it roared across North Grand Boulevard near 51ºÚÁÏ Avenue. A woman employee was killed in Lindell Trust Co., at left. (Post-Dispatch)
City workers clear debris from Destrehan Street, south of Hyde Park. (Post-Dispatch)
The storm blew down the statue of Edward Bates, a lawyer in 51ºÚÁÏ who served as attorney general to President Abraham Lincoln. The statue was at the corner of Kingshighway and Chouteau Avenue, now site of the Kingshighway interchange with Interstate 64 (U.S. Highway 40). These days, the statue is in the western section of the park, near the Forest Park golf course. (Post-Dispatch)
Storm victims carry clothing they received from a Red Cross aid station. The location was not specified in the original caption. (Post-Dispatch)
Residents of a wrecked building on Lindell Boulevard salvage what furniture they can one week after the tornado. (Post-Dispatch)
Destruction in the neighborhood just south of the 51ºÚÁÏ Cathedral, visible in the upper middle at Lindell Boulevard and Newstead Avenue. The cathedral was not damaged heavily. (Clint Murphy/Post-Dispatch)
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