Joseph M. Darst (March 18, 1889, in

St. Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a populatio ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

– June 8, 1953, in St. Louis) was the 37th mayor of St. Louis, serving from 1949 to 1953.

Biography

Darst attended St. Louis University High School, Christian Brothers College, and

Saint Louis University Saint Louis University (SLU) is a private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1818 by Louis William Valentine DuBourg, it is the oldest university west of the Missi ...

. His business career was in real estate, but he was always interested in politics and worked on several campaigns. In 1933, he worked on behalf of Bernard F. Dickmann in his successful race for Mayor. Mayor Dickmann appointed Darst as Director of Public Welfare. During his eight years in this position, Darst oversaw the construction of three public hospitals in St. Louis. Darst returned to his real estate practice in 1941. He made an unsuccessful bid for President of the St. Louis Board of Aldermen in 1943, losing to Aloys P. Kaufmann. Darst served as director of the

Federal Housing Administration The Federal Housing Administration (FHA), also known as the Office of Housing within the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), is a Independent agencies of the United States government, United States government agency founded by Pr ...

(FHA) during 1947-1948. Darst was elected mayor of St. Louis in April 1949. Darst was a proponent of

urban renewal Urban renewal (sometimes called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address real or perceived urban decay. Urban renewal involves the clearing ...

through

slum clearance Slum clearance, slum eviction or slum removal is an urban renewal strategy used to transform low-income settlements with poor reputation into another type of development or housing. This has long been a strategy for redeveloping urban communities; ...

and the construction of large scale affordable

public housing Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...

. This approach to urban renewal has been criticized by later generations of urban planners and theorists such as

Jane Jacobs Jane Isabel Jacobs (''née'' Butzner; 4 May 1916 – 25 April 2006) was an American-Canadian journalist, author, theorist, and activist who influenced urban studies, sociology, and economics. Her book ''The Death and Life of Great American Ci ...

. During Darst's time as Mayor, approximately 700 public housing units were completed. When he left office, an additional 17,000 units were under construction and 4,000 were in the planning stages. Although he was initially opposed to a City earnings tax, Mayor Darst came to believe it was necessary for the City's finances to remain stable. He successfully lobbied the Missouri Legislature to pass legislation enabling the earnings tax. Mayor Darst was in poor health during the last year of his time as Mayor. He died just two months after his term of office expired at age 64, and was buried in Calvary Cemetery.

References

Much of the original content for this article was based on the brief biographies of St. Louis Mayors found at the St. Louis Public Library's website, https://web.archive.org/web/20041013215847/http://exhibits.slpl.lib.mo.us/mayors/mayors4.asp * {{DEFAULTSORT:Darst, Joseph Mayors of St. Louis Saint Louis University alumni 1889 births 1953 deaths 20th-century mayors of places in Missouri