ST. LOUIS – The conclusion of the 2026 Winter Olympics serve as a reminder to St. Louis of when the city hosted the first games in North America more than 120 years ago. While much of the 1904 Olympics’ history may be gone, there is one space that has remained all this time.
Francis Olympic Field, sitting at Washington University in St. Louis, is the oldest Olympics stadium that is still in use today. It was named after David R. Francis, a graduate “whose visionary efforts brought the Olympic Games to St. Louis in parallel with the 1904 World’s Fair,” according to a monument outside the field.
The area was built in 1902 in preparation for the games, but has now been serving the community for 124 years—noteworthy as the first representation of reinforced concrete technology…