The Brickline Greenway's First Real Mile Is Built to Be Read Slowly

"Benches and bushes outline the plot lines." That's how Great Rivers Greenway describes the landscaping along Market Street between Compton Avenue and 20th Street. The phrase sounds like design language until you notice the concrete at your feet. Each parcel's pre-demolition address is etched into the path, and the plantings trace the homes and businesses that stood on the block before Mill Creek Valley was cleared.

That detail explains the city's newest stretch of greenway better than any mileage figure. The Market Street segment opened April 13, 2026. It runs almost a mile, from St. Louis CITY SC's Energizer Park at 22nd Street to the Harris-Stowe State University campus at Compton. It's the longest continuous piece of the Brickline Greenway you can walk today. It was also built as a memorial first and a route second, so the person who gets the most out of it walks it slowly.

A short open network, with one stretch long enough to walk

The size of the overall project is the reason this mile stands out. The Brickline is a $245 million effort to link Tower Grove Park with Fairground Park and Forest Park with the Gateway Arch, and its leaders expect to finish around 2030. As of this month, Great Rivers Greenway counts 1.25 miles built.

Those 1.25 miles come in two pieces. One is the original 2018 segment at the Cortex MetroLink Station, from Boyle to Sarah, which is 0.27 miles long. The other is Market Street. Its eastern end, from 20th to 22nd Street, was built in 2023 with St. Louis CITY SC and the City of St. Louis. This spring it was extended west to Compton in partnership with Harris-Stowe.

Put another way, nearly all of the Brickline you can walk today runs through the old footprint of a single neighborhood. That's the main reason to walk it now and not wait for the full network.

What the mile was designed to hold

Great Rivers Greenway calls Pillars of the Valley a mile-long permanent public art installation. It commemorates Mill Creek Valley, where 20,000 Black residents were displaced in the name of "urban renewal." St. Louis artist Damon Davis created it with Great Rivers Greenway, St. Louis CITY SC, the City of St. Louis, Counterpublic and Harris-Stowe. Former residents contributed, and The Griot Museum of Black History and the Missouri Historical Society supported the work. St. Louis Public Radio reports that the neighborhood was demolished in 1959.

The installation has three layers. Each one asks for a different kind of attention.

1. The pillars. The original installation by Energizer Park is eight black-granite monuments, each 15 feet tall and shaped like an hourglass. According to the granite fabricator Coldspring, each pedestal holds a textured V-shaped limestone piece that represents the sand in an hourglass. Inside each pillar is a quote from someone who lived in the neighborhood. Great Rivers Greenway says Davis wants visitors to "put in the effort to unearth their voices," so the quotes aren't printed at eye level for a passing glance.
2. The plinth. A large granite slab lists the name, age and occupation of everyone who lived on that block of Market Street, alongside Davis's artist statement. A map shows Mill Creek Valley in the 1940s and 1950s, with the four buildings still standing marked in gold. The back of the slab is a relief of the Mill Creek watershed.
3. The ground itself. The landscaping outlines the old lots and the addresses are set into the concrete, so the dense, walkable block that once stood here is drawn right under the new path.

A tactile model and an overview in raised text and braille let visitors with low or no vision experience the work. The 2026 extension also added a new mural honoring the St. Louis Stars, the Negro National League team. Students from St. Louis Art Works created it.

The pillars were unveiled on February 16, 2023. That was 64 years to the day after the first wrecking ball hit Mill Creek Valley.

Why the pace matters this fall

Anyone hoping to learn more about Mill Creek Valley indoors has fewer options right now. The Missouri History Museum's Mill Creek: Black Metropolis exhibit ran from November 15, 2025, to July 12, 2026, and it has closed. The museum's "See STL: Urban Renewal" tour includes Mill Creek Valley, but its listed date was June 20, 2026, and no fall date is posted. Until new programs are announced, the pillars, plinth and etched addresses on Market Street are the most direct way into the story this season.

That's why a slow walk works best. At a commuting pace, the mile goes by in a few minutes and the quotes, names and addresses all blur. At a reading pace, you're walking past the list of people who lived on the block, the map of the four surviving buildings and the outline of each lot, all in sequence.

Pairing the walk with the fall calendar

The path's two ends give you natural reasons to come down here. Energizer Park sits at the east end, and the Union Station MetroLink station is close by. Great Rivers Greenway says game days at Energizer Park include programming on the history of the site.

The match dates and opponents come from the club's 2026 regular-season schedule. Published kickoff times differ between sources, so check the CITY SC schedule before you plan a pregame walk. The Union Station dates come from the station's events calendar.

Energizer Park will also host the quarterfinal and semifinal rounds of the Big Ten Women's Soccer Tournament. The conference places them in the same early-November window as its Nov. 4 to 8 field hockey tournament, ahead of the Nov. 13 championship match, but it hasn't announced exact dates for the St. Louis rounds.

For a walk with less going on, start at the west end. The April opening celebration was held at Harris-Stowe, 3050 Laclede Avenue, by the Compton trailhead. If you walk east from there, you finish at the pillars by Energizer Park, where the installation first went up in 2023.

Where the next walkable stretches will come from

A few parts of the Brickline route are visible from the sidewalk this fall but aren't ready to walk yet. Here's where each one stands, based on Great Rivers Greenway's own project pages.

• North Connector, Natural Bridge to Page. This 1.3-mile segment runs from Fairground Park south on Grand, west on Cass and south on Spring to Page. Construction began August 20, 2025. Most work is expected to finish by the end of 2026, with a community opening planned for spring 2027.
• Spring Avenue, Page to Lindell. This 0.8-mile segment runs through the Covenant Blu-Grand Center neighborhood and will connect the Grand Center Arts District, Saint Louis University and the John J. Cochran Veterans Hospital. The project page says construction "should begin in Fall 2026" and finish by spring 2028. As of the latest updates, there's no confirmation that work has started.
• Spring Avenue at I-64. A new greenway bridge will run between the two decks of the highway to reconnect Spring Avenue toward the Grand MetroLink Station and City Foundry STL. Federal funding is secured, and construction begins in 2027.
• Market Street, 20th Street to the Gateway Arch. This 1.25-mile extension will continue east from Energizer Park to Citygarden, Kiener Plaza, the Old Courthouse and Gateway Arch National Park. It's in early planning and is expected to be done around 2029.

Great Rivers Greenway's dedicated Market Street project page still lists the segment as under construction with a spring 2026 target. The project update page lists the extension to Compton as built in 2026. St. Louis Public Radio reported the official opening on Monday, April 13, the same day as the grand-opening celebration.

None of those segments reaches Market Street before 2029. Until then, the mile between Compton and 20th stays a stand-alone walk, with the names, quotes and lot lines of Mill Creek Valley along the whole route.

Interest in walkable spaces like this often shapes how people think about where they live in the city. If you'd like to talk about how projects like the Brickline Greenway fit into your own plans in St. Louis, Susan Hurley Homes is glad to help. Request a Complimentary Consultation.