Hi everyone, after almost a year (hard drive crashed) I've finally gotten back on line. Nobody could be happier than me. I noticed the emails about Carondelet. Since I grew up there and my Dad's family lived there before it was annexed by St. Louis (1870), I thought I would jump in. Residents always called it Carondele"t" nor "Carondelay". The town was named for the Spanish governor who actually was Flemish (see below-also correct pronunciation). My family never referred to themselves as living in South St. Louis. They always referred to themselves as living in Carondelet. I can't remember the name of the movie, it escapes me now - it was the one with Kevin Costner and the JFK murder conspiracy. Anyway, in the movie the street in New Orleans by that named was also pronounced Carondele"t". like the area in South St. Louis. The only time I have ever heard it pronounced Carondelay was in a bookstore in Clayton. There is a street in Clayton named Carondelet. It was named after the town of Carondelet so I would think the correct pronunciation would be what the natives of Carondelet called it. Not that that couldn't be wrong - look at the way the River des Peres is mispronounced. Was it Tom Brokaw who pronounced it correctly in 1993 (the flood) and created a stir? Nice to be back, Paulette FROM: http://reference.allrefer.com/encyclopedia/C/Carondel.html Carondelet, Francisco Luis Hector, baron de[frAnthEs´kO lOOEs´ ektOr´ bArOn´ dA kArOndAlet´], c.1748–1807, governor of Louisiana (1791–97) and West Florida (1791–95), b. Noyelles, Flanders. He married into the Las Casas family, prominent in Spanish colonial affairs. He came to New Orleans from the governorship of Salvador and was unfortunately not well informed about Louisiana problems. Ignorant of the English language and local customs, and faced with conflicting rumors of American hostility, he became convinced in 1792 that the Americans were planning to invade Louisiana. With unwarranted aggressiveness, he stirred up the Native Americans of the Southwest, concluding an alliance with four great tribes and establishing Spanish posts in their territory. He revived intrigues with Kentucky frontiersmen looking toward the establishment of an independent state in the West. Relations between Spain and the United States were severely taxed. After Carondelet was replaced by Manuel Gayoso de Lemos, he was made president of the audiencia and governor-general of Quito (1799–1807). See A. P. Whitaker, The Spanish-American Frontier, 1783–1795 (1927, repr. 1969). From: http://gatewayno.com/history/Carondelet.html Francisco Luis Hector de Carondelet, b. July 29, 1747, d. Aug. 10, 1807, was the Spanish governor-general of Louisiana and West Florida in the period following the American Revolution. A Fleming, he was named Spanish governor of San Salvador in 1789. Then, in 1791, he was posted to New Orleans. By military reorganization, the construction of forts, and an alliance (1793) with the Southern Indian tribes, Carondelet kept the American frontiersmen from advancing westward for a decade. He continued the so-called Spanish Conspiracy with he U.S. double-agent James Wilkinson. At the same time, he quelled attempts to overthrow the government in Louisiana and West Florida and made notable economic improvements in these Spanish provinces, particularly in New Orleans and its environs. Leaving Louisiana in 1797, Carondelet was president of Quito from 1799 to 1807. Bibliography: Holmes, J. D. L., Gayoso: The Life of a Spanish Governor in the Mississippi Valley 1789-1799 (1965); Whitaker, A. P., The Spanish-American Frontier, 1783-1795 (1927; repr. 1969)