Soliders’ Memorial is one of my favorite buildings downtown. It was built to honor the fallen from WWI but it was barely finished before the start of WWII in Europe, opening on Memorial Day 1938.
ABOVE: Mayor Dickman laid the cornerstone 75 years ago
Mayor Bernard F. Dickman laid the cornerstone on this day in 1936. These days we don’t build out of stone so we have ground breaking ceremonies  — a shiny shovel tosses a pile of dirt. Nothing to note the start of the building 75 years later.
ABOVE: Mayor Slay presented a proclamation in front of Soldiers' Memorial declaring Marine Week (June 20-26)
Soldiers’ Memorial has served as the backdrop for many events over the years, including Marine Week this summer.
ABOVE: People enjoy the steps during a downtown festivalABOVE: The mosaic tile ceiling in the center is impressive
The two galleries are filled with interesting WWI memorabilia. Stop in sometime and check it out.
ABOVE: The homeowner decided to restore nearly all the windows in their 1885 home
Windows and doors are very important to the front facade of our many old St. Louis homes. Attend a meeting of the Preservation Board and you will likely hear a situation where a homeowner replaced original windows with completely different windows, often jarringly different. Â Back in July the New York Times had a great article (recommended) on windows, starting with an example of Barbara Jones who decided to restore her windows:
Old windows have acquired a bad reputation over the last few decades as drafty, inefficient and ecologically suspect: fixtures that should be replaced rather than refurbished.
But over the last decade or so, homeowners like Ms. Jones are becoming more common. Many people are keeping their old windows, fixing what they have in the name of appearance, history and, for some, cost savings, according to architects, preservationists and window restorers.
Your typical window replacement company would have tossed out the 125+ year old windows of my friends house shown above and put in bright white vinyl with a flat top and fake divisions. Â There was a time when large panes of glass meant wealth, the poor couldn’t afford large pieces of glass.
ABOVE: A window being restored in a basement
The process of window restoration isn’t for everyone but if you are handy in the shop doing so might save the appearance of your home as well as save you some money over a high quality replacement. Cheap windows won’t last 10 years much less more than 125 years.
ABOVE: Weatherstripping can be added to increase the efficiency of the windows
Storm windows can be added on the exterior or interior to increase efficiency. Interior storm units are great for front facades where aesthetics are important.
Odds are you don’t have windows that are 8 feet tall, but no matter the height considering retaining at least the front windows is a good idea. Here are a few resources for further reading:
ABOVE: The former Pevely Dairy at Grand & Chouteau (click image for map)
Father Biondi, President of Saint Louis University, must get a rush razing buildings, putting up fences and killing off potentially interesting areas. Word broke last week SLU wants to clear away the remainder of the Pevely Dairy at the SW corner of Grand & Chouteau:
The complex, at Chouteau Avenue and South Grand Boulevard, is made up of large brick buildings erected between 1915 and 1945. SLU has sought demolition permits for the buildings, which are on the National Register of Historic Places. The university argues the buildings can’t accommodate a modern medical practice. (STLtoday.com)
The Preservation Board will consider allowing demolition at their November 28th meeting (4pm). The poll this week asks simply if you think permission should be granted. Many will answer no but some may say maybe if SLU can show the building can’t be rehabbed. Others will say yes because you think since they own the building it is within their right to remove it from the landscape. The poll is in the right sidebar.
Four years from today is the 50th anniversary of the topping out of the Gateway Arch.
ABOVE: The final piece of the Gateway Arch was set into place on Thursday October 28, 1965
The City+Arch+River folks have much to accomplish in such a short about of time: build over I-70, create new west-facing museum entrance, rethink parking, etc. Given the current political landscape in Washington D.C. getting funding for improvements to this National Park Service site may prove nearly impossible.
The grounds aren’t as old as the Arch itself. Here is a video of a 1982 trip to the riverfront starting at 4th & Market. As you will see the trees are very young, the garage the will be removed from the north wasn’t yet built, and Lenore K. Sullivan Blvd hadn’t received the current improvements.
When I moved to St. Louis in 1990 local banks like Mercantile and Boatman’s were the biggest. These are how U.S. Bank and Bank of America, respectively.
ABOVE: Boatman's Bank on Lindell in 1990-91, now a Bank of America
Boatman’s opened for business 164 years ago today.
Boatmen’s began as the vision of banker, entrepreneur, and civic leader George Knight Budd. Budd was born in 1802 to George and Susanah Britton Budd, both of whom claimed prominent East Coast lineage. Before he arrived in St. Louis on a steamer in 1835, he had already traveled extensively in the United States, as well as in the Mediterranean and in South America. Budd brought with him a substantial fortune and cosmopolitan vision. Viewing the thriving commerce on St. Louis’ Mississippi shore, Budd determined that the “Gateway” city was the place where he would settle.
Budd spent his first few years in St. Louis as a merchant before joining with a partner, Andrew Park, to form the private banking firm of Budd, Park & Co. Besides his business interests, Budd was a leader in his community. He sold U.S. bonds during the Civil War, for example, and served as financial editor of the Missouri Democrat. He was also a leader in the First Presbyterian Church and served as a city councilman and as city comptroller in the early 1850s. Budd’s service as comptroller demonstrated how his far-reaching vision surpassed that of his peers. As comptroller, Budd arranged for the city to purchase a tract of land downtown for use as a park. Many citizens viewed the purchase as wildly extravagant, and Budd was even forced to resign because of opposition to his decision. But the purchase eventually proved to be one of the greatest bargains the city ever made; the site became the location of the City Hall and other municipal buildings.
By the time Budd was forced to resign from the comptroller position, he had already started the organization (Boatmen’s Savings Institution) that would become Boatmen’s Bancshares. Budd had faced a formidable wall of opposition to that venture, as well, because it was the first nonstate bank of its kind in Missouri. Budd was motivated to start Boatmen’s Savings largely by his desire to help the industrial and working classes in St. Louis, many of whom were boatmen. Indeed, he saw that many of the rivermen were drinking and gambling their money away, rather than saving and investing it for their families and their future.
Budd wanted to start a bank that would cater to the needs of the working class rather than commercial enterprise. The entire city would benefit, he reasoned, because welfare and charitable needs would be reduced, a financial instrument would be put in place that would direct working people’s money into more productive assets like homes and durable goods, and investment capital would be generated for St. Louis. Opposition to his proposal came from bureaucrats, many of whom wanted to protect the state’s control of the commercial banking business. Those critics argued that a private bank would compete with Missouri’s commercial bank. In fact, the Missouri legislature had shot down dozens of petitions from other people who wanted to start private, noncommercial banks. (source)
In it’s 150th anniversary year, 1997, Boatman’s merged with NationsBank. Â A year later Bank of America bought NationsBank.
It’s just not the same as having the bank based here for a century and a half. It’s no wonder people are protesting with Occupy Wall Street movements all over the world, including here in St. Louis (see Occupy St. Louis)
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