Vacant Land Near Centene Stadium Awaits New Construction

Centene Stadium (St. Louis) – Wikipedia, the soccer stadium finishing up construction now, is reshaping the Downtown West neighborhood.   This got me thinking about a vacant parcel just south of the stadium, next to the former YMCA that became a Drury Hotel in the 1980s. The official address is 222 South 21st Street.

This site is 9.16 acres, is one parcel, and owned by Bi-State Development (aka Metro) since July 2019. According to city records Bi-State paid $1.65 million.

Just before Bi-State closed on the property the 1960s commercial laundry building was razed. It had a fire in 2005, that was repaired. A new occupancy permit was issued in 2018 for warehouse/storage.

So a 1960s commercial laundry occupied the western half of the site for decades. What about more than a century ago?

The brown box is the new Railroad YMCA , the city block was divided by a small portion east of Tom Street, and the bigger portion west of it. When Union Station added more tracks Tom Street became 20th Street, giving the station more land up to Market Street. Many buildings between Eugenia and Market were razed so that 20th could shift west. The site now knowm as 222 South 21st Street was 13 parcels with houses and stables on the east, at Tom.

As you can tell from the 2010 photo above of the now-razed laundry, I’ve had an interest in the site for a very long time. At the time it didn’t make any sense to propose new construction — a business occupied the existing building and the site was on a tiny short block of Clark Ave, between 20th & 21st.

Now Clark Ave will soon connect to 22nd Street, I-64, and Jefferson Ave.  I thought of this site again earlier this year when I saw an article about a 7-unit apartment building in Philadelphia built on leftover land measuring only 11′ x 93′. View in Google Street View.

This site is considerably larger. What I’d do is build an apartment building on the east end that has zero off-street parking. With the Union Station MetroLink light rail station nearby this is ideal for some apartments without parking, since structured parking is so costly.

The west end of the site has great views of the new soccer practice fields, build tall enough and you can see over the Drury Hotel parking garage.  A rooftop patio would be outstanding.

A garage entrance off the low end of the alley would keep the perimeter public sidewalks unbroken. Creative architects could probably come up with many options to maximize the site without any surface parking or curb cuts.

I think 2-3 buildings ranging from low-income to high end would do this site justice, and provide a nice range of options. It would require thinking differently, but so did getting 7 units on a parcel only 11’x93’.

— Steve Patterson

Richard Serra’s ‘Twain’ Sculpture Dedicated 40 Years Ago, Needs To Be Lighted

Every five years I post about Twain. Not Mark Twain, but the COR-TEN steel sculpture by Richard Serra (1938 – ) It was inaugurated 40 years ago today — May 1, 1982. St. Louis loves to hate this sculpture, bashing it is a group bonding experience. I like it, partly because so many don’t.  I also like how it feels to be inside, or looking into or through the openings.

Ever since Citygarden opened across 10th Street in 2009 I’ve felt we need to connect the two — extend the wide “hallway” as envisioned by the Gateway Mall master plan.  Install new wider sidewalks on the three other sides.

Definitely install new lighting like Twain had in 1982. Well, not big fixtures on the ground that make it hard to mow the grass — new compact LEDs flush with the ground.

Five-10 years ago a light manufacturer was willing to temporarily mock up what new modern lighting could look like. Art patrons in St. Louis weren’t willing to cover the cost for security for the week so the installation never happened.

So Friday night my husband and I went to Twain and used an iPhone flashlight on bright to simulate what just one light would look like.

The results were worth the effort. Proper lighting could potentially change perceptions about this sculpture.

Another problem is the grass is very uneven, and the openings get very worn.

I have some ideas about a solution, but I’m very curious what the artist would say. He didn’t want any formal paths because he wanted people to be able to approach the sculpture from any point. I’d also be interested in what landscape architects would come up with, perhaps through a competition.

Again, I really like this sculpture. So much so that a year ago when Lindy Drew from Humans of St. Louis was taking my picture for post I selected Twain & Citygarden as the locations.

A non-profit arts organization is needed to submit an application to the Gateway Foundation to fund lighting, other work. Someone please make this happen.

— Steve Patterson

Sportsman’s Park (later known as Busch Stadium) Reopened 120 Years Ago Today

The baseball diamond bounded by Dodier, Grand, Sullivan, and Spring is commonly called Sportsman’s Park, but it has had many names during the century prior to the Herbert Hoover Boys Club taking over the site. When I decided to write a post about this I naïvely thought it would be fairly simple to do. Instead it got more complicated (and interesting) than I anticipated.

This post will be about this location, plus some others where baseball has been played in St. Louis — not about the sport or some great play in a game. This post is presented as a  chronological timeline, but there are many gaps & details not researched. At the end I’ll discuss the urban planning issues around these sites, such as building codes, land use, zoning, public transit, parking, etc.

The following is from various sources, not all independently verified.

• October 16 1834: Augustus Solari born in Switzerland. He’s an important figure in St. Louis baseball stadiums…keep reading.
• 1860: Solari marries Louisa Sartore. She was also born in Switzerland (1837). Wedding location unknown.
• 1866: Augustus Solari acquires land in St. Louis that will eventually become Sportsman’s Park. He’s a recent immigrant, 31 or 32 years old at the time and a father of 3 at this point.
• 1867: Augustus Solari begins staging baseball games at the Grand Avenue Ball Grounds (also known as Grand Avenue Park).
• 1870: St. Louis population 310,864.
• June 1874: A judge will hear the case of John Dee against saloon proprietor Augustus Solari. Dee alleged Solari assaulted him with a stick, was unprovoked. Apparently this saloon was at the ball park.
• 1875: St. Louis Brown Stockings formed in St. Louis, began playing at the Grand Avenue Ball Park. St. Louis has one major all-white baseball team. Founders/ownership is unclear but it doesn’t appear Solari was involved.
• 1877: “After the conclusion of the 1877 season, a game-fixing scandal involving two players the Brown Stockings had acquired led the team to resign its membership in the NL. The club then declared bankruptcy and folded.”
• April 14, 1878: St. Louis Brown Stockings defeat the Athletics, 2,600 “witnesses”.
• May 1879: the National League and the team fold.
• June 1879: Solari helps reorganize the St. Louis Brown Stockings.
• 1880: St. Louis population 350,518.
• July 25, 1881: The circuit court issued issued an injunction preventing a planned pigeon shoot near the fields. Augustus Solari and others are mentioned in the page 8 story titled “Pity for Pigeons.”
• 1881: First grandstand constructed of wood, located at southeast corner closest to Grand & Dodier. As you’d expect the home plate is in this corner.
• 1881: Grocery store and saloon owner Christian Friedrich von der Ahe (1851-1913) bought the St. Louis Brown Stockings when he was in his early 30s. Changes team name to the St. Louis Browns.
• 1882: St. Louis Browns become part of the American Association league.October 2, 1883: Supreme Court (state? federal?) overturns lower courts, giving possession of the Grand Avenue Base Ball Park back to the descendants of George C. Miller and tenant Augustus Solari.
• 1890: 451,770 population.
• 1892: When the American Association folded St. Louis Browns was among teams included in a new National League.  The team began looking for a new place to play.
• “For 1893, owner Chris von der Ahe moved his team a few blocks to the northwest and opened a “New” Sportsman’s Park, on the southeast corner of Natural Bridge and Vandeventer. The move to this particular site was part of a “deal”, as the property had been owned by a trolley company, who then ran a trolley line out near the ballpark. The diamond was in the northwest corner of the block. Prairie Avenue was the east (left field) border. Right field, the shorter of the outfields, was bordered by Lexington Avenue.The ballpark was generations ahead of its time in some ways. Along with the basic stands, Von der Ahe had built an adjoining amusement park, a beer garden, a race track in the outfield, a “shoot-the-shoots” water flume ride, and an artificial lake (used for ice skating in winter). The side show notwithstanding, the club performed poorly on the field for most of the 1890s, consistently finishing at or near last place in the 12-team league as Von der Ahe sold off his best players in order to keep the club solvent.”
• April 27, 1893: After nearly two decades at Sportsman’s Park (Grand & Dodier) the St. Louis Browns play at their new ballpark for the very first time. The original Sportsman’s Park becomes the Old Sportsman’s Park, later Athletic Field.

• April 16, 1898 a dropped cigar catches the wooden grandstand at the New Sportsman’s Park on fire.
• May 11, 1898: Augustus Solari dies at age 63. Two of his eight children preceded him in death, one just four months earlier.
• 1899: Cardinals owner Chris von der Ahe files for bankruptcy, forced to sell team. Brothers Frank & Stanley Robison purchase the team and New Sportsman’s Park.  They rename the ballpark (Vandeventer & Natural Bridge) as League Park.
• March 28, 1899: August Anheuser Busch Jr. born.
• 1900: The 1900 census showed the St. Louis population at 575,238 — a 28.9% increase since the 1890 census of 451,770.
• May 4, 1901: Another fire at League Park, formerly New Sportsman’s Park. The Cardinals played the next day at the Old Sportsman’s Park (aka Athletic Field) and then on the road while their ballpark was being rebuilt.
• 1902: The Milwaukee Brewers move to St. Louis and become the St. Louis Browns. This was okay because the Browns many in St. Louis knew were now the Cardinals, with the color red instead of brown.
• April 23, 1902: the ballpark reopens with a new grandstand and home plate on the northwest corner, Spring & Sullivan.
• 1909: A new concrete & steel grandstand is built, it and the home plate are in the southwest corner. This was the 3rd major stadium with a modern concrete and steel grandstand. The home plate remained in the southwest corner until May 1966 when it was flown to Busch Stadium II.

• 1909: Bicycle shop owner William Carter started Carter Carburetor. Business location unknown — but it was NOT in the block south of Sportsman’s Park.
• 1910: population: 687,029
• 1911: Frank Robison’s daughter inherited the Cardinals from her uncle Stanley, following his death. Presumably Frank Robison died before his brother.
• 1913-1915: Former player Branch Rickey becomes general manager of the St. Louis Browns — the team that moved to St. Louis in 1902.
• 1917-1919: World War I.
• 1919: After a brief return to the St. Louis Browns as general manager, Branch Rickey becomes the general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals.
• 1920: population: 772, 897
• June 6, 1920: The St. Louis Cardinals last game at their mostly wood Robison Field.  The land was sold, Beaumont High School was built on the site in 1924.
• 1920: Negro team the St. Louis Giants played a best of seven series against the Cardinals at Sportsman’s Park. The Cardinals won 4 games, the Stars 1. The Giants and later Stars home field was at Compton & Laclede — now a diamond for Harris Stowe University.
• 1922: St. Charles -based American Car and Foundry Company purchases Carter Carburetor. At some point in the 1920s they built offices & factories on Spring at St. Louis Ave. — a block south of Dodier from Sportsman’s Park.
• 1928:  Carter Carburator Co, a subsidiary of ACF, builds headquarters at 711 N. Grand — a little over a mile south of their factory.
• 1930: population of 821, 960
• 1936: “Browns owner Phil Ball died. His family sold the Browns to businessman Donald Lee Barnes, but the Ball estate maintained ownership of Sportsman’s Park.”
• 1940: slight decline in population to 816,048.
• July 4, 1941: A double header of negro teams played at Sportsman’s Park. First was the Scullin Mules playing the St. Louis Giants for the city’s negro championship. The feature was the Kansas City Monarchs versus the Chicago American Giants. The Monarchs’ star Satchel Paige was among their players — prompting a story the previous day in the Post-Dispatch. On this day only African-American spectators could sit anywhere in the stadium, not confined to the colored section.
• 1942/43: The Brooklyn Dodgers hire Branch Rickey as their new general manager.
• October 4-9, 1944: For the 3rd time in World Series history, both teams shared the same home field. The Cardinals won in the 6th game.
• 1945: A young Jackie Robinson joined the KC Monarchs.
• 1946: The Browns buy Sportsman’s Park.
• April 15, 1947: Jackie Robinson played for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking the long-standing color line in baseball.
• Late 1947: Sam Breadon sells the St. Louis Cardinals to Fred Saigh and Bill Hannegan.
• May 3, 1948: The U.S. Supreme Court decided racial restrictive covenants can’t be enforced by governments. The case of Shelley v. Kraemer was a St. Louis case involving a residence less than 2 miles to the west of the ballpark.
• 1950: peak population of 856,796.
• 1951: Cleveland Indians owner, Bill Veeck, purchases the St. Louis Browns and Sportsman’s Park. Veeck thinks St. Louis isn’t big enough for two major teams, removes memorabilia of tenant team the St. Louis Cardinals. Veeck wanted the Cardinals to relocate to another city, hopes for an out of town buyer.
• 1953: Instead local brewer Anheuser-Busch buys the St. Louis Cardinals from Fred Saigh.
• November 1953: a group in Baltimore buys the St. Louis Browns from Veeck, becoming the Baltimore Orioles. Anheuser-Busch buys Sportsman’s Park, ending their tenant relationship with the ballpark. Chairman August A. “Gussie” Busch wanted to rename the ballpark Budweiser Stadium but the league pressured him not to do that, so it became Busch Stadium. Not long after they began selling Busch Bavarian beer.
• January 3, 1960. The last day the Grand streetcar operated, replaced by buses.
• 1960: population drop of 12.5% to 750,026
• May 8, 1966. Last Cardinals game at Busch Stadium, home plate dug up and flown via helicopter to the new Busch Stadium II “by the riverfront.”

Again, this was by no means a complete timeline. I finally had to stop digging because I ran out of time.

It’s clear to me the early decades weren’t a stable period for teams. The first ballpark wasn’t in the middle of the city, it was out on the edge — the city grew up around it. Heavy industrial uses replaced largely residential blocks as once plentiful land in the city became increasingly scarce.

It’s fascinating to me how a row of houses backed right up to the new concrete and steel grandstand in 1909. These appear to have still been in place in the late 1950s.

Selected sources, further reading:

• Ballparks.com
• Wikipedia: Sportsman’s Park
• Wikipedia: Robison Field (New Sportsman’s Park)
• St. Louis Post-Dispatch digital archives at the St. Louis Public Library website.

— Steve Patterson

FYI the following are some interesting YouTube videos, in no particular order

MetroLink Escalators “Temporarily Closed” For Years

Escalators are great, very helpful to those who find stairs difficult.  However, like elevators, they’re expensive to install and maintain. Escalators exposed to the elements are even more challenging to keep in operation.

When our original light rail line opened in 1993 two stations were located within an old freight tunnel under the central business district (CBD). The Convention Center and 8th & Pine stations were designed with stairs, elevators, and escalators. Because the tunnel is narrow the tracks are in the center, the passenger platforms are on both sides — one per direction of travel, east or west. This meant a total of four elevators and four pairs of escalators — all exposed to elements to a degree.

When the Shrewsbury (Blue) expansion line opened in 2006 its three underground stations had stairs, elevators/ramps — no escalators.

I search all Metro press releases from 2019 through the present, only one mentioned escalators in the subject/summary.

From May 3, 2021:

Rehabilitation work on the westbound escalator at the 8th & Pine MetroLink Station in downtown St. Louis begins on Tuesday, May 4. During this project, the station’s westbound elevator will remain in service, however, the accessible pathway to the westbound side of the 8th & Pine Station (near Pine Street) will have to be closed temporarily.

MetroLink riders who are traveling to or from the 8th & Pine Station and use a wheelchair or mobility device may need to make adjustments to their commute, as it will be necessary for riders to use stairs (located near Chestnut Street) when entering or departing the westbound side of the 8th & Pine Station.

The escalator rehabilitation work is expected to take approximately three months to complete. (Source: Metro)

The above press release was issued a week after I followed up with Metro again since I hadn’t received any specifics from my inquiry on December 28, 2020. Receipt of my original inquiry was acknowledged but I never received anything. Just the one press release, above.

Since I use my power wheelchair when using transit why do I care if the escalators aren’t working?

Well, it looks bad to have something temporarily non-functional for days, weeks, months..years.

What do I hope to accomplish with this post?  I want all the escalators either in good working condition — or I want them removed and replaced with fixed stairs (I can’t speak to concerns of those who have a hard time with stairs). It obviously won’t happen quickly, but steady progress needs to be demonstrated.

It looks very bad for visitors to see out of service signs, but it’s even worse when returning visitors say “oh yeah they were out the last two years I’ve visited.”

— Steve Patterson

Mega-Convenience Store Wally’s Follows Popular Buc-ee’s Concept With Second Location In Fenton MO…Is Bigger Better?

When I was a kid a 1970s filling (gas) station was a small corner location with a few pumps and a small interior. Inside they might have a vending machine or two. They also did some automotive work, like tire repairs, in the shop portion of the building. Restrooms were often small and accessed from the outside. Fuel was their primary revenue source.  The closest was a 2-canopy Phillips 66 “gull wing” design — similar to the single canopy one at Page & Vandeventer.

Small convenience stores also existed, and some sold fuel.

At some point (80s?) gas stations and convenience stores merged. It was 1982 when Buck-ee’s opened its first convenience store/gas station in Clute Texas (near Houston), followed by others. These were typical suburban filling stations for the day, significantly smaller than today’s QuikTrip.

In the years since these new gas/convenience hybrids became bigger and nicer, the number of fuel pumps has steadily increased. What was once a small corner lot is now multiple acres.

In 2001 Buc-ee’s owners decided to go big instead of incremental growth — opening their first mega location along I-10 near Luling TX (map). It’s a stop between San Antonio and Houston, in the middle of nowhere. Even now the only other thing at this exit is a Love’s Travel Stop and a couple of hotels, all on the other side of the interstate. Sheer size was the gimmick. Rather than have multiple separate locations along the interstate they put all those fuel pumps, food, restrooms, employees, etc into one big location. It was a brilliant idea — great for marketing, simplifies logistics, etc.

During the last two decades others have replicated their logo and/or concept.

In recent years, during the company’s rapidly growing success, Buc-ee’s has filed numerous lawsuits against other convenience store chains, most of them based in Texas, for trademark and trade dress infringement.

In 2014, Buc-ee’s filed a lawsuit against Texas based convenience store chain “Frio Beaver”. Frio Beaver, a company with a logo also depicting a beaver in a yellow circle with a black outline, was accused of copying the iconic Buc-ee’s beaver head logo, which the company is widely known for in Texas.

In 2016, Buc-ee’s sued “Choke Canyon BBQ”, another Texas convenience store, for copyright infringement and trade dressing. Choke Canyon uses a logo of a grinning alligator in the middle of a yellow circle, which Buc-ee’s claims is an attempt by the chain to resemble the Buc-ee’s logo. Choke Canyon is also calling their new stores “Bucky’s”.

In 2017, Buc-ee’s again filed a lawsuit for breaking an agreement, this time against a Nebraska-based convenience store chain known as “Bucky’s”. The two companies had agreed to remain in their respective states and expand only to states where the other did not operate.

There was also a non-logo related lawsuit filed in 2013 against “Chicks”, a convenience store located in Bryan, Texas, for trade dressing by allegedly copying Buc-ee’s mega convenience store designs and layout. The case was settled out of court.

Wally’s opened its first Buc-ee’s style mega-convenience store/filling station in Pontiac IL in 2020 (map). I checked, it’s inside the city limits. Barely.  Their logo would never be confused with Buc-ee’s, so they’re safe there.  Since Buc-ee’s doesn’t have a Missouri or Illinois location (yet) Wally’s is likely safe from a trade dress lawsuit.

The new Wally’s in suburban Fenton MO is their second location. They’re looking to expand, interested in sites 2-8 acres in size.

Likes:

• Clean.
• Cheese pizza slice was good.
• Nice seeing food prepared on site.
• Friendly employees.
• Contactless payments accepted inside and at fuel pumps.

Dislikes:

• Excessive impervious paving.
• No solar.
• No trees.
• No seating, inside or out.
• Long walk to restrooms.
• Higher fuel prices than most others in zip code.
• Higher food, beverage prices.
• Number of disabled/accessible parking spaces seems too few.
• A few ADA violations.

Let’s take a look:

I don’t fault the owners or patrons of Wally’s, it is certainly of the current times.  Thankfully I don’t think we’ll see too many of these in the future. The typical big gas station (looking at you QT) is bad enough.

We shouldn’t even be building any new gas stations at this point.

— Steve Patterson