The Quick Tour of St Louis
The challenge is this: give a first time visitor to St Louis a tour. Add in the fact you are both from Oklahoma City. You are both working on Masters in Urban Planning – he at MIT, me at SLU. You’ve got two hours starting after dinner at 7pm so it is dark. Where would you take someone?
After dinner at the Tap Room I offered to give the new guest a tour of St. Louis We start with a drive down Washington Ave. I drive us around the Arch. We then head across the Eads Bridge and into East St. Louis.
Back in Missouri we head to Old North St Louis after passing the former Cochran Gardens housing project. I wanted dessert at Crown Candy but they were closed. We got out of the car anyway and talked about the soon to be former 14th Street Mall. From there we did a loop around the vacant Pruitt-Igoe site.
We come down 14th and take Olive/Lindell West to Kingshighway. A block North to Maryland Plaza and we are heading back East to Euclid. North on Euclid across Delmar to Fountain Park. After a loop around Fountain Park we are Westbound on Delmar to view The Loop. We take Forest Park Parkway back to Skinker to check out a couple of homes where planner Harland Bartholomew lived. Heading back East we head through Forest Park to see the Grand Basin. We after Compton we head East on Locust. We end at my place where I climb a flight of stairs to show him the view of the city from our roof.
Where do you take out of town guests? Do you go out of your way to avoid not so great areas?
Most people would use the ever so popular southside directive which keeps them away from what the NATIVES say is the BAD side of town( North St. Louis). I have lived in St. Louis for over 16 years and can honestly say that the first thing I heard from the native St. Louisans was A) Never go north of Delmar and B) No good gay man buys a house on a state street. Of course I am like you and not native so the first thing I did was A) go north of delmar and B) start looking for properties on state streets. The natives will never make St. Louis a great city again it will be the “New Blood” that will make a difference here. I now live in Old North and love it here (5 yrs +). If I do ever move it will be to another north side address or out of St. Louis. But as long as I am here I will always be a northsider! Better than any southside neighborhood I lived in. Unlike the natives most people from out of town can appreciate what can be done with a urban neighborhood that has seen better days. The natives don’t like change and the newcomers embrace it. That is what will make this a great city again. NEW BLOOD!
It really depends on who I’m showing around. If it’s someone who may have a negative opinion of St. Louis, I pull out all the stops – I’ll start on Skinker, drive past Forest Park and Wash U., turn on to Lindell for a CWE tour. Then turn onto Grand – take Grand to Russell for the Compton Heights tour, then into Soulard for a look at the neighborhood, the brewery, etc. Head into downtown – Arch, etc. – then finish it off with Lafayette Square.
People who are open-minded or familiar with St. Louis situation – the good and the bad – will get to see more of the grit.
I actually go out of my way to show people the “bad” parts of St. Louis. I call it the Real of Tour of St. Louis. People have all told me they enjoy it more than just seeing tourist attractions. I think you gave a great overview to your guest, but you should have swung by South Grand.
I resent the statement above that natives will never make St. Louis a great city; I know tons of natives who are not afraid of North St. Louis (some of them live there) and they work every day to make St. Louis better. I live in the South Side in Tower Grove East, and my neighbors (most of them, at least) are fanatical about keeping it a good neighborhood. Not sanitized and pretty and perfect, but a neighborhood where you can go outside at night and where you know your neighbors. Every one of my neighbors in demographically different, but they all care.
I know tons of my suburban high school friends and classmates who now live in the city–in fact, they told me they couldn’t wait to get out of the county when they graduated from high school. There is tons of hope for St. Louis from both newcomers and natives.
If they were keen on historic architecture/public structures, I would treat them (or subject them) to my exhaustive city tour, which would include the CWE private streets and Lafayette Square as high-style high points, with #17 Hortense Place getting special billing. In addition to its unusual, Austrian-Sezession-inspired design, this house, numbered 17, has 17 rooms, 17 closets and each room contains a dimension of 17 feet! In your face, Vienna! We would stop by the Frank Lloyd Wright-influenced commercial building at DeBaliviere and Delmar and the intersection of Walton Row and Lenox Place, which has to be, my gawd, one of the most stately and elegantly serene urban spots in the midwest. We would take a long walk through Parkview Place to take in Pitzman’s beautiful and unusual streets configuration as well as the composite of St. Louis residential design at its eclectic peak. Then on to the Patch and Carondelet neighborhoods for a unique taste of St. Louis as stylistically chaotic fragment village, with 1960s duplexes next to 1860s stone cottages and some of the oldest buildings in the city that somehow have not been demo’d so far, then to Shaw Place in the Shaw neighborhood to view some of the spikiest, most distinctive brickwork west of the Mississippi. The street and its houses are thoroughly English in design and conception and are unique in St. Louis. Leaving Shaw Place, we would have a good gander at and climb to the top of the Harvey Ellis designed S. Grand Water Tower, where we would catch our collective breath and maybe drink something bracing. Pressing on, we would view the “Magic Chef mansion” at 3400 Russell, maybe knocking on the door for a tour, depending on the hours and how many drinks we’d had atop the tower beforehand. We’d then view Tower Grove Park, especially the gazebos, the Palm House, and the quaint Victorian “ruins” from the Lindell Hotel by the pond. We’d then drive up 39th Street to Flora Place, where a lovely example of Jugendstil/St. Louis residential architecture may be seen at the southeast corner…
Well, I guess it’s not such a quick tour, even without getting into downtown, Old North, barges and train whistles in Bellerive Park and the other two water towers! There are dozens of other buildings, neighborhoods and sights I would want to include, so maybe I would need to condense the scope somewhat. I would just hate to leave anything out.
New Town St. Charles 😉
I always try to keep it very simple, because I’ve been told I’ve always tried to cram too much sight seeing into too little time. Basically I always try to showcase the following to necomers:
1) Forest Park, The Loop, & the CWE. I love to show off our museums and zoo, and always make sure to remind them that these attractions are all FREE. Lunch is obviously a no-brainer due to the proximity of just about any type of food a person could want after a full morning trying to keep up with me. I’ll sometimes substitute a trip to The Hill if they express a desire to explore “that little Italian nieghborhood I’ve heard about.”
2) I head downtown via a Lindell/Grand/Lafayette route, and stop for anyone wanting to take a closer look at The Fox, the Grand Water Tower, the rehabbed Victorians and townhouses, etc.
3) A trip to the top of the Arch. I still love it myself after 30 years.
4) A quick tour of Washington Ave., unless we plan on spending the evening there. If there are kids along, I try to save a couple of hours for the City Museum.
5) Crown Candy, or Ted Drewes to complete yet another fantastic day in St. Louis.
Just wanted to say what a great post this is, and the comments too.
Drove some visiting Las Vegas-ers around over the holiday. Drove them straight down Kingshighway, stopping off at Planetarium, Central West End. Got the most comments and excitement in North St. Louis proper and Wellston. And not a one of the comments was about their safety! It was all about the wide range of architecture. And none of them would be considered architecture buffs, by a long shot. But they sure snapped a ton of pictures. Ending suggestions were The Arch or Crown Candy. They chose Crown Candy.
Soulard and Lafayette Square are must-sees for any out-of-town visitors. The graffiti wall is always a funky underground eye-pleaser. I also think Cherokee Street is a great slice of urban juice.
Some of you may criticize me for this, but I actually think a detour down Forest Park Parkway through Clayton is pretty impressive. It’s quite unique for a city this size to have such a surprisingly large secondary downtown, but it’s also a very revealing testament to St. Louis’ unique political divisions and suburban migration.
The City Museum, hands down.
The various routes of these tours is a sort Rorschach test revealing people’s ideas about their own hometown, as well as their ability to navigate around on side streets.
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A million possible options…where to begin…in no particular order…
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A brick street; Bellefontaine Cemetery; Soulard and Lafayette Square (esp. Benton Place) areas; A-B Brewery; the Arch/riverfront; Wash Ave (sure); Market Street past Union Station/City Hall; SLU/Grand Center; the interior of the new Cathedral; a Forest Park loop past the Art Museum/History Museum/Boat House/Zoo, CWE/Euclid, Delmar Loop.
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With a good driver, you can make this trip in about an hour.
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With four hours, you can do a whole lot better, including places like Cahokia Mounds, Elsah, Alton and possibly old town St. Charles or Florissant.
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A weekend is best. Then you can drink wine in Augusta or Hermann!
Forest Park. Plan and simple.
Taking Market towards the downtown gets rave reviews (the excellent view of the Arch).
Eric–Funny–I was warned against living on state streets as well when we started looking for houses, but that was based on safety, not hipness (I don’t live on a state street, in the end…).
anyway, my brother came up from houston a couple years back for a funeral, and wanted me to give him/his wife a tour. We did some up in old North St. Louis, mostly because Ian had no experience with that area from when we used to visit St. Louis and our grandparents as kids. But we also hit Soulard Market and a survey of public school buildings and defunct (and operating) catholic churches. Not much downtown–I wouldn’t be the best guide since I’m shamefully naive about downtown myself–but we did more than just drive through Forest Park and then go to CWE for a beer.
I like to take people to Bellerive Park because it overlooks the river in a rather unsentimental way. Nowadays with relatives, I drive them down streets where our ancestors used to live up in north city. Crown Candy or Ted Drewes is usually involved….
If I want my guest to think that St. Louis draws immigration and imagination, I head to Cherokee Street.
Jim, Newtown St. Charles is the very LAST place I would take anyone. Those people don’t want to be a part of St. Louis so to hell with em! What I mean by “not be a part of” is the fact that they all moved out there to get away from whatever problems the city may have, instead staying where they were and trying to do something about any problems. In other words they’re all a bunch of quitters!
Well I’m not sure if I qualify as “new blood,” but I just moved back after 12 years away. I used to live in San Diego, and St. Louis, in comparison, has a number of beautiful and historical old residential neighborhoods – the kind that you just can’t find out West. So I would focus on some of those neighborhoods if I were to give a tour to a Californian. CWE, Soulard, Shaw and Lafayette Square would be at the top of that list. Has no one mentioned the Hill? Forest Park is an obvious choice, as is the Loop. I personally, as a “native” who is also white, know little of Old North St. Louis, but what I’m hearing (here and elsewhere) is piquing my curiosity. I also have not had the chance since I’ve been back to really check out all of Washington Avenue, although I agree that the City Museum is like nothing I’ve seen, anywhere. I also think it is worth a few moments to step inside the Fox theater.
Driving through some sections of the city – some of which appear totally abandoned – gives me a feeling of loss, but also a vision of what could be (possibly?) in years/decades to come. I’m glad to be back and to be a part of what hopefully will be a continuing rejuvenation.
I know it is up their with any Cliche but it has to be said. I always take friends/family to the Arch and always get a great response. I think you get an all around impression of the city from the Arch and grounds. A sense of an urban inner city to open spaces to the reality of a nitty gritty working river town (the Mississippi is still the big muddy and barges are still going up and down – a big difference then ocean waves crashing or summer sailboats & tourist boats on Lake Michigan).
The follow up is always, always a local restaraunt. What’s great about the local restaruants around here is that they are extensions of some great neighborhoods. The second follow up is Forest Park – take your pick, museums, a zoo, the boat house, etc.
How about a lovely riverboat cruise down the River Des Peres…
In addition to the Arch I would also swing over into Illinois, there are good restraunts over there too. Anyone ever been to Latta Watta Creek (sp?) in Fairview Heights? My reason for going across the bridge to Illinois would be to show my quests where most St. Louis residents are too chicken to go. The convention center in Collinsville would also be a good stop if there was anything good going on. And of course the big ketchup bottle. And the Cahokia mounds. Hmmm, seems the possibilities are endless.
Where I take people varies depending on their age and interests, but whichever neighborhood we visit, I encourage exploration by walking. Our city can best be appreciated on foot.
Hey Studs, thanks for reminding me of the water towers. I’ve read that there are only seven of those so called “stand pipe” water towers remaining in the United States. Well, we have three of them right here in St. Louis! Two of them within a couple blocks of each other!
Dennis – I wasn’t serious! 😉
Tim – Just about to go for my chilly jog while I still have sunlight (can’t call it a run due to my top speed) along the mighty Des Peres ditch. I long for the day that this is returned to its natural state along with the tributary creeks (Deer creek, etc) and the possibility of shade for my hot summer jogs. Their is a trememndous opporturinity to rebuild a meaningful urban greenway/forest on the lower portion as well as revitalizing the upper portion. Instead, we got a brick lined drainage ditch with ever decreasing number of trees and that is the good end.
Building a trail doesn’t qulify as mission complete. It should only encourage the possibilities. A thought to connect this to the thread. Trails, how about the Chain of Rocks bridge and riverfront trail. It would be nice to have bike rentals there just as they do in Forest Park (another good way to show of St. Lous jewel to visitors).
Perhaps the first hour could be all fun as the above suggestions are appropriate and obvious. The next hour should be used to show how all these great assets can be so easily devalued.
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Start the second hour with a short walk to show how nice neighborhoods like Lafayette Square and Soulards can be easily divided by a leaders that prioritizes cars over people. Then take a drive on ol’ farty, 170 and the New 64 to show how acres of our beautiful and green Forest Park can be converted to parking lots and miles of highway asphalt. Take him along the concrete jungle known as the New 64 and ask how many miles of cycling paths, mass transit and lanes dedicated to shared vehicles are part of this modern StLou-style design. Point west and explain how the majority of residents were subsidized with these roads to move further west and destroy the financial base. After driving on these highways quiz him on how many municipalities he’s toured. These quick insights will be sufficient in explaining what makes cities livable and prosperous. He can then return home with many important messages to share with his fellow citizens.
The arch seems cliche, but I think that’s because us locals tend to take the arch for granted. To us, it’s that thing on the horizon, occasionally surprising us. You know, “oh hey, I didn’t know you could see it from here!”
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I took some out-of-towners to the arch once and it restarted my own love affair with the monument. We didn’t even go up in it and it was night time. These folks just wanted to see it in person – they’d only seen pictures. They stood under it and looked in awe. They had no idea it was:
– Stainless steel (not sure what they thought it was made of…)
– So big
– So beautiful
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They stood there gawking and I stood there watching them and listening to their commentary. It was great. I’ve been back several times a year since.
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I’d love the opportunity to take non-locals more places. Out of town people tend to notice things that we either don’t see or have seen so much we don’t appreciate.
I tend to stress as mentioned that we wanted to demolish Soulard.
Friend moved here from Knoxville. We hit South Grand, Soulard, Cherokee, and finally Midtown. Downtown is on the agenda but she works there.
North St. Louis should be shown. But not everyone can handle that.
Coincidentally and oddly enough, over the holidays when visiting family in St. Louis I took relatives from Canada on a driving tour through … New Town St. Charles. I billed it as one of the strangest places on earth, and they agreed. They live in Quebec City, so this landscape was especially odd to them. Touring it at night added to the strangeness; truly, it was like we were in a Twilight Zone episode, driving through a little town plopped by martians in the middle of a big farm. We kept coming to dead ends that ended in frozen corn fields. Or maybe I dreamt this whole thing …
I think it really depends on the persons interests. I took some Finnish nationals around St. Louis and they enjoyed the architecture but were amazed how dirty St. Louis looked and were astounded at the number of vacant buildings.
Personally I like to tour the worse areas in any city I visit, also the industrial areas, but then that is me.
The Arch is an amazing structure, but what it replaced was amazing too. The Water Tower on North Grand is magnificent. It broke my heart when they tore down the special shaped buildings that surrounded the water tower to form a square.
Crown Candy is a great place and I also like to run up to Greg’s Fine Foods on Broadway before you get to Grand, good food and bar. Actually there are a number of decent places along North Broadway that serve at least lunch. Nothing fancy, but a different view of the city.
Make a loop – Arch – then City Museum – then Pulitzer – then Brewery – back to Arch.
Hey Steve,
I just got back to Boston and saw this post. Thanks again for the great tour! I didn’t know much about St. Louis coming in, but feels like I got a great overview and appreciated you slipping in some details that were of special interest to me from an urban planning standpoint. St. Louis has a lot of good things going on and yet, as we discussed, there is still so many opportunities for it to be better. The number of beautiful old buildings waiting for reinvestment was hard to believe; I know I would love to have the same extant building stock in Oklahoma City.
Anyway, as far as I am concerned the tour was perfect! And I look forward to returning at some point in the future and seeing what you all have done with all of that opportunity!
Cheers!
The Arch
City Museum
The awfulness of North and East St Louis
Science Center
Cathedral
Forest Park
Anheuser-Busch
Vess bottle
Baseball game at Busch Stadium
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