Over 63% of readers that voted in the non-scientific poll last week said the move to push out the locally-produced Taste of St. Louis & Bluesweek festivals in favor of concerts from ICM/Summer Rocks is a bad move, 16% thought it was a wash, and just over 20% think it is a good move. Here’s the breakdown:
Q: ICM/Summer Rocks pushed Bluesweek & Taste of St. Louis out of downtown on two holiday weekends. Good move for downtown & city?
Very bad move! 30 [40.54%]
Sorta bad 17 [22.97%]
Meh, no big deal 12 [16.22%]
Slightly good 9 [12.16%]
Excellent! 6 [8.11%]
I tend to agree, I think next year we’ll see just how inexperienced ICM is at producing a festival, especially in a complicated setting like the area around Soldiers Memorial.
Recycling center at the 2010 Taste of St. Louis
I’ve had the pleasure of watching the Taste of St. Louis grown over the years, starting out where Citygarden is now, later at Soldiers Memorial. Each year they learned from past mistakes. We’ll see how this goes, hopefully it’ll be a positive overall.
WIELANDY, Paul J., books and stationary; born Jefferson City, Mo., June 5, 1864; son of John F. and Junigunde (Wagner) Wielandy; educated in St. Louis public schools; married, St. Louis, June 28, 1904, Louise Angermueller. Entered employ of Shorb & Boland, wholesale booksellers and stationers, 1879; travelled for John L. Boland, successor of Shorb & Boland, in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. 1884-1901; in Jan., 1902, with A. M. Blackwell, of Las Vegas, N. M., organized the Blackwell-Wielandy Book and Stationary Co., of St. Louis, Mo., importers of jobbers of books, stationary, fancy goods, etc., of which is vice-president. Republican. Protestant. 32º Mason. Knight Templar. Club: Mercantile. Favorite recreations: fishing and hunting. Office: 714-720 Washington Ave. Residence: 2928 Harper St. (pages 610-611)
His business address of 714-720 Washington Ave is now the site of the US Bank Tower, formerly Mercantile Bank. In 1907, the firm Wielandy used to work for, built a new warehouse at 1601 Locust:
In 1910, the Boland company was acquired by the Blackwell-Wielandy Book & Stationery Company which moved into the 16th and Locust building from their head quarters at 714-20 Washington Avenue. One of the founders of Blackwell-Wielandy, St. Louisan Paul J. Wielandy, formerly had been employed for twenty years as a sales man for Boland. During his pioneering years as Boland’s representative in the Southwest, Wielandy met Missouri-born Arthur M. Blackwell who by then, was a successful merchant and bank director in New Mexico. In 1901, the two men returned to St. Louis where they established the firm bearing their names. Among the innovative new products first manufactured by Blackwell-Wielandy around 1912 were an adjustable ring device for loose leaf notebooks and the Blue Jay writing tablet — both popular items with the school trade. The Blue Jay brand was later extended to other supplies such as ink, crayons, paste aid composition and notebooks. (source)
Let’s take a look:
Designed by Designed by St. Louis architect Albert B. Groves, March 1983 photo from nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, click to viewEntry to 1601 Locust St, Blackwell-Wielandy’s office & warehouseSadly, 1601 Locust burned in a suspicious fire, was razed in 1988, has been surface parking ever since.
The building with the red wall, above, was built in 1919 as an annex to their original building. Within the last decade the annex was converted to condos, I’ve lived here since November 2007. The original was wood framed, the annex has a concrete interior structure.
In 1906 Wielandy lived in North St. Louis at 2928 Harper St.
Paul J. Wielandy died on March 4, 1953, two months before his 89th birthday (death certificate), he’s buried at Saint Peter’s Cemetery in Normandy (find-a-grave entry). According to the bio he was “a director of the Municipal Opera Association & of the St. Louis Safety Council & was a member of the first Highway Commission.” I need to research when Jefferson Ave was straightened out, widened, and connected to Natural Bridge, just blocks from Wielandy’s home, no doubt he supported the idea, making his drive to work on Locust St easier.
A few months ago Entertainment Saint Louis, the local promoter behind the Taste of St. Louis and Bluesweek, announced both events were moving to Chesterfield. Since those announcements we’ve learned the city was working on a deal to give ICM/Summer Rocks use of the area around Soldiers Memorial for concerts starting next year:
The plan is for events along the lines of Lollapalooza in Chicago, a music festival that has brought millions of dollars and visitors to the city’s Grant Park since 2005, when it went from a traveling event to an annual Chicago spectacle.
ICM Partners intends to bring country music festivals over Memorial Day weekends and rock festivals over Labor Day weekends. The events will be planned to draw residents throughout the South and Midwest to the area around downtown’s Soldiers Memorial. (stltoday)
This means the region will have more total events than before. The weekly poll this week asks if this is a good move for downtown & the city? The poll is in the right sidebar, the five answers are presented in random order.
I’ll post the results and share my thoughts next week.
Work is progressing on the construction of new storefronts at the former Board of Education building located at 901 Locust St. Last November I posted about the historic Art Deco storefronts being removed, they weren’t original to the building.
Modern aluminum frames for new storefronts, these are facing 9th Street
I personally love the contrast between old architecture and crisp modern storefronts so I’m excited to see how this will turn out. I’m especially curious to know how they plan to deal with ADA access on 9th Street. It appears vaults are under part of the public sidewalk, making the task of building a ramp more difficult.
The old 9th Street storefronts were tiny and not wheelchair accessible
It would’ve been impossible to make the old storefronts ADA compliant, sadly, they had to go. Originally the building had wood storefronts, not the best choice for retailing in the 21st Century, hopefully the aluminum will turn out nice, attracting a good tenant(s).
The annual Annie Malone parade on Sunday was a nice family event, but one entry drew jeers not applause from spectators.
Schnucks parade entry was an undecorated semiOne man near us stood to voice anger over the closing of the North Grand Schnucks location, click image to see prior post on the subject
It was nice to see his passion, especially after all the businesses in the parade. After visiting the now-closed Schnucks store I understand the business decision. I do think Schnucks, through their development company DESCO, could’ve been working on building a new location for years. Closing the north Grand location because a new store opened nearby would’ve gotten Schnucks a different reaction from those at the parade.
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