Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis!
by Barbara Martin Smith '67
Index
1. Brief overview of the city and surrounding area
2. Neighborhood details and tips on finding an apartment or house
3. Transportation
4. Restaurants and night life
5. Museums, music, theatre, dance venues, festivals, etc.
6. Shopping
7. Sports and recreation
8. Publications
9. Other Areas of Interest
Welcome to St. Louis!
"We shall not cease from exploration
And the beginning of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time." T.S. Eliot
The St. Louis metro region in both Missouri and Illinois is a population island in the middle of five hours of country in each direction. Located at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers, the region has been an important gathering spot for people from ancient Indian civilizations to twenty-first century air and space explorers. A famous port for westward expansion, 2004-2006 will mark the two hundredth anniversary of the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the one hundredth anniversary of the St. Louis World's Fair.
Instead of defining the St. Louis metro region by neighborhoods, it is more to the point to define the variety of ways to live. Whether within one of the three categories of country life, urban life, or suburban life, many livelihoods and recreational activities are supported by easy access to parks, educational centers, sports venues, museums, and historic sites. St. Louis City is surrounded by St. Louis County, which includes some wonderful older communities. The entire twelve county St. Louis metropolitan area encompasses 6,397 square miles and more than 2.5 million people in eastern Missouri and southern Illinois. It is a wonderful family town with hospitable people rooted in a myriad of regional, ethnic, and cultural traditions truly reflective of our complex world.
"There’s much more than meets the arch."
www.explorestlouis.com
Where St. Louis Magazine (subscribe at val.teel@where-magazine.com)
Country Life:
St. Louis is a river city. There are often traffic jams caused by inadequate bridges over these rivers. A few ferry boats still run but they do not provide a reliable alternative to highway driving within the metro region.
Defiance, Missouri rests along the Katy Trail, a great cycling trail paralleling the Missouri River. The trail will lead you into Wine Country as you ride next to rich Missouri bottom farmland on one side and limestone bluffs on the other. Near Defiance to the east is St. Charles, Missouri, an old river town with a quaint historic district. For the gamesters, there is a riverboat casino. Housing choices abound since the area has grown to exceed St. Louis County in numbers.
Edwardsville, Illinois is home to Southern Illinois University. It is an old country town embedded in Illinois farmland and close to the Mississippi River access at Alton and the pleasures of sailing on Lake Carlyle, in southwestern Illinois. There is great apple picking in the fall at Eckerts orchard north of Alton. Calhoon County between the Illinois River and the Mississippi is a must see. Also check out historic Lebanon, home of McKendree College.
Bourbon, Missouri is an hour drive southwest from downtown St. Louis on the Highway 44 corridor. The beautiful Ozark Mountains distinguish this area. It is truly heartland country abundant with cattle farms. Hike the trails or enjoy a day of horseback riding on the back of a Missouri fox trotter, bred for their easy gait. The area is also known for its many spring fed rivers. The Meramec at Bourbon is a great choice for a float trip. Onandoga Cave is nearby, interesting because it is still in a natural state. Communities east of Bourbon such as Eureka and Pacific are burgeoning and provide a taste of both country and suburban life. Don't miss Six Flags.
Urban Life:
"...don't miss the grand mansions, historic landmarks, and upscale enclaves that gave St. Louis world class city stature over a century ago." Old House Journal
Consider Forest Park as a center of urban St. Louis. Bordering the park on the east is the Washington University Medical School, several hospitals, and a variety of high-rise apartments and condos. Bordering the park on the south is a neighborhood known as Dogtown. There are single- and multi-family low-rise buildings along with an interesting mix of inexpensive restaurants. Bordering the park on the west is a neighborhood of high-rise condo buildings, mid-rise apartment buildings, and beautiful homes. The hilltop campus of Washington University St. Louis is also on the west side of the park. Bordering the park on the north are some of the grandest mansions anywhere as well as some streets of multi-family apartment housing.
Forest Park is larger than Central Park in New York. Within it, you will find bike trails, tennis courts, and the Norman K. Probstein Golf Course. Also within it you will find free admission to the zoo and the museums. The Saint Louis Zoo is a widely recognized center for conservation, education, and research featuring 7,000 animals in new exhibits like River's Edge. The Missouri Historical Society is a place to learn about interesting Saint Louis history including the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The Saint Louis Art Museum designed by Cass Gilbert for the 1904 World's Fair has a collection of art which is representative of the best of world art. The strengths of the collection are in Pre-Columbian and German Art. Finally, the St. Louis Science Center has many educational interactive exhibits including an Omnimax theatre.
Some urban neighborhoods further from Forest Park are:
1. Lafayette Square, the finest collection of Victorian era architecture in the country, built in the 1870s and 1880s around a thirty-acre park.
2. The South Grand neighborhood is a diverse mix of Bosnian, Vietnamese, Thai, and Chinese immigrants. Great dining at a good price is possible.
3. Midtown Saint Louis where I-64 (Highway 40) and Grand Avenue meet is home to Saint Louis University. A Museum for Contemporary Religious Art, the Samuel Cupples House, and the Saint Louis University Museum of Art are some of the attractions.
4. The Tower Grove Park neighborhood is an elegant 19th century Victorian walking park now a National Historic Landmark, one of only four municipal parks in the country to achieve this status.
5. The Missouri Botanical Garden is adjacent to the Tower Grove neighborhood. It is one of the top three botanical gardens in the world, renowned for its research.
6. Soulard is an historic working class neighborhood with a wonderful farmers market, great restaurants, and jazz clubs.
7. Laclede's Landing is an old warehouse district turned entertainment district.
8. The Central West End is heart and soul St. Louis with great art galleries, Left Bank Books, antique shops, boutiques, coffee shops, and cozy pubs.
9. The University City Loop contains COCA, a center for contemporary art classes and performances, the Pageant, a new music performance venue, and Blueberry Hill where Chuck Berry and other St. Louis stars perform regularly in the Duck Room.
10. Clayton is the seat of St. Louis County government. It is a center for business by day. The Saint Louis Art Fair attracts more than 100,000 visitors to Clayton's streets each fall. Other popular events are the St. Louis Jazz Festival each June and Gallery night receptions in the areas art galleries six times each year.
11. The Hill is the Saint Louis Little Italy marked by green, white, and red fire hydrants. Italian immigrants settled there in the 19th century. Two famous baseball heros who grew up there are Joe Garagiola and Yogi Berra. It is a tidy homey neighborhood with some restaurants, shops, and pubs on many corners.
Metropolis, an organization of urban enthusiasts will help you at www.mstl.org.
Suburban Life:
Driving a car is a necessity if you choose to live in a St. Louis burb. Some of the older suburbs built along the railroad commuter lines feel more urban than suburban. Stay wet in the summer heat if possible with water balloon fights or swimming pools.
Since the urban population has defused in the St. Louis metro region, there are established areas hopping with activity alongside other areas in transition. Webster Groves and Kirkwood are examples. Webster is known as "The Queen of the Suburbs," with more than 300 homes listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is home to the world headquarters of Webster University and to the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis and to the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. It is close to Glendale, Maplewood, Shewsbury, Dogtown, Crestwood, and Rockhill, each filled with varied housing stock and very affordable solutions.
Kirkwood is another old community with an old town center. A National Historic Landmark train station is the center of this community. Laumeier Sculpture Park offers more than one hundred acres of art in a beautiful setting of rolling Kirkwood hills. The Krause House, a Frank Lloyd Wright house is situated in a grove of persimmon trees in sugar creek valley. There are grand old houses, contemporary architect designed houses, as well as a mix of old and new small houses, apartments, and retirement condos. With churches on every corner, large shopping centers, a wonderful park with great tennis courts and pool, it is a family town. The more expensive suburbs like Sunset Hills, Frontenac, Des Peres, Town and Country, Creve Coeur, and Ladue and several country clubs are nearby.
Following Highway 40 west, the main business corridor of the region extends from the central area of St. Louis city near the Arch on Mississippi riverfront through Clayton, a near west suburb to Chesterfield. All along the route, there are subdivisions of very expensive houses as well as apartment complexes, office parks, shopping centers, schools, and hospitals. Following Highway 44 southwest from center city through the Tower Grove Park/Missouri Botanical Garden area of South St. Louis to Six Flags Over Mid America at Eureka, there are a variety of healthy neighborhoods, old towns, and new subdivisions. Following Highway 70 west from center city to St. Peters and beyond, there are many old industrial parks, St. Louis Lambert Airport, and multiple new subdivisions. The roads are not keeping up with the growth in this direction. Following Highway 70 east, there are old town communities such as Collinsville, Highland, and Lebanon, Illinois, alongside Cahokia Mounds World Heritage and State Historic Site and the Fairmount Racetrack.
Transportation
Lambert St. Louis International Airport: www.explorestlouis.com
Rent a Car at Enterprise Rent A Car 1-800-RENT-A-CAR
MetroBus and MetroLink: www.bi-state.org
Riverboats: www.Gatewayarchriverboats.com
Route 66: www.mostateparks.com/route66.htm
Riverbarge Excusion Lines, Inc. www.riverbarge.com
Delta Queen Steamboat Company: www.deltaqueen.com
Gray Line Tours: http://www.grayline.com/
Restaurants and Night Life
"St. Louisans have always enjoyed a good time." The News Centinel
This editor's first choice for dining picks include: Annie Gunn's in West County. It feels like an Irish pub. The prices are reasonable, and the menu varied with great grilled fish and meat. C.J. Muggs in Webster is another pick. The St. Louis Watercolor Society uses the wall space for regularly rotating exhibit space. The food is moderately priced American Italian. Cool Beans or Cravings for lunch are also favorites. Duffs in the Central West End is another favorite. The location is ideal for a movie night at the Chase or prior to an evening at the symphony. Olympia Kebob House and Taverna in Dogtown is an informal Greek restaurant with a great choice of salads, main dishes, and deserts. It is an informal spot with very reasonable prices. Ted Drewes is a summer destination for fabulous concretes! Check a visitors' guide or the Thursday Get Out section of the St. Louis Post Dispatch for your favorite type of cuisine.
This editor's first choice for night life attractions include ballgames, concerts, plays, and private parties. St. Louis has a great variety of night life choices. Blues clubs and restaurants are tucked away in the red brick buildings of the historic Soulard neighborhood between the Anheuser-Busch brewery and Busch Stadium. Dixieland and Blues dinner cruises are available through the port of St. Louis. More clubs and restaurants are alive until early morning hours on the Landing just north of the arch, an area of converted warehouse buildings accessible on Metro Link. More restaurants and nightlife can be found in the West Port Plaza entertainment district, twenty minutes west of downtown. The Loop in University City has a variety of places where a game of darts can be enjoyed between eating appetizers and dinner. The Fox Theatre is a grand old place where traveling Broadway Musicals are staged. There are many special concerts at Riverport, free concerts at Jefferson Barracks, in Kirkwood Park, Queeny Park, and at the Botanical Garden. The Universities offer film series, plays, and concerts. Check a guide or these Web sites for current events:
www.metrotix.com
www.ticketmaster.com
Museums, music, dance venues, festivals etc.
"The fabric of the music scene in St. Louis is woven from its history of ragtime, rock, blues, and jazz and bejeweled by its symphony, ballet, and opera."
Admission is free to many St. Louis attractions thanks to the "zoo museum district." In addition to the world class venues in Forest Park described earlier, the Gateway Arch, the Old Courthouse, the Museum of Westward Expansion, and the Old Cathedral, consecrated in 1834,provide a must see introduction to the history and character of the St. Louis metro region. In the Grand Center Arts and Entertainment District, the St. Louis Symphony currently advised by Itzhak Perlman, The Pulitzer Museum of Contemporary Art designed by Japanese architect Taduo Ando, the Black Repertory Company at the Grandel Theatre, Dance Saint Louis, the Fox Theatre showing touring Broadway Musicals, and the Sheldon Concert Hall could keep you busy every week of the year. The Muny in Forest Park is one of the editor's all time favorite venues. There is nothing like enjoying "South Pacific" or "Godspell" on a warm summer night under the stars. The Repertory Theatre of Saint Louis provides a varied and thrilling live theatre experience from September through April on the main stage. The sets, costumes, and acting under the direction of Steve Wolff are always extraordinary.
Scattered throughout the region are many other museums and attractions.
1. The Wild Canid Survival and Research Center was founded by Marlin Perkins in 1971. It is an internationally recognized captive breeding facility for endangered wolves from around the world.
2. The St. Louis Mercantile Library at the University of Missouri St. Louis was established in 1846. It is the oldest library west of the Mississippi. It contains some wonderful records of American river and rail transportation.
3. Mount Pleasant Winery in Augusta has wonderful wine, food, and entertainment as well as tours and views.
4. The Museum of Transportation has over 300 vehicles including locomotives, trolleys, streetcars, busses, aircraft, and a Missouri River towboat.
5. The Mastadon State Historic Site is a museum of Missouri's Ice Age animals and the Indians who hunted them 10,000 years ago.
6. The Scott Joplin House State Historic Site is a restored post civil war building once Scott Joplin's home. There are tours daily on the hour.
7. Circus Flora is St Louis's own intimate one-ring theater circus. No audience member is more than forty feet from the ring.
8. Anheuser-Busch Brewery Tours and Gift Shop allow visitors to experience a century old brewery tradition.
9. Grants Farm once owned by Ulysses S. Grant is now the Busch family estate and home to more than 1,000 animals. A Clydesdale breeding and training facility can be visited there.
Festivals such as the Japanese Festival at the Botanical Garden, Strassenfest, Clayton Art Fair, and the Veiled Profit parade and celebration of the fourth of July bring zest to the region.
Check the following Web sites for more information:
www.stlouisco.com/parks/
www.gatewayarch.com
www.edwardjonesdome.org
Sports and Recreation
Sports of all sorts are an obsession in St. Louis. People expect the best. Cardinals baseball www.stlcardinals.com, the hockey Blues www.stlblues.com, and the NFL's Rams www.stlouisrams.com have large numbers of loyal and enthusiastic fans. St. Louis University is the most sports oriented of any regional university. Check it out at www.slu.edu. In 2004 there will be some stellar events. After all, why not? If 100 years ago the ice cream cone was invented here surely this is the obvious place for the US Women's Olympic Marathon Trials to be held. This race will decide which runners will make it to the U.S. Olympic Team. www.stlouissports.org Also in 2004, St. Louis will host the NCAA Men's Midwest Regional basketball tournament at the Edward Jones Dome. www.mvc.org
Golf www.tapawingogolf.com www.gatewaynational.com, biking www.trailnet.org, tennis, motor sports www.gatewayraceway.com, canoeing www.conservation.state.mo.us, sailing, hunting www.conservation.state.mo.us/areas/areas/bottom, fishing www.mostateparks.com, hiking www.mostateparks.com, SCUBA diving, spelunking www.stlouisco.com, and horsing around are all possible in St. Louis. There are many outdoor recreation opportunities whether you live a country life, urban life, or suburban life. For the equestrians among you, does "Fox-trotting Across Missouri" appeal? Springtime in the Meramec Valley is one of the loveliest experiences there is. Check out: www.meramecfarm.com
Shopping
General shopping options: the Saint Louis Galleria Mall anchored by Lord and Taylor at the south end includes Brooks Brothers, Eddie Bauer, Cartier, and the Mary Englebreit Co. On Brentwood Boulevard south of the intersection of the Inner Belt and highway 40/64 is Brentwood Square with Borders, Orvis, Arhaus, and Pier 1. At the end of the Inner Belt are two large malls: Promenade with Target, Bed, Bath, and Beyond, the Sports Authority and Brentwood Point with Dierbergs, World Market, and others.
Neighborhood shopping options are more interesting. You can find small businesses for almost any interest.
Publications
Check out World News in Clayton. Where else could you find five International editions of Vogue along side your hometown newspaper?
Read some books:
1. CATFISH AND CRYSTAL by Ernest Kirschten, Double Day and Company, Inc. Garden City, New
York 1960
2. SEEKING ST. LOUIS, Voices from a River City 1670 - 2000, edited by Lee Annnn Sandweiss
Other areas of interest
Plan day trips to:
1. Mark Twain's Hannibal, Missouri
2. French Colonial Territory at Saint Genevieve
3. The Meeting of the Great Rivers at the National Scenic Byway
4. Abraham Lincoln's Springfield, Illinois
5. Go Down Under in a Bonne Terre Mine
6. Missouri Wine Country
7. Johnson Shut Inns
8. Elephant Rock State Park