Short Essays (500-1000 Words) Archives - Page 4 of 6

1815: The Handwriting On The Wall

In 1983, Gar Allen and Larry Bennett bought what remained of a home at 1815 Lafayette Avenue. The three story shell dated from 1876 and was originally built by Christian Staehlin of the Phoenix Brewery. That brewery was razed in the mid-1960’s while I-44 was under construction. The house itself had a large sub-basement, formerly a tunnel from the brewery, that Allen and Bennett would have turned into a wine cellar, but for the dampness.

2019: The Chestnut Trees Of Lafayette Park

Once, there were an estimated 4 billion American chestnut trees in the eastern US. They were the redwoods of the East Coast, and many uses were developed for the ftrees. The trees grew quickly to massive dimensions, and were long the primary source for construction timber. They also provided a sweet nut (up to 6000 per tree!) for roasting and generated wistful references in various American songs and prose. Chestnut Mares and chestnut hair, and Under the spreading chestnut tree, the village smithy stands, and chestnuts roasting on an open fire.

1882: The Rules Of Lafayette Park

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch of April 18,1882 noted some interesting rules from the City Park Commissioners, regarding the use of Lafayette Park.

“The park is to be open to pedestrians only. No carriage, wagon, wheelbarrow, etc., is allowed, and the bicycle rider is not permitted there without special license.” No mention of Lime scooters, but pretty sure the law would have banned them. The course of a scooter seems even less predictable than that of a wheel barrow.

1868: Founders, Foundries And Statues In The Park

A colossal (technically speaking, twice life-size) bronze statue of Thomas Hart Benton resides in St. Louis’s Lafayette Park. It was cast by Ferdinand Miller in 1864 at the Royal Metal Foundry of Munich in Bavaria.

This grand giant, the first public monument placed in Missouri, was produced by a rightly famed sculptress, Harriet Hosmer. She is profiled in an earlier essay here.

1887: Schnaider’s Beer Empire Part 2

St. Louisans love stories about baseball, beer and Germans. Here’s all three, in part 2 of the Schnaider saga.

Part 1 lafayettesquarearchives.com/1881-schnaiders-beer-empire-part-1/ featured Joseph Schnaider and the origins of Schnaider’s Garden in Lafayette Square. In 1887, residents of Benton Place raised the 30-foot limestone wall you see on the 2100 block of Hickory Street. It was a fortification, insulating the prosperous and reclusive above from the hustle and flow of Schnaider’s below. Note the cinderblock-filled doorway in the wall that servants from Benton Place homes used to access the shops along Hickory and Chouteau.

1881: Schnaider’s Beer Empire Part 1

Joseph Schnaider (1832-1881) was a man with beer in his DNA. Born in the Baden area of what is now Germany, young Joseph was already working as a brewers apprentice at the age of 15. He became foreman of a large brewery in Strasburg three years later. Attracted by the published charms of America, and seized by a travel bug, he toured France and then headed across the Atlantic. He somehow wound up in the friendly Germanic confines of St. Louis.

1929: Launching The German House

Frank Absher of the St. Louis Media History Foundation recently sent me a color postcard from the German House of September 1929. It served as an invitation to the dedication of the huge building that still sits at 2345 Lafayette Avenue. This was its very beginning. KMOX, on the air for four years by then, was on hand to live cast the event.

2008: What’s a Treemonisha?

This essay is about the Treemonisha sculpture, but to get there, let’s journey back 50 years to visit Lafayette Square in March 1971. A quick look around, and we’d understand why properties sold for the cost of their back taxes. The housing stock was dilapidated and no banks would finance the buying of a vacant shell. No realtors listed the properties.

1908: Behold The Amazing Billiken

1888: Ignorance Of The Law Was No Excuse

It is true that archivists are a form of non-destructive bookworm. I prefer to think of myself more as an old pioneer panning for gold in the cold stream of time. In that spirit, I submit something I ran across recently; from an 1888 version of the booklet “Police Guide And Directory Of St Louis”. Here, on page 43, a helpful table of petty crime a stranger might wish to avoid in the Lafayette Park neighborhood.