Diamond Jubilee: Gateway Mall, St Louis

After exiting the library, I came back to the green axis cutting across St Louis' city center. Even grander than the one in Indianapolis, it extends from the Gateway Arch on the river to the former Union Station. The size is just a little shorter than then National Mall in Washington, DC.

Soldier's Memorial Military Museum

Following World War I the City of St. Louis set out to memorialize the 1,072 local service members who made the ultimate sacrifice in the War to End All Wars. Mayor Bernard F. Dickmann led the initiative, which established a Memorial Plaza Commission in 1925. After a period of fundraising and support from the Federal Emergency Administration of Public Works, construction began at the downtown location in 1935. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt arrived in St. Louis to dedicate the site of Soldiers Memorial Military Museum on October 14, 1936. In his speech FDR called the memorial “a symbol of devoted patriotism and unselfish service,” adding that rather than build monuments to war itself, Americans build them to “commemorate the spirit of sacrifice in war.” Soldiers Memorial officially opened on Memorial Day in 1938. The building was designed by St. Louis architecture firm Mauran, Russell & Crowell in a classical style with art deco flourishes. It features four monumental groups of sculptures by artisan Walker Hancock that represent courage, loyalty, sacrifice, and vision. Hancock, a native St. Louisan, served in the US Army in World War II but is perhaps best known for being one of the Monuments Men, the group tasked with protecting and recovering cultural and historical artifacts from wartime damage. By the end of the 1940s the Court of Honor had been established across the street from Soldiers Memorial. It memorializes the St. Louisans who lost their lives during World War II.

https://mohistory.org/memorial/history-of-soldiers-memorial-military-museum

Although impressive, I admit to feeling underwhelmed by the war memorial in St Louis after seeing the spectacular one in Indianapolis. Nonetheless, it is a monument on a mall with a reflecting pool standing across from the city theatre, municipal court, and city hall. The placement is one of honor. For me, I was more a fan of its statuary: very beefy - I believe the man and his horse both went to the same gym!

Civil Courts Building

The building with its pyramid shaped roof is prominently featured in the center of photos of the Gateway Arch from the Illinois side as its location on the Memorial Plaza is lined up in the middle directly behind the Old Courthouse. The building was part of an $87 million bond issue ratified by voters in 1923 to build monumental buildings along the Memorial Plaza which also included Kiel Auditorium and the Municipal Services Building. The Plaza and the buildings were part of St. Louis's City Beautiful plan. It replaced the Old Courthouse as the city's court building ... The pyramid roof on the top was designed to resemble the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It features 32 Ionic columns. Each of the columns have 6 fluted drums, and a cap, and are about 42 feet high, 5+1⁄2 feet in diameter. They are made of Indiana limestone.

(Wikipedia)

Walking down the mall toward the river lies the Civil Courts Building which interrupts the flow of the park. As it is a civic building built in a classical style (similar to the Indianapolis War Memorial, ironically), it "belongs" on that green strip (perhaps not in the center, however). I poked my head inside to view the lobby which is beautiful, but small. The building is largely functional and the exterior is the main attraction.

Citygarden Sculpture Park

After the court, the mall again opens up on one of the city's most iconic vistas, the Old Courthouse with the Gateway Arch towering behind it. In the foreground, along the mall is a comical sculpture park. I liked the whimsy of it although I did not appreciate the intrusion of one, lone modern building.

Jutting into the mall (and ruining it totally) is the modern monstrosity of the Peabody Building. Whoever approved its construction should have been shot.

Kiener Plaza Park

The Old Courthouse is a lovely building steeped in a horrible history. Akin to seeing the Colosseum in Rome, the old building is very photogenic, but knowledge of its history tempers any "love" of the structure. That is the court who passed to the US Supreme Court one of its worst decisions, Dred Scott. It is hard to celebrate such a venue even if it looks beautiful.

After passing the old court building, the mall again opens onto another section dominated by the Gateway Arch and the National Park along the river. The first view did impress me.

I noted to the side, an old building (now hotel) which speaks of St Louis' French past and its history of fur traders. Once a huge business in North America, the place has become a quaint historical footnote.

July 2021

The Gateway Mall of St Louis is built on a scale similar to Washington, DC. No surprise that there was once talk of moving the capital there for its more central location. St Louis' Mall totally eclipses the one in Indianapolis. However, any comparison ends there. The lack of overall planning and vision for that long green park denies it becoming one of the most beautiful in the US. The Gateway Mall impressed me (a lot) but also saddened me by its state of neglect. The existence of a modern building broke the flow; the lack of cohesiveness and the absence of a "master plan" made me feel sad and frustrated. Like a child given building blocks to create the perfect city which were then arranged poorly, that was my impression of the Gateway Mall (complete with a monument to a dark time in US history).

I continued on to the Gateway Arch - a place I never thought I would visit.