VINTAGE STEAM

Mention Mississippi steamboats, and the first image that floats into one’s mind is the Currier & Ives lithograph to the left of a “Midnight Race on the Mississippi.”  The vessels featured luxuriously ornate interiors and exteriors. Often called “Wedding Cake” design due to the stacked-deck arrangement, they dominated the inland rivers into the 1890s.  Regarding carrying freight, which many did, they were gradually replaced by the railroads crossing new bridges such as Eads Bridge.  (Steamboat operators did not like Mr. Eads bridge.)

While indeed plush with impressive craftsmanship, the classic river steamboats had a common problem: all-wood construction and flaming, high-pressure boilers for generating steam. Pressure gauges were primitive or nonexistent.  The boats often exploded and burned, causing many passenger casualties.  On May 17, 1849, a burning steamboat, the White Cloud, broke free of its moorings on the St. Louis Mississippi riverfront.  It floated downstream, bumping into and igniting other moored steamboats. The raging conflagration jumped the cobblestone riverfront and consumed a huge portion of Downtown.  It was the worst fire in the history of St. Louis and directly attributable to river steamboats.  These vessels also frequently hit huge, submerged trees called snags, causing them to quickly sink.  So, while definitely glamorous, the boats were also certainly dangerous!

BEFORE THE SS ADMIRAL

Prior to the launching of the SS Admiral in 1940, Streckfus Steamers had several excursion steamboats operating from the St. Louis riverfront for many years.  As an interesting note, the Streckfus business usually bought an older vessel, built by a different company, then rebuilt the boat for excursions out of St. Louis.  The rebuilt boat would retain the old, original hull.  (This practice would have a big impact later.)

 

THE ST. PAUL

The St. Paul, built in 1883 in St. Louis, MO for the St. Louis & St. Paul Packet Co., ran under the Diamond Jo flag.  The Streckfus Line acquired her in 1911 and in 1917 rebuilt her into an excursion boat cruising out of the St. Louis riverfront.  The boat was wooden and with a traditional riverboat design.  Many 1920s jazz greats played in her ballroom.  The St. Paul was retired from excursion service in 1942. She met an unglamorous fate when abandoned near St. Louis in 1953, left to the ravages of the Mississippi River.

THE JS DELUXE (Photo by my Grandfather, Herman Mueller)

The JS Deluxe was built at Dubuque, IA, in 1896 as the Quincy for the Diamond Jo Line. Streckfus purchased the vessel in 1919 and completely rebuilt it into the super-excursion boat the JS Deluxe.  The rebuild followed traditional river steamboat design using fanciful wood ornamentation.   The reconstruction was completed at St. Louis.  Jazz great Louis Armstong’s band played onboard.  The JS Deluxe was the Streckfus Line’s flagship until the President was launched in 1934. The JS Delue was dismantled at St. Louis in 1939.

THE PRESIDENT

Although the President’s profile mirrored the wedding-cake, river steamboat design, in its final form the boat was all steel, a linage the SS Admiral would continue.  The boat began life in 1924 as the Cincinnati for the Louisville & Cincinnati Packet Company.  Its steel hull, laid down at Midland, PA, measured 291 feet long by 84 feet wide. The vessel was completed at Cincinnati, OH.

The 1930s Great Depression’s financial chaos resulted in the sale of the Cincinnati to Streckfus Steamers in 1933. Streckfus rebuilt the vessel with a new superstructure as an excursion boat christened the President. The work was executed at the St. Louis levee.  The big steamboat gradually took shape as a rotating audience of curious citizens watched. The February 4, 1933, issue of The Waterways Journal printed an article proclaiming: “The Democrats will soon present us with a new president (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) and, not to be outdone, Streckfus Steamers will soon do the very same thing.”

As mentioned, the President was 295.5 feet long and 84 feet wide. She could carry 3,100 passengers. She had six oil-burning boilers. Her lower decks were glass-enclosed in preparation for the boat to be a full-time excursion vessel in 1944.

Beginning in 1941, replaced in St. Louis by the SS Admiral, she spent a lot of time operating out of New Orleans. In 1985, because the Admiral was no longer cruising, the President returned to St. Louis as an excursion boat until 1990.  I was fortunate enough to take a daytime cruise on the President.  She had a big dance floor and vintage look which I really appreciated.  I could imagine big swing bands of the 1930s pounding some very hot jazz.

The boat was bought by businessman John Connelly, and he transformed her into a casino which opened in April 1991. (Connelly would also unfortunately be involved with the Admiral.)  The President spent her last years in Davenport. The boat lost its cruising license by not being drydocked for an inspection. Unfortunately, the boat was dismantled after numerous restoration and reconstruction plans failed in the early 2000s.

THE SS ADMIRAL

 “MODERNE” STEAM

In 1907, a steam-powered, sidewheel ferry was launched.  It was called the SS Albatross, a name which would later be quite ironic.  In 1937, Captain Joe Strecfus hired Famous-Barr illustrator Mazie Krebs to redesign the Albatross into an Art Deco masterpiece.  1940 saw the completion of her design with conversion of the Albatross into a huge, silver, Art Deco riverboat christened the SS Admiral, owned and operated by the Streckfus Steamers family.  Streckfus had a long and glorious nautical history on the St. Louis riverfront prior to the SS Admiral’s launching.  The mighty SS Admiral was like nothing seen before on the Mississippi.  In style, it would have nothing in common with 19^th steamboats.  The boat, executed in the popular Art Deco style, sported a streamline, modern steel exterior with a shiny, silver paint job.  The vessel’s interior was also an Art Deco masterpiece.  The ballroom could have easily been a setting for a 1930s Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers movie.  The Admiral’s overall dimensions were impressive.  The boat was 374 feet long, 92 feet wide carrying a maximum of 4,400 passengers.  The new steel frame was completed by Banner Iron Works on 1920 S. Kingshighway, St. Louis, MO.  (I worked at Banner Iron in 1969-70.  Quite an experience.  It was located behind O’Connell’s Irish Pub.)  The Admiral was the first Mississippi excursion boat to be air conditioned, cooling the enclosed 2^nd and 3^rd decks

 

ALL HANDS ON DECK!

The Admiral had five decks.  Here is a quick, pre-boarding review.  The 1^st deck, where boarding took place, was a vast game arcade. (Not gambling-yet.)  The 2^nd deck housed a bandstand, a huge dance floor accommodating 2000 dancers and seating.  The 3^rd deck featured more seating and a bar dispensing, for a price, non-alcoholic mixes and drinks. The 2^nd and 3^rd decks were collectively called the Cabin.  The 3^rd deck formed a balcony from which the 2^nd deck bandstand and the dance floor could be viewed.  The 4^th deck was open-air on the vessel’s sides and provided food and more seating.  The top, 5^th deck, named the Lido Deck, was completely open.

1^st DECK: FUN & GAMES

As mentioned, passengers boarded and deboarded the vessel on the first deck.  If you had young kids with you, or happened to happily be a kid yourself, chances were you never got any higher than the first deck. It was a vast arcade of games.  There was target shooting, machines dispensing pictures of cars and airplanes, old-time selfie booths that took a filmstrip of four little photos that immediately printed out, pinball machines, fortune-telling mannequins, skee ball and a bunch of other really neat stuff. Candy could be purchased. The film strip I’ve included from the selfie photo booth is of me at about six years old.

And then there was Popeye and Wimpy!  These two bad boys were massive steel piston shafts, well over 100 feet long and about three feet in height, located on the interior port and starboard side of the first deck.  They were driven by massive steam engines and turned the paddle wheels located underwater on the boat’s starboard and port sides.  Once under way, these huge shafts would alternate, thrusting forward and back, driving the vessel ahead.  One shaft was labeled Popeye: the other Wimpy.  They were quite a site under full speed, running smoothly and silently.  (I could not find a picture of them.) The first deck was really a magical place for kids, and I remember it very fondly. 

2^ND DECK THE BALLROOM: SWINGING & ROCKING

The Ballroom was, in my experience, the heart and soul of the Admiral.  It could hold 2000 dancers in air-conditioned comfort, a first for river excursion boats. There was seating on the far edges of the dance floor towards the boat’s bow and stern, and a gift shop tucked away on the opposite side of the bandstand. The ceilings were about eight feet high.  Above the dance floor itself, the room was open to the 3^rd deck’s ceiling, two-decks high. The 2^nd and 3^rd decks were integral to each other and together were called the Cabin.

The bandstand was a gleaming white leather fabric consisting of two flanking pillars with circular, chrome highlights.  Directly behind the band was the same fabric, only vertical with matching chrome accents.  The whole arrangement stood two-decks high.

The dance floor was huge. During day cruises, kids would slide across it until the staff told them to tone it down.  (I had personal experience with that.)  There was also a band and dancers during the day.

The big dance crowds came for the evening cruises.  I believe the big band that played the night cruises was Johnny Polsin, featuring 1940s-50s jazz and swing. From the 1940s through the early 1960s, men had to have a coat and tie in the Ballroom.  Women always had good-looking dresses.  That all changed later in the 1960s when rock replaced swing on the dance floor.  Casual clothes became the look.  The house band was Bob Kuban’s Brass, providing a solid rock sound that was great for dancing.  Kuban’s band was on the Admiral for many years.

3^RD DECK: Mix Up Some Drinks!

Relaxing seating toward the vessel’s bow and stern, along with a bar, could be found on the 3^rd deck, known as the Mezzanine.  Food was available on this deck.  Along the starboard and port sides were narrow passages with tables with seating overlooking the dance floor.  This whole deck had an oblong opening in the center above and conformed to the ballroom floor.  The ceiling, which was blue, had recessed lights with Zodiac symbol lenses. 

The Mezzanine was popular for just watching the dancers and listening to the band.  The bar sold non-alcoholic mixers for the booze the patrons brought aboard.  On the Admiral, you could bring alcohol such as scotch and bourbon, but not non-alcoholic drinks.  I don’t recall how beer was handled.

As mentioned, the Mezzanine deck formed a balcony open to the dance floor one deck down.  The opening was ringed by an Art Deco railing with intersecting circles and lateral, straight pieces, all composed of shiny aluminum.  Directly below the railing were aluminum stars.  This very decorative configuration completely ringed the opening above the dance floor.  While it functioned as a railing for the Mezzanine deck, it also formed a kind of crown for the dance floor. 

GRETA GARBO ON THE MEZZANINE

What was Greta Garbo doing on the Admiral’s Mezzanine deck?  Nothing—she always wanted “to be alone.”  But her name was given to the magnificent ladies powder room on the Mezzanine deck.  Based on the pictures I’ve seen, the powder room must have been an exercise in elegance.  Mazie Krebs really outdid herself designing the powder room.  It was a 1940s work of art.

4^TH DECK: NICE BREEZES & FOOD

The aroma of something good cooking mixed agreeably with the soft wafts of wind on the open 4^th deck.  The window frames had no windows, so the Mississippi breezes cooled the deck on warm days and nights.  There were plenty of lounge chairs for relaxing.  A cooking grill served up soft drinks, hamburgers, hotdogs and such, cafeteria style.  As time moved into the late 1960s, this was called the Rock & Roll Deck.  On night cruises, a rock band provided music.  The 4^th deck provided a more casual setting than the Cabin.  It was a good place to enjoy an outdoor atmosphere without getting cooked on the Lido Deck during those very hot St. Louis afternoons.  I can speak from personal experience of a post-cruise sunburn!

 5^TH DECK: FUN & SUN

The top 5th, or Lido Deck had a 4-chime whistle—and it was loud.  A steam-powered calliope welcomed passengers aboard and entertained folks during the scenic cruises.  Both were on the top deck.  Upon parking on the riverfront, the sound of the calliope would travel across the cobblestones, building expectations for a fun-filled cruise.  The top deck sported more seating with tables and umbrellas, making it a great spot to sit and sightsee.  This is where the pilot house was located from which the boat was controlled.  Day and night cruises went north to south down to Jefferson Barracks.  A big thrill that always crowded the Lido Deck was when the Admiral passed under the Poplar Street and MacArthur Bridges.  It was quite a view.

The photo to the left is of Beth Eppy’s family on the Lido Deck from around 1966.  One of the Admiral’s smokestacks can be seen on the left of the photo along with part of the Arch’s leg.  From left to right on the photo is Beth’s sister Ellen Immer, Beth, her Mom Naomi and her brother Steve.  Beth’s Dad Edmund snapped the picture.

Beth is a member of the Southampton Neighborhood Association and was previously a Board Member at Large.  Her family lived on Delor in the 5400^th block. 

PERSONAL REMINISCES

 I owe all my childhood memories of the Admiral to my Grandma Helen Polley.  She is on the right of the photo taken on the Lido Deck by the pilot’s house, the boat’s control center. (We NEVER saw the inside of the pilot’s house!)  She took my cousin Pam Davis, my sister Elaine Polley and me on daytime cruises every summer.  My earliest recollections are probably from 1957.  We spent a lot of time on the 1^st Deck arcade, which was a wonderland to a lad of 6 years.  Later, the action would shift to the slippery dance floor.  A running start provided a good slide across the floor with the leather-soled shoes of the days.  (Present-day sneakers would not have worked!)  It was great fun until the staff suggested it was time to stop it. Eventually, we’d end up on the top Lido Deck for sightseeing.

I clearly recall getting lost on the huge Admiral when I was around 7 years old.  I wandered over to the bandstand, and they announced my name over the loudspeaker system.  In the meantime, a couple of very pretty teenage girls took a shine to me.  They took me out on the dance floor and whirled me around.  I hate to say it, but I was somewhat disappointed when Grandma Polley showed up. Things were going so well!

When I was in my late teens, I had a good group of friends.  We would go on the Admiral for the night cruises at least once in the summer.  By then, around 1968, I believe Bob Kuban’s band was in the ballroom, providing current hits with a nice, heavy brass emphasis.  We still wore coats and ties and girls were all dressed up.  It was always a very nice evening.

The good times aboard the Admiral continued into the 1970s with some changes.  The night cruises were always a very anticipated event in the summer.  My girlfriend, later my wife Bonnie, along with a usual crew of friends, had some great times on those cruises.  The St. Louis riverfront was aways packed on the weekend.  1973 saw the Admiral conversion from steam to diesel.  That removed a bit of the craft’s romance.  Popeye and Whimpy, those huge piston driver shafts now just sat in place, their paddle wheels replaced with modern propellers.  Streckfus claimed it was hard to find the parts for the old steam power plants. 

LEAKS

Our final evening cruise on the Admiral with our friends was in 1978, but things were off.  The air conditioning was not working.  The floors and tabletops were very sticky.  The tables and chairs were in disarray.  The windows in the Cabin were dirty.  Some windows had been punched out to let air in on the hot summer night(s). It was obvious that the Streckfus organization was milking the boat for profits while not putting any money back in for maintenance.

HAMMERED

The U.S. Coast Guard boarded the Admiral for a routine “hammer test” in 1979 involving tapping the hull to find weak spots.  The hammer went right through the hull in several locations.  While the Admiral’s above-water construction, dating from 1940, was 39 years old, its hull was another story.  As mentioned, the Admiral was built on the steel hull of the SS Albatross, a 1907 ferry boat.  Its corroded hull was now 72 years old.  The bill for the necessary repairs was $1.5 million.  The Streckfuss organization decided to cease operating the mighty SS Admiral.  In doing so, Streckfuss Steamers killed a unique, multi-generational St. Louis tradition. 

FOR THE BIRDS

Pittsburgh businessman John E. Connelly bought the Admiral for $600,000 in 1981. He did some repair work and removed the engines, wanting to make it a Pittsburgh attraction.  That did not pan out.  He soon sold it to a group of St. Louis investors, SS Admiral Partners, for $1.5 million. When the boat returned to the St. Louis riverfront around 1986, its condition was shocking.  Huge swaths of silver paint were gone, and it had a beat-up look to it.  The Six Flags Admiral Corp. partnered with the SS Admiral Partners and invested a total of $31 million for converting the boat to a stationary, floating amusement attraction on the St. Louis riverfront opening in 1987. It had an animated bird theater, restaurants, bars and music venues.  Patrons had to pay to board the boat, then pay more for the attractions.  It was a losing arrangement and went out of business around 1990.

SNAKE EYES

In 1993, the Admiral was converted into a floating gambling attraction called the President Casino on Laclede’s Landing.  All the1930s-40s Art Deco elegance Mazie Krebs had designed into the SS Admiral was destroyed, replaced with a gaudy, casino interior.  It held 1,230 slot machines, 59 gaming tables and one restaurant.  This arrangement was successful for almost a decade.  (I was on the casino once, brimming with nostalgia, but found only an unrecognizable interior.)  The boat was having somewhat of a good run as a gambling joint until April 4, 1998. The towboat Anne Holly hit the Missouri-side pier of the Eads Bridge’s center pier, breaking loose eight of its barges, of which three hit the Admiral.  The Admiral rotated downstream on the river until the Anne Holly caught it and, with Admiral’s one remaining stern anchor, held it near the Missouri bank of the Mississippi.  16 passenger injuries required hospitalization.  It took many hours to evacuate about 2,500 people from the vessel.  Damage was estimated to be $11 million.  Repairs were made, but the President Casino Co. went bankrupt in 2002.  It appears the onboard casino continued to stumble along.

Pinnacle Entertainment purchased the Admiral in 2006, then tried to sell it due to repair and maintenance costs.   The casino surprisingly lasted until 2010.  During that year, the Coast Guard was due to make its regular inspection of the boat.  Pinnacle declined the inspection and shut down the Admiral.  St. Louis Marine and Materials purchased the vessel—they did not have restoration in mind.

ART DECO SCRAP METAL

By July 19, 2011, the Admiral’s upper deck had been stripped off.  Note in the picture to the left, the pilot house is long gone.  On that day, the Admiral began a journey to Columbia, Il where her lower decks were gutted out.  The magnificent two-deck high ballroom was nothing but an empty cave, exposing the steel structure so perfectly constructed by Banner Iron Works, another St. Louis landmark now long gone.

The Admiral then was towed to Calvert City, KY where her remains were cut up for the scrap heap.  A great St. Louis summertime institution was ingloriously destroyed.  To my knowledge, nothing from the Admiral was salvaged for posterity.  At the History Museum in Forest Park, much memorabilia from the 1904 World’s Fair is on display.  It seems that something from the Admiral, which cruised the Mississippi for 39 years, should have been preserved and displayed at the Museum.  It is a huge exclusion of St. Louis history.

 DOES THIS MAKE “CENTS”?

The Admiral quit cruising in 1979.  John Connelly bought the boat for $600,000.  He sold it back to the SS Admiral Partners for $1.5 million.  Six Flags invested $31 million for its conversion of the Admiral to an of ill-conceived theme park.  I don’t know the costs for converting the Admiral into a casino—it had to be a big chunk of change.  Repair of the barge collision damage cost $11 million. Based on available figures, since 1979, a minimum of $42,150,600 was spent on various conversions and repairs to the Admiral.  (Remember, that doesn’t include the casino conversion bill.)  All these actions failed in the long run.  The original 1979 repair bill needed to fix the Admiral’s hull to pass the Coast Guard inspection was $1.5 million.  That means the SS Admiral could have been repaired and refloated at least 28 times.  I’ve “gotta” shake my head in profuse confusion over this obtuse reality.

REFLECTIONS ON THE ST. LOUIS RIVERFRONT

There was a time during the 1960s and early 1970s, in my personal experience, when the St. Louis Riverfront was a swinging place.  It was a class scene.  Sport coats, ties and nice dresses were the norm.  The age of the patrons varied between 18 to about 65.  There was rock and roll on the Admiral night cruises.  The other sites featured traditional, “Dixieland” jazz and ragtime; hot 1920s music.  Beyond the music, many of the riverfront establishments were very nice restaurants.  These boats were moored south of Eads Bridge, basically “at the foot of the Arch.”

What follows is a look at those unique places.

The Goldenrod Showboat, built in 1909 as an actual showboat, moored in St. Louis from 1937-1984.  The boat never had power of its own.  It had to be towed to a destination. The vessel featured live plays and later, farcical melodramas in the main theatre.  The bar\lounge was home to The St. Louis Ragtimers, specializing in ragtime and traditional jazz.  After playing on some of the earlier-mentioned steamboats and a stint in Gaslight Square at the Opera House, Singleton Palmer and his Dixieland Six also held forth on the Goldenrod.  The Ragtime Festival, an annual event, drew sellout crowds.  I was lucky enough to attend the event and it was a blast.  The Goldenrod was moved to St. Charles Riverfront in 1991.  It went through some ownership changes, which were not successful.  Around 2016, while moored on the Illinois River at Kampsville, IL, the Goldenrod’s keel broke in low water and  the boat was sold for scrap.  Another great St. Louis attraction lost.

The River Queen was built in1923 and moored at the St. Louis riverfront from 1964 to 1967.  The vessel had a good restaurant and jazz in an elegant atmosphere. The River Queen had a brief appearance in the movie Gone With the Wind.  Speaking of Gone With the Wind, a powerful storm with big winds hit St. Louis in 1967 and sank the River Queen. It was then scrapped

The Robert E. Lee was constructed in the mid-1960s and moored in St. Louis in 1970.  The boat was built as a stationary, floating restaurant and never had engines.  The Robert E. Lee was quite elegant, with a room featuring steaks on its 1^st deck.  The 2^nd deck had a good seafood menu.  The 1^st deck also had a nice, roomy saloon showcasing very good ragtime and jazz bands.  You could wait in the saloon for your table and grab a drink and some good jazz before eating.  Many people came just for the music in the saloon.  The bands included Jean Kittrell and Her Red Hot Peppers and a trio called The Tin Rainbow Ragtimers.  I had a lot of personal experience on the boat, and the food, music and atmosphere were terrific.  The Robert E. Lee closed in 1993 due to damage from the Great 1993 Flood.  It was repaired and had a few different operators and names, but was never the same as in its glory years.  A 2010 fire burnt it down to the waterline.

The Becky Thatcher, by the time it got to St. Louis, was a restaurant. The boat was built in 1926 and moored in St. Louis from 1968 to 1974.  The Becky Thatcher eventually left St. Louis.  In February 2010, the boat sank at its mooring on Neville Island in the Ohio River, just north of Pittsburgh. It was a total loss.

The Belle Angeline was built strictly as a floating restaurant on the St. Louis Riverfront in the late 1970s and 1980s.  It was another elegant addition to the riverfront.  I don’t recall music there, but the food was very good. It underwent some owner and name changes and was scrapped around 2012

Gunnar’s Palace Car Lounge was on a sideline railroad track by the Poplar Street Bridge on the riverfront from the mid-960s until it was destroyed by the Great Flood of 1993.  The Palace Car Lounge served up good food and drinks.  My Mom and Dad went there and really enjoyed the place.  It was a unique establishment.

The Old St. Louis Levee House, opening in 1967, was in Laclede’s Landing, facing the river just behind the elevated train tracks.  It was the only place open at the time in Laclede’s Landing.  Steaks and pizza were on the menu along with lots of beer.  The joint had a foot-stomping ragtime\Dixieland band. I was there a number of times.  The Old St. Louis Levee House was the destination on my first date with my future wife Bonnie.  On the way there, the radio program we were listening to was interrupted with a special bulletin—There was a multi-alarm fire on the riverfront, The Old St. Louis Levee House was engulfed in flames.  We ended up at Café Louie, also downtown.  Sometimes plans don’t work out.

Currently, the Tom Sawyer is the only remaining boat on the St. Louis riverfront.  It is a nice replica of a 19^th century riverboat and provides Mississippi River cruises and special event rental.  Passengers can purchase food and drink onboard and a park ranger often provides a cruise narrative.

There were multiple goals I hoped to achieve with this article.  Frist, a short narrative of the Mississippi River steamboats provides a broad overview.  Next, presenting the river boats leading up to the launching of the Admiral presents a necessary, developmental track and an introduction to Streckfus Steamers.  This leads us into the article’s main topic, the SS Admiral, a true St. Louis legend. Wrapping it all up, I wanted to describe the lively atmosphere of the St. Louis riverfront during the 1960s-70s, of which the Admiral was an integral part.  I hope those who were there, like myself, were able to enjoy some nice memories.  I would like to think that generations too young to experience the jumping, swing scene get a good flavor of what it was like—GREAT!

Sources:

Steamboating the Rivers - Steamboats.org

Built St. Louis | Crumbling Landmarks | The Admiral

https://www.wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Image/IM95899

Steamboat Museum

https://www.waterwaysjournal.net/

ST. LOUIS' PICTURES OF THE PAST  · 

Matt Chaney

https://bygonestlouis.blogspot.com/

https://www.losttables.com/

Goldenrod Showboat Floods, Sinking Longtime Efforts to Restore It | National Trust for Historic Preservation

THE GREAT ST. LOUIS ARENA

ART DECO GLORY TO UNFORTUNATE IMPLOSION

Dennis J. Polley 

AN OPPORTUNITY

Up to the end of the 1904 World’s Fair, St. Louis had a tradition of hosting big indoor horse and agricultural shows.  The city had the huge St. Louis Exposition and Music Hall, but they demolished it.  In its place, the St. Lous Coliseum was built to host more individual events such as boxing matches.  It was closed in 1939, and neglected until 1953, the year in which it was also torn down.  The National Dairy show was a big event, and in 1928 it wanted to make St. Louis its permanent home for its annual two-week meeting of dairymen and their prize animals. A new building was needed.  It would be completely funded by private money raised by a group of businessmen under the title of The National Exposition Company.  They hired Gustel R. Kiewitt as architect.  For general contractor, Boaz-Kiel Construction Company was contracted.  Ground was broken and construction began on the Art-Deco style St. Louis Arena.

CONSTRUCTION

A large, open floor and seating area, with no supporting interior pillars, was required.  Kiewitt achieved this with a Lamella roof, first designed in Germany, supported by 20 cantilever steel trusses needing no interior pillar support.  The wood ribs were made of Douglas fir.  The roof was a very complex structure of great strength.  The Arena was completed in 1929, just slightly over one year after construction began.  Its dimensions were impressive: 476 feet long and 276 feet wide. Only Madison Square Garden in New York had a larger, unobstructed indoor entertainment space in the United States.  A 13-story building could have been erected inside the Arena.

 

ART DECO BRILLIANCE

The Art Deco architectural style rose to prominence in the 1920s and was popular throughout the 1940s.  It is considered the last, great architectural style.  Examples are New York’s Empire State and Chrysler Buildings.  Art Deco is characterized by strong, symmetrical lines and contrasting colors.  The twin towers flanking the Arena’s arched, front entrances are pure Art Deco.  Many people recall the Arena as the “Old Barn,” a hulking, compromised building with white paint slopped over its exterior.  As can be seen in the colorized photos, the exterior consisted of intricate, colorful glazed brick and tile patterns as did the interior.  This article’s initial two photos show two skylights circling the roof’s oval circumference.  The Arena’s original roofing material was also multi-colored.  The second photo in this paragraph clearly shows a patio area above the main arched entrances between the Art Deco towers.  It sported tables and chairs with umbrellas.  All these features would eventually be gone or covered by thick paint. 

THROUGH THE YEARS

The Arena hosted many events over the decades.  Speaking from personal experience, I recall going to the Fireman’s Rodeo, the Police Circus, the Outdoors Show featuring boats, campers and such and the Boy Scouts’ Jamboree.  This was in the late 1950s and early 1960s.  I also recall seeing the rock group Santana there in the 1970s.  The Arena hosted hockey, basketball and indoor soccer.  What follows is a list of the Arena’s tenants during the building’s lifetime:

St. Louis Flyers (AHA/AHL) (1929–1953)

St. Louis Eagles (NHL) (1934–1935)

Chicago Black Hawks (NHL) (occasional use; 1951–1959)

Toledo-St. Louis Mercurys (IHL) (1959–1960)

St. Louis Braves (CHL) (1963–1967)

St. Louis Blues (NHL) (1967–1994)

St. Louis Hawks (NBA) (occasional use; 1955–1968)

St. Louis Bombers (NBA) (1946–1950)

St. Louis Stars (NASL) (1971, 1974)

Spirits of St. Louis (ABA) (1974–1976)

St. Louis Steamers (MISL) (1979–1988)

St. Louis Storm (MISL) (1989–1992)

St. Louis Ambush (NPSL) (1992–1994)

St. Louis Vipers (RHI) (1993–1994)

Saint Louis Billikens men's basketball (NCAA) (1968–1973 and 1991–1994)

Saint Louis Billikens men's ice hockey (1970–1979)

 

HEAVY WEATHER

On February 10, 1959, around 2:10 a.m., tornado sirens were blaring.  An F2 tornado touched down in Sherman, MO.  The twister gained strength as it covered its 27.8-mile path on the ground.  By the time it roared onto Hampton and Oakland Ave. the monster had bulked up to an F4 strength packing winds between 207 and 260 miles per hour.  Within less than a minute it crumpled the KTVI TV transmission tower near the corner of Hampton and Oakland.  The Arena took a full hit.  Almost a fourth of its solid roof was literally extracted by the storm’s fury.  One of the Art Deco towers was knocked over.  When roof repairs were made, engineers from Germany had to be brought to St. Louis to execute the complicated job. (It was beyond the skill set of the drywall and dropped ceiling crowd.)  Later, you could always tell where the roof had been repaired because the wood was a lighter shade.   In a harbinger of future unenlightened Arena maintenance, rather than fixing the damaged Art Deco tower, the building's owners demolished its undamaged twin as well.

HOCKEY AND THE CHECKER DOME

The St. Louis Blues called the Arena home beginning in the 1967-68 season.  The building had been heavily neglected, causing Blues owner Sid Salomon Jr. to put several million dollars into the Arena after purchasing it from the Chicago Black Hawks farm team.  Salomon was constantly adding seats, and by the time the Blues left the Arena in 1994, it held seating for almost 20,000.  Many fans considered it the best venue for watching hockey.

In 1977, to keep the Blues in town, Ralston Purina, under the guidance of CEO R. Hal Dean purchased the team and the Arena, renaming the building The Checkerdome, after its Checkerboard Square company emblem.  The new name was not popular, but it did keep the team in St. Louis.  Ralston wanted to paint the roof in a checkerboard pattern, but that pattern was also used for aviation purposes, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) thankfully objected.

In 1983, Ralson Purina forfeited the team to the league. The team was then bought by Harry Ornest, a Los Angeles-based businessman, and The Checkerdome was renamed back to the Arena.  The building remained home to the Blues through 1994.

The last event at the Arena was a concert by Christian artist Carman Licciardello.  The lights then went out permanently.

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

After the Blues left the Area, a complicated, financial and civic situation resulted in almost  certain demolition of the building.  What follows is a direct quote from Wikipedia:

“As a condition for the private financing of the demolition of city-owned Kiel Auditorium and the construction of privately owned Kiel Center (now the Enterprise Center) on the same Downtown site, local business group Civic Progress, Inc. insisted that the Cheltenham-neighborhood would not be allowed to compete with Kiel Center for any events, while the insurance burden for the building was left with the City of St. Louis. With no income allowed for the Arena while insurance expenses continued, the building sat vacant while pressure built on the city government to either make it revenue-producing (essentially impossible under the Civic Progress-imposed non-compete clause) or raze it. The Arena remained vacant for nearly five years before it was demolished in 1999.”

 

IMPLOSION

Examine the top photo to the left.  All the glazed tile and brick are no longer visible, covered by thick, white coats of paint.  The Art Deco towers are long gone. Only their foundation structures remain.  The patio area between the towers’ foundations hadn’t been used for decades.  The roof is no longer the multi-colored material originally used.  It was now sheathed in a green tarpaper, which also covered the skylights.  The interior had suffered the same, ill-conceived fate.  As a result of years of thoughtless so-called “maintenance,” the Arena was truly “The Old Barn,” an inexcusable outcome for another St. Louis landmark building.   On Feb. 27, 1999, after structural placement of 133 pound of TNT, the demolition button was pushed and 70 years of St. Louis memories imploded to the ground in 15 seconds, to be replaced with office and residential buildings called “The Highlands,” after the legendary, nearby amusement park that burnt down.

 

BOWLING

 The Arena also had a flanking building called the Arena Annex, which was a large one-story building with exhibit space for conventions.  Rock concerts were sometimes held there.  A matching building on the opposite side of the Arena housed the huge, multi-laned Arena Bowl.  I bowled there and recall it being gigantic with 72 lanes. It was the largest bowling alley in St. Louis.  It was impressive and hosted the TV show “Bowling for Dollars.”  The Arena Bowl was demolished in 1988.  I believe the other Annex building may have been demolished at the same time.

Sources: Wikipedia and Lost Treasures of St. Louis by Cameron Collins, Publisher: Reedy Press, 2017