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All posts written by St. Louis City Talk contributors unless otherwise noted.
Per the city website, the park was originally the site of the old Gamble Reservoir, Norman Seay Park was acquired by the Park system from the City Water Department in 1874. During the 1930's, a Gamble Recreation Center was built and the Park is now used as a playground (source).
The park is bordered by Cabanne Avenue to the north, Belt Avenue to the west, Arlington Avenue to the east (roughly) and Clemens Place to the south and is located in the Visitation Park Neighborhood.
This park can accurately be described as a pocket park based on the small, irregular strip of land that it was built upon. The sliver of space is between Olive Street and Washington Avenue, just east of Kingshighway.
Per the city website, this tract of land was donated to St. Louis by the late St. Louis Architect, Ernest J. Russell who was a world renowned architect of his time. He was president of the American Institute of Architects and an Honarary Corresponding Member of the Rotyal Institue of British Architects. Not too shabby, eh?
70 acres of Willmore Park was donated by Cyrus Crane Willmore. Mr. Willmore was a prominent St. Louis developer, responsible for many suburban sub-divisions in University City, Webster Groves and Normandy. His main St. Louis contributions were Kingshighway Hills (now in the North Hampton neighborhood) and St. Louis Hills.
The park was part of the "urban renewal" that cleared the buildings, homes and businesses for green space from 22nd street to the Mississippi River.
The park is framed by some St. Louis classics including Union Station, Peabody Opera House, Soldier's Memorial Military Museum and the St. Louis Law School.
This 1.9 acre park, dedicated in 1962, is a connector of sorts between the Gateway Arch on the Mississippi riverfront and the Gateway Mall, a series of several parks along Market Street in the Downtown and Downtown West Neighborhoods. The park takes its name from Harry J. Kiener...
Eternal Flame Park is one of a series of six parks along Market Street in the Downtown West Neighborhood. Working west from Tucker Boulevard and Market Street you have Poelker Park, Washington Square Park and Kaufmann Park, then Memorial Plaza Park/Gateway Mall Plaza (including Eternal Flame Park and the one across from the Park Pacific which is not listed on the city website), Serra Sculpture Park, Aloe Plaza and Aloe Plaza West. The beautiful and peaceful Soldier's Memorial Military Museum is also part of this stretch of land and I will include that in a separate post.
The Serra Sculpture Park is one of a series of six parks along Market Street in the Downtown West Neighborhood. Working west from Tucker Boulevard and Market Street you have Poelker Park, Washington Square Park and Kaufmann Park, then Memorial Plaza Park (including Eternal Flame Park and the one across from the Park Pacific which is not listed on the city website), Aloe Plaza and Aloe Plaza West. The beautiful and peaceful Soldier's Memorial Military Museum is also part of this stretch of land and I will include that in a separate post.
Washington Square Park is one of a series of six parks along Market Street in the Downtown West Neighborhood. Working west from Tucker Boulevard and Market Street you have Poelker Park, Washington Square Park and Kaufmann Park, then Memorial Plaza Park (including Eternal Flame Park and the one across from the Park Pacific which is not listed on the city website), Aloe Plaza and Aloe Plaza West. The beautiful and peaceful Soldier's Memorial Military Museum is also part of this stretch of land and I will include that in a separate post.
Kaufmann Park is one of a series of six parks along Market Street in the Downtown West Neighborhood. Working west from Tucker Boulevard and Market Street you have Poelker Park, Washington Square Park and Kaufmann Park, then Memorial Plaza Park (including Eternal Flame Park and the one across from the Park Pacific which is not listed on the city website), Aloe Plaza and Aloe Plaza West. The beautiful and peaceful Soldier's Memorial Military Museum is also part of this stretch of land and I will include that in a separate post.
Poelker Park is one of a series of six parks along Market Street in the Downtown West Neighborhood. Working west from Tucker Boulevard and Market Street you have Poelker Park, Washington Square Park and Kaufman Park, then Memorial Plaza Park (including Eternal Flame Park and the one across from the Park Pacific which is not listed on the city website), Aloe Plaza and Aloe Plaza West. The beautiful and peaceful Soldier's Memorial Military Museum is also part of this stretch of land and I will include that in a separate post.
Some parts of town just seem to have it together. Whenever I visit Old North St. Louis, I seem to notice something new and positive each time. A couple weeks ago I was up in ONSL exploring Jackson Park and drove west and noticed some beautiful new homes filling in vacant lots.
I also noticed some public art that reminded me of Tibetan prayer flags.
note the Stan Span in the distance
I stopped and walked around with my curiosity piqued. I new I could research what was going on here, but I also wanted to talk to some locals about what was going on.
What better place than a coffee shop to get info, right? I stopped in at La Mancha Coffeehouse at 14th Street and St. Louis Avenue. I spoke to the barista while she served up a great cup of joe. Turns out this empty lot on the 1300 block of Warren Avenue was tilled and planted with sunflowers to provide some interest in an otherwise dead space. The flags were an addition to beautify the lot after harvest of the sunflowers.
If you have empty lots, why not make the best of them while they are in their transitional state...or fallow period?
I love stuff like this. Empty lots don't tend to make people turn their heads and stop and get out of the car to investigate what's going on. The Sunflower Project did just that.
Here's the story from Washington University's Sustainable Cities Land Lab Conference:
The Sunflower+ Project: StL proposes turning previously developed urban lots into a community asset through the planting of sunflowers. With a goal of eventually spurring redevelopment of these vacant parcels, the project will serve as an appropriate, scalable, and productive transitional solution. An experiment in the realms of phytoremediation, public art, public health, education and sustainability, the project will beautify the neighborhood and enhance the usability of the land in a low impact, low cost, and entrepreneurial manner. Using Lot #4, we propose planting a field of sunflowers with a repurposed rubble wall intervention marking the historic foundation line that would serve as a didactic tool for learning about history and sustainability. In addition to brightening the neighborhood, the sunflowers will serve the practical task of phytoremediation of the soil, while offering the potential for development of food or fuel products that could provide a source of local income. Alternative plantings will also be used to promote the remediation process year round. The Sunflower+ Project: StL is led by a multidisciplinary team with expertise in urban redevelopment, sustainability, horticulture, soils analysis, environmental air quality analysis, masonry, graphic design and communications, civil engineering and organic farming. (source)
The mix of agriculture and brick buildings is a thing of beauty to me. I can't wait to come back and get some photos of the sunflowers in bloom.
Congrats to those working hard in Old North, your neighborhood is an example for the other 78 in St. Louis.
According to the book, “From Village to Neighborhood: A History of Old North St. Louis” by Miranda Rabus Rectenwald and Andrew Hurley, “Jackson Place, dedicated as a recreational park, is the second oldest park in all of St. Louis.” (source)
The park is located in the shadow of some of St. Louis' most beautiful buildings, the Shell Building and the Central Library that recently underwent a $70M renovation.
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