Update: The house was foreclosed on and demolished in the late summer of 2021. A new house was built on the lot in late 2022.
We’d first noticed it a couple of months ago. The famous house in Ballwin that had garnered considerable media attention over a decade ago due to its sculpture garden commemorating the Holocaust looked different.
Then it became obvious–the steel and other metals that once had filled the yard of Lewis Greenberg were gone, and surveyors’ spray paint markings covered the driveway and the street out in front of his property.
I had always said when it came time to remove the art, the metal would go fast, but the concrete would stay around for a long time–one is valuable to scrappers, the other is not. But does anyone know what happened?
Mr Greenberg was my ART teacher as a senior in Francis Howell High School. I found myself 1 art credit short of graduating and with 0 artististic capabilities it was going to be a tough year for me. I asked him if I could speak to him after class the first day and he agreed as his last hour of the day was open. Wow didn’t expect what I was in for. What an interesting guy…..he was a tri-athelete at that time and was very proud to have recently won his age bracket. Anyway we spoke for almost 1 hour about all sorts of things and developed an instant “friendship” if you will. We talked about so many things I had almost forgotten about why I had asked to speak to him and when I spoke about my inability to create ANYTHING artistic…..his response was “just draw stick people, I know everyone can’t be an artist….I got you man”. This friendship included me helping with all sorts of activities and displays he had in his room. He was an extremely smart man. He would often go off on a story that would sometimes lead to a rabbit hole, however, I almost always learned something from or about him in his stories. He passed me with an “A” for the year and I will always believe it was because he respected me for enguaging him on his life and hobbies. Unfortunatly I never saw Mr. Greenberg again after 1986 my last year in high school. I actually tried to find out where he lived many years later however, the only teachers I had contact with did not know at the time. No internet yet…..I always wanted to formally thank him for being a “friend”. What he did….might have been nothing to him, however it was huge to a kid that needed help. I will never forget what he did and who he was. Hopefully his family remembers the good things about him…….I know I always will.
Wow, thank you so much for sharing this story.