I photographed the Forest Park Visitors’ Center way back in September of 2012, on what was a cloudy day. I went back on a sunny day and captured these pictures.
There were more beautiful flowers out front here, as well. This is an interesting building, which started as a streetcar shelter, suffered a fire, and was rebuilt in the Spanish Revival style.
Interestingly, the tower, based off a Venetian campanile, is the oldest part. I suspect the upper portion of the tower is newer.
Here is an image of the pavilion before its partial destruction by fire.
The Forest Park Visitors Center was originally built in 1892 as a streetcar pavilion for the Lindell Railway Co. It burned down in 1924 and what was then called the Field House was built around the surviving portions of the tower. Here’s a picture from the Forest Park Forever website of the Lindell Pavillion in 1897. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5233160ae4b08346f3be204b/1412697413587-D5SMMJ4B665S9YVRR92K/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kOu-RoknO-IsapiUP_1TsCx7gQa3H78H3Y0txjaiv_0fDoOvxcdMmMKkDsyUqMSsMWxHk725yiiHCCLfrh8O1z5QPOohDIaIeljMHgDF5CVlOqpeNLcJ80NK65_fV7S1UTNRqkfb5r0jF4ojJv3rZXHtb8SpX2kyh_TEmTG3A57zcZvzjhem61ju1EWjsi3f0Q/image-asset.jpeg?format=750w
Sorry. Missed the caption where you mentioned the history. But the dates and link to the photo are still valid.
Thanks!
This is one of my favorite buildings in St. Louis – I was the Designer and Project Architect of the last renovation about 15 years ago. You are correct that the tower base is the oldest component, as it survived the 1920’s fire and the rest of the “new” building was designed around it. But what most people don’t know is that the tower ALSO survived an explosion in the 1950’s. The remaining building was lost, but was rebuilt on the same foundation, using the same design and drawings from the 1920’s. All that we could learn about that 1950’s incident is that reconstruction was “paid for by a gas company”…
Hmm, I wonder which gas company that was? Great job on the renovation, by the way!