Update: See the interior of Bevo Mill in July of 2022. I went back and photographed the Stork Inn in 2014. You can see the Feasting Fox, originally known as the Gretchen Inn, in this post here, also from 2014. See Delor Street west of this intersection from March of 2023. See Morgan Ford north of this intersection in this post from March of 2023.
I realized recently that I had never taken a single picture of Bevo Mill, the iconic former Anheuser-Busch corporate restaurant at Gravois and Morganford. Legend has always stated that the Busches dined at the restaurant on their way out to Grant’s Farm, because it was half-way home. In reality, it is about a half mile closer to the brewery.
The intersection, while confusing in a car, is a thriving area, with plenty of Bosnian shops and restaurants enlivening the area.
Nearby, apartment buildings provided the density that created the customers who patronized the commercial strip along Gravois. Its brick pattern almost hurts my eyes, but it also points to an important development in St. Louis architecture at the dawn of the new century; red brick no longer possessed hegemony over architecture in the city.
The Bevo Mill is a fascinating building, reminding me of various garden follies I’ve seen in Germany; it was never an operating windmill of course, and was part of A-B’s strategy, along with the Feasting Fox and Stork Inn, of combating temperance forces by creating family friendly restaurants before Prohibition.
I don’t know much about the Little Bevo, across Morganford, but I suspect it was where the men headed after dinner to drink after their families had gone home. Does anyone remember this place in its heyday? I dined at the larger Bevo Mill in 1996 for the last time.
Little Bevo is looking great! So glad to see some light rehab work restore some of its sheen.
Back when they celebrated Bevo Days Jimmy Carter made a campaign stop. I was there along with a couple of thousand other people with their beer buckets, LOL
Bevo’s Oktoberfest is coming up this weekend on Oct 5th. Though I’ve lived in the neighborhood for over a year, I’ve never been able to make it to Bevo Days or the Bevo Oktoberfest. This weekend will be a first for me and I’m really excited about it. I love living here and I can’t wait to see the re-opening of the Little Bevo. I hear it’s going to be an art gallery as well as a live performance venue. Also, we are re-purposing a vacant lot on Morganford to make a skate-park and sustainable garden. I like the way things are shaping up here!
…and, as a matter of fact, the “skate garden” as we are calling it is just one block away from that gorgeous Golden Gate apartment whose photograph you’ve included in your article.