Update: This last gasometer in the St. Louis region was torn down shortly after this photograph was taken in the winter of 2013.
Once one of four gasometers built in the St. Louis area, it is now the last one, clinging to life in splendid isolation on Natural Bridge Avenue.
When driving in on Big Bend from the boonies of Kirkwood to visit Grandparents in Maplewood and Richmond Heights in the '40s, we had asked Dad at one time what those two structures were – his reply was that they were built over two natural gas wells and stored it. When they were "down," his answer was that Laclede Gas did not pay its bills so it ran out of gas.Of course, I kept up this tradition by repeating it to my kids many years later…Incidentally, these two gasometers are still visible in all their glory on Bing Birdseye!