Yet another masterpiece of Ittner and Milligan is the magnificent Tudor Revival Soldan High School on Union, further up from the other institutions on the street north of Demar.
The architecture is the typical, eclectic style of the famous architecture firm, with an emphasis on compound windows and elegant sculpture work. The copper cupolas are a unique addition.
Tune in to 97.1 to hear me talk about St. Louis architecture and history with Pat McGonigle at 4:00 PM today, Wednesday, December 23rd.
I’ve always thought this was one of the most beautiful school buildings I’ve ever seen.
We are lucky that STL has so many beautiful school buildings still standing
I went to Soldan only one semester from January to June 1954 before my family moved to the Normandy School District and a whole new life. Even with just a few months at Soldan I can tell you the architecture was remarkable; Ittner designed the school with four hallways, light drenching the hallways from windows facing the courtyard and drenching the classrooms from windows along the streets. The lunchrooms sat in the middle of the open area, located in the basement with frosted class skylights which gave cafeterias wonderful light. On the third floor south was the Music Department, done in rich woods to give the best sound resonance (!) and including a theater and elevated above the third-floor hallway. The gorgeous auditorium on the first floor could seat the entire student body for assemblies and was decorated with class year flags from the school’s beginning. During the morning we would all be driven crazy as the luscious smell of lunch rolls being baked wafted up into the school. The curriculum was challenging, the teachers really more college professors than high school teachers. It was all quite something. Normandy HIgh School, also consisting mostly of Ittner buildings, opened a whole new world for me as the curriculum there was less classical and more attuned to preparing us for productive lives and careers in the democracy. The curriculum also was much more innovative and lively, there was a bigger range of activities, and Normandy’s college-like campus on a hillside was a daily thrill. I will always be a Normandy boy (in fact I do its alumni newspaper) but have fond thoughts of Soldan, which my father attended and loved also.
Thanks for sharing, Wayne!
Don’t forget the engineering classroom, the art studio with its long row of ceiling skylights to complement the large row of windows on the outside walls that allow lots of natural light. I loved the ornate brasswork banisters. I also loved the marble (?) stairsteps, along with the hardwood parquet floors. The band room with its padded practice rooms and the next door machine shop were more functional than beautiful but certainly were state of the art, even when I matriculated there before moving on to Washington University in 1969.