Minnie Wood was a wealthy widow who found herself with around $2.5 million in the first decades of the Twentieth Century. She donated the land for the park that bears her name that was created by city ordinance in 1925. Later WPA and the city parks department held dance nights here.

The pavilion is a perfect example of Renaissance Revival architecture in St. Louis, particularly influenced by Filippo Brunelleschi’s arcades seen in buildings such as the Ospedale degli Innocenti.

The pavilion seems to have received a fresh coat of paint shortly before I photographed it, and it was glowing in the morning light.

Built at a time when St. Louis had its own professional architect to design its buildings, I wonder if it was Albert Osburg, the city’s staff architect.