It’s increasingly forgotten, but the Galleria originally was the Westroads Shopping Center, and like many other early shopping centers, it was more of strip mall with a single anchor, in this case a Stix, Baer and Fuller, and several other stores arranged in behind a parking lot.
Built in 1955, Westroads was Stix, Baer and Fuller’s first suburban location outside the city limits of St. Louis, and the location at River Roads would soon follow.
St. Louis Globe-Democrat, September 11, 1955, p. 80.
Of course, the major renovation into the Galleria in the mid 1980s has largely swept away the old Westroads but the Stix, Baer and Fuller is embedded inside the northern portion of the Dillard’s. I remember being really young and the Galleria first opening and there being renovations going on inside the Dillard’s, concealing the remnants of the old Stix.
But the general form of the department store jutting out and the shopping wing protruding out to the north and south is still retained. Of course, the Galleria was built in two halves, with the southern wing built several years later to include the Famous Barr and Lord and Taylor anchors.
Designed by John Graham & Co., the new Stix was a big deal in its bold design which certainly broke away from the original location on Washginton Avenue. The protruding pavilion would be copied at River Roads and at Crestwood Mall.
I was a boy living in Clayton when Westroads was built. I could walk from home to it. On Sundays after church, sometimes the family would go to Walgreen’s and dad would buy these metal flashlights for 25 cents each. I don’t know what he ever did with them, but I remember the purchase. Also the Easter candy ducks.
Thanks for the memories, Naffziger.
I grew up on the East Side in the 1980s, we did our mall shopping at St. Clair Square in Fairview Heights. By the time I moved to St. Louis proper, the Galleria was already in some semblance of its current form. But I’ve always been curious about its MCM predecessor. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this detailed visual evidence before. Thanks for the post and the shots!
I grew up in Richmond Heights, and my mom was understandably proud of being hired to work in Stix’s silver/china department, shown here inside and out (the conservatory-type space protruding on the south side of the building). There was a small but pleasant plaza behind the Stix store (west side), separating the two shopping wings shown in the pictures. Anchoring it was an area with plantings surrounded by a low brick wall. A shoe store was at one corner of the plaza. Odd that I don’t remember Stix’s restaurant, though I fondly recall Newberry’s large soda fountain!
It’s sad that the only reason the reason Westroads Shopping Center “Deluxe” Galleria was built so that Richmond Heights could pathetically steal some even greater cash resources from that Downtown Saint Louis Center, anti amusement park like shopping plaza experiment where those most daylight hour office commuters are just way too lazy to walk five blocks away from their parked car 🙁 At least these that Southtown Famous-Barr kept it’s original appearance til the end among a subjectively more eye appealing, few stories built, modernist designed shopping center building
Plus I also prefer public parks, museums and grassroots organizational groups that make replicas of those far away war zone museum destroyed artifacts over shopping malls to be honest. Whether they be in the County, Saint Louis City, a greater Contiguous United States, or beyond 🙂
Boy greater Saint Louis is just an open range area for those nakedly open Anti Intellectual attitude types beyond the more “reading between the lines” Pseudo Intellectuals.
I was a boy living in Clayton when Westroads was built. I could walk from home to it. On Sundays after church, sometimes the family would go to Walgreen’s and dad would buy these metal flashlights for 25 cents each. I don’t know what he ever did with them, but I remember the purchase. Also the Easter candy ducks.
Thanks for the memories, Naffziger.
Oh nice! I’d love to hear more memories, Mark.
Are you aware of which building the University Club inhabited in Grand Center prior to moving to Brentwood Blvd?
I don’t have great photos of it but it’s the the tall building to the north of the Fox Theater on the same side of the street.
I grew up on the East Side in the 1980s, we did our mall shopping at St. Clair Square in Fairview Heights. By the time I moved to St. Louis proper, the Galleria was already in some semblance of its current form. But I’ve always been curious about its MCM predecessor. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this detailed visual evidence before. Thanks for the post and the shots!
I grew up in Richmond Heights, and my mom was understandably proud of being hired to work in Stix’s silver/china department, shown here inside and out (the conservatory-type space protruding on the south side of the building). There was a small but pleasant plaza behind the Stix store (west side), separating the two shopping wings shown in the pictures. Anchoring it was an area with plantings surrounded by a low brick wall. A shoe store was at one corner of the plaza. Odd that I don’t remember Stix’s restaurant, though I fondly recall Newberry’s large soda fountain!
It’s sad that the only reason the reason Westroads Shopping Center “Deluxe” Galleria was built so that Richmond Heights could pathetically steal some even greater cash resources from that Downtown Saint Louis Center, anti amusement park like shopping plaza experiment where those most daylight hour office commuters are just way too lazy to walk five blocks away from their parked car 🙁 At least these that Southtown Famous-Barr kept it’s original appearance til the end among a subjectively more eye appealing, few stories built, modernist designed shopping center building
Plus I also prefer public parks, museums and grassroots organizational groups that make replicas of those far away war zone museum destroyed artifacts over shopping malls to be honest. Whether they be in the County, Saint Louis City, a greater Contiguous United States, or beyond 🙂
Boy greater Saint Louis is just an open range area for those nakedly open Anti Intellectual attitude types beyond the more “reading between the lines” Pseudo Intellectuals.