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This is the east entrance. It's off of Grand Avenue, which was one of the great, early
western streets of St. Louis. Right. And this was your sense of entry. And one of things
that Henry Shaw understood was that if you create a beautiful sense of entry, you really
elevate the experience of the visitor. Right, the anticipation grows. Exactly. As in, amplified.
So the size of the park is over– almost 300 acres. 289 acres, and you kinda get an
idea from this long vista here is that the park is shaped in a long, rectangular configuration.
And that derives from the fact that he bought the property from French farmers in arpents.
So this was a series of those long strips. Arpents. Owned by different farmers, and he
bought them out over time. This was the last piece of property in St. Louis that's still
divided into it's original arpent configuration. That's amazing. And to think that from the
center of St. Louis, the city itself, we're only 5 miles away. Exactly. This would have
been the country. The farmland. It was. It was, literally. In fact, we have early maps
and early photographs that show that. But now, of course, we're well, well within the
city. Yes, of course, completely surrounded by it. So this water feature, was it part
of the original plan, right from the beginning? Not the very first beginning. But early on,
Henry Shaw, who had experience a lot of landscapes in Europe and England, became aware of the
fact that the big hotel in downtown St. Louis, the Lindell Hotel, had burned. Yeah. It took
up an entire square block. At the time it was constructed, it was the largest hotel
in the country. It completely burned, and it was lying there in rubble. So he took 10
wagonloads of stone from the old Lindell Hotel. Oh, I see an opportunity here. He's a man
of means, but he didn't waste money. Right, yeah. It's called recycling. And he took these
stones back here, to Tower Grove Park, and he had them constructed in a kind of a mock
ruin form. Right, right. Is what it was called in those days. And there's sort of an intellectual
history of mock ruins, but you don't have to understand all that to get the charm and
the romance and the beauty of it. It really is beautiful. I just…I love the form of
this pond and the focal point and how's it framed by these beautiful swamp Cypress. This
one's very calm. It's fun how these chickens animate the farm yard. And they love living
in this 1868 building, don't they? They seem very much at home here. And I think it humanizes
and renders the whole setting more gentle, and friendly, and welcoming to everybody.
Jimmy Joe and the hens. Sounds like a band. Jimmy Joe and the Hens. And so, today, the
use of this park, I mean, does it continue to grow? Absolutely. We have ballparks. We've
got tennis courts. We have a very popular fountain for children to use. It's a splash
fountain. Right, I'm sure they love those. Oh, yes. I think some of the grown ups do
too, if I recall. And people -- well, you've seen-- how people are going through here with
the baby strollers and joggers at lunch time. The use has just blossomed, like nobody's
business. So this bandstand was Shaw's conception. I mean, he felt like that, because he loved
music, he wanted to have a bandstand here, and it was a way to bring people together,
wasn't it? Without a question, his vision for the purpose of this park was to bring
people and nature together. And his idea: You can see it in sort of the happy juxtaposition
of the trees, the grass, the sky and the architecture. It's come back. You know, America is sort
of beginning to turn its back on its cities, and especially its urban parks in the cities.
And there's been a countermovement to that. And that started in the 60s and 70s. Exactly.
Yeah. And somebody finally came to the realization that if we're gonna continue to have cities,
we needed safe, clean, beautiful parks to serve the people who live in those cities.
And a place to come out and experience nature. Exactly.