SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016
The mosaics in the
St. Louis Basilica
were installed over
a 75-year period
by various teams
of artists.
Sights
Campbell House
Museum
1508 Locust Street
St. Louis
(314) 421-0325
Cathedral Basilica
of Saint Louis
4431 Lindell Boulevard
St. Louis
(314) 373-8200
City Museum
750 North 16th Street
St. Louis
(314) 231-2489
Gateway Arch
National Park
11 North 4th Street
St. Louis
(314) 644-1600
Missouri Botanical
Garden
4344 Shaw Boulevard
St. Louis
(314) 577-5100
Missouri History
Museum
5700 Lindell Boulevard
St. Louis
(314) 746-4599
Saint Louis Art
Museum
1 Fine Arts Drive,
Forest Park
St. Louis
(314) 721-0072
| TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE 161
Next on our visit was the St. Louis
Art Museum located in Forest Park,
which is even larger than New York
City’s Central Park. Founded in 1879,
the Beaux Arts-style Museum has more
than 33,000 pieces of art. The Museum’s
main building was designed by Cass
Gilbert to house the Palace of Art,
the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair’s only
surviving permanent structure. A new
East Wing, designed by British architect
Sir David Chipperfield, opened in
2013. In addition to being fascinated by
their German Expressionist collection,
we enjoyed a spectacular lunch at the
museum’s restaurant, Panorama, that
gets its name for its sweeping view of
Forest Park.
The Missouri History Museum
is also located in Forest Park. The
classic Revival-style building opened
in 1913 and has a 20-foot-high, 48-ton
marble statue of Thomas Jefferson
in its entryway. The sister plane to
Charles Lindbergh’s The Spirit of
St. Louis hovers 18 feet above
the Museum’s Grand Hall. The
Museum, which was expanded in 2000,
also features a 100-foot-long mosaic
that flows across the floor in tribute to
St. Louis’ heritage as a river city.
The nearby Missouri Botanical
Garden features 79 pristine acres filled
with everything from an Ottoman
Garden, since St. Louis is on the same
latitude as Turkey, to a fourteen-acre
Japanese Garden with a koi feeding
bridge, as well as its world famous
Climatron that simulates a tropical
rainforest. Founded by local merchant
Henry Shaw in 1859, this National
Historic Landmark is our country’s
oldest continually operating botanical
garden. It continues as Shaw’s
personal contribution to worldwide
botany through research, conservation,
education and the preservation of its
beauty.
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TRAVEL