Sightseeing St. Louis--TRIP 3 (2012)

Pitcher plants grow outside
along the brick walk.

Plants thrived inside the geodesic greenhouse.

Andy and Cathy pause in the formal garden.

                              
                             Cathy picked us up at the motel at 9:30 a.m. for a private, guided tour of the St. Louis sights, starting with the Missouri Botanical Gardens. For three hours we wandered along the footpaths in between groupings of rhododendron and azalea bushes and manicured Victorian formal rose gardens. Known informally as Shaw's Garden, one of the oldest botanical institutions in the country, it was originally named in 1859 for founder Henry Shaw, a botanist and philanthropist. Although we didn't see half of the 79 acres of horticultural displays, we strolled through the Climatron, a geodesic dome conservatory built in 1960 with more than 1500 lowland rain forest plants; the Gladney Rose Garden from 1915 with its rose arbors; the Tower Grove House of 1849 and Herb Garden, Shaw's Victorian country house designed in the Italianate style; the English Woodland Garden of 1976 with aconite, azaleas, bluebells, dogwoods, hosta and trillium; the Linnean House of 1882, said to be the oldest continually operated greenhouse west of the Mississippi River; and the 14-acre Japanese Strolling Garden named Seiwa-en, built in 1977, with lawns and path set around a four-acre central lake.

Plants in the Seiwa-en, a Japanese water garden, flourished in
spite of the Missouri drought. Here water was recycled.

Cathy explained that an underground system probably filters the water since the plants looked fresh, there didn't seem to be a drop in the overall water level, and St. Louis had experienced severe drought during the past summer.
We drove past Forest Park, one of the largest city parks in the nation, and Washington University, a beautiful campus with a stellar reputation for excellence.
Lunch at the Wildflower in the Central West End on the corner of Euclid and La Clete was a relaxing outdoor dining experience before we headed to the Missouri History Museum.
There two exhibits kept us reading and browsing for more hours: the 1904 World's Fair Exhibit and the Women's Undergarment Exhibit.
St. Louis was the site of the World's Fair in 1904.
One feature included a "roller chair" that could be rented at 60 cents an hour for transportation around the acres of fair grounds. The cost was "only" $1.25 an hour for a chair with a guide, pretty pricey for 1904. I read the employment advertisement posted at Yale University and chuckled. "Hiring college men. Must be not less than 5 feet 7 inches tall and not less than 140 pounds in weight. Although the company wishes to employ the brightest of the student population of the universities of the country, it wants men who can wheel chairs and talk engagingly to their fares without making goo-goo eyes at the young girls."

These sheep in the Children's Garden
offered no threat to plants of the
Botanical Gardens.

Dresses with hoops under them required special
undergarments like pants with two separate legs.

Other interesting information included the knowledge that the 1904 World's Fair was the first time British troops had paraded in the United States since the Revolutionary War. The soldiers put on a military display during the fair. It was also the first time China had participated in a World's Fair.
Most visitors were drawn to the more than 500 concession stands with the opportunity to shop.  Sadly, the Esquimaux Village, a living display at the Fair, brought in people of various cultures to show off their heritages. Actually a "freak show," it was designated as Pike Amusements and mocked people from all over the world with cultures different from those of most people in St. Louis.
This was also the site of the first Olympic Games held in the United States. Most competitions were probably on the campus of Washington University between August 29 and September 3, and it was the first time medals were given out.
Andy didn't have much interest in the history of women's undergarments. But Cathy and I enjoyed looking at the bustles and hoop skirts. One poster showed what the super draw-string corsets apparently did to women's insides by pushing everything down below the waist. Cathy and I chuckled about experiments with paper panties of the 1960's, and we found it particularly entertaining that pantaloons under hoop skirts were actually two separate legs attached to a waist band. I had never thought about it before, but Victorian ladies would never have been able to lift their dresses and hoops to use a commode. The information suggested this fashion was probably not particularly sanitary.  How funny and disgusting! And smelly!
For dinner Jay introduced us to The Hill, the Italian community in downtown St. Louis, and a delicious authentic Italian dinner at Charlie Gitto's.