Happy 2024, and welcome to all my new subscribers! For Unseen St. Louis this week, I am sharing the audio of last month’s history talks a bit later than planned. Sorry about that! The holidays, plus an unexpected influx of members and interest in my meetup, took more time and energy than I had anticipated.
The audio file here is the recording from last month. In addition to the talks, read on for updates about future history talks and the Unseen STL History Adventures meetup.
Our Favorite Things history talks
For our December Unseen STL History talks, we didn’t follow our usual format of having one or two speakers up on the stage. Instead, we turned it over to the community to share some of their favorite things about St. Louis history. We learned about bridges, baseball, buildings, and more. Prepare to be astonished at the lake that might have hugged the western edge of St. Louis County and laugh along with the audience as we listened to a few entertaining tales of Bob Cassilly. Most of all, revel in all that makes St. Louis such a cool place to live.
Here are some of our brave speakers:
Audio note: all of the speakers used a microphone but stood a bit away from the mic recording the talks, so some speakers may be easier to hear than others.
Join us every third Thursday!
If you’re new around here, each month, we feature new conversations about lesser-known aspects of St. Louis history. These take place at Spine Bookstore and Cafe, 1976-82 Arsenal St. in Benton Park. Prior to each month’s talks, I post here with information about our speakers, and then about a week or so after (usually!) I share an audio recording of the talks.
On January 18th (which is the day I’m sending out this email!), we will welcome Peter Downs and Nathan Jackson. Peter will talk about Mary Meachum and other stories from St. Louis during the Civil War, while Nathan will tell us about some of the buildings from the lost Kosciusko neighborhood.
On February 15th, Kaleb Higgins and Eric LaVelle will discuss historic home renovation. Kaleb runs the popular Second Empire Strikes Back YouTube channel documenting his restoration of an 1890s home in St. Louis. Meanwhile, Eric, along with Eric’s daughter Claire, do historically accurate restoration work using period machinery and techniques. I’ll share more information about these speakers in a couple of weeks.
And on March 21st, prepare to enjoy a belated St. Patrick’s Day as we dive into stories of the Irish in St. Louis, including the story of one of the most intriguing and influential St. Louis mayors of all time (and my personal favorite), Bryan Mullanphy.
Unseen STL History Adventures
I launched the Unseen STL History Adventures meetup in September, and it’s already been a wild ride!
In four months, we’ve grown to over 1100 members, partly due to next week’s tour of the former insane asylum going viral on Facebook 😳 (and needless to say, those tours are full, with massive waiting lists).
Already, we’ve done a number of things, including tours of the National Building Arts Center, City Museum, the Cathedral Basilica, and the Central Library, visited the Mural Mile/Grafitti Wall, and attended a play about the 1877 General Strike at the Missouri History Museum.
In 2024, we will embark on new adventures, including a driving tour to view Bob Cassilly’s public artwork, checking out several museums, a field trip to Bonne Terre Mine (and maybe a cave or two), maybe a trip down a narrow gauge railroad, visits to local breweries, a field trip to a “ghost” subdivision, and many other activities, as well as occasional lectures and other public events.
If this sounds like fun, join us! I use Meetup.com exclusively to manage RSVPs/tickets. Other than public events, such as our monthly history talks, you must join the meetup and RSVP to participate in these tours and other events.
Support Unseen St. Louis
Hopefully, you can tell that I love St. Louis, and running all aspects of Unseen St. Louis is likewise a labor of love for me. Still, it takes time to research local history topics, network with speakers and venues, share content on Facebook, run a meetup group, and promote everything.
And to the best of my ability, I’m committed to keeping the content of this Substack free and accessible to everyone without a paywall.
If you enjoy what I’m doing and want to help make these efforts sustainable, please consider signing up for a paid subscription to this Substack.
As always, thanks for all your support and interest in St. Louis history.
Unseen STL History Talks - Our Favorite Things