We took a bus tour yesterday and saw/learned all kinds of neat stuff ... thought I'd share.
We saw:
- 1/2 Houses, early in the 19-century there were 3-tornado's in one night. Houses that were only 1/2 destroyed and the remaining structure was stable, people bricked up the wall, without windows and lived in 1/2 a house. It's amazing there are these houses that are cut in half from front to back. Oh yeah ... they also got a tax break ... go figure.
- There is a late 1800's Farmer's Market structure that is still active. The lady that left it to the city stated that as long as it remains a Market, the land can stay with the city; however, when the Market shuts down, the land goes back into the estate. Now here is the kicker ... this Market is so authentic that it provides "fresh game" and "live poultry" that they will kill and dress for you to take home. The bus driver shared, that the other day she saw a seller taking 5 turkeys into the Market on leash.
- Lafayette Square Park. It is the oldest park west of the Mississippi, truly beautiful and maintained by local residence. It is surrounded by Victorian homes, commonly known as "Painted Ladies" called that when painted with 3 different colors of paint. They were supper cool!
- If you recall, St. Louis hosted the World Fair in 1904. It is called Forest Park and is bigger than NYC's Central Park by 500 acres. They also hosted the first US Olympics. While there have been significant changes, there are several structures still in place. We went into two of those structures, the History & Art Museums. They were wonderful ...
The St. Louis Transit system is GREAT ... for $1 we took two bus rides and road the Metro (subway) from Forest Park back to downtown.
One last tidbit ... anyone that follows the weather ... St Louis is known to be a VERY hot city in the summer. One of the reasons for that is due to so many building having been built with bricks. The city used bricks due to the 1849 fire that destroyed most everything except the little Catholic Church I wrote about earlier. The bricks hold the heat just like an oven in olden days.
It's time to get this day started ... LOVE to all!
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2 comments:
The postings are great Beth - keep it up! If you had a chance to take a picture of one of the 1/2 houses I'd love to see it. Safe driving on your next leg - say hi to Carolyn.
Good words.
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