Description

Did you know St. Louis has a fire museum called The St. Louis Fire Department Museum? Or that St. Louis has the country’s third oldest paid Fire Department? Our city was shaped by the Great Fire of 1849, which wiped out a massive swath of the riverfront and was responsible for the first death of a firefighter in the country. There were firefighting shows at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. In 1867, shortly before Henry Shaw deeded the land that would become Tower Grove Park to the city of St. Louis, the Lindell Hotel—the largest hotel in America at the time—burned to the ground. Shaw saw potential “ancient ruins” in the building’s fire-damaged blocks and had stones arranged in three clusters. We enjoy the ruins of that hotel today in Tower Grove Park. Instructor Doug Schneider will take us on a visual trip through the history of fires in St. Louis, the evolution of firefighting methods and equipment, and an armchair visit to fire stations—many of them have new uses.