Finding Flounders talk 4/26/16

 Jan Cameron prepares to speak on St. Louis' Flounder Houses and the survey the Cultural Resources Office recently completed.

Before the talk, visitors viewed the Steedman Room and some of its most recent acquisitions.




Please join us again on September 27 to hear Amanda Burke speak on the care, restoration, and funding of historic cemeteries.

Learn about Flounder Houses, April 26

The next lecture in this popular series, co-sponsored by the Steedman Architectural Library and the St. Louis Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians, will be held in the Carnegie Room of Central Library on Tuesday, April 26.  Jan Cameron (Preservation Administrator, Cultural Resources Office of the City of St. Louis) will speak on "St. Louis Flounder Houses".  

Jan Cameron and the City's Cultural Resources Office have identified approximately 280 flounder houses and their variants in the City of St. Louis. Flounders appear in only a few cities, and St. Louis has by far the largest number of extant examples. She will share her insights into this unique 19th century vernacular house form.  For more details about the study, and to find out just what flounder houses are, see this article from St. Louis Public Radio:  http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/st-louis-document-citys-plethora-19th-century-triangular-flounder-houses

From 6:00-6:30 p.m., the Steedman Architectural Library will be open for viewing. The talk will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the third floor Carnegie Room.

After a summer hiatus, the next talk in the series will be held on September 27.  Amanda Burke of the Missouri State Historical Preservation Office will discuss "Historic Cemeteries:  Maintenance, Documentation, Restoration, and Funding."

 These events are FREE and open to the public. 

"St. Louis Modern" talk of 3/22/16

Betsy Bradley discussed STL MCM to a full house

The next lecture in the Architecture Around the World Series, presented by the Steedman Architectural Library and the Society of Architectural Historians, features Betsy Bradley speaking on “St. Louis Modern: A Thematic Survey of Modern Movement Non-Residential Architecture, 1945-1975.” The program takes place in Central’s Carnegie Room on March 22 at 6:30 p.m.

Betsy Bradley

Bradley is the Director of the Cultural Resources Office of the Planning & Urban Design Agency of the City of St. Louis. She will review some of the physical changes in St. Louis by tracing a dramatic transformation in outlook and image in St. Louis through its architecture in the Mid-Century Modern Movement.
At the end of World War II, the city had the form and mind-set of a conservative nineteenth-century urban area for which Downtown was the Central Business District of a small metropolitan region. By 1970, nearly everything had changed – socially, and culturally, and in many ways physically.
Her talk will provide an overview of what took place and begin to establish how we can understand the changes the city experienced during the Gateway Years.
From 6-6:30 p.m., visitors can step inside and view one of Central’s most special rooms, the Steedman Architectural Library. The group will then move to the Carnegie Room for Bradley’s lecture.
The next talk in the series will be “St. Louis Flounder Houses,” presented by Jan Cameron on April 26.
The event is FREE and open to the public.

Propping up the Past lecture of 2/23/16

Many thanks to Jesse Francis and Marie Taylor for their very interesting and informative presentation about their adventures in preserving early log structures.   Please join us again on March 22!

Karen Bode Baxter, John Guenther, Jesse Francis

 Steedman Room with new books  on display

The Steedman Library is again pleased to be co- hosting this year's series of talks by the St. Louis Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians.  The first one will be held on the evening of Tuesday, February 23, at Central Library.  The Steedman Room will be open for viewing from 6:00 pm to 6:30 pm, followed by the lecture in the Carnegie Room.  Jesse Francis and Marie Taylor will be discussing "Propping Up the Past:  Restoring Early Midwest Structures".  

Jesse Francis, Museum Curator, St. Louis County Parks & Recreation, has become widely recognized as an authority on pioneer architecture, particularly timber frame, French vertical log, and American horizontal log construction.  With Jack Luer, he recently published Vanishing French Heritage: A Complete Study of the Vertical Log Homes of the Illinois Country.  In 2015 he received special awards from the St. Louis County Historic Buildings Commission and the St. Louis County Council.   Among the buildings to be discussed in this talk are the Pierre Martin House in Dupo (Prairie du Pont), Illinois; Zumwalt’s Fort in O’Fallon, Missouri; the two-story log Davis House; and the Brightfield Smokehouse at Faust Park in Chesterfield.  Marie Taylor, Preservation Technician with the National Archives in St. Louis, has worked with Jesse on many of these projects .

** For the list of all six lectures, see the post on this blog dated January 14, 2016.

Steedman/SAH lectures for 2016 are announced

We are thrilled to announce a second year of architectural talks jointly sponsored by the Steedman Library and the local chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians.  All will be held at the Central Library of the St. Louis Public Library on Tuesday nights.  At 6:00 pm, the Steedman Room will be open for viewing, and at 6:30 pm the talks will begin.  Here is a brief schedule -- keep tuning in for more details as the date for each one draws closer.

Tuesday, February 23
Propping up the Past:  Restoring Early Midwest Structures

Jesse Francis, Museum Curator, St. Louis County Parks & Recreation with Marie Taylor, Preservation Technician with the National Archives in St. Louis

Tuesday, March 22
St. Louis Modern:  A Thematic Survey of Modern Residential Architecture, 1945 - 1975, in St. Louis City
Betsy Bradley, Director, Cultural Resources Office of the Planning & Urban Design Agency of the City of St. Louis

Tuesday, April 26
St. Louis Flounder Houses
Jan Cameron,  Preservation Administrator, Cultural Resources Office of the Planning & Urban Design Agency of the City of St. Louis

Tuesday, September 27
Historic Cemeteries:  Maintenance, Documentation, Restoration, Funding
Amanda Burke, Preservation Specialist, Missouri State Historic Preservation Office

Tuesday, October 25
The Architecture of Scotland, Part Two
Esley Hamilton, Preservation Historian, St. Louis County Parks

Tuesday, November 15
The Architecture of Norway
John Guenther, FAIA, LEED AP