Living in St. Louis

The area we are living in is very close to Tower Grove Park, in what is called Shaw Neighborhood. Shaw comes from Henry Shaw, born to a iron and steel manufacturing family in Sheffield. Because of hard times with the family business, it seems Henry set his eyes on the U.S. as a possible new market, which brought him to the small French town of St. Louis in 1819. He made his fortune here (the amazing growth of the city providing lots of opportunity), and bought up huge areas of land. He was able to retire at the age of 40, and thus he could pursue his passion for botany. This passion (and the money and time to indulge it) allowed him to work with established botanists. Thus Shaw built up an incredible botanical garden around his home, which would later become the Missouri Botanical Garden (it opened to the general public in 1859). The Botanical Garden is about a 4 or 5 block walk from where we’re living (and where we went to the Japanese Festival a couple of weeks ago). Shaw Street is 2 blocks over…where Diana and I catch the shuttle bus to SLU.
On the south border of the neighborhood is Tower Grove Park, where I walk in the mornings. It is a beautiful park, full of all different kinds of trees (of course, I don’t know the names of any of them, and don’t have the kind of time Henry did to learn them), and lots of lovely little pavilions built circa 1870. On the other side of the park (further south) is the Tower Grove Park South, a fun neighborhood which mixes businesses and residences in a way that allows a bit more for cars to be left behind. There are lots of ethnic restaurants (Vietnamese, Japanese, Thai, Afghan, and Ethiopian, to name a few, and American, at the City Diner), a grocery store, dry cleaners, post office…as it’s on the other side of the park, it’s about a 20-minute walk. No problem in the morning to go on my jaunt and pick up some rolls for breakfast, but not so good at night to go out for dinner….I’m always a bit leery about walking around after dark (a leeriness which I’m told is very sane), so I drive.
Last Sunday I did join a walking tour on that side of the park, led by an architect. I was wanting to know more about the houses in the area…I didn’t learn a lot. The architect was rather reticent – he would answer questions in a very knowledgeable way but not in a teaching way…so I came away with a little understanding of how say the Dutch Colonial style was vernacularized in St. Louis…but not an idea of the bigger picture. Still, it was fun to troop around the streets, and what was even more interesting was watching the personalities of the people involved. Some were passionate about their neighborhood and what they wanted to see happen in it, and there were some major disagreements, causing some tension and rolling of eyes. And I had never focused before on the metal stars (or other shapes) that cover the metal rods that run from one side to another of brick buildings, providing support for structure. What do they do in other cities?
Another little thing that’s been on my mind…people who drive around with these incredibly loud bass subwoofers in their cars. The “boom, boom, boom” is so deep and far-reaching, that I’ve been up on my bed on the 3rd floor of this house and I can feel the ground shake. I find it really spooky, like some massively huge monster is stomping his way down the street. Where does that come from? What must it be like to be actually sitting in the car?