(The Grayhound folks took over the old Union Market that failed against the rise of the corner supermarket. Funny, I used to work in the Bus Station on New York Avenue in DC, and now I have slept in one. Image Drury Inns and Suites.)
Sorry, gentle readers, slept hard and late last night as the consequences of the last week finally caught up with me.
In my defense, a couple other things happened this morning as I shambled into the day that caused me to be…well staring blankly at the computer screen.
I had wanted to talk to you about the cool hotel at which I stayed in St. Louis- the Drury Suites at the convention center.
It was a really neat structure, and very strange. Obviously re-purposed from something else, heroic in nature, though as it turned out, it was nothing of the sort.
The Drury Suites was a public building constructed on the site of the old Union Market, a vast public sales venue that served the entire city. The original structure dated to 1866, and Mark Twain would have picked up some apples or a potato for the dinner table there. That structure was in turn ripped down in the Roaring Twenties, when Jimmy and Andy’s Neighborhood Tavern was still a legal business before going underground as a speakeasy.
The current one, the base of the Drury Suites, was erected by the city in 1`925 at the cost of $1.3 million, a princely sum at the time. The architect was a fellow named Edward e. Christopher. His brick is severe, ornamentation grave, and the great grills of bronze and really impressive.
Public markets were once a vital part of St. Louis life. People thronged to them to purchase food because they provided a far greater variety of foods, simple and gourmet, than the smaller corner grocery of that day.
As a meeting place for shoppers it had its social aspects. The structure was designed by Edward E. Christopher. The market officially opened on November 5, 1925. When the doors opened at 7 a.m., crowds of people visited the building interested in seeing the second largest structure of its kind in the United States.
The new Union Market possessed the newest innovations and appointments in the handling of food products. In the interior, there were terrazzo floors, white enamel brickwork for cleanliness, plate glass, and furnishings of marble and polished metal. Food was serviced by a central refrigeration plant which furnished the correct temperature uniformly in every stand.
Unfortunately, the handsome new Union Market was never a rousing success. Interest in public markets began to wane and the corner groceries grew larger and more important. People were going to the well-stocked private groceries and meat markets that were springing up everywhere. The grand new place was a white elephant in the changing face of America, and the Dpression killed it off.
Over the years, Union Market supplemented its income by providing parking garage space and by renting part of the structure for a bus terminal, as in the post card at the top of this tale.
I have stayed in a lot of hotels down through the years, and there are many chains I avoid when I have a chance. Charles Drury owns this one, and he has done a remarkable job of re-purposing old and classic structures across the country. He saw the Bus Station in 1976, and despite the tanking of the downtown, he conceived the idea of opening a hotel atop Union Market became a reality in 1990. Mr. Drury’s intention was to renovate and expand the property into a 178-room hotel that would become a major part of the St. Louis Convention Center market.
(Lobby of the Drury Inn & Suites, Convention Center, St. Louis. It has the same sort of elegance as the Willard in DC.)
Through careful renovation of the first floor, many of the building’s original features are retained throughout the hotel lobby and mezzanine meeting level. An additional two stories were built atop the existing four, which provide the 178 guest rooms. The entire project was based upon the premise of carefully blending the past to the present, a thoughoughly commendable goal. It is one reason why I think St. Louis may live- stay out of East St. Louis, of course- and Detroit may not.
Anyway, sorry about the commercial this morning, but I was impressed enough with the free food and friendly staff and magnificent building that I wanted to tell you about it.
It is much preferable to the other story I was puzzling over. I saw thatThe Times of Israel is claiming that a fellow named Amos Yadlin, chief of the IDF’s Intelligence Directorate from 2006 to 2010, is suggesting that that people in the Obama Administration may be softening their stance on an Israeli strike against Iran:
“In 2012 the [Americans’] red light was as red as it can get, the brightest red,” Yadlin is supposed to have said in an interview with Army Radio Wednesday morning. “But the music I’m hearing lately from Washington says, ‘If this is truly an overriding Israeli security interest, and you think you want to strike,’ then the light hasn’t changed to green, I think, but it’s definitely yellow.”
That could be a very interesting development, and I am thinking it would be better to be as far away from here as possible.
Maybe back to St. Louis, who knows. If so, I highly recommend the Drury Suites. Great Hotel, if you have to be out of DC for a while waiting for things to cool down.
Copyright 2013 Vic Socotra
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Twitter: @jayare303