The Legend of Gaslight Square

by The Gaslight Square Historical Preservation Society, Inc.*

Gaslight Square's many sparkling facets beckoned the visitor to Saint Louis in the early to mid 1960s.  The Square occupies the area surrounding Olive and Boyle Streets in the Central West End, St. Louis, Missouri.  Especially during the summers the night-time scene flourished with a kaleidoscope of color and excitement.

Basically built around the theme of St. Louis famed Riverboat and Gaslight era, the Square included a world-wide assortment of brilliantly designed spots. There were art galleries, theater productions, antique stores, night clubs, bistros, coffee houses, international cuisine, comedy , music of every style, oriental rug shops, bars, books, and people. There were entertainers, the artsy crowd, beatniks and bohemians. Later came the hippies and flower children, the permanent and transient residents, the suburbanite visitor, the tourist from around the world.....

THEN

On April 17, 1961, the Smothers Brothers opened in a revue at the Crystal Palace. Second on the bill was an 18-year-old singer named Barbara Steisand. The Landesmans, who had moved the Palace from the Grand - Olive area to the Square in the fall of 1958, had a fine sense for finding obscure performers with talent, particularly off-beat comedians. Woody Allen played the Palace, as did Lenny Bruce, Phyllis Diller, Alan Arkin, George Carlin, Mike Nichols, Elaine May, Jerry Stiller and Ann Meara, Pat Mc Cormick and Dick Gregory. In the same period, the Landesmans were presenting plays by the avant garde - Beckett, Albee, Osborne - and giving St. Louis actors a showcase. Elsewhere, at one time or another, there was Judy Collins at the Laughing Buddha, Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry at the Everyman Coffee House, Miles Davis at Jorge's. There were elegant restaurants and kosher delicatessens, a repertory theater, coffee houses where you played chess, bars where you sang along, or brought your guitar and sang alone. There was briefly, a local newspaper, there were several unofficial mayors, there were a lot of beatniks (and later, some people said, too many hippies), a boiled-shrimp vendor named Seventeen, a bartender who spouted Shakespearean invective, Ernie Trova painting to the blues and Allen Ginsberg reading to jazz.

NOW

It is hard to imagine that such a tiny spot on the map(one and a quarter blocks on Olive and a half block on Boyle) could have made such a national impact, as well as be so fondly revered some 30 years later. For a few brief summers in the 1960s the Square was the heart of Saint Louis, culturally and spiritually.

THE FUTURE

The Gaslight Square Historical Preservation Society, Inc. has members and volunteers from many diverse walks of life. Many are professionals and many are civic minded citizens who believe that Gaslight Square is a vital link in our city's rich cultural history. The Society believes that with the restoration of Gaslight Square and surrounding areas (linking the past with the future) the area will once again become a vital part of St. Louis and a model for restoring and preserving historical neighborhoods in adjoining areas, possibly even becoming a national example of community and civic historical preservation.