The comfort of visitors to Tower Grove Park required that
structures be provided from whose shade they might admire
the views provided for their enjoyment. After extended trips
to the most famous parks and gardens of Europe, Henry Shaw
commissioned a number of pavilions for these purposes. Eugene
Greenleaf, Henry Thiele, and Francis Tunica, three well-regarded
St. Louis architects, designed a series of pavilions, most
of which were completed in time for the formal opening of
Henry Shaw's Tower Grove Park in 1872.
Carriage Pavilion is
situated a short distance south of Main Drive, and in the
vicinity of the music stand and Concourse Drive. It is provided
with hitching posts and well, with a shelter house at the centre,
and the whole is surrounded by a light wooden fence of ornamental
design. Visitors coming to the park on horseback or in carriages,
buggies, etc., and desiring to stroll about in the shade while
listening to the music, can leave their horses or vehicles
at this spot, where they will be safe and out of the way.
Designed in 1873 by Henry Thiele, the Carriage Stand was originally embellished with hitching posts and surrounded by a wooden fence in the "Chinese Chippendale" style utilized near both the Arsenal Street and Magnolia Street entrances to Tower Grove Park. The fence and hitching posts were eventually removed.
Chinese Pavilion A
reflection of the "Chinoiserie" popular in pre-Victorian
England and visible in the Chinese Chippendale fencing used
elsewhere in Tower Grove Park, this pavilion, in the Anglo-Chinese
style -- complete with dragons of sheet metal guarding upper
and lower corners of the roof! -- was designed by Henry Thiele.
In keeping with the Anglo-Chinese style, the six pairs of
columns supporting the concave-hipped roof are painted lacquer
red. Appropriately, Shaw and his horticulturist Gurney
surrounded the Chinese Pavilion with a grove of Ginkgo trees.
The pavilion was restored in 1992 with funds raised by the
Friends of Tower Grove Park.
Cypress Pavilions The
identical "Cypress" Pavilions take their names not
from any material used in their construction, but from the
grove of cypress trees that fills the nearby circle in the
central drive. They were built in 1870-71 as well houses and
gazebos or summerhouses for the accommodation of basket parties.
The design submitted by Eugene Greenleaf for the identical
Cypress Pavilions was unusual for Tower Grove Park structures.
The pair of small T-shaped open temples with plain tympana
are lovely examples of the Classical Revival style. The only
embellishments are the red-white-yellow-and-blue color scheme
known to have been popular in the Greek originals and the
cast iron roof ornament in a fleur-de-lis pattern provided
by the T.R. Pullis and Brother Company, a well-known St.
Louis producer of iron-work.
Humboldt North Pavilion This
shelter is one of a pair of octagonal pavilions built in 1870-71
following designs by Eugene Greenleaf, and referred to as
the "Humboldt" pavilions because of their proximity
to the monumental bronze statue of Alexander von Humboldt
erected in 1878. The Humboldt North pavilion cost almost $1,000
and is distinguished from its southern partner by its latticed,
weather vane cupola, and its gold and dark green color scheme.
Humboldt South Pavilion Like
the Humboldt North Pavilion, the Humboldt South Pavilion takes
its nickname from the famous statue near which it stands.
Built in 1871, the year before the park opened, it is one
of four shelters designed by Eugene Greenleaf for construction
in pairs on either side of the main east-west carriage drive
through Tower Grove Park. Each of the four pavilions held
a well and was from the beginning intended to serve as a pleasant
picnic spot. The shelters remain popular picnic spots. Like
its northern partner, the Humboldt South Pavilion is octagonal;
in contrast to its partner's lattice, the Humboldt South Pavilion's
cupola is louvered; its color scheme is gold, olive, and pale
yellow.
Lily Pond Pavilion Designed
by Eugene L. Greenleaf, this pavilion was designed in 1872
in an eclectic style, combining some classical features with
curvilinear scrollwork tracery and brackets. It is
a small rectangular structure, two arched bays by two, but
it is elaborately ornamented with pierced scrollwork on brackets,
spandrels, and gables, with ironwork along the roof ridge.
It is painted gold, brown and green.
The pavilion faces east west, toward the lily pond and Center
Cross Drive. A west pedestrian walkway on each side
of which are benches and a fountain is in front of the pavilion. The
site is well shaded by trees, and is 400' south of the north
gate at Tower Grove Avenue and Magnolia Avenues, at the east
edge of Center Cross Drive.
Old Playground Pavilion The
children's play-ground and croquet lawn are in the same portion
of the park, on the north side of Main Drive; and here is
a circular design summer house of considerable size and ornamental
design, furnished with seats; trellises radiate from it, planted
with honeysuckle and crimson-flowered trumpet vines, and between
them are gravel walks.
Built in 1870-71 at a cost of $1,175 following plans by Eugene Greenleaf , the octagonal Playground Pavilion cost is characterized by a distinctive blue bell-cast metal roof topped by a domed cupola and supported on broad round-topped arches adorned with ornamental scrollwork. It was not only its size that made the pavilion the focal point of the original children's playground - the eight trellises and plantings that once radiated from its supporting columns divided the playground area into separate croquet courts.
Pool Pavilion Is
it the wading pool and playground equipment that stand to
its east, the bravura of its recently restored color scheme
(only partly visible in the photograph below), or the deliberately
uneven spacing of the Tuscan columns that form the Pool Pavilion's
partly screened loggia that subvert the solemnity of the Neo-Classical
style?
Who wants to argue about it when we can instead enjoy both the rich colors that pick out its stylized Doric frieze and massive columns and the sounds of children playing?
Both the Pool Pavilion and wading pool were designed by
Ernst C. Janssen , the architect of the later Stone Pavilion
.
1914,
the year in which they were constructed for $19,000 was a
period of much activity and modernization in Tower Grove
Park.
Sons of Rest Pavilion According
to David MacAdam's report to the park commissioners (1883),
Tower Grove Park's "most important summerhouse (pavilion)
is situated near the east gate, on Grand avenue, south of
the main drive; is of large size, of substantial construction,
but graceful and picturesque in appearance, with seats for
a numerous company. In the centre, the roof is oval shaped,
with projecting cornice and gables, and on each side there
is a lower section of roof, sloping and forming angular projections.
Each division of the roof has a fringe of ornamental ironwork
along the apex. The roof is entirely supported by columns,
between which are arches; in warm weather it forms a delightful
retreat, as the air currents flow into and through the shadowed
space of the interior quite unobstructed. The floor is neatly
paved. The material of the whole structure is wood, except
a tin covering on the roof; the finish of the cornice, columns
and gables is varied and tasteful."
This pavilion, to which MacAdam referred, is the park's largest,
one of several designed by Eugene L. Greenleaf . The name
now attached to the bold gold, brown, cream, red, and blue
"summer house" arose from the popularity of the
shelter and its surroundings among St. Louis's seniors as
a shady spot for reading and relaxing, a tradition that continues
here and in the air-conditioned Stupp Center nearby.
According to the National Register nomination, "Described
by HABS (Historic American Buildings Survey) as a Greek cross,
the structure has a tall 3-bay center section with a segmental-arched
metal roof; transverse wings of 3 bays each are gabled. The
gable areas are ornamented with panels of latticework and
grillwork."
The restoration of the Sons of Rest pavilion, completed
in 1997, earned it an award from the Landmarks Association
of St. Louis, Inc . The award citation reads:
"The Sons of Rest Pavilion in Tower Grove Park was
restored in a model public/private effort by Tower Grove
Park and the non-profit Friends of Tower Grove Park . The
$73,000 repair and rehabilitation project began in fall 1995,
financed by the city's 1/2 cent sales tax. Park officials,
architect Philip Cotton and the contracting firm Transcon
worked together to repair structural damage and recreate
the shelter's original paint colors."
A long-term goal of the Park and Friends group had been
to recreate the decorative iron work cresting that historically
provided the finishing touch to the shelter's design. To
enhance the taxpayer-financed structural work, the Friends
of Tower Grove Park embarked on a private fundraising campaign.
With help from two annual appeals and support from the Clifford
Willard Gaylord Foundation, the Friends were able to raise
an additional $20,000 to fabricate replicas of the long-missing
ironwork.
Stone Pavilion Despite
its use of the squared rubble stone construction familiar
from the structures built in parks across the country by the
WPA and CCC during the Great Depression of the 1930s, the
Stone Pavilion is a product of the early 1920s. Like the earlier
Roman Pavilion, the Stone Pavilion was designed by Ernst C.
Janssen, a prolific architect active in St. Louis and throughout
the Midwest from the last quarter of the nineteenth century
to the 1940s. This pavilion was constructed by Louis Drabb
for $2,900 in 1923; its rubble piers laid in broken courses
support a tripartite roof whose pyramid-shaped central section
soars above narrower hipped wings.
Turkish Pavilion In
the central part of the park, near the south gate, a large
summer house may be found, quite different in character from
any already mentioned, and called the pigeon or dove-cot house.
It has a cupola roof, ascending with diminishing curves.
Painted in parti-colors, the upper portion being arranged
for pigeons and other birds. The roof is supported by eight
double columns, with wide spaces between, and a few seats
are arranged under its shadow. The elevated position of the
structure and its graceful outlines, render it a pleasing
and ornamental object. Its roof is visible from distant points,
rising above the billows of green surrounding it, blending
harmoniously with the landscape.
In 1892, the Board of Commissioners extended its roof by the addition of the large lower tier supported on iron posts, and closed the roosts. The changes transformed the "Dove-Cot" into today's "Turkish Pavilion.
Tower Grove Park | 4256 Magnolia Avenue | St. Louis, MO 63110 | 314-771-2679
is
situated a short distance south of Main Drive, and in the
vicinity of the music stand and Concourse Drive. It is provided
with hitching posts and well, with a shelter house at the centre,
and the whole is surrounded by a light wooden fence of ornamental
design. Visitors coming to the park on horseback or in carriages,
buggies, etc., and desiring to stroll about in the shade while
listening to the music, can leave their horses or vehicles
at this spot, where they will be safe and out of the way.
A
reflection of the "Chinoiserie" popular in pre-Victorian
England and visible in the Chinese Chippendale fencing used
elsewhere in Tower Grove Park, this pavilion, in the Anglo-Chinese
style -- complete with dragons of sheet metal guarding upper
and lower corners of the roof! -- was designed by Henry Thiele.
In keeping with the Anglo-Chinese style, the six pairs of
columns supporting the concave-hipped roof are painted lacquer
red. Appropriately, Shaw and his horticulturist Gurney
surrounded the Chinese Pavilion with a grove of Ginkgo trees.
The pavilion was restored in 1992 with funds raised by the
Friends of Tower Grove Park. 
The
identical "Cypress" Pavilions take their names not
from any material used in their construction, but from the
grove of cypress trees that fills the nearby circle in the
central drive. They were built in 1870-71 as well houses and
gazebos or summerhouses for the accommodation of basket parties.
This
shelter is one of a pair of octagonal pavilions built in 1870-71
following designs by Eugene Greenleaf, and referred to as
the "Humboldt" pavilions because of their proximity
to the monumental bronze statue of Alexander von Humboldt
erected in 1878. The Humboldt North pavilion cost almost $1,000
and is distinguished from its southern partner by its latticed,
weather vane cupola, and its gold and dark green color scheme.
Like
the Humboldt North Pavilion, the Humboldt South Pavilion takes
its nickname from the famous statue near which it stands.
Built in 1871, the year before the park opened, it is one
of four shelters designed by Eugene Greenleaf for construction
in pairs on either side of the main east-west carriage drive
through Tower Grove Park. Each of the four pavilions held
a well and was from the beginning intended to serve as a pleasant
picnic spot. The shelters remain popular picnic spots. Like
its northern partner, the Humboldt South Pavilion is octagonal;
in contrast to its partner's lattice, the Humboldt South Pavilion's
cupola is louvered; its color scheme is gold, olive, and pale
yellow. 
Designed
by Eugene L. Greenleaf, this pavilion was designed in 1872
in an eclectic style, combining some classical features with
curvilinear scrollwork tracery and brackets. It is
a small rectangular structure, two arched bays by two, but
it is elaborately ornamented with pierced scrollwork on brackets,
spandrels, and gables, with ironwork along the roof ridge.
It is painted gold, brown and green.
The
children's play-ground and croquet lawn are in the same portion
of the park, on the north side of Main Drive; and here is
a circular design summer house of considerable size and ornamental
design, furnished with seats; trellises radiate from it, planted
with honeysuckle and crimson-flowered trumpet vines, and between
them are gravel walks.
Is
it the wading pool and playground equipment that stand to
its east, the bravura of its recently restored color scheme
(only partly visible in the photograph below), or the deliberately
uneven spacing of the Tuscan columns that form the Pool Pavilion's
partly screened loggia that subvert the solemnity of the Neo-Classical
style? 
According
to David MacAdam's report to the park commissioners (1883),
Tower Grove Park's "most important summerhouse (pavilion)
is situated near the east gate, on Grand avenue, south of
the main drive; is of large size, of substantial construction,
but graceful and picturesque in appearance, with seats for
a numerous company. In the centre, the roof is oval shaped,
with projecting cornice and gables, and on each side there
is a lower section of roof, sloping and forming angular projections.
Each division of the roof has a fringe of ornamental ironwork
along the apex. The roof is entirely supported by columns,
between which are arches; in warm weather it forms a delightful
retreat, as the air currents flow into and through the shadowed
space of the interior quite unobstructed. The floor is neatly
paved. The material of the whole structure is wood, except
a tin covering on the roof; the finish of the cornice, columns
and gables is varied and tasteful." 
Despite
its use of the squared rubble stone construction familiar
from the structures built in parks across the country by the
WPA and CCC during the Great Depression of the 1930s, the
Stone Pavilion is a product of the early 1920s. Like the earlier
Roman Pavilion, the Stone Pavilion was designed by Ernst C.
Janssen, a prolific architect active in St. Louis and throughout
the Midwest from the last quarter of the nineteenth century
to the 1940s. This pavilion was constructed by Louis Drabb
for $2,900 in 1923; its rubble piers laid in broken courses
support a tripartite roof whose pyramid-shaped central section
soars above narrower hipped wings. 
In
the central part of the park, near the south gate, a large
summer house may be found, quite different in character from
any already mentioned, and called the pigeon or dove-cot house.
It has a cupola roof, ascending with diminishing curves.
Painted in parti-colors, the upper portion being arranged
for pigeons and other birds. The roof is supported by eight
double columns, with wide spaces between, and a few seats
are arranged under its shadow. The elevated position of the
structure and its graceful outlines, render it a pleasing
and ornamental object. Its roof is visible from distant points,
rising above the billows of green surrounding it, blending
harmoniously with the landscape.