Tour the U City City Hall - Women's Magazine Building - MONDAY - 10am

This meetup is $5. The money will go to the University City Historical Society. Please note - this is a Monday!

Last done: 2019
Will do again in: 2030

The President of the U City Historical Society will provide a talk on the history of the building as well as the colorful U City mayor who had the building constructed. She will take us on a tour of the 5 stories of the building.

From wikipedia:
"The current University City City Hall building was built by magazine publisher and businessman Edward Gardner Lewis, a native of Connecticut who came to St. Louis, Missouri, in the late 1890s, selling insect extermination products and medicines that were said to be highly questionable. He bought a magazine called "Winner," ... which he renamed "Woman's Magazine" and quickly built its circulation to the largest in the country, amassing a fortune in the process.

"... After incorporating University City in 1906, he served three terms as mayor. During this time, he built the Woman's Magazine Building, an Egyptian temple and an Art Academy. But Lewis' financial empire in Missouri collapsed amid charges of mail fraud, bankruptcy, and litigation, and by 1915, he had moved his base of operations to Atascadero, California. Lewis declared bankruptcy a second time in 1924.

"The octagonal, five-story brick-and-limestone building was built in a Beaux-Arts style with a dome roof.

"The building features a marble staircase connecting the first and second floors, a central rotunda and a large domed room on the top floor that serves as the council chambers.

"For the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, Lewis had the world's largest carbon arc searchlight installed atop the dome, 135 feet above street level. An eight-ton, 80-inch light built by General Electric in 1903, the searchlight developed at least 1 billion candlepower."