Meet Me in St. Louis

Now marking the centennial of the World's Fair, this river city is better than ever.

Every major city experiences a definitive moment in its history. St. Louis' crux was 1904. That year, its World's Fair, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, honored the centennial of that renowned acquisition. It also just happened to be the centennial of Lewis and Clark's shove from the Missouri River shores as they went in search of the rest of America. More than million people from around the globe intersected in Forest Park, reveling in a fantastic vision of new century before them-full of hope and promise. Today, as we anticipate the next 100 years, the ,Gateway City celebrates its rich heritage in grand fashion. If there was ever a time to be in St. Louis, it is now.

A Celebration 200 Years In the Making

Without a doubt, the nucleus of St. Louis' celebration this year remains Forest Park. "It is the city's common ground," says Robert Archibald, president of the Missouri Historical Society. "It is the place where everybody mingles, and no matter who you are, you feel comfortable here."

Eight miles west of the Gateway Arch, away from downtown, this urban oasis spreads out on 1,370 acres. We stroll only a short leg of the new crushed stone pathways before we notice the flowers. Blooming redbud trees, lilacs, and wild phlox delicately color the unending green spaces. Forest Park's fresh look is the result of an eight-year, $94 million restoration of the roads, lakes, and landscaping.

While the beauty of the park attracts locals and visitors alike, the city's most popular cultural institutions, all housed here, keep it a destination. Step inside the Missouri History Museum for an introduction to St. Louis. This month, among its many exhibits, "The 1904 World's Fair: Looking Back at Looking Forward," reveals the stories of the fair's creators, participants, and attendees.

Fairgoers traversed the park by water in 1904, riding gondolas through its canals. Do the same by renting a rowboat or paddleboat from the Boat House for $12 per hour. Sail out to the Grand Basin, which affords the best view of Art Hill, the home of the Saint Louis Art Museum. Built as the Palace of Fine Arts for the fair, the museum stands as the only building left over from the exposition.

A new boardwalk will wind through the restored 1904 Flight Cage (it reopens this summer), a Saint Louis Zoo icon. Built as the Smithsonian's contribution to the fair, the cage, one of the largest free-flight aviaries in the world, will house indigenous birds in a cypress swamp habitat.

Before leaving the park, peek inside The Jewel Box for a colorful rush of hydrangeas and begonias in full bloom this month. You'll surely enjoy this 1936 Art Deco structure.

A Fair To Remember

"The 1904 World's Fair was the culminating expression of the ideas behind the Lewis and Clark expedition," says Robert. "The explorers went out with sextants and compasses and the belief that, through science and description, the world could be made better and more comprehensible to humans. One hundred years later, the fair offered an incredible explosion of industry, new products, and new transportation-things that, in fact, made life better."

By the event's opening day in April 1904, St. Louis had completely transformed the western half of Forest Park into a small city. Of the almost 1,500 buildings constructed, eight were towering, ivory-white palaces designed in Classical and Renaissance styles. Except for the Palace of Fine Arts (the modern-day Saint Louis Art Museum), all the structures were temporary and built of staff, a material akin to plaster of Paris.

Exhibits spanning 1,200 acres offered elaborate displays heralding the current advances in technology, manufacturing, science, civics, foreign policy, fine arts, and education. "It was as if you had wrapped up all of Hollywood and all the things we take for granted today in terms of communication and put them in one place," says Robert.

Much like World's Fairs before, this was an exhibition of progress. It also represented the vision of the 20th century. "There was an extraordinary optimism about the future on the part of the Americans and a conviction of superiority of American institutions, American science, and American culture," says Robert. The president of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company eloquently expressed this idea in his opening day address: "So thoroughly does it represent the world's civilizations, that if all man's other works were by some unspeakable catastrophe blotted out, the records here established by the assembled nations would afford all necessary standards for the rebuilding of our civilization."

With anxious eyes, visitors roved the grounds seeking the next big surprise, and this constant movement created a culinary phenomenon. "The fair was the launch pad for American fast food," says culinary historian and food writer Suzanne Corbett. Consequently, staples such as ice-cream cones were popularized and sent out into the world.