New Thing #28 - Jewel Box

This week I stopped by the Jewel Box in Forest Park in St. Louis. I've always driven past it, but I've never made any attempts to go in. It is a floral conservatory built in 1936 and is now listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It is an Art Deco building that when built, was hailed for its unconventional, cantilevered, vertical glass walls that rise 50 feet in the air. It has 15,000 square feet of glass and all the horizontal surfaces are made of metal. It's often used for weddings and I can imagine it would be absolutely beautiful in the spring/summer.

I, unfortunately went on a cold, dreary winter day. So, its natural beauty wasn't quite as evident. If you've never been to Forest Park, it can get a bit confusing with all its intersecting roads. For the most part, I can get around with no problems. However, today I drove around in circles for about 10 minutes before I found the Jewel Box. No, I didn't get lost, I had to navigate around all the people running in the park. I assume there was some sort of marathon going on because I kept seeing mile marker signs and lots and lots and lots of orange cones. Those damn orange cones. Everywhere I went, there were cones. And runners. And cones. I could see the Jewel Box, I just couldn't get to it! I could have racked up a ton of points with all the moving targets. I even passed the same car a few times that had a Christmas tree strapped to the top. A fresh one, not a dead one being thrown away. That was kind of odd. Finally, I saw an opening in the cones and made a dash for it.

Here's a shot of the side of it as I was driving by.

And the front. I imagine it would be stunning with leaves on the trees and the flowers in bloom outside.

The Bank of America plug in the entry way.

It wasn't quite as lush inside as I thought it would be, although it did still have quite a bit of foliage. Part of that is probably due to the time of year.

As you step inside.

A view of the inside from the front. It looked like they were setting up for a wedding.

Looking from the back up towards the front.

I didn't stay long because there really wasn't much to look at. Don't get me wrong, it was pretty cool and would be really neat to get married in or any other function, for that matter. I found out it was renovated in 2002 and had heating and air added, along with a bride's room, catering facilities and additional restrooms.

Oh yeah, and here's the fountain out front....kind of blah right now.

This week was kind of low key, but I can now say I've been to the Jewel Box!