A Beautiful Brewery
For more than 150 years, the Anheuser-Busch brewery has been a key component of the St. Louis economy, and visitors have been able to tour the historic brewery for decades. But over the past year, the staff has significantly improved the visitor experience, adding an indoor/outdoor beer garden and restaurant and widely expanding the menu of tours and other activities.
The standard tour includes an overview of the beer-making process and samples of a number of Budweiser products, but new tours at the brewery focus on specific aspects of beer or company history. I joined a guide for a private version of the new history tour, which included, in addition to some beer education and stops at important places in the brew house, a visit to the 1868 schoolhouse on the property.
After serving as a school for nearly 40 years, the building was transitioned to executive office space. Last year, though, Anheuser-Busch completed a beautiful historic restoration of the schoolhouse and turned it into a museum that details the company’s history and gives visitors an up-close look at some of the city’s most famous beer memorabilia.
The schoolhouse is also the setting for Beer School, an in-depth experience that focuses on the finer points of six beers and includes pairings of foods such as cheese, sausage and chocolates.
Hometown Heroes
St. Louis loves its sports teams, especially the Cardinals of Major League Baseball. Taking your group out to see a home game would be a memorable experience. But even when the Cards aren’t in town, visitors can enjoy soaking in some team spirit at the 2-year-old Ballpark Village, a development adjacent to Busch Stadium with numerous restaurants and bars and an open-air courtyard.
Among the key attractions at Ballpark Village is Cardinals Nation Restaurant and Bar, and the Cardinals Hall of Fame, which occupies the floor above the restaurant. The Hall of Fame, operated by the Cardinals franchise, opened in 2014 and is based on a large collection of memorabilia donated by Cardinals legend Stan Musial.
“We maintain a collection of over 22,000 artifacts,” said museum outreach manager Brian Finch. “It’s one of the largest privately held collections of sports artifacts in the world. We try to immerse you in the environment and make you feel like you were a part of great moments in Cardinals history.”
Visitors guide themselves through the 8,000-square-foot museum, where they will see championship trophies, uniforms, bats, gloves and numerous other items significant to the Cardinals. There is a simulated broadcast booth where they can record their own calls of famous moments in past Cardinals games. And the Holding History experience allows groups to don rubber gloves and hold a game-used bat or try on a World Championship ring.
Architecture Animated
Built in 1894, St. Louis’ Union Station is a stunning example of the golden age of American architecture. Like many train stations of its time, Union Station featured a central lobby with a soaring arched ceiling and beautiful, ornate decor that underscored the glamour of travel.
Today, Union Station is a multiuse facility that includes a hotel, restaurants, shops and a train park. The beautiful Grand Hall now serves as the hotel lobby, and the owners have renovated the hall and brought it back to its former glory. They have also added some exciting improvements, including a 70-foot-long bar that runs the length of the hall and a high-tech animated light show that makes the historic building come alive after darkness falls.
“The animation team came in and did a 3-D map of the entire ceiling,” said Mark Wolfard, sales manager at St. Louis Union Station. “Now we have about 30 different vignettes that we show with lights on the ceiling. Those are things like the history of St. Louis, different sporting events and fireworks. People come in from off the street to see it.”
The mesmerizing animated light shows are coordinated with music and cover the entire arched ceiling of the Grand Hall, integrating the architectural elements to create a larger-than-life spectacle. Relaxing in the lounge and taking in the beautiful display will make a perfect ending to a day spent exploring the new St. Louis.
