Landmarks Downtown Walking Tours uncover the stories, architecture, and history that shape Downtown St. Louis

Photos by Ella Manthey

You can walk through Downtown St. Louis every day and never know the history and legacy that’s all around you.

Behind the familiar facades are the stories of fur traders and financiers, architects and craftsmen, grand ambitions and hard-fought preservation battles. Where Union Station stands today there was once a lake. The Old Courthouse was the setting for one of the most consequential legal battles in American history. Buildings that once housed offices, banks, and businesses have found new lives as hotels, homes, and gathering places.

Lucky for St. Louis, the Landmarks Downtown Walking Tours invite residents and visitors alike to slow down and see the city through a different lens.

For Ilissa M. Staadeker, Marketing Manager at Landmarks Association of St. Louis, which hosts the tours, the experience is about more than architecture. It is about helping people understand how the buildings around them reflect the city’s history, and, perhaps, just as importantly, helping them feel more connected to Downtown today.

“People who spend their whole life never coming Downtown or who just come Downtown for a ball game don’t think of it as anything that they have any relationship to,” Staadeker says. “And this gives them a relationship to Downtown.”

Now in its 28th year, the tours cover two distinct Downtown routes, weaving together landmark buildings, architectural details, and the often-surprising stories behind them. The tours are led by trained volunteer guides who aren’t confined to specific scripts, allowing each to bring their own knowledge and expertise to the experience.

We recently caught up with Staadeker to learn more about the history behind St. Louis’ iconic buildings, the importance of historic preservation, and how walking the city can create a deeper connection to Downtown.

Landmarks Association of St. Louis has a long history of advocating for the preservation of the city’s built environment. What is the organization’s mission, and how did the Downtown Walking Tours come about?

Landmarks Association’s primary goal is to enhance and preserve St. Louis’ built environment. The organization was founded in 1958 and incorporated in 1959, largely in response to the demolition of buildings that were part of the city’s architectural heritage. Landmarks has been involved in saving a number of historic buildings over the years, and that work continues today.

The Downtown Walking Tours have been offered for 28 years: They began as a collaboration among several organizations, and Landmarks has been offering them independently for many years.

What makes the Downtown Walking Tours different from a traditional architectural tour?

Our guides are volunteers who are St. Louis residents interested in heritage, architecture, and history. They receive extensive training and resources, but we don’t give them a script. They really customize their tours and bring their own knowledge and perspective.

The buildings we require them to discuss are consistent, but there is a lot of variety in how each guide approaches the tour. That means the tours don’t feel canned. Along the way, guides talk about many other buildings and pieces of history and put everything into perspective.

Why is preserving St. Louis’ architectural history so important?

Without our history, it’s hard to move ahead with any intelligence. The permanent visual cues of what we’ve done in the past help us understand how the city and region have changed and grown and how we’ve arrived at where we are today.

Architecture also changes a lot. It’s important to see the different styles, understand why buildings were designed the way they were, and see how those styles have evolved. It’s both important and entertaining.

What do you hope people see differently after taking a Downtown Walking Tour?

People enjoy the stories that go with the buildings. They’re interested in the architecture, but the stories are what really grab them — who decided a building should be built and why, the architect’s history, how the building was used, and what was there before it.

For example, Union Station was built on what was once a large lake, and the Main Post Office was built where the Winkelmeyer Brewery once stood. Those are things you wouldn’t necessarily know just by walking past the buildings.

And we want to get people Downtown and make them more comfortable with Downtown. We hope the tours encourage people to come here.

The tours cover different parts of Downtown. How do you determine which landmarks and stories belong on each route?

There are more buildings and stories than we can possibly cover. The buildings listed on our website are the ones we always talk about because they’re among the most prominent from a historical and architectural perspective.

But along the way, we talk about many other buildings and sometimes go inside when we can. On the East Tour, for example, we discuss the Old Courthouse, Cathedral, Arch, Eads Bridge, Old Post Office, Wainwright Building, and Spire Building, but we also talk about the Federal Reserve and take people into several other buildings to see interesting lobbies and features.

Those stops aren’t necessarily listed on the website, but they give people a much fuller sense of St. Louis.

What are some of the stories that surprise people?

There are so many. The Drury Hotel is a great example: It’s made up of three historic buildings that were slated for demolition before Drury Corporation saved them and combined them into a hotel. Those buildings were connected to the fur trade, which was incredibly important to St. Louis and helped shape the city’s early history.

We also talk about the Old Courthouse and the Dred Scott case, the competition to design the Gateway Arch, and what was on the Arch grounds before it was built. At Central Library, we talk about the Carnegie donations and how the library has changed with its modern addition.

We want people to understand not only the buildings themselves but the history and decisions that shaped the city around them.

How have the tours evolved as Downtown St. Louis has changed?

The tours have evolved by showing how Downtown has changed and adapted to different uses and cultures. We talk about buildings that have been preserved and repurposed, such as the former office buildings that are now residential.

That history of adaptation is important because it shows that preservation isn’t simply about freezing a building in time. These buildings can have very different lives than they originally did.

Some people see historic preservation as looking backward. How do you see preservation contributing to the future of Downtown?

Historic preservation preserves the environment. Without it, if enough historic buildings were demolished, there would be very little left.

Historic preservation tax credits are extremely important because preserving older buildings isn’t easy. It takes a lot of work and intelligence. Union Station is a great example. It sat empty for decades, but today it is a center for all kinds of activities.

People don’t want sameness in the built environment. They want interesting buildings. Older buildings are interesting because of their craftsmanship and design, and architecture is a form of art. We wouldn’t be the city we are if everything had been built in the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century.

What have you learned from the people who take the tours?

One of the most common reactions from people who live in St. Louis is, “I had no idea all of this was in Downtown.” People tell us they’ve lived here their entire lives and didn’t realize how much history and culture were here.

People who come from out of town are also incredibly impressed with what Downtown has to offer — the architecture and everything else.

How does the fact that these are walking tours change the experience?

Walking makes a huge difference. You get a much better understanding of the scale of a building and the feel of a building, and you can actually go inside some of them.

We walk at least two miles on each tour, so people really get a sense of the streets and how the buildings shape them. Every street feels different. We walk past the Arch, look at the riverfront, and view the Eads Bridge. It’s a much more immersive experience than simply passing by in a vehicle.

What does that experience do for people who may not feel connected to Downtown?

First, they’re more comfortable Downtown because they’ve walked two miles all over it. The tours familiarize them with the city. They hear stories about the architecture and the people who shaped it, and it elevates Downtown in their minds.

After the tours, people often want to learn more. We have many people who take the East or West Tour and then come back for the other one. The buildings are illustrated with stories about their history, and those stories are woven into the larger history of the city. That makes people feel much more at home Downtown.

What would you tell someone who thinks they already know Downtown St. Louis well enough to skip a tour?

They probably do know Downtown well, but they may not know the stories behind how the buildings were built, who decided they were needed, who paid for them, or the stories of the architects and craftsmen who created them.

I worked Downtown for 25 years, and even I hadn’t heard many of these stories. You don’t necessarily sit down and read the history of a building and how it is woven into the history of the city.

What makes the guides themselves such an important part of the experience?

The guides enjoy giving the tours, sometimes even more than the participants enjoy taking them. They learn from the guests, too, and they’re always researching to enhance their tours and make sure they have accurate information.

They’re very knowledgeable, and I think that shows in the reviews we receive. They also bring visual aids, including books of historic photographs showing what buildings and surrounding areas looked like when they were being built. That makes the tours even more interesting and informative.

What’s next for the Downtown Walking Tours?

We’ve extended the season: We used to give tours only through the end of October, but now we’re offering them through the third week of November. We did that last year as well, and people continued signing up.

It also gives people the opportunity to take one tour in the spring and the other in the fall if they want to experience both the East and West routes in the same year.