Benton Park residents fight to save the English Cave Community Garden

Benton Park is one of the great success stories of revitalization on a grass roots level. Largely left to their own devices by those at City Hall, residents have built a community among some of the most beautiful streetscapes in St. Louis. Community, that word that everyone seeks for their own neighborhood, is not some abstract concept, but rather a real, tangible way of life, where neighbors talk to each, socialize and work to improve their neighborhood together. Benton Park’s success over the last 20 years is due to real people talking to their neighbors, and not hiding in their houses.

One of those places where neighbors have been meeting for over a decade is the English Cave Community Garden, which is now threatened with destruction for construction of a single-family house by a man named Kevin Logan. That seemingly small piece of land, tucked away in the intimate confines of Provenchere Place, just south of Arsenal in Benton Park, possesses far more history than its diminutive size might suggest. Back in the 1840s, this piece of land was part of Ezra English’s beer garden and lagering cellar, and a short article from the Missouri Republican gives us a fascinating window into its original appearance:

“A few days ago, we visited the cave in St. Louis Commons, back of the Arsenal, owned by Messrs. M. Hose and English. The have a spent a considerable amount of labor on the grounds and on the cave. The latter is so improved that those who have seen it in its original shape would hardly recognize it. The mouth of the cave has been walled up and stone steps laid down to the entrance. The front room has been enlarged by the removal of the earth from it. Down the first chamber you descend about ten feet into the second, which is of considerable length, and in this space is a delightful spring falling from the top of the cave. It is the intention to remove the earth from the chamber, and when this is done it is probably that a way will be found into other large chambers, and beside all the natural attractions, the owners keep in the front chamber their beer and ale, and here it may be drunk as cool as the water of the spring.”

What was "Lemp's Cave" really like?

While certainly the Lemp’s Cave Beer Garden is more famous today, English Cave rivals its southern counterpart’s history and critical role in St. Louis history. A painting by an unknown artist shows the long buildings of the beer garden, just as can be seen on the 1851 Shultse Map of St. Louis. Original research by former Benton Park resident Taylor Leonard has revealed that while there were a couple of small wooden outbuildings on the grounds of what's now a community garden, no masonry or other major buildings have ever been built on the property. More importantly, Leonard showed me definitive proof that the main chamber of the cave is right below the community garden.

This is critical to the wisdom of not building on the property; St. Louis builders have never been reluctant to build on geologically unstable land throughout the city, with disastrous results. Whether we look to Essex Place or Norwood Court in North St. Louis, or even Utah Avenue in Benton Park West, the results of building on unstable land are obvious: horrible settling and eventual demolition. Likewise, the wisdom of turning an old quarry into Handy Park shows that leaving land above unstable bedrock is the best choice. Since we cannot access English Cave in order to evaluate its stability, particularly because of the excavations in the 1840s, it would be unwise to build upon it. The wisdom of our ancestors’ choice not to build on the property for over 170 years should tell us something. However, Logan says he was not able to find any other plot in the neighborhood.

“I call BS on ‘not many lots that meet their needs.’ I see more than enough empty lots in the neighborhood,” retorts Alexis Forman, a Benton Park resident. Jessica Deem, an architect who lives between the park and garden on Illinois Avenue, shared her perspective to me. “From an urban planning perspective, our garden is the perfect location for a common land," she says. "It's a half-hidden, yet well-connected garden with the lost cave below. While this site holds both symbolic and physical beauty today, its allure as a physical place is best viewed from the outside looking in. Once bulldozed, the charm will be lost.”

In other words, a house built on the garden will look out, on three sides, on garage doors. I should stress, by no means am I ideologically a proponent of all community gardens. There are indeed many community gardens that languish in this city, their original creators long since gone or lacking in interest. However, the English Cave Community Garden is not one of those neglected plots. While the beds are fallow for the winter, I happened to stumble across the garden last summer when I was conducting some research on the historic lagering cave. I distinctly remember the garden looking lush, well-tended and obviously well-maintained. Bill Kranz and Marian Amies, two garden members, provided me with photos of various events in the garden from 2017 and earlier; it is clear that the historic English Cave has brought its neighbors closer together, the space becoming an open-air “living room” for Benton Park. And its intimate size creates a different type of cozy, sheltered space that the famous nearby park, while a jewel of St. Louis, cannot provide.

I met with a small group of original founders and community members who utilize the English Cave Community Garden. The overall feeling among the group was great sadness at the potential loss of their dream, assembled slowly and lovingly over a decade. One of the garden members, Marian Amies, gave some background on the formation of the English Cave Community Garden. “We wanted to preserve the cave so it was really exciting, and all of the sudden we found out that this is the [English Cave] property," she says. "That was the impetus to create the garden.”

“We started back when the church [on Wyoming] still owned the property, and we planted a peach tree," Bill Kranz, another member, adds. "Then when the LRA received the land due to back taxes, the idea of creating an official garden was born." 

“I signed the first lease," remembers Chris Rowley. "The garden and the social functions have drawn on people who wouldn’t go to regular neighborhood association meetings. This added to the diversity of venues, attracting people who wouldn’t come to other events. We have brought new people into our community.”

“This is the place where fairies live. This is a place where people of all different races, education, and income levels come together to garden. I live right there,” Dee Hawkins tells me, pointing to a house right behind the garden.

At this point, Alderman Dan Guenther joined us at the garden. Guenther, as alderman of the Ninth Ward, which encompasses Benton Park and the garden, spoke out in favor of keeping the community garden in place. The Benton Park Neighborhood Association also submitted a letter arguing for retention of the garden. For whatever reason, the LRA board recommended selling it anyway. Sixth Ward Ald. Christine Ingrassia, tweeted this:

The community gardeners are left in limbo; the property must first pass a test that requires core sampling, and one member is left wondering if she should bother planning on planting this spring or not. Will her raised beds be crushed by the massive truck needed for the test? The intrusive tests may fail anyway, due to the giant cavern directly below.

I reached out to Mr. Logan, but he could not be reached for comment. Several independent attendees at the LRA meeting commented to me that Mr. Logan said his family “keeps to themselves,” and don’t really talk to their neighbors.

I’m concerned about this worrying trend of people moving in and not engaging in the community. It is not good for St. Louis. Surely other people besides me find the irony in “people who keep to themselves," coming into neighborhoods made desirable by people who have literally spent decades building community, one day and one conversation at a time. These are people who actively worked with each other to make a difference. And sometimes, as in the historic English Garden Community Garden, they don't just talk, but do, expending blood, sweat, and tears to build something tangible that brings the community together, literally and figuratively. 

Chris Naffziger writes about architecture at St. Louis Patina. Contact him via email at naffziger@gmail.com.