courtesy of Tower Grove Park
When Henry Shaw donated the 289 acres of land that would become Tower Grove Park to the city of St. Louis in 1867, the parcel had only three trees. It was up to James Gurney Sr., an Englishman who had spent time overseeing the aquatics section of London’s acclaimed Kew Gardens, to lead the park’s transformation. For more than a century, many elements of Gurney’s original design have endured. The East Stream, however, was a notable exception. It was a sanitary nightmare.
Gurney didn’t intend it to be. In the original plans, he and Shaw were careful to blend a planned Victorian Garden with the prairie on which it was built. Upon entering Tower Grove Park from Grand, visitors would see an august main drive, thoughtfully planted trees, and the first of three bucolic streams meandering through the grounds. But park officials theorize that as the Tower Grove South neighborhood developed, what was once a peaceful, south-to-north flowing rivulet on the east side turned into a putrid sewage problem.
courtesy of Tower Grove Park
So around 1913, it was buried, leaving two white stone bridges on the east end of the park that went over nothing. Beginning this spring, those bridges will serve a purpose once again. A $2.5 million project to uncover the stream and restore part of the park’s original look is nearing completion, rejuvenating Gurney and Shaw’s shared vision for the urban oasis in time for Tower Grove Park’s 150th anniversary.
The park isn’t merely going through the trouble of digging up an old waterway to please a pair of ghosts. (And yes, the city solved the sanitation problem long ago when it modernized the sewer system.) The daylighting of the stream is one of 13 recommendations included in the park’s 2017 master plan, and its restoration incorporates three key elements of the park’s mission: environmental impact, historical reflection, and educational programming—the latter chief among them. “Education was always a part of everything Shaw did,” says Bill Reininger, Tower Grove Park’s executive director. “He was adamant about that.” While planning Tower Grove Park with Gurney, Shaw settled on a gardenesque design that would allow visitors to view plants up close. Not only is the stream being brought back to the surface, it’s going to be flanked by native plants—more than 100 of which will be seeded or planted in the area surrounding the water passage.
There’s a practical reason for revealing the stream, too. The three waterways aren’t simply attractive; they help the park and the surrounding neighborhoods process rain and other runoff. It’s believed that the park’s other two original streams survived in part because developers had a better handle on setting up wastewater infrastructure by the time clusters of homes to the southwest were built. Now, an even more environmentally friendly and forward-thinking approach to this kind of infrastructure will be found in the park. A series of rain gardens alongside the stream will enable up to 1.14 inches of rain at once to stay within the park and replenish the water table, rather than be diverted to storm sewers.
So though it might seem like uncovering an old stream would be a step back in time, it’s actually a means of helping Tower Grove Park evolve, just as its designers turned what used to be an open prairie into a world-class arboretum.
“I think Shaw would be excited,” Reininger says. “The things he stressed the most are what we’re doing with this project.”
THE BEST-LAID PLANTS
A NEW VISION FOR TOWER GROVE PARK PLACES AN EMPHASIS ON NATIVE SPECIES
Tower Grove Park is using the restoration of the East Stream as an opportunity to recognize the people of the Osage Nation, who inhabited these parts thousands of years before they ceded the land in the Treaty of 1808. The traditions and culture of the Osage people will be acknowledged through educational programming and the seeding of native plant species. Arrowwood viburnum and pawpaw trees are among the plants under consideration.
“We celebrate it as this Victorian park, but the land was here before it ever became this park,” says Bill Reininger, Tower Grove Park’s executive director. “That really got us excited about the opportunity to work with the Osage on this project because we can add so many cool elements that can speak to the history of the land, the original inhabitants, and the development of the park.”
Tower Grove Park began a relationship with the Osage Nation, among other native groups, while deciding the future of the park’s Christopher Columbus statue, which was permanently removed in 2020. The Osage Nation is advising Tower Grove Park on how to accurately contextualize and present the cultural tributes.
