By Jim Nicholson
Some local entrepreneurs vanish without a trace leaving nary
a name nor a product behind to remind us of their efforts. Others,
shall we say, prove larger than life and leave behind, for instance,
a city, a couple of famous stone lions, a truly unique and memorable
city hall and the world’s largest carbon arc searchlight. The
name Edward Gardner Lewis may not readily roll off many tongues,
but Joe Edwards would not have had a Loop to revive, had Lewis
not founded University City.
A unique combination of huckster and visionary, Lewis arrived
in St. Louis in 1896 with some dubious mosquito repellent and
founded a magazine which, six years later, would boast the largest
subscriber list in the world. The visionary side of his personality
built an executive office building for the magazine, which would
later become the University City City Hall. Taking full advantage
of the World’s Fair, the huckster side of his personality erected
a tent city in the shadow of the office building to house Fair
visitors for a nominal fee and, possibly, a magazine subscription
thrown into the bargain.
Then there’s the searchlight housed atop City Hall. Originally
said to have been ordered by the Tsar of Russia for a Russian
Pavilion for the World’s Fair, which was never constructed (the
Russians opted for War with Japan over vodka and caviar in Forest
Park), General Electric found itself with a cancelled order
for one mammoth searchlight. It also found itself a buyer (presumably,
at a substantial discount) in Lewis who realized the searchlight
would attract attention, millions would be visiting the Fair
and he had a business sitting directly beneath General Electric’s
unloved souvenir of Russian politics. (For the record, the Russians
should have come to the Fair. While the rest of the world was
in St. Louis, the Japanese were sinking Russia’s Pacific fleet.)
Predictably, installing an 80-inch searchlight atop a five story
octagonal building proved a major challenge as the building’s
elevator proved much too small for the searchlight. A steam
engine borrowed from the World’s Fair coupled with a rigged
block and tackle eventually lifted the searchlight from the
outside to the top of what was then the Woman’s Magazine Building.
The searchlight, in a word, is magnificent. It boasts an output
of one billion candlepower, weighs eight tons and is seven feet
tall. It rises through the roof of the University City City
Hall on an electric elevator (if you’ve ever been in the grand
City Council Chambers atop City Hall, those eight tons were
immediately over your head). From its vantage point 135 feet
above street level, the searchlight debuted on the Opening Night
of the Fair, April 30, 1904. Reports at the time said it could
be seen as far away as Kansas City and Chicago. Whether or not
those reports were exaggerated, in a cinch it turned night into
day in Forest Park and everyone in the metropolitan area could
not help but take notice.
Thanks to University City’s interest in its unique possession
(how many city halls do you know equipped with their own searchlight?),
people are still taking notice. In 1930, it was restored for
the conversion of the Magazine Building into University City
City Hall. It was relit for the dedication of the original University
City Public Library in 1940, put to rest for World War II and
then was forgotten. Rediscovered in 1964 by assistant city engineer
Robert Norvell, it became a personal pet project. With funding
from University City, Granite City Steel, Guarantee Electric,
McDonnell Aircraft, Union Carbide and Bi-State Transit Authority,
Norvell restored the light and it was relit in 1965. When the
Muny Opera produced the stage version of Meet Me In St. Louis
that summer, the searchlight once again illuminated the former
fairgrounds.
Refurbished again for the City’s centennial in 2004, the searchlight
is now lit every summer to highlight the opening of the City’s
Starlight Concert Series. University City Public Relations Director
Monica McFee explains, “It’s a way of reminding people the searchlight
is here.” And, once reminded, the crowds arrive. “People see
it and then they come to see it close up.” Photographers, it
seems, come in droves as the searchlight creates some awesome
lighting effects. “It’s pretty cool every now and then to invite
a perspective from the top of the building,” says McFee looking
like a woman who knows exactly how cool that perspective can
be. A hundred and two years after the fact, Edward Gardner Lewis’
original assumption holds true: light an 80-inch searchlight
and people will come.
