Roosevelt High School - Bwana Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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Q A VERITABLE JEWEL BOX OMPARATIVELY few Saint Louisans have knowledge of and take advantage of what has been called the most charming single attrac- tion in the Saint Louis Park System, the Jewel Box, a greenhouse in Forest Park, located near Clayton Road and Oakland. It is open from the first Sunday in November to Mothers' Day in May, 8:00 A. M. to 5:00 P. M. daily. Here monthly floral displays attract as many as 250,000 visitors annually. There is an annual Christmas display with the dark green of priceless palms- seventy-five years old and without equal in the United States-contrasted with the bright red of poinsettias. Here at Easter time a magnificent cross of pure white lilies is displayed, while white doves flutter around a tinkling fountain. Other displays, those of chrysanthemums, of spring flowers, of cinerarias, are equally attractive. When this beauty spot was built and developed by John Moritz, over thirty years ago, it was called the Show House. It was after an incident that occurred in l925 that it came to be known as the Jewel Box. Mrs. Wilhelmina Becker was so impressed by the charm of the display as she entered that she exclaimed What a veritable jewel box! The phrase stuck, and soon the name Jewel Box was in common use. The Jewel Box has many ardent patrons. When the recent shift in party power in the city resulted in the dismissal of the head gardener at the Jewel Box, the change was deplored by many in editorials and newspaper articles. These flower lovers feared that the high quality of the floral displays would be impaired, that the high traditions of the Jewel Box would be lost, killed by party politics. Their fears have been proved groundless, for nothing has changed for the worse. Perhaps chiefly responsible for this beauty was Henry Ochs, the Horal artist who designed and constructed all shows in the Jewel Box until his death last winter. Mr. Ochs graduated from Shaw's Garden, the Shaw School of Botany, Washington University, and the Chicago School of Art, spending four years in each institution. After prospering for fourteen years in private floral business, designing many displays for leading florists here, he came to the Jewel Box in I 928. Unaffected by party changes, he considered himself above politics. It is hard to believe that such a small, shabby building can house such magnificent jewels. Along the outside walls there is a motley array of wheel- barrows, flower-pots, and old boards. Inside, the floor space measures only twenty-seven by ninety feet. All the props needed in displays were constructed by Henry Ochs in a nearby workshop from odds and ends. However, a new day seems to be dawning for the display house. A new and better Jewel Box is being planned. lt will be just north of the present one. According to present specifications, it is to be a modernistic Twenty-six

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WVATMC BELIEVE IT OR NOT l' june l9l3 the lawn mowers in Forest Park were condemned. At the suggestion of Dwight T. Davis, then park commissioner, thirty sheep were purchased and turned loose in Forest Park. Before being turned loose, the sheep were sheared and the profit from the sale of the wool was spent to buy eight more sheep. Mr. Davis expected the sheep to keep the grass short and believed uthat there would be no further use for the lawn mowers except around entrance gates. Star-Times Clipping of l9l3. Forest Park, containing l,380 acres, is the third largest park in America. Art Hill, the largest natural arphitheatre in the world, was the council grounds of the great Indian nations of the past. It can accommodate between 75,000 and l00,000 people. BONNIE LEE DE GONIA NIGHT Hazy moonlight-golden soft-- Paints a path across the lake. Tiny stars peep from aloft Down upon the sleeping brake. Far into the vault of night The wandering clouds haue flown- Billowing in trackless flight Into the great unknown. Crooning breezes kiss the trees- Green leaves tremble with delight- Night hawks call their rhapsodies That echo strangely in the night. -Lester Epstein Term 7 Q .N C. uf J Twenty-Hue

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WAN greenhouse one hundred forty-five feet long, fifty-five feet wide, and fifty feet high. The sides of the building will be receding steps with vertical planes of glass and horizontal planes of non-breakable roofing material to reduce damage from hail. This type of building is a complete revolution in greenhouse construction. It was finally developed after many lengthy experiments to determine how much light greenhouse plants really need. By means of a model constructed in Forest Park, by means of light measurements taken in several greenhouses, and by means of complicated mathematical calculations, it was decided that plants in greenhouses need from ten to seventy per cent of the outside sunlight. The newly designed Jewel Box has two major advantages over present day types. ln the greenhouses in Shaw's Garden, a hailstorm in l928 destroyed 550,000 worth of glass panes and in doing so damaged many' valuable Horal exhibits. These panes were very hard to replace as it frequently took workmen several hours to put their ladders in place. No catastrophe such as this could ever happen to the new Jewel Box for none of its roofing surface is of glass and all its glass surfaces are easily accessible from the outside. The second great advantage is that in this new design, none of the structural steel comes in contact with the glass. ln other and older greenhouses the condensing of moisture on the glass causes corrosion of steel supports. lt is designed to admit a maximum of sunlight, but there are Venetian awnings to shut out the sun when it is too hot. Many people fear that an intimate shrine for communion with the beauty of nature will be lost by moving into larger and more modern quarters. Let us hope that the newer and more beautiful Jewel Box will be a real inspiration for larger and more beautiful displays. CHARLES MALONE - di Twenly -seven