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

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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

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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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wszxm MEMORIALS IN FOREST PARK N your strolls through Forest Park how many memorials have you . 2 Fu - i noticed? The park is filled with them, but some people never see these beautiful works of art. l..et's look at the Jefferson Memorial. Do you think of that building as a memorial to the great Jefferson, or as a museum containing interesting exhibits, especially the Lindbergh trophies? The chances are you remember it only as a museum. The statue of Jefferson, however, designed and carved from ltalian marble by Karl Bitter, that stands in the rotunda of the memorial immediately recalls Thomas jefferson to your memory. lt was unveiled in 1913 by Miss Natalie Norton, a descendant of Jefferson. ln the rotunda is a bronze high relief, The Signing of the Treaty, also by Karl Bitter. It depicts Monroe, Marbois, and Livingston signing the treaty of acquisition in I803. At the southeastern corner of the memorial stands a statue, six feet four inches high, designed by Miss Nancy Hahn. The Hgures are those of a mother, a babe in arms, and a small boy. Its title is The Colonial Mother. and it is dedicated to all the mothers of Missouri before its statehood. Having selected Forest Park as the site after long consideration, the Missouri Society of the Daughters of American Colonists, at a cost of 555000, donated the statue in l929. Another S5 000 memorial is the Musicians' Memorial Fountain at Skinker and Forsythe Boulevards, presented in l925 to St. Louis by George Weber of New York City. One of the finest equestrian statues in America is in our own Forest Park. This is a memorial to General Franz Sigel, showing him on a horse, field glasses in hand, leaning forward searching for the enemy. Robert Cauer of Kreuznach, Germany, designed itg Lauchhammer Foundry, Saxony, cast it in bronze for SI0,000. Standing at the Lindell Avenue entrance is a memorial to General Frank P. Blair, a 510,000 bronze statue with granite pedestal. W. W. Gardner made the entire monument. Mrs. Christine Graham, daughter of General Blair, unveiled it in ISS5. Perhaps the oldest memorial in the park is the bronze statue of Edward Bates. The subject is in the attitude Bates usually assumed when addressing the jury or court. On the four sides of the granite pedestal are medallion portraits of James B. Eads, Governor Hamilton Gamble, Charles Gibson, and Henry S. Geyer. The 513,000 statue was unveiled in IS76. The Hopi Indian Bird Charmer drinking fountain is a 512,000 memorial of August Maschmeyer to his wife. The figure is on its knees with arms outstretchedg a bird is resting on each wrist. No more appropriate place could have been found in the entire park than the spot where it stands, the great bird cage. Between Jefferson Memorial and the Union Avenue entrance is a granite shaft sculptured by George j. Zornay. This Confederate Soldiers' and Sailors' Twenty-eight