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The Ephemeral Fair's Master Architect
Matt Sepic, KWMU
ST. LOUIS
(2004-03-24)
(Virginia Publishing Co.)
One hundred years after it lit up Forest Park, the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition continues to loom large in the cultural life of St. Louis. But some of the famous names behind the fair have been forgotten.
(Virginia Publishing Co.)
One hundred years after it lit up Forest Park, the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition continues to loom large in the cultural life of St. Louis. But some of the famous names behind the fair have been forgotten.In her new book Meeting Louis at the Fair, St. Louis journalist Carol Porter tells the story of fair architect Louis Spiering. He was part of a highly-accomplished team that designed the fair's palaces and boulevards.
Porter told KWMU's Matt Sepic that Spiering's education in Paris made him quite a commodity at the turn of the 20th Century.
After the fair, Louis Spiering went on to design several homes in the St. Louis area. He never saw the completion of his most famous and lasting project. In 1912 Spiering died at the age of 37 -seven months before the Sheldon Concert Hall was finished.
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