Belleville200

Belleville 200 Classic Car Show

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Today, as part of the year-long Belleville200 celebrations, the Oliver C. Joseph car dealership sponsored a classic car show. This was especially exciting as Oliver C. Joseph is celebrating their 100th anniversary selling cars in Belleville, which is pretty amazing when you think about it…it’s east to forget that cars are 100 years old!

Chrysler has given them an award for every 25 years they’ve been in business, and for their centennial year, Chrysler had to create a new award, because this is the first time they’ve given one out for 100 years!

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There was every kind of car you’d want to see.

And we admired a lot of the engines:

Some of the paint jobs were really fantastic:

We peeked inside a lot of the cars:

I really liked all of the old hood ornaments:

And the other decorative elements and details:

Even the wheels were interesting!

The oldest car we saw was from 1915. A car just one year short of being 100 years old! Think about how different the world was back then!

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I’m not going to lie…I didn’t know what a lot of what I was looking at actually was. But I love history, and that extends to cars, so even though I didn’t understand it all, I still enjoyed the car show immensely!

Old Belleville Street Fair

A (fairly brief) storm meant that we weren’t able to spend as much time at the Old Belleville Street Fair (or, “Alt Belleville Strassenfest,” if you will), as we had planned, but we did still go down and walk around. We missed a lot of the demonstrations, as well as the tours, but we still got to see a lot of cool stuff, most of which we had never noticed before!

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I was really excited to see the Garfield Street Saloon. My understanding is that it will eventually be a museum dedicated to the beer brewing history (Hello Stag beer!), that is such an integral part of Belleville’s history, and that was already evident, from the displays inside, to the brewing demonstration outside:

Something you don’t often notice in old neighborhoods is that there is writing on some of the bricks on the brick streets…fascinating!

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The old houses (and learning who lived and/or worked there), were the best part of the fair. As a bonus, many of them had demonstrations outside, such as carpenters, brick masons, and even musicians (I do love an accordion!):

There was even a secret passage!

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Belleville is a wonderful city with a fascinating (and long!) history. I’m so glad that our city’s 200th birthday celebration has created events that help us learn and appreciate that history!

Art on the Square 2014

Today was Art on the Square day! Belleville always looks so pretty during the art fair:

This year, there were cool cut-out stands placed all around the town square. Unfortunately, most of them were too tall for the children to reach, but they still look cool on their own!

I love watching the artists that are doing demonstrations. It’s fascinating to see how intent they are, and how much they love their work!

Of course, we stopped by to see our favorite artist, Mark Hurd, and buy a small print to add to our collection. Someday, we’re going to commission him to do a piece of one of our favorite places in St. Louis.

There were two artists from Belleville’s sister city of Paderborn, Germany, doing demonstrations. I thought this was a really cool way to celebrate Belleville’s 200th birthday…it’s certainly not something they’ve done before!

There are so many different kinds of art to see. I’ll be the first to admit, I don’t “get” them all, and certainly they aren’t all my taste. But, I love that we get to see it all, and talk to some of the artists. I also love that the children are getting exposed to so much different art. It’s interesting to see how their tastes have changed over the years (or stayed the same!), and what catches their eyes that we might not have noticed.

There are many reasons I love Belleville, but Art on the Square is definitely the thing Belleville does best!

The Worst Decision Art on the Square Ever Made

This year’s Art on the Square poster has been revealed:

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I can almost not find words for how wildly inappropriate this is. Belleville is celebrating her 200th birthday this year, and Art on the Square had the chance to have a really cool, historic poster. But instead, they commissioned a poster they had to have realized would be covered in cats. Yes, the cats are supposed to represent things in Belleville’s history, but you don’t even see that, because you’re too busy trying to figure out why our beautiful town square fountain is surrounded by cartoony cats.

I mean no disrespect to the artist, Don Nedobeck. I’m sure he is very talented in his field of work. This is not my style of art, however…not even close. But I also know that art is subjective, and some people like cat art. I don’t think, however, that the group of people who do is great enough to warrant commissioning the poster that will forever represent this year’s art fair covered in them.

Even if you overlook my immense dislike of cartoony cat art, there’s still the issue of this poster not fitting with any of the other posters they’ve produced, ever. There have been many different art styles displayed in the posters over the year, some that i have liked less than others, but they all fit together. We have a grouping of three rotating posters from previous Art on the Square festivals, and even though they are all by different artists with different styles, they are still complimentary. And they focus on the people of Belleville, not cats!

We have bought the Art on the Square poster every year since we’ve lived in Belleville, but I will not be buying this one. That makes me sad, from a continuity standpoint, as well as from a “missing out on having a souvenir of both Art on the Square and Belleville’s 200th birthday” standpoint. But there is no way I want these cats gracing the walls of my home. And I really think Art on the Square made a huge mistake choosing this design to be the face of this year’s historic event.

The Belleville 200 Parade

I’ve been focusing a lot on the 250th birthday of St. Louis, but let’s not forget that Belleville is also celebrating a milestone year…200 years old! Tonight was the birthday parade!

 

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There were bands and dance groups:

Civil Servants:

Veterans:

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Politicians:

A very strange Grand Marshall:

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And a strangely cool, old-fashioned, horse-drawn hearse:

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Cool Cars:

Floats:

Other assorted participants:

And, of course, Shriners!

It was a beautiful spring night in Belleville!

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I was struck again tonight that this really is home. Not only was I talking to strangers (mostly about the Blues, because I was wearing my Blues jersey), but I also talked to friends from church as they went by in the parade. Being able to find people I know in a crowd reminded me just how much at home we are here!

 

200 Years Old

On this date in 1814, an acre of land was donated by farmer George Blair for a new town square. (He also donated an additional adjoining 25 acres for the new county seat.)

He named his gift “Belleville,” which means “beautiful city” in French. There have been many significant events on the square, including speeches by two presidents and a nationally-renowned art festival. Things look very different 200 years later, but it’s still the heart of our town!