Gussie Busch

Quote

Quote of the Day–National Beer Day

P1100877

“April seventh is here, and it is a real occasion for thankfulness, marking a newfound freedom for the American people, made possible by the wisdom, foresight and courage of a great president and the cooperation of an understanding Congress. There is a song in our hearts: it’s ‘Happy Days Are Here Again.’ And they are here again, for out of a maze of confusion and anxiety has come a beacon light to guide the way to better times. Happy, grateful men are back to work after what seemed an endless idleness.

Once again, freight cars are rolling in, loaded with grain from American farms, bottles and cases and various equipment, as well as coal and supplies from industries long suffering from the Depression, while others soon will be rolling out and onward, contributing their share toward the rehabilitation of industry, agriculture, and transportation…a new and greater era looms on the horizon for our people, one that will result in a happier and more secure existence for us all.

Good night, and good luck. Beer is now being served.” Gussie Busch, “Reading from a script he surely had not written but every word of which he certainly believed,” as quoted in Bitter Brew by William Knoedelseder

Quote

Quote of the Day

With one move, he could deny the city of Milwaukee, home of Pabst and Schlitz, a professional baseball team, wrest the Cardinals’ broadcasting rights away from the Griesedieck Brothers, and turn Sportsman’s Park, where the Cardinals played, into a giant outdoor tavern–thirty thousand Budweiser drinkers held captive for two or three hours at a time in the sweltering St. Louis heat. William Knoedelseder on “Gussie” Busch in Bitter Brew: The Rise and Fall of Anheuser-Busch and America’s Kings of Beer

Busch Family Estate Walk

Today I went to Grant’s Farm (by myself!) to go on a Busch Family Estate Walk. For those who are familiar with Grant’s Farm, you know that the Busch family, of Anheuser-Busch fame, called Grant’s Farm home for many years. And if you’ve ridden the tram, you may have noticed the family mansion peeking through the trees. If you’re lucky enough to have gone on a private expedition like our family did several years ago, you’ve even gotten to see the back of the house, but not take pictures of it…photography was strictly forbidden.

This year, everything changed. To celebrate the 60th anniversary of Grant’s Farm as a public place in St. Louis, Grant’s Farm is offering the chance to go on an estate walk, an hour-long tour around the residential property, including visits to the playhouse, the chapel, and the swimming pool, and views of the house from all sides (but not the inside). To start the tour, you go through a rather forbidding looking gate down past the area of the Tiergarten where the camels and zebras can be found:

IMG_4577

The first stop on the tour is the children’s playhouse. It’s a charming two-room house, complete with running water and functional wood-burning fireplace. Knickknacks and family photos decorate the rooms. The house is still used for tea parties and other fun children’s events. It’s completely adorable and charming!

Just behind the playhouse, you get a glimpse of the family’s tennis court, which is also equipped with basketball goals:

IMG_4597

There is lovely man-made pond with a fountain known as “Dandelion Lake.” There are several benches by it, as well as statues of different types of wildlife. The many trees beginning to change color made it especially beautiful!

IMG_4624

One of my favorite stops on the tour was at the family chapel, St. Hubert’s. The chapel is named for the Belgian patron saint of hunters, a nod to the Busch family’s love of hunting and wildlife. Tradition has it that Hubert saw a stag with a crucifix in its antlers while hunting one day, and immediately gave up his position and wealth to become a priest. He become the Bishop of Liège in 708, and died in 727. His feast day is remembered on November 3.

The chapel is beautiful, with stained-glass windows made by Louis Tiffany, son of the jeweler who founded Tiffany and Company. It was built by August Busch Jr. as a gift to his wife, a Swiss woman who had longed to have a chapel like the ones found in her home country on their property, on the occasion of the birth of their fifth child. Her parents gifted the chapel with its bells, which are from Switzerland, and are inscribed with the names of the children who had been born to the family up to that point. The chapel has served for family baptisms and other services, and was blessed by Cardinal Ritter, the only private chapel in the area to have such a distinction.

IMG_4619

Of course, the highlight of the tour for me was seeing the house again, and getting to photograph it. It’s a 100-year-old, 34-room mansion, complete with 14 bathrooms, 12 bedrooms, and two kitchens. The entire third floor is a ballroom, and the Busch children used it as a roller skating rink when no parties were being given. I was delighted to see the front of the building for the first time:

IMG_4626

And looking at with the Dandelion Lake in the foreground completes the picture of a stunningly beautiful family estate:

IMG_4631

Our tour continued with a stop at the family swimming pool. It’s a heated pool, although even with the heat, it normally would have been closed for the year by now. They left it open for the tours, however, and you could almost see into the past, when the Buschs used to have Cardinals like Stan Musial and Red Schoendienst and their families over for pool parties. It may have been at one such party that “Gussie” first considered allowing visitors to tour the Deer Park and the Bauernhof (the original home and stables on the property)…one of the Cardinals wives suggested he open it to the public, and he eventually decided it was a good idea!

IMG_4656

We also got a glimpse of the “cottage” on the property…a 17-room home built for Gussie’s widow after his death because the big house was too big for her with all of her children grown and moved out. Gussie’s former personal chauffeur still lives in the house, and Busch family members occasionally stay there, as well.

IMG_4673

The back of the house was the one part I had seen before, but there’s a huge difference between driving past it, and being able to stop and look at all the details. That the rear entry of a home can look so grand is almost unbelievable to me, and yet here it is:

IMG_4677

There were so many other little details I noticed as we walked around all sides of the house, including a statue of Kaiser Wilhelm on one of the side porches (I’d love to know the story behind that!), and beech trees like the ones that provide the beechwood that Budweiser beer is so famous for using in their aging process. There were also so many other stories I heard, including the fact that Gussie used to allow the two elephants that are still at Grant’s Farm today, Bud and Mickey, into the house when they were babies. He even fed them fruit off the family table, and they weren’t even the only wildlife allowed in the house. His wife must have been a very patient person!

I’ve heard some people complaining about the $25 price for the ticket, but I think it’s well worth it. I learned quite a lot, saw some beautiful things, and talked to some interesting people. If you have a chance before Grant’s Farm closes for the season, I highly recommend buying a ticket to this tour, because at this point, they haven’t decided if it will be offered again next year, and this is an opportunity you don’t want to miss!

IMG_4629_2

Busch Stadium Tour

Between lunch and the actual baseball game on our anniversary, we went on a tour of Busch Stadium. We had a really good tour guide, who shared lots of interesting side stories in addition to the stadium talk, and who also had a great sense of humor. It was a nice group, too–not too many of us, and most of the people, like us, had tickets to that night’s game.

It was really strange seeing all of the seats empty, and the scoreboards turned off!

We got to tour the Cardinals dugout. It was much bigger than I was expecting!

We also got to check out the view from the “best seat in the stadium”–the press box. The view truly is astounding–and we even got a glimpse of a few players beginning their warm ups down on the field.

The press box is Mike Shannon’s space, so it’s fitting that there’s a tribute to him. We also learned that the press box at Busch Stadium is so large because Mike has a large family, and they are often up there with him during games–pretty cool!

A view outside the most exclusive area of Busch Stadium, (aside from the players’ clubhouse)–The Cardinals Club. Yes, that’s a statue of “Gussie” Busch out front. Did you know that on his 85th birthday, while he was still the owner of the team, the Cards retired the number 85 in his honor? There’s a full-size, fancy sit-down restaurant in the Club. The folks that hold the tickets for the green seats behind home plate have full access to this club, and they never have to pay for any of the food there (or any that they order from their seats in the stadium, for that matter). On the other hand, one seat costs $14,000 per year, and you have to buy at least two seats together, with a 10 year lease, so I guess the least they can do is throw in the food!

Another exclusive area of the ball park–the Redbird Club. The wallpaper in this fancy concessions area is really cool. One of the Cards owners, Bill DeWitt, has an extensive personal baseball card collection. He used his Cardinals cards to have this wallpaper made. The only exception is Satchel Paige, who was actually a St. Louis Brown. This also led into an interesting discussion about the 1944 World Series, (The Streetcar Series), which was a match-up between the Cardinals and the Browns. It’s the only World Series to ever be played on 6 consecutive days, and a rare example of both teams having called the ballpark, (the old Sportsman’s Park), home field.

A view from the Musial Bridge, looking out on the statue of The Man himself.

Speaking of the statue, here’s a better view of Stan the Man. “Here stands baseball’s perfect warrior. Here stands baseball’s perfect knight.” (Ford Frick)

This is one of the Cardinals’ old logos–Slugger Bird. This is my favorite of the old logos, both because it’s really cute, and because the name is awesome!

There’s no end to the cool plaques you can find scattered around Busch Stadium. This is my favorite, showing the proximity of the old and new parks. There really is a white stripe on the ground below!

I thought this was some cool wall art, too.

Immediately following the tour, we walked by this tribute to Jack Buck outside the stadium. “Go crazy, folks!”

It was a great tour. There is so much history to be learned when you go on one of these things–local and world history, and of course, baseball history. We’re definitely going to go back with the children, someday–it’s a can’t miss St. Louis experience!