Categories
Historic Boats Mid-Century Modern

Admiral Reaping Scrap Windfall

by Michael R. Allen

St. Louis Marine, owner of the S.S. Admiral, got lucky: the company is scrapping out the mostly-metal boat at a time when scrap value is up. According to one observer, the scrap weight of the Admiral is 3300 tons, and the cost of dismantling is about $50 per ton. By the time the streamlined ex-steamer exists only in public memory, St. Louis Marine is likely to have made anywhere from $600,000 – $700,000 in scrap.

Categories
Historic Boats Mid-Century Modern Riverfront

S.S. Admiral, RIP

by Michael R. Allen

Soon the S.S. Admiral’s streamline, art moderne superstructure may be converted into cold hard cash at the going rates as high as $300 a ton. As soon as next week the old boat may be towed away to be picked apart by the skilled hands at the appropriately-named Cash’s Metal Recycling. So goes the 71-year run of the city’s finest floating pleasure palace.

Yet preservation circles are mostly silent on the death of one of the city’s most beloved mid-century icons. Perhaps the end of the boat has seemed like a foregone conclusion ever since its engines were removed in 1979. That act tore away the best reason to set foot upon the Admiral: being able to glide up, down and around the Mississippi River while dining, dancing, courting and sparking. The Admiral’s short life as a moored entertainment center was a bust, and its subsequent use as a casino was extended not through any great affection but by Missouri’s now-defunct loss limit law that sent Lumiere Place patrons over to keep their fix flowing. The Admiral’s once-dazzling interior had long been denuded of any of the swanky swagger of yesteryear. What was left was an artifact — a riverboat left without engines, dining room, band stand or dance floor.

Of course, the S.S. Admiral was not a hopeless cause, and wild imaginations conjured future worlds in which the Admiral was pulled onshore and reclaimed with artistic license. Yet no one imagined bidding fairly on the Admiral at auction in November — not a single party. There were no last-ditch “Save the Admiral” campaigns, a fact counterbalanced by the persistent and now well-organized effort to save the earlier Goldenrod Showboat.

The swell of nostalgia that saves Historic Things did not flood over the Admiral, which may have been too young and too much a part of the unpleasant present-day reality of gambling to be a fitting subject. The S.S. Admiral’s demise points to the need for continued advocacy for parts of our built past that are within our grasp. A building (or boat) young enough to be part of the lives of many people still living should be revered because it touches so many lives still being led.

(For a personal look back at the S.S. Admiral, I recommend Marilyn Kinsella’s “S.S. Admiral, I Salute You!”.)

Categories
Historic Boats

Goldenrod Showboat Video Released

Tyler LaVite has produced the short video The Goldenrod Showboat: A Short History, now posted on YouTube. Take a look:

Categories
Historic Boats Mid-Century Modern Riverfront

S.S. Admiral on the River in the 1940s

by Michael R. Allen


This photograph depicts the S.S. Admiral cruising the Mississippi River in the early 1940s, not long after its reconstruction.  Built first in 1907 as the S.S. Albatross, the rechristened Admiral had a capacity of 4,400 passengers and a palatial ball room on its five decks.  Streckfus Steamers commissioned fashion designer and illustrator Maizie Krebs to design the streamline, art deco-influenced superstructure.  Reconstruction cost $1 million and took place between 1938 and 1940. The Admiral has not cruised since its engines were removed in 1979.

Photograph from the Preservation Research Office Collection.

Categories
Historic Boats Mid-Century Modern Riverfront

S.S. Admiral Offered on eBay

Vintage postcard view of the Admiral, which was rebuilt as an art deco entertainment palace around 1940.

The S.S. Admiral is being offered for sale via an eBay auction. The “buy it now” and starting bid price are the same: $1.5 million.  Pinnacle sold the Admiral to a new owner handling the auction, which ends November 10.

The price — which is a suggestion — seems like a bargain, but there is a catch: after the sale, the Admiral will have to be moved from its site on the St. Louis riverfront.  The new owner will have to be ready to moor the vessel somewhere else.

Categories
Historic Boats

Goldenrod Showboat Under New Ownership

The Goldenrod as it appeared last June moored on the Illinois River near Kampsville.

Yesterday, Donna Perrino left the following comment on our post “Goldenrod Showboat Celebrates Its Centennial” (June 3, 2009):

Hello. I am the Project Manager of the GOLDENROD SHOWBOAT RESTORATION PROJECT/2010. We have just begun the long journey into the process of determining the necessary repairs needed to get this beauty back in business.

The company that currently owns this boat is the Historic Riverboat Preservation Association. It’s President is Steve DeBellis, also owner of the Globe Democrat newspaper in St. Louis, MO. We are dedicated to this effort so please give us your help and support. A new website is on the way and many fundraisers will be held. We welcome your input and information.

Please contact me, Donna Perrino, at my email address until we develop the site: donnastephens69192sbcglobal.net.

Categories
Historic Boats Riverfront

State Court Ruling on the Admiral Hull

by Michael R. Allen

The state appeals court ruled today that the Missouri Gaming Commission acted “without sufficient process” when it ruled that Pinnacle Entertainments could “neither repair nor replace” the President Casino, better known as the S.S. Admiral. After considering plans as drastic as scrapping the modernist boat, Pinnacle has explored repairing the aging hull and possibly moving the Admiral to another location.

Model of the S.S. Admiral, collection of Antique Warehouse.

The Gaming Commission currently is trying to shut down the gambling boat by July — an effort not affected by today’s ruling. Still, the ruling helps Pinnacle make the case for repair. Hopefully today’s action helps keep a unique landmark afloat. Despite years of interior alteration, the exterior of the Admiral (built to current form in 1940) is as streamlined and sleek as ever. A little rehabilitation would make it shine! A new casino box built in a wetlands, after all, could not hold a candle to the swanky downtown Art Moderne riverboat.

Categories
Abandonment Historic Boats Riverfront South St. Louis Theft

U.S.S. Inaugural Still a Fixture on the Riverfront

by Michael R. Allen

The U.S.S. Inaugural remains a fixture on the St. Louis riverfront, just south of the MacArthur Bridge. Since breaking loose from its moorings and capsizing in a bizarre incident during the great flood of 1993, the old minesweeper has been stuck on the riverfront. After spending a generation as a tourist attraction, the war vessel has become part of the lore of local urban explorers — and the subject of many schemes to profit from the tragedy.

The ship’s remains are almost too easy to find, located just a short walk through a gate in the flood wall. On a sunny Indian summer day, the wreck conveys a sense of tranquility. Later, in the winter, when the water gets lower the ship will beckon explorers. John Patzius has held the salvage rights to the boat since 1998, and had attempted to move the Inaugural out of the river. The mighty gun from the bow of the Inagural is located at Bob Cassilly’s Cementland; that relocation by Patzius is theft by his own admission (although rightful theft, by his judgment). Future plans remain unknown. For now, the wreck is a splendid landmark to behold on a weekend ramble. Some days one will find artists hard at work creating murals on the flood wall, almost always atop the work of others. Inexplicably, no one has ever tagged the wreck just a few yards away. (Red Foxx, are you reading?)

More information is available in the U.S.S. Inaugural Online Scrapbook.

Categories
Historic Boats Illinois National Historic Landmark Riverfront

Goldenrod Showboat Celebrates its Centennial

by Michael R. Allen

The day was beautiful, and our need for a trip away from the city strong. Looking for a destination, we settled on tracking down the Goldenrod Showboat on the Illinois River. After all, we are in the venerable entertainment vessel’s 100th year. Using directions from a friend sent last year after he stumbled upon it and Google Earth (which showed it a few miles from where it actually lies), we got a general idea of the location in Kampsville, Illinois and set out.

Of course, the Goldenrod now sits outside of its first Kampsville location. After not finding the boat on the town’s riverfront, we asked a couple walking down the road how to find it. The man knew where it was, gave directions and proceeded to offer the information that his aunt was a waitress and actress on the Goldenrod between 1945 and 1950. Even in this unlikely new home, the Goldenrod is part of a local’s family heritage — how ’bout that?

A few miles later, we spotted the Goldenrod moored to a barge on a section of overgrown riverfront. The boat was unmistakable, and the deterioration has not claimed much of its integrity. Everything is still there, down to the boat’s recent (and somewhat unattractive) paint scheme. The paint is peeling, the wood drying and in some places rotting. Yet the Goldenrod survives unharmed in its sleepy Illinois berth.

A few years ago, this outcome was far from likely. After its itinerant early years (more on those later), the show boat became a permanently-moored restaurant on the St. Louis riverfront. In 1990, the City of St. Charles, which had purchased the boat in 1988, moved it to the St. Charles riverfront. The restaurant closed in 2001, and in 2003 the city decided to sell the boat. The St. Charles City Council accpeted bids, and sold it to a company headed by John Schwarz. (The Council rejected Bob Cassilly’s bid to move it back to the St. Louis riverfront.) Schwarz moved the boat to Kampsville, after announcing plans to restore the vintage vessel.


However, in 2007, Randy Newingham and Shelia Prokuski, owners of the site where the boat was moored, sued Schwarz for unpaid mooring fees. In September 2007, Newingham threatened to sell all or part of the boat for scrap to cover his costs. One month later, a Calhoun County judge ordered an auction of the boat, and the court accepted Newingham and Prokuski’s lone $50,000 bid. However, by the end of the year the couple had reached and agreement to sell the Goldenrod back to John Schwarz. Schwarz moved the boat north. In 2008, however, Judge Richard Greenleaf declared that the proper court papers for the auction had not been filed, throwing the ownership in doubt. To date, the ownership has not been cleared.

Hence, the Goldenrod Showboat sits lonely on the side of Illinois Highway 100, and as summer sets in, disappears behind stands of grasses and the leaves of riverbank trees. The sturdy boat is crumbling, but not very rapidly. Asphalt roof paper provides cover for much of the deck area, and the boat is locked up tight. Hopefully, this is not how the Goldenrod will end its days, even if this sad state is how the boat will spend its centennial year.


The path from birth has been convoluted, but most of the Goldenrod’s days have been good ones. Pope Dock Company of Parkersburg, West Virginia built the boat in 1909 for businessman W.R. Markle. Originally, the boat was named Markle’s New Showboat. Built for entertainment, the boat would travel the Mississippi and Ohio rivers and stop at town where it would dock. Patrons would come aboard for a night of music, comedy and other live entertainment. According to most accounts, the boat was the last showboat built for the Mississippi and Ohio river circuits. At 200 feet long and 43 feet wide, the boat was one of the largest showboats ever built. The seating capacity was 1,400.

Markle lost the boat through foreclosure in 1913, and the next owner renamed the vessel the Goldenrod Showboat. In 1922, Captain Bill Menke purchased the boat and implemented a 12-month touring schedule. His tenure would be long and fruitful. Menke moored the boat at Aspinwall, Pennsylvania for two consecutive summers, 1930 and 1931. In summer 1937, Menke brought his show palace to St. Louis for repairs but ended up permanently mooring it here. According to “That Landmark on the River,” an article by Mary Duffe that appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on December 10, 1968, the boat hosted stars like Red Skelton, Monte Blue, Kathy Nolan, Major Bowes and others during Menke’s tenure. Menke reported that he had to ask patrons in southern towns to leave their firearms at the riverbank.

In 1963, Pierson and Franz purchased the Goldenrod Showboat. A few small fires led to major renovation, including a new steel hull. On Christmas Eve 1967, the National Park Service listed the Goldenrod Showboat as a National Historic Landmark, the highest federal distinction for a historic property. The National Historic Landmark nomination includes a short history of the boat, as well as the fact that the original hull is intact inside of the steel barge that now serves as the hull.

The National Historic Landmark nomination may be skimpy by today’s standards of historic documentation, but the nomination’s assertion of the great cultural significance of the Goldenrod remains true. This was one of the last and most lavish of the great river show boats, and it may be the only survivor of that type. Its future is important not only to St. Louis, its later home, but to the history of the 15 states the Goldenrod is known to have regularly visited between 1909 and 1937. The centennial of the boat should be a spur toward preservation. If the current owners (whoever they may be legally) cannot figure out how to bring the boat back to life, let’s find the person who can.

Categories
Historic Boats Historic Preservation Mississippi River Riverfront

Pinnacle Chief: S.S. Admiral Has "A Few Years Left"

by Michael R. Allen

Yesterday’s article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on the fate of the S.S. Admiral (“Boat my move north” by Gail Appleson) reported on both the short-term and long-term fates of the Art Moderne vessel. Pinnacle Entertainment, owner of the boat, plans to move the Admiral to a site just north of the Chain of Rocks Bridge. This move could take place in 2009, if the Missouri Gaming Commission approves.

The more troubling news comes in a quote from Pinnacle Chief Executive Office Dan Lee. According to Lee, the Admiral is close to needing its 100-year-old-hull (the Art Moderne section was built atop an existing 1907 hull) rebuilt, and Pinnacle has no interest in making that repair. Lee told the Post that re-hulling “wouldn’t be economical” but he thinks that “there are a few more years left on that hull.” How long the S.S. Admiral can survive remains uncertain.