City Hall (University City, Missouri)

The current University City City Hall building was built by magazine publisher and businessman Edward Gardner Lewis, a native of Connecticut who came to St. Louis, Missouri, in the late 1890s, selling insect extermination products and medicines that were said to be highly questionable.{{Cite web |title=Edward Gardner Lewis Papers |url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8c25244/entire_text/ |access-date=2024-09-12 |website=oac.cdlib.org}} He bought a magazine called Winner, based in downtown St. Louis, which he renamed Woman's Magazine and quickly built its circulation to the largest in the country, amassing a fortune in the process. In 1902, Lewis purchased 85 acres (344,000 m²) several miles west of downtown St. Louis. The tract, located near the construction site of the World's Fair, would become the nucleus for the streetcar suburb of University City.

In 1903, with his publishing operation outgrowing its downtown location, Lewis began the construction of a new Lewis Publishing Company headquarters and Press Annex at this site. After incorporating University City in 1906, he served three terms as mayor. During this time, he built the Woman's Magazine Building, an Egyptian temple and an Art Academy. But Lewis' financial empire in Missouri collapsed amid charges of mail fraud, bankruptcy, and litigation, and by 1915, he had moved his base of operations to Atascadero, California. Lewis declared bankruptcy a second time in 1924.

The Magazine Building briefly sat vacant, until it was dedicated as the new city hall on November 1, 1930.{{cite book |

title= University City: Its History and Dedication of New City Hall |

last= Lumpp |first= James |

year= 1930 |

publisher= City of University City |

location= University City, Missouri |

pages= 32 |

url= https://books.google.com/books?id=p9MFPwAACAAJ&q=%22university+city%22+%22city+hall%22 }}

For the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair, Lewis had the world's largest carbon arc searchlight installed atop the dome, 135 feet above street level. An eight-ton, 80-inch light built by General Electric in 1903, the searchlight developed at least 1 billion candlepower. The searchlight has a seven-foot carbon arc that is “ignited by carbon rods and reflected in a ground glass mirror that magnifies the light.”{{Cite news|title=Century-old Beacon Shines Again - Searchlight Atop U. City Hall will be Switched on Friday for Benefit|last=Gillerman|first=Margaret|date=April 29, 2004|work=St. Louis Post Dispatch}}

The building elevator was too small to hold the light; its installation on the roof required a steam engine borrowed from the World's Fair. It sits on an elevator platform that raises the light through a hatch in the roof; today it is accessed via a spiral staircase in the council chambers.

It was first illuminated on April 30, 1904, opening night of the World's Fair,{{cite web|url=http://www.victorysearchlights.com/victory2.html|title=The Largest Carbon Arc Searchlight|last=Meza|first=Bob|year=2003|work=World War II Searchlight History|publisher=Bob Meza's Victory Searchlight and LED Message Sign Advertising|access-date=2010-08-26}}{{cite web|url=http://ancientskyscraper.com/85601.html|title=Carbon Arc Searchlights|access-date=2010-08-26}}

{{cite web|url=http://geocities.com/bobz299/searchlight3.htm|title=Carbon Arc Searchlights|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091028065526/http://www.geocities.com/bobz299/searchlight3.htm|archive-date=2009-10-28|access-date=2010-08-26}} to illuminate and advertise Lewis's tent city next to the Woman's Magazine Building.{{Cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ch1qZXfkkIc|title=KETC Living St. Louis: University City Searchlight|last=Kirchherr|first=Jim|website=YouTube |date=October 29, 2007|access-date=October 28, 2018}}

After the Fair, the light sat unused until it was restored in 1930 for the dedication of the City Hall. It was used again for the dedication of the University City Public Library and then was neglected until it was restored and operated by City Engineer Robert Norvell in the mid-1960s. It was relit on May 10, 1965, by then-Mayor Nathan B. Kaufman and has been maintained and operated by his son, Bill Kaufman, from 1972 to the present.

The octagonal, five-story brick-and-limestone building was built in a Beaux-Arts style with a dome roof.{{cite journal|last=Mays|first=Vernon|date=2008-10-20|title=Suffragette City|url=http://www.architectmagazine.com/green-building/suffragette-city.aspx|journal=Architect|location=Washington, DC|publisher=Hanley Wood|issue=October 2008|access-date=2010-08-26}} It was designed by Herbert C. Chivers (1869–1946), a local architect who had helped draft plans for St. Louis' Union Station.{{cite web|url=http://www.landmarks-stl.org/architects/bio/herbert_c_chivers_1869_1946/|title=Herbert C. Chivers (1869-1946)|last=Toft|first=Carolyn Hewes|publisher=Landmarks Association of St. Louis|access-date=2010-08-26}} Its landscaping was done in 1907 by landscape architect George E. Kessler.{{cite web|url=http://georgekessler.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=34:year&Itemid=91|title=Year of Project|work=George E. Kessler|publisher=Kessler Society of Kansas City|access-date=2010-08-26}}

The building features a marble staircase connecting the first and second floors, a central rotunda and a large domed room on the top floor that serves as the council chambers.{{Cite web|url=https://www.architectmagazine.com/project-gallery/renovation-and-restoration-of-university-city-hall|title=Renovation and Restoration of University City Hall |last=Trivers Associates|date=September 17, 2012|website=architectmagazine.com|access-date=2018-10-28}}

Among the architectural details that have been removed from the building are terra cotta cherubs along its roof line and a tunnel connecting it to the much larger Egyptian Building, now destroyed.

Though structurally sound, the exterior of the building displayed signs of wear and tear by the turn of the millennium. The building underwent refurbishment in the mid-2000s, funded by a $2.9 billion bond measure passed in 2004. The project, led by Architect Trivers Associates, brought the building into compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) and led to LEED certification. To achieve LEED certification, a new HVAC system and water saving measures were installed. The renovations also included exterior tuckpointing and the replacement of the windows and historic restoration of the original wooden window sashes.

{{Reflist}}

{{Commons category}}

• [http://cdm.sos.mo.gov/cdm4/results.php?CISOOP1=exact&CISOFIELD1=CISOSEARCHALL&CISOROOT=/ucityimages&CISOBOX1=Woman%27s+Magazine+Building++University+City%2C+Mo.+ 57 photos of the building at the Missouri's Digital Heritage site of the State of Missouri] These include:
• [http://cdm.sos.mo.gov/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/ucityimages&CISOPTR=129&CISOBOX=1&REC=2 Laying the foundation for Woman's Magazine Building, 1903: View 1]
• [http://cdm.sos.mo.gov/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/ucityimages&CISOPTR=129&CISOBOX=1&REC=2 Laying the foundation for Woman's Magazine Building, 1903: View 2]
• [http://cdm.sos.mo.gov/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/ucityimages&CISOPTR=66&CISOBOX=1&REC=2 Delmar Boulevard, looking east, about 1909]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ch1qZXfkkIc 7-minute documentary video] about the searchlight. Produced by "Living St. Louis", a program produced by KETC, St. Louis' public television station. Originally aired Aug. 14, 2007.
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eLKy_xXwVM Video of the searchlight in operation] (Posted to YouTube on July 18, 2010).

Category:Buildings and structures in St. Louis County, Missouri

Category:Historic district contributing properties in Missouri

Category:National Register of Historic Places in St. Louis County, Missouri

Category:City and town halls on the National Register of Historic Places in Missouri

Category:1903 establishments in Missouri