Young people gather around Whisky a Go-Go, one of the new discotheques on Gaslight Square in 1965. Traditionalists said they were too loud and crowded the sidewalks with underage young people. Recorded music pounding from the discotheques drowned out the jazz that had made the square. It was just another thing cited for the decline. Photo by Lloyd Spainhower of the Post-Dispatch
ST. LOUIS • It was known loosely as Greenwich Corners. Funky taverns played Dixieland. Antiques shops peddled artifacts fished from the city’s vast land-clearance projects.
Artists, beatniks and barroom wits enjoyed their little secret. One of the hangouts was the Gaslight Tavern, 457 Boyle Avenue at Olive Street, west of midtown.
On Feb. 10, 1959, a tornado ripped through the heart of the city and smashed up the bohemian refuge. Suddenly everyone with curiosity and a car knew about Boyle and Olive. Check-writing insurance adjusters made the neighborhood flush for revival.
Visionaries got busy. Jimmy Massucci, owner of the Golden Eagle Saloon and unofficial mayor of Greenwich Corners, opened two more night spots. Within a year, eight more attractions helped create a new nickname, Gaslight Square.
By summer 1960, it was the place to be for beats, preppies, well-dressed adults, street troubadours and tourists. Olive pulsed with a happy cacophony wafting from places called the Crystal Palace, Left Bank, Laughing Buddha, and Dark Side. Jack Carl dished pastrami and genial abuse at 2 Cents Plain. A row of columns outside Smokey Joe’s Grecian Terrace anchored the landscape.
On March 24, 1961, the St. Louis Board of Aldermen anointed the obvious by renaming two blocks of Olive as Gaslight Square. Laclede Gas Co. later installed 121 gas streetlights, adding flicker to the buzz.
By summer 1961, Gaslight was noisier with more restaurants, taverns, nightclubs and shops. Some of the antiques dealers were squeezed out by rising rents. “The old gang doesn’t come around anymore, but perhaps it is a necessary evil of growing,” Massucci said as cash registers jingled.
Big and future names in show biz played the square. An 18-year-old singer named Barbra Streisand was warm-up for the Smothers Brothers. Allen Ginsberg recited poetry to mellow jazz. Miles Davis and Singleton Palmer were regulars. Earnest ministers opened the Exit, a coffee shop promising meaningful discussion and “jazz liturgy.”
But the crowds also attracted purse snatchers, car thieves and worse. On Dec. 30, 1964, Lillian Heller was fatally shot in a robbery in the vestibule of her apartment building at 4254 Gaslight, just east of Boyle. Heller, 61, and her husband, John, were artists.
Police added patrols and promised security. Young people flocked to discotheques such as Whisky a Go-Go, where hired dancers gyrated on platforms. But throbbing recorded music was drowning the live clarinet riffs. It became too crass and too much.
In an article in the Post-Dispatch on Nov. 1, 1965, police declared Gaslight Square one of the safest sections of the city, but the public wasn't buying it.
"It is unfortunate that the square is in the middle of a blighted ares that is marked by a high crime rate," Capt. Thomas J. Moran said. "We have stepped up our patrol in the square in an effort to combat the criminal elements that tend to gravitate toward an entertainment area."
That wasn't enough.
"The kids don't belong down here but it isn't our fault their parents let them run all over the place," Whiskey a Go-Go operator, Russ Lewis said.
The old clubs began closing. Laclede doused some of the gas lights in 1967 for failure to pay. Police made drug arrests and thwarted a desperate bid to save the strip with topless waitresses. The Exit gave up the spirit in 1969, about when cultural pathologists pronounced the end of Gaslight.
Massucci died in 1971. Jack Parker, the last Gaslighter, moved O’Connell’s from Boyle to Kingshighway in 1972. Five months later, the aldermen abolished Gaslight Square, restoring the strip as part of Olive.
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Look Back: Gaslight Square in St. Louis
Broken gas lights, long doused for good, line Gaslight Square in October 1972, three months before the Board of Aldermen pronounced the obvious and abolished the name, restoring the block as just another part of Olive Street. (Wayne Crosslin/Post-Dispatch)
A chorus line bounces to the Charleston at the Roaring 20s tavern, on Gaslight Square, in 1961. (Jim Rackwitz/Post-Dispatch)
A sidewalk scene on Gaslight Square in summer 1961. That March, the St. Louis Board of Aldermen had caught up with public interest by officially renaming two blocks of Olive Street as Gaslight Square. For a few years, the area was a lively collection of restaurants, taverns, night clubs and coffee houses. Photo by Jim Rackwitz of the Post-Dispatch
The empty buildings of the 4200 block of Olive Street inspired one more doomed effort to restore Gaslight Square in 1991. Nothing came of it, and the buildings later were demolished for new homes. (Kenning Manning/Post-Dispatch)
Jimmy Massucci (standing) greets longtime customers in 1961 at the Cellar Door on Boyle Avenue, one of his establishments in Gaslight Square. Massucci was one of the originals who turned the area into a thriving district. He was running Cafe Louie in Laclede's Landing when he died in 1971, several years after Gaslight Square had faded. (Jim Rackwitz/Post-Dispatch)
A fire heavily damaged the Musical Arts Building on the evening of Jan. 10, 1962, the same night the St. Louis Fire Department fought a major blaze at the Ralston Purina mill just south of downtown. The three-story building, on the southwest corner of Gaslight Square (Olive) and Boyle Avenue, was built in 1904 and was home to several Gaslight Square establishments. It was renovated and rebuilt, but burned again in 1970 and demolished for good in 1971. Photo by Lloyd Spainhower of the Post-Dispatch
The lamps began going out on Gaslight Square in March 1967, when some of the local businesses fell behind on their bills to Laclede Gas Co. The lamps were relit, but more bills went unpaid as establishments closed. This is a darkened scene along the 4200 block of Gaslight Square (Olive) in May 1968. (Gene Pospeshil/Post-Dispatch)
Ladies from the St. Louis Visitors Center tour Gaslight Square in November 1966 as guests of local business owners who offered reassurances that Gaslight can be recommended as a tourist destination. Some of the visitor center volunteers had become worried about Gaslight's declining reputation. Police Capt. Thomas Moran assured them the area was well-patrolled and safe. (David Gulick/Post-Dispatch)
Derby O'Downey at the piano leads a sing-along in the Golden Eagle Saloon, 4263 Gaslight Square (Olive Street), in 1961. He's playing Yankee Doodle. The flags suggest he also took turns playing Dixie. Photo by Jim Rackwitz of the Post-Dispatch
Young people gather around Whisky a Go-Go, one of the new discotheques on Gaslight Square in 1965. Traditionalists said they were too loud and crowded the sidewalks with underage young people. Recorded music pounding from the discotheques drowned out the jazz that had made the square. It was just another thing cited for the decline. Photo by Lloyd Spainhower of the Post-Dispatch
Ice on the sidewalk and lower floor of the Musical Arts Building, 4310 Gaslight Square (Olive Street), looking east on Jan. 11, 1962, the night after a fire seriously damaged the building. After the area faded in the late 1960s, the building burned again in April 1970. It finally was demolished the following year. (Floyd Bowser/Post-Dispatch)
The night scene along Gaslight Square, looking east, in 1961. The columns were at Smokey Joe's Grecian Terrace restaurant and tavern. Photo by Jim Rackwitz of the Post-Dispatch
Some of the sightseers at Boyle Avenue and Olive Street a few days after the deadly tornado of Feb. 10, 1959. Before the storm, many people didn't know where Boyle met Olive. Public curiosity over tornado damage put the T-shaped intersection on the map, promoting interest in the revival that became known as Gaslight Square. (David Gulick/Post-Dispatch)
Jack Parker, owner of O'Connell's Irish Pub at Gaslight Square, chats with St. Louis Symphony percussionist Richard O'Donnell three years before Parker moved his tavern from the square in August 1972. He was the last Gaslighter. Parker and his pub continue at Kingshighway and Shaw Boulevard. (Lester Linck/Post-Dispatch)
Organizers of The Exit, a Christian coffee house at 444 Boyle Avenue, meet during its opening night on Oct. 1, 1964. They wanted to provide a setting for meaningful discussion, folk music and relaxation in the midst of all the Gaslight Square revelry. Seated (from left) are Mrs. William Anderson and the Rev. David Wilkins, both of Webster Groves; Carol McDonald, coffee house committee chairwoman; the Rev. Donald Damhorst, Catholic chaplain at the University of Missouri at St. Louis; and Charles Dougherty, professor of English at St. Louis University. Standing are Yasuo Ishida, a medical student at St. Louis University; and Edward Stevens, pastoral counselor of Episcopal city Mission. The Exit closed in May 1969. (Floyd Bowser/Post-Dispatch)
Some of the destruction in the 4200 block of Olive Street, at Boyle Avenue, after a tornado roared through the heart of St. Louis on Feb. 10, 1959, killing 21 people. At Olive and Boyle, it mangled a small cluster of taverns and restaurants known unofficially as Greenwich Corners, a nod to its bohemian flavor. A revival financed by insurance settlements created what became known as Gaslight Square, which burned brightly but briefly during the 1960s as St. Louis' main night spot. (Post-Dispatch)
Lillian Heller, who was shot to death during a robbery in the vestibule of her apartment building at 4254 Gaslight Square (Olive) on Dec. 30, 1964. Heller, 61, worked at a law firm downtown and was an artist, as was her husband, John. They lived on the third floor. Police believed the killer was lurking near the building mail boxes. A man eventually was convicted of murdering her, but the killing often is cited as a major factor in the decline of Gaslight Square. (Post-Dispatch)
Tim O'Neil is a reporter at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Contact him at 314-340-8132 or toneil@post-dispatch.com
