Benton Park Neighborhood in St. Louis 

Spent my childhood playing at Benton park and having Doughnuts from California doughnut shop ❤️❤️❤️

This is the safest way to see St. Louis miles away and watching a video

Thanks for the historical tour. Daytime - not too many people. Night - watch your back.

I had a house over on Gustine Ave near Chippewa and Gravois Had a house in Arnold and Oakville Oakville was the best house in St Louis i even had. This house in Springfield MO is better than Oakville house I miss Hodak's Chicken restaurant I enjoy watching videos of St Louis i miss St Louis but i also don't miss St Louis. Native St Louis boy but now i am an old man Dexter Lombardo 🤠🧔 Great Video Great memories ⚾🏒🎷🎺

i'm 71 was born and raised on lemp st. ...we would go in gus' pretzel factory on the way to st.agatha grade school and buy a brown lunch bag full of broken pretzels for a quarter...my dad walked to work at busch brewery. when i was 4 we lived in a 2 family flat right in the middle of whats now the arsenal st. overpass!! dennis johnstone and gilbert alvarez were my neighbors and clifford hensley.... my dad could drink beer anytime at work for free! there was a worker that made rounds to the workers with a cart full of cold beer all during the workday!! also my dad got 7 weeks paid vacation and with seniority could eventually get up to 12 weeks!!! eddie bewen (big guy) could hit a baseball from lemp park on to the 2 story roof accross wyoming street! he was called down to busch stadium for a cardinal baseball tryout. our house had a small garage with a feeding troff and hay loft! it was used to house a horse and buggy! it also had an outhouse on the yard side of the shed that was covered with grapevines that had big purple grapes in the summer but nobody would eat them LOL our house was a 2 family brick flat changed to single residence, it still had a couple brass gas light fixtures in the upstairs hall. bailey's confectionary on the corner had money trouble and conned my dad to co-sign for a $1000 loan and disappeared a week later, mom and dad fought about it. was in those demenil mansions when they were vacant remember seeing iron rings embedded in the basement wall..a friend's dad shot and killed a grace manufacturing boss for $3000 and got a life sentence at malcum bliss, was in cherokee cave, was in cherokee gang lol we had black sweatshirts with cherokee on the back and wore broge boots and dego block hats lol, we hung on the lemp park steps and fruits would pull up and offer $20 or beer to (well you know) i refused!! one time a guy with his bimbo took 2 guys and he just wanted to watch them, the post dispatch exposed them! priests, business men etc. tower grove park was full of them (predators) and probably still is. my friend would steal a box of donuts dropped off at dots confectionary at 5am before the store opened, we were up all night hanging out! one friend was a glue sniffer! he would empty several tubes of model glue into a #4 brown bag and huff it for hours and act silly. my pregnant wife and i moved 25 miles south in 1984 best thing we could have done! were proud to say we have not set foot in st.louis city for 5 years now! too much ghetto, bullets flying, shootings there every day now!

Another great video that brought back great memories from my childhood. The 250 anniversary cakes were all made by my wife's friend, Artist Mark Swain, who is quite prominent in the STL area. I loved your reference to the confectionery being open when the stores were not. Those confectioneries in South STL were the early 7/11's. We shopped at them all the time. They were on every corner, like the taverns. That Cafe Piazza across from Gus Pretzels used to be a Rexall Drugstore and I loved the geese at Benton Park Lake. At Jefferson and Arsenal across from the park there was a tavern that opened each day at 6am, so the night workers and heavy drinkers could be taken care of. I am amazed the Falstaff Brewery is still standing. I agree about the Hodak's Chiclen. I try to get some on every trip to STL. My mother was a member of the Knothole Gang at Sportsman's Park where they would sit in the bleachers for Cardinal and Browns games. On the Lemp Brewery, that Grand Hall sign --was that a hospitality area for the brewery do u know? Loved your father's commentary as well. Thanks so much for posting. I grew up in STL but moved away after attending Mizzou. I do still have family there. All the best!

You did a great job explalining the sites of Benton park. I grew up in the Southhampton neighborhood close to Hampton Village but my mom and dad did all their shopping on Cherokee street in my mom's old neighborhood that she preferred. I remember most of the Cherokee Street stores and my mom worked in one of them for awhile when she was a kid. I remember someone sellling Gus pretzels on a street corner to buy pretzels and eatling at Hrdlickas (?) restaurant chicken there as well I believe was on the street. The west side of Jefferson though may not be in the actual Benton park neighborhood. I lived with my mom and dad right up until graduating from UMSL and getting married a week apart back in 1976. All my mom's relatives lived in the southeast city neighborhoods. My grandfather lived close to Benton park and we would walk over to the park for awhile when visiting. I would see kids playing whiffle ball where your Dad remembers playing touch football. My wife knew all about HODAKS and we sure have eaten there many times. When I worked in Downtown West for many years I liked driving over to Blues City Deli to pick up a sandwich for lunch. Both are great like you said. My grandfather was also a Browns fan but sure liked Stan Musial of the Cards. Thanks for all your history of the Benton Park neighborhood.

Your dad sounds so young!

My goidness how things change since lived there around mid 70s I went to Visaul performing Arts hogh school of Sidney and nineth I think .lived across from fredmont park and school never to that school but jad friends that did . Wow.

If you're trying to figure out where you saw Lemp Mansion if you're not familiar with this neighborhood, the sign is very visible on I55 south (took me a minute to remember!).

Great Video Tom !!! 😃

Yes there fried chicken was the best.in town Back in the I heard that was a famous sport bar . We love to go there to for family reunions

Lamp mansion used to have the greatest half lb.hamburger, haven't lived in STL for years, Hodak's definitely one of the best places for fried chicken.

Wonderful video. My grandfather owned and ran that "corner saloon" at 1900 Cherokee in the 70s, 80s, and part of the 90s (as the "Bottle Cap #2").

Fantastic tour. Me and my friends used to go to the 7-Eleven on Jefferson and Gravois when it was open after school, to buy Big Gulps and play Video Games.

Nice video! Thanks for letting me travel back to StL.

Once again great job thanks 😊 👍

Love Jim Organ’s cameo!!! Great video! Very informative….keep it up team!!!!!

The old Falstaff logo. Hodaks is the bomb

Great video 👍👍

Thanks for the videos! Shows the real st. Louis. Is bentonite Park ver y old?

T-2:30 we lived next door to Gross drug 1965-66

Blues City Deli = YES! Hodaks chicken = HELL NO! That place sucks.

It use to be good

My friends live in the building on Cushing street where the man raised his rabbits!!