Photo by Tojosan via flickr (Creative Commons). A gargoyle from the City Museum in Saint Louis.
According to the photographer’s caption on flickr, this grotesque can be found at the City Museum in St. Louis, Missouri. Not being familiar with that particular institution but assuming it was an art museum, I searched online to figure out if this carving is a feature of the building or part of its collection. Instead, I learned that the City Museum is a “an eclectic mixture of children’s playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel made out of unique, found objects”.* In other words, it seems to be a big kids’ version of a children’s museum. How cool is that? I’ve never been to St. Louis, but this place will certainly be on my agenda if I ever decide to visit.
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Alexandra Kiely, aka A Scholarly Skater, is an art historian based in the northeastern United States. She loves wandering down the dark and dusty corners of art history and wholeheartedly believes in visual art's ability to enrich every person's life.
Her favorite periods of art history are 19th-century American painting and medieval European art and architecture. When she not looking at, reading about, writing about, or teaching art, she's probably ice dancing or reading.
View all posts by Alexandra Kiely (A Scholarly Skater)
3 thoughts on “Gargoyle of the Day: City Museum, St. Louis, Missouri”
These are 2 of 8 griffins from the scientific dry-cleaners building towers
located at 5709 N. Clark Chicago, Illinois
Installed in citymuseum St Louis 1996
Hello again, Yes I recovered these artifacts during demolition and loaned them to the city museum for 20 years until recent removal.
The griffins I installed 60 feet lower than original tower.
fellingcontracting website has a page with salvage process and re-installation at city museum.
You might also like the Stone Eagle tavern in Rockford, Illinois construction with historic artifacts.
thank you for asking
David Felling
A Scholarly Skater 
These are 2 of 8 griffins from the scientific dry-cleaners building towers
located at 5709 N. Clark Chicago, Illinois
Installed in citymuseum St Louis 1996
Thank you so much for filling in that detail! I just took a few minutes to look at your website. Did you guys do this installation?
Thanks for stopping by. 🙂
Hello again, Yes I recovered these artifacts during demolition and loaned them to the city museum for 20 years until recent removal.
The griffins I installed 60 feet lower than original tower.
fellingcontracting website has a page with salvage process and re-installation at city museum.
You might also like the Stone Eagle tavern in Rockford, Illinois construction with historic artifacts.
thank you for asking
David Felling