720 N 2nd Street
St. Louis, MO 63102
Adult admission fee is $10; Senior is $5; children are $7 or $3. Groupons available. Parking in lots is $7- $10.
http://www.stlwaxmuseum.com/
Opened in 1983.
The wax museum fills 10,000 square feet on five levels in this 1885 cast-iron-facade warehouse building. The building is listed as a National Historic Landmark.
The sign out front informs you what you are about to see!
When you enter the lobby you are greeted by the first of over 250 wax figures in the museum. THE INCREDIBLE HULK!
Standing in the lobby it is obvious that you are going to see wax figures from many walks of life. Shrek and ET!
President Obama, an English Queen's bodyguard, and some creature!
Guess who?
And one can even pose with one of the lobby figures.
Looking up high there are even more figures - superheroes!
The Joker!
Throughout the museum visitors walk down narrow hallways viewing figures generally in glass cases. The figures on the top three floors come from history, literature, science, Hollywood, the arts, and sports. Sometimes they are grouped together such as here with Henry VIII and his wives.
Sometimes they stand alone.
Sometimes they are in a case of miscellaneous figures such as here where you see golfer Sam Sneed with singer Joan Baez standing to his right and others behind him.
Sometimes the figures are placed in a case that is decorated to represent the figures. Here we see Albert Einstein, Mark Twain, and Salvador Dali...
and here is George Washington in a full display.
Sometimes the figures stand in a plain room such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King.
As always the glass causes some glare with photographing! Here is Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI.
So here are photos of just some of the displays. Star Wars!
Cardinal slugger Mark McGwire.
Madame Tussaud, French artist who founded London's wax museum.
Explorer Christopher Columbus
Astronaut Neil Armstrong on moon
Actress Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra
General Napoleon and unknown friends. Any guesses?
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Men in Black and Star Trek
Four of the scenes from the life of Jesus
Super heroes
Power Ranger and Johnny Depp as pirate Jack Sparrow
Actor Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones
King Henry and Elizabeth I
Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth
Musician Louis Armstrong and actor W. C. Fields
Musicians Michael Jackson and Liberace
Not sure who this is but he was watching us! Jack Benny?
Stunt performer Evil Knievel on his bike!
Singer Tina Turner but who is with her?
Actor Humphrey Bogart
After visiting the top three floors you are directed to the bottom two floors - the Chamber of Horrors - with this warning sign.
We stared at this greeting party and decided to head down into the chamber!
Frankenstein greeted us with flashing "electrical power"!
Fortunately all of these wax figures were behind wire so we were safe!
Yes, these are dead bodies!
Lots of CREEPY figures!
There were a lot of creepy things, like bloody heads, that hung from the hallway ceiling requiring us to duck or be hit by them.
Alas we ended our visit in the gift shop/lobby - mostly t-shirts, postcards, and ice cream!
We then crossed the street to enjoy lunch at Morgan Street Brewery.
Yes, we did taste their pilsner!
Morgan Street is especially known for their crabcake sandwich! Comes with yummy coniques - fried mashed potatoes balls!
They also offer Pick Two's - this is a house salad with roast beef (with bleu cheese) sandwich.
House salad with smoked turkey sandwich.
It was a beautiful setting and day to sit outside on their patio and enjoy lunch and friends.
The museum and brewery are part of historic Laclede's Landing with its original cobblestone streets. The Landing sits on the Mississippi Riverfront - if you look carefully the St. Louis Arch can be seen at the end of the street.
The area has a number of restaurants and bars!
Comments: Frankly we were surprised how much we enjoyed the wax museum. It was just plain fun. I had anticipated that with over 250 figures we would be there awhile but we got through in one hour which apparently is normal. We arrived when they opened at 11:00 on a Friday morning and were the only ones there most of the time.
The museum obviously could use some more work to improve it especially in identifying the figures. Many had no identification so it was up to us to figure out who we were looking at, if possible! That was challenging at times. Also some of the displays were not in great shape and it would also have been more fun if all of them included some kind of appropriate display with the figure.
We had read online comments about the museum being dusty and dirty but did not find it too too bad. We also read that it was dark which it was in places but it was doable on the top three floors. (I did lighten a lot of photos so that one could see what we saw.) The bottom two floors were very dark in order to create the horror atmosphere. We ended up using telephone flashlights to see where we were going. We actually did not find it that scary after realizing that nothing was going to jump out at us. However, in parts the sound effects were very loud - as in TOO loud!
The museum has a varied collection of figures made in England, Germany, Hollywood, Washington, New York, and St. Louis. It is too bad that the museum is not in better shape. However we did have a good time looking at all of the figures and wondering what was around the next curve or on the next floor!
Parking was a little bit of a challenge. There were some roads partially dug up and flooding just three blocks away, neither of which helped. The lots are also used by Arch visitors so they were busy/crowded. The lower level of the garage where we parked was totally flooded!
Lunch was special! The service was great, the food yummy, and the atmosphere perfect. We were there on a perfect-weather day and thoroughly enjoyed their patio. We also enjoyed being in Laclede's Landing - will have to go again!
