11 North 4th Street
St. Louis, MO 62102
(314) 655-1600
Free admission; parking in various paying lots and garages in downtown.
www.nps.gov/jeff
Museum opened July 3, 2018, after a complete remodel of the 1965 museum. .
The Gateway Arch National Park includes the Arch, underground visitor center and museum, Old Courthouse, Mississippi riverfront, and landscaped green spaces and trails.
The Arch was built in 1963-1965 as a symbol of St. Louis being the Gateway to the West. The original museum needed updating thus was closed in 2013 for a $380 million remodeling. The entrance to the museum was moved. It no longer at the base of the legs of the Arch but is west of it as seen in this picture. The grounds were also all redesigned and re-planted.
Inside the building lobby, one can look west towards downtown St. Louis. You are now able to walk directly from downtown to the Arch which you could not do before the remodeling was done.
The lobby has large changing video screens. These were showing buffalo.
The museum covers 201 years of history focusing on the role of St. Louis in the westward expansion of the U.S. To either side of this main hallway are the six exhibit galleries. At the far back is the visitor center.
Each gallery represents an era in our history. All of the galleries use a variety of mediums and displays to tell its story.
In the galleries you will find floor-to-ceiling murals for great visuals.
There are also very large (almost floor to ceiling) screens that digitally have an ongoing story told.
The words at the bottom of the screen constantly change.
The visuals change also.
Throughout the galleries there are wonderful large digital touch screens that allow visitors to make choices as to what they hear, what they see, where they go, etc. These are very informative and fun! Some are literally like games.
Another visual from the same screen.
Music was one of several choices to learn about French culture.
This screen included an interview.
There are displays where you can activate an item. In this case the train moves when you press the button.
There are many historical objects in this museum. Many are actual artifacts and others are reproductions such as these below of a ceramic effigy bottle, a birdman effigy, a hoe blade, and a Ramey knife.
An animal skin is displayed here in an exhibit about St. Louis beginning as a trading post and about fur trade products.
This is a display of trade artifacts - silver bells, crosses, silver tinkler, and beads. The bottle has vermilion, a red pigment used as a body paint.
Colonial items for play - violin, dice, playing cards, and a carom ball used in a French billiards-type game.
Items from an explorer-artists kit used in 1819-1820 included two glass vials (one with a funnel), a bullet mold, a knife , and a pocket knife.
Other items on display from the same kit are a shot flask and an insect-collecting tool.
Native American artifacts on display.
Tools of a mountain man.
Sample of items for sale in a St. Louis store for use by an early settler or pioneer.
More Native American artifacts - pottery, necklace, doll and beaded band.
The museum also has items you can touch and feel. Here is deer hide, before and after it is tanned into leather.
Here is buffalo hide to touch.
There are a lot of models made out of medal that one can also touch such as this typical small house in Colonial St. Louis.
This model is of a flatboat, a riverboat first developed in the 1790's.
The keelboat become popular after Lewis and Clark's expedition.
Yes, there were buffalo in the area.
These ironclad shallow-draft gunboats were used during the Civil War and made in St. Louis by James B. Eads.
One of my favorite displays are the biographies found in each gallery. Some are about well-known people and some about common people. They are very interesting to read.
There are many smaller wall displays that contain much interesting information.
I found this one especially interesting.
Each gallery is set up to have different sounds of that era playing. This is from the New Frontiers era.
Some of the displays cater to those needing additional help such as this large print page.
The first exhibit gallery is about Colonial St. Louis.
St. Louis was founded as a French fur trading post and thus is not surprising that many lived in creole houses such as shown in this model.
Shall we paddle down the river?
From inside a full-scale model of a double-pitched roof that became popular in St. Louis as different styles merged.
The second exhibit gallery, Jefferson's Vision, chronicles Clark's role in facilitating Indian removal.
This hands-on exhibit is an example of the naturalist's side of the expeditions into the Louisiana Territory.
Another floor-to-ceiling display.
Rare Indian Peace Medals on display: the two on the right are George Washington Medals
The third exhibit gallery, Manifest Destiny, explores the good and bad of it and the life of the pioneers.
A wall of actual photographs of pioneers.
The fourth exhibit gallery, Riverfront Era, recreates the activity of the historic riverfront, the start of many a journey west.
The fifth exhibit gallery, New Frontiers, depicts the West in different mediums, highlights the confinement of the Native Americans, and shows St. Louis as a major economic center.
The 1895 Broncho Buster by Frederic Remington is just one of several Western art pieces on display.
You can sit down and enjoy a silent movie!
And also enjoy the movie posters!
Life out West
And life in St. Louis
The sixth and final gallery is devoted to the building of the Arch.
There are models on display of each of the finalists in the design competition for the Gateway to the West. The Old Courthouse can be seen at the top of this model.
This scale model of the Arch is one of many used by Eero Saarinen, designer of the Arch. The Tulip Chair is one of his most famous and lasting furniture designs. The seats in the tram cars that go to the top of the Arch are tulip chairs.
This model which includes a wheel for turning demonstrates how the Arch tram cars work.
This is one of several sound displays in the museum.
In the visitor center a film is shown every hour. Making of the Monument is a fascinating documentary of this extraordinary engineering accomplishment.
Outside the theater is a floor-to-ceiling carving honoring the construction of the Arch and showing other tall monuments. The Arch is the tallest arch in the world.
Also from the Visitor Center one can ride a tram to the top of the Arch! We did not!
For those who chose not to ride to the top a large booth allows you to see the view from both directions, this one being to the West.
The gift shop is full of everything Arch as well as children's books and toys, fresh fudge, and other gift items.
The addition of an eating area is new to the Arch.
It is run by Evelyn Hill, Inc., the company who has run the Statue of Liberty eatery for 87 years.
The menu includes a few St. Louis favorites.
A posted sign tells you from where the local foods come.
Even the tables have arches on them plus an Arch trivia game!
Italian Sub
Grilled chicken sandwich.
When you go outside and stand on top of the museum and face west it is truly a beautiful view.
Walking east and standing under the Arch is always so impressive.
Looking east of the Arch you see the riverfront, the Mississippi River and the banks of the state of Illinois. To get to the river, one can either take the many steps down or walk one of the new nature trails.
Comments: The National Park Service has done a beautiful job with all of the renovations and remodeling at this park. The new museum is great! We were very impressed. This is very much a twenty-first century museum!
It is laid out well once you realize that the galleries alternate sides. Each gallery has a huge variety of displays, artifacts, and hands-on activities. The variety of displays means the museum appeals to many different visitors.
There is a lot to read! We were there over two hours (museum and film) and hardly read all displayed. From what I did read, I learned all sorts of things I had not previously known about St. Louis.
When we visited, the museum had only been open two months and one week; some of the touch screens and sound displays were not yet functioning or maybe they were already not working. I asked a ranger about that and she seemed very concerned and said she would let the tech people know.
The film about the construction of the Arch was fascinating and scary! There is a $7 fee for tickets but we had National Park Service Senior Passes which lowered our price to $3. Worth every penny.
When we were there on a Friday morning there appeared to be no line for the tram but sometimes there are long lines. Go to the website for information about best times to ride.
This museum should be very popular for school field trips so we chose to get there when it opened at 9:00 a.m. in hopes that we would beat the school children there. We did but sure enough by about 10:30 a school group was there. The website gives some suggestions how to best avoid school groups.
The website also gives parking suggestions since the park/Arch does not have parking facilities.
The restaurant also had only been open about ten weeks and the staff was working very hard to please all customers. Our food was good. There are certainly better restaurants in walking distance but this one was convenient and O.K.
There are two national parks in St. Louis. In St. Louis County is the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site (which was blogged on 10/2015). The Gateway Arch National Park also includes the Old Courthouse (whose museum was blogged on 12/2016).
