MINATURES & A WINDMILL IN BEVO

Sometime ago, I was perusing a list of Museums in our area. Each was dedicated to different interests, activities and collections. Almost unnoticed was a small listing for the Miniature Museum of St. Louis. Intrigued, I drove out with a friend to see it in a neighborhood called Bevo.

The museum has a wide assortment of miniature houses, churches, and buildings filled with people and animals. A Victorian house features, among its many rooms a woman taking a bath. In a shoot-em-up saloon, cowboys tote their guns and neglect a horse that has wandered through the swinging doors. One home, decorated for Christmas had a train about the size of a thimble actually running on its tracks. Displays enclosed in glass are donated by collectors and creators.

In contrast, across the street from the Museum was a giant Windmill that towered over houses, shopping centers and boarded up warehouses. I was told that the Windmill Restaurant was built as a midway point for guests on their way from St. Louis to the Anheinser Bush family farm in carriages drawn by Clydesdale horses, a way of life represented now by the Windmill and the Museum across the street.