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Historical September–October 2016 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
The Parkmoor Restaurant was located at 324 DeBaliviere (east side, roughly between Waterman and Pershing) from 1936 to 1969, the fourth Parkmoor restaurant in St. Louis The owner, Texan William Louis McGinley, had invented and patented the “service tray” that car hops attached to car windows for the drive-in experience.
His daughter Lou Ellen wrote a history of the chain in 2004, noting that it was built in a former nightclub called the Car Lane with a party room upstairs that could be rented for $ 10. “Many customers stopped in while going to or from the zoo, playing golf, tennis, enjoying the outdoor Muny Opera, and the Winter Garden Ice Rink.” An intriguing website called Restauranting through history.com featured the chain in 2012, with memories from employees and customers. Darrell DuBois recalled being a “car hop” and later a “soda jerk” who worked there in 1959.
A sign said “Look for the Boys in Orange Jackets”. Ann Lemmons Pollack remembered in St. Louis Magazine “the onion rings, perhaps some of the most remarkable ever to grace a St. Louis eatery. Huge and lightly cloaked in a preternaturally fluffy batter, they floated off the plate and into the mouths of those wise enough to devour them while they were shimmering-hot.” And Jerry Berger wrote of “ the Pedigree Sandwich at the Parkmoor, consisting of a hot dog, cheese and bacon.” DuBois remembered the Hot Fudge Cake. Brad Weir remembers their burgers; the Vatchas remember eating breakfast there on Sunday mornings and picking up the Sunday papers, which in the mid 60’s did not deliver to our Nina Place address. Many, including Dennis Kiernan, remember “a picture on the wall …a big cartoon done by the Globe-Democrat artist Vic Vac, showing huge numbers of people all hurrying from all over town to get to the Parkmoor.
I wanted to be a cartoonist, too, and used to admire that picture very much.” Vic Vaccarezza is now in the SL Media Hall of Fame, but that cartoon drawing has apparently been lost to history. “I started in 1945 at Debaliviere and worked all but south side.
It was the best time of my life.
I last worked at north side and I met such wonderful people, both customers and employees. And I just loved it,” wrote Violet Lloyd Stegall.
The 50’s were a time in St. Louis of many restaurant sit-ins, and Parkmoor was one of the “family-type restaurants” that former congressman, then Alderman William Clay remembered in his work with CORE and the NAACP, leading to the landmark 1961 Public Accomodations ordinance passed by the SL Board of Aldermen, which effectively eliminated the widespread (if often unstated) policies of “whites-only”.
A well-documented history of that era recalls the brave actions of the members of the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE), who scheduled sit-ins in restaurants and department stores in St. Louis to slowly and non-violently bring about change (Victory Without Violence, by Mary Kimbrough and Margaret W. Dagen).
Most St. Louisans remember the Clayton/Big Bend location as the last of the Parkmoors. But, as former owner McGinley says, The DeBaliviere “Parkmoor Number 4 was life of the party for over 30 years before closing in 1969.” As we anticipate the opening of the “Loop Trolley” and the Great Rivers Greenway extension to Forest Park, we have been looking back at the history of DeBaliviere, that memorable short street from the MO History Museum north in Forest Park north to Delmar. Home over the past century to literally hundreds of businesses, DeBaliviere was also an entertainment area in the post WW2 era, usually referred to as the “DeBaliviere Strip”. Find our ongoing series on DeBaliviere on our SDTIMES. ORG website, with articles about the Stardust Club, home of “Evelyn West and her $ 50,000 Treasure Chest”, the Apollo Art Theatre, KO Koverly and his Mural Club, the World’s Fair Jai Alai fronton, later home to the Wintergarden Ice Rink, Garavell’s glorious restaurant, and more.
It is especially interesting to learn from some of our neighbors who have memories to share. Go to http://www.sdtimes.org or send a message to jvatcha@gmail.com.
Original photograph caption
Historic Parkmoor interior.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, September–October 2016.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times2016_09.pdf, printed page(s) 7; PDF page(s) 7.
