TORNADO
August 29, 2010 9:09 pm | Author: Jerry Berger
They’re going fast now – those old-timers who remember the tornado of September, 1927. Soon it’ll be the 83rd anniversary, and only a dwindling few will be able to look back over the years to the lunch hour that was shattered by a catastrophe, changing our town forevermore into the City that Was. Some people were brought to a state of complete destitution. Nevertheless, those forebears were cocky and there was a sign posted over the ruins reading, “Eat, drink and be merry. Tomorrow you may have to go to Alton.” As the pall hung over the ruined buildings, people were determined to build a finer city and perhaps they did. For the columnist, there remains an irresistible and neurotic fascination about that era of a city and the people who lived through the tornado. Everybody seemed to know each other. A rag dealer, Irv Susman, never lived to see his son, Louis Susman, become Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Under the roof of the old Meadowbrook C.C., a pioneer Ponzi schemer milked investors for a proposed chain of loan shark operations. The vulnerable club members never saw a return on their money. The shylock’s daughter lives, masquerading as a matriarchal do-gooder. (More about this in a later column.) Black-bottom and Charleston dancers prevailed at Trimps and Arcadia. The finest breads were turned out by Freund. The best coffee in town was served at Thompson’s cafeterias and Spanish buns were house speciaties at Dorr & Zeller catering company. Few missed laps around the swimming pools at Lorelai or Down’s. The best Chinese cuisine was served at the Canton Tea Garden. Discriminating shoppers bought groceries at Conrad’s, Miller’s or at Moll’s. Those stores were precursors to today’s Provisions in west St. Louis county – on the brink of closing due to inability to come to grips on a new lease. With zest, Joe Garavelli served diners at his cafeteria and Cafferata’s was the leading eatery for the midtown lunch crowd. In a few years, the last person who knew details about the tornado will be gone, leaving the rest of us haunted to our dying day with questions no one can answer.
2 Responses to “TORNADO”
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I’m one of those old-timers that remembers the tornado of September, 1927. I was 6 years old and in first grade at Bryan Mullanphy Elementary School, 4221 Shaw. My classroom was on the second floor and when the tornado struck, most of my classmates hid under their desks. My desk was next to the window and I looked out to see brick smoke chimneys, large pieces of wood, and a great deal of general debris flying sideways through the sky. After the tornado was over and we were dismissed, I walked home from school and saw the tremendous damage of countless numbers of flattened buildings on Olive and Page. I don’t think there had been any damage to the school building, as the tornado force was a few blocks away to the west, going north. My uncle’s furniture store, Shapire Furniture Company, on Olive, was totally demolished. At the time of the storm, my grandmother was in the operating room at Missouri Baptist Hospital, near the heart of the storm. Power and electric lights went out during her surgery, but somehow her surgery was completed. My mother was in the waiting room at the hospital. I remember seeing a tremendous amount of debris from the storm around Page and Olive with hardly any structures remaining in that part of the city. I’ve seen a lot of storm and tornado damage in St. Louis since that time, but nothing to compare to 1927! Thank you for stirring old memories. Happy trails…
A lot erroneous has been published about the tornado but we know from a paper written by a meterologist who saw it form in Forest Park just west of Kingshighway in the vicinity of Laclede that it was a thick black funnel cloud (most histories state there was no funnel cloud, just haze), it roared tremendously and it occurred with no warning. We also now know two tornadoes took place that day, the first hitting the industrial section of Manchester Avenue west and south of Forest Park. That tornado lifted before the tornado in Forest Park came to ground. By today’s measurements the tornado likely was an F-3 with F-4 portions to the path and perhaps F-5 at the point it demolished a refrigeration plant. What is impressive is the tornado’s long path, southwest to northeast right across the Mississippi. And the fact that though it was churning devastation for a significant period of time no one got any warning. There was limited communication in those days. By the way, as the tornado approached Sportsman’s Park the crowd did know something was wrong and ball players fell to their knees praying.
Most of the city didn’t even know anything had happened until fathers didn’t arrive for dinner. The entire streetcar network was disabled and people walked home from Downtown and that took hours.