I love spaces for kids. I’m a dad of three, so I’ve sought them out, and explored nearly all of them in the region and even some other areas like Indianapolis and Chicago. Making a space for kids first and families second is a noble endeavor. As a parent we need these spaces to enjoy raising our kids. I’ve been to them all in the STL metropolitan region, I think.
I like them all for different reasons.
This Father’s Day, we got to talking about memories and stuff, now that the kids are nearly grown.
I heard all the stories I remembered (and a lot I didn’t) from their perspectives when I was too busy or disengaged to check out of dad-mode for a few hours.
But it got me thinking about two favorite regional draws: The City Museum in St. Louis and the Magic House in Kirkwood, MO, a suburb/city just west of St. Louis.
These two places embody the ideals/realities of the cities they reside in. I love both City Museum and Magic House, so if you want to judge me on that, please pause. I love one more than the other, and choose to live in one city over the other, but I’m not crapping on the burbs here and for sure not the Magic House.
City Museum is so St. Louis and the Magic House is so Kirkwood. You will feel both places with a visit.
I’ll try to explain.
St. Louis is a tough city. St. Louis is a place you have to be smart, you have to be aware of your surroundings. You have to have some street smarts. You have to like it. You have to want that toughness to be part of you when living here. You have to love St. Louis to live here. There are so many obstacles and deficiencies you would not have to endure in Kirkwood, that the average citizen does in St. Louis.
It’s made me better over the decades I’ve lived here and grew up in a burb and have absolutely no desire to change that anytime soon.
Kirkwood, MO is expensive (almost exclusive), nice, clean, good schools with their own problems, little diversity. Things that appeal to most Americans wanting the suburban lifestyle. It’s a pretty little town with a decent old street grid and some fading, but charming architecture. I like it for what it is. A reasonable, civilized, handsome suburb. It’s nothing like South County, West County or North County. It is old and has its own vibe, even if it feels a bit exclusive, stifling and uppity.
The Magic House is the perfect embodiment of the Kirkwood suburban ideals of family and home. It is safe. It is not overly challenging. Sharp corners of the Magic House are padded. There are plenty of workers ensuring oversight and a safe experience. There is a large parking lot right in front, you don’t have to “find” parking. I wouldn’t feel comfortable cursing in the Magic House. I feel like it’s a controlled environment meant to make all feel safe and comfortable. The activities are based in science and learning.
Your kid will likely be well within the modern comfort zone here. They will not be challenged by American society in all its current glory. It’ll be safe and staid and calm.
This place has had thousands of visitors and is probably cleaner than my kitchen.
The Magic House is charming, and everyone gets a turn. It is organized, structured, safe and a great day out for a family. Especially those families who can’t tolerate “free play”, exploration and potential disorder.
The Magic House has been around since the late 1970s, so I had the privilege of experiencing it as a kid and as a dad. I love this place.
Now to the City Museum. This place is a dream of Bob Cassily and other borderline miscreant artists and middle-finger raisers and saviors of the cool. The soul. The thing I like about St. Louis, a combination of toughness and beauty.
It is also a reminder of how much beauty and art we destroy and send to the landfill in this young country. We built beautiful things and disposed of them when they were no longer fashionable or in line with the current definition of “modern”. The City Museum is a reminder of the things we toss and how short sighted that truly is.
It has evolved over the years, but it is decidedly “us”. As “us” as any place we can hang our hat on in St. Louis. I am proud of this place.
Counter points to the Magic House experience:
You could die here if you don’t play your cards right.
Your kid could too if they are dumb and don’t think wisely
You can buy a beer here, or drink all night here.
You can play pinball here.
You can live here, there is housing in the building.
It is art and engineering at its best.
It is Americana. It is kitsch, charm and a reminder of our disposable capitalistic society.
You can get lost here. You can lose your kids here.
You will for not forget this place. Whether you visit it once or many times, you will have memories etched in your brain.
The City Museum is like no other place in all of America. A place to celebrate our past and the undying energy of artists and engineers who want to dazzle you.
The first time I visited this place. I was just like “fuck, wow”. Sorry if that is crude, but I wouldn’t even think of being in awe and blown away on many levels at the Magic House.
I had bruises a near panic attack, I was dirty and ripped by shirt. I had a blast.
The City Museum is a place I want to be as a kid, dad and post-kid adult. I love this place. Inside, outside, on the roof, in the caves, panic-ridden with anxiety-induced tight spots, losing my friends/family. Being smitten with the surroundings.
It is the entire opposite of what you get at the Magic House in Kirkwood.
You can drink at City Museum in a very cool cabin setting with the occasional tasty DJ.
Magic House tends to celebrate science and practical engineering, City Museum tends to celebrate art and living on the fringes or the edge.
And, a third of a a life lived in a smallish suburb of St. Louis and two thirds a life lived in St. Louis, it is a near perfect analogy of what you get in St. Louis vs. the 90 or so cities in the burbs that surround St. Louis to the west, south and north. Illinois is entirely different so I don’t include them, having grown up there.
To get a taste for what it is like to live in a place as enchanting as this, I sat down with a couple friends who we’ve known for years. They live in the City Museum lofts and our daughters overlapped in friend groups for many years.
We got together over beverages at a Southside watering hole to kibitz about the place.
Michelle and Josh Restivo have been kind enough over the years to invite us to their place on a few occasions. Having dinner with friends and retiring to the rooftop for cocktails is a dream come true. And they were such gracious hosts, letting us indulge in the place and let us have our “wow space” when they see it everyday. Can you imagine living here? They showed us some of the behind the scenes wonders that only residents have access to.
And the stories…man, I knew I wanted to write these down and listen to them again.
Let’s hear from Michelle and Josh to get some insider stories of raising a family here.
Bob Cassilly is the mastermind and driver of this crazy vision. The building used to be a shoe factory. Per city records it was built in 1930; but I don’t think that is entirely accurate, it is much older. Cassilly purchased the building in 1993, and opened the place to its first visitors in 1996. The grand opening was in 1997 when they invited Circus Harmony to the fold. The caves were added in 1999, and the lofts were added in 2007. There were only 12 designed and built by Cassily , 21 in total.
Michelle and Josh bought their home in 2013, one of the Cassilly-designed units.
There are plans for more residential units on the 6th floor. They’d sell like hot cakes. There is a business on the 8th and 9th floors and there is storage on the 7th floor. So, this place is decidedly mixed use, even when you could easily dismiss it as just a freakshow of Americana.
People live here, work here and have fun here. The place is world-renowned. The Restivos have seen celebrities visit, sometimes with a private showing. Nicole Kidman, Gwen Stefani, Michael Serra and Topher Grace have visited during their time living here. People know this place and are fascinated by it. Kidman was in full incognito mode, Stefani was in full makeup and did the whole fan thing and let everyone connect with her that day. Serra was up there when the Restivo’s were camping on the rooftop. Cassily’s son Max invited them down to introduce them, but they missed the communication and didn’t get to meet Serra.
I asked if they’ve seen dangerous stuff.
They saw a grown man climb a balcony he shouldn’t have and would have died had he not worked his way out of it. Natural selection, I suppose. Darwin’s ghost pulled this dude through.
An aquarium came and went in 2018/2019. At one point there were sharks, alligators, a sloth and many other animals in this place. The sounds when the place was empty of visitors must have been amazing.
The place has evolved over the years and the museum is now owned by a private entity called Premier Parks. They seem to be good stewards of the place, but are doing the math on load, safety and risk. Likely a good thing, because the soul is still there, but there is someone in place to make it profitable, sustainable and above board.
They are still giving the original creative crew enough liberty to continue the vibe. Some quit, some pushed back, others have remained. Overall, they think the investments are being made in the right places…infrastructure.
The new ownership does not bring the family feel though, the Restivo’s don’t get free passes for all their friends anymore.
The Restivo’s pointed out there are no maps when you arrive. There is no roadmap for your adventure. That is likely by design as the intent remains heavy on exploration, getting lost and finding the out of the way places. Get ready suburban helicopter parents, this might not be for you. The Magic House may be more your speed if you desire order vs. art/chaos/creativity.
Some places are entirely dark. Some places are insanely tight (depending on your * my * body type), some places are scary as fuck. But, the most terrifying moments I’ve had as a dad are not here, rather the Chuck E. Cheese in SoCo. That place seems like anything could happen with the adults. Lots of family drama that could be settled with America’s favorite problem solver: the gun.
Not my scene.
I’ve never had my spidey-senses tingle or been disgusted by the level of humanity like the suburban birthday joints.
Per the Restivo’s, Cassily did not like hard corners and almost everything is smooth and rounded. Lots of pliable spaces and lean-ins to your path forward.
To share just how amazing it would be to live here, remember, at one point there were sloths and alligators living together in the same space. Go to bed and know that shit could explode at any time. Actually, it is fantastic and hilarious on many levels. A snake once got out and “lost” in the caves.
Noodle on that for a moment.
When the ill-fated aquarium ran out of steam, the sharks ended up in the alley dumpsters. I’m not shitting you. This was covered in the news, so the story is likely not new for many.
This, my friends, is city living. Chaos and freedom. No one will stop you here, but you can get busted if you are dumb to the nth degree.
The aquarium space is currently being reworked to a more sustainable situation.
There are plans for the future. The Circus Harmony folks are thinking about doing performances under the massive dome on the rooftop. There is urban camping on the rooftop as well.
Then there are the stories of living in old places. The City Museum is in a former shoe factory. Children used to work in factories, as we all know. There were chutes that moved shoes from floor to floor. The Restivo’s researched it and know kids died in this place when it was a factory.
They experienced spirits from those days. Children’s footsteps outside their oldest daughter’s bedroom door. They heard “mom”. They are skeptics on ghost stories, as am I. But they experienced this. I trust these folks implicitly. Josh said he’s experienced other irregular noises upstairs in the floor above them. Like someone scooting a chair or desk across a floor. Random, at strange times like 4:00 A.M.
He decided it was time to investigate. One of the guys in the building invited him up to show him floors 6 and 7 and there were lots of school desks stacked up.
The kids never heard or noticed anything. They have a friend who is a believer/ghost hunter and he said they were attracted to the Restivo’s as they were a family. They both heard “mom” loud and clear. Both of them separately heard it and it wasn’t their daughter’s voices.
Their ghost hunter friend said they should tell the voices/spirits to stop and leave their daughters alone. They did so, and it never happened again.
There was something unsettling about these sounds. They were not random noises that buildings and HVAC and electricity makes. The Restivo’s don’t believe in this stuff, but know there was something unexplainable here.
I asked them about noise. Just visitor noise, hundreds come to this place on the daily. They said the place is really well sound-proofed. The windows do well in cutting out the noise; but if you want to enjoy it, you can open the windows and the sounds of joy and kids having fun will enter your living space. It is part of their background noise, and how sweet if that.
There is a dedicated guy who works the ballpit (pre-COVID) and they said they hear “no head shots” over and over. The ballpit is a place to work out much family frustration. I’ve done it. It feels good. It is like Festivus or scream therapy. I love going ape mode on my kids in a setting like that. It’s my time!
I’ve had terriflying moments here. The Restivo’s were so confident with the safety and engineers, they shrugged my fears off. I once thought I was going to get tossed off the ferris wheel and the Restivos’ were like, no, no, no if that was going to fall, it would just fall to the lower roof. Confidence, swagger, STL cool. You’ll be fine ace…keep exploring. Badass street smarts are the way to walk the Earth. Fear and ignorance is what drives the suburban experience. Safe, no challenges.
There was a massive hamster wheel for awhile. Maybe it came from Budweiser, maybe not. But it was a human hamster wheel where you could let it rip in the octagon. And people did. Warning signs eventually popped up: “one person on the hamster wheel at a time.” Eventually, they had to hire someone to sit by it to make sure that multiple people couldn’t imbibe. It got loud, date nights where some jabroni was showing off, the roaring wheel turning would work its way up the residential units. Josh had to investigate and turns out the noise was some 16 year old showing off. They eventually got rid of the human hamster wheel. St. Louis wasn’t ready for the implications of the hamster wheel.
The school bus handing off the corner of the rooftop has a story as well. Bob had built a mount on the rooftop edge in preparation of his vision to have a school bus driving off a rooftop in a major city. The city caught wind of the fact that he was going to put a bus on it, hanging off the edge. The city was going to reject the permit. Bob took the punk rock/secretive approach and got a couple guys in the middle of the night and hoisted the bus up. The inspectors showed up and Bob said, “will you give me a permit to take it down?” The city threw their hands up in the air, clearly one-upped, and the bus is still there.
Determination and fuck you spirit lives on in St. Louis. Kirkwood, just try it. The pearl clutchers would destroy it. It’ll never be a place of potential danger and outsider thinking. Get in line there, my friends.
Bob put a hot tub in the kitchen of one his units. The city didn’t like that either. He actually had to remove that due to a fire inspector who held his ground.
Bob poured a lot of money into the residential units. They are amazing living places.
City Museum can be dangerous depending on who’s around. Conversely, everybody gets a turn at the Magic House. It’s not that way at City Museum. Adults are there for their fun as well. Get the fuck out of the way if you aren’t going to muster up the confidence to do this place. I love that toughness and realism. This is how life is and should be.
It brings out another side of people, and it is a fascinating to people watch here.
Drag shows happen on the rooftop. City Nights is a vibe.
The Restivo’s befriended members of the crew. Some have helped Josh build stuff in their home. They built a steel bunkbed for their girls. They would brainstorm together with the crew to think of cool ideas like a scavenger hunt using QR codes where you have to find your way through the museum and win a game.
The blinking lights on the roof were in Josh’s mind one night. The bulb has since burnt out and costs a lot of money to replace. But when it was illuminated and blinking, Josh contemplated, “wonder if that is Morse code”. He googled it and confirmed his suspicion: it was transmitting: “Danger Will Robinson”. Josh shared this with the crew and they said “you’re the first person to figure that out”.
This is why I keep exploring, to find this nuance and wonder in my own city.
The Restivo’s have made some suggestions and the crew is totally open to them. They share these and some make it into the museum. Family! Idea exchanges are flowing with the residents.
Their kids have painted the place. They keep changing and it is constant work and upkeep. The kids go down and paint the roller spindles and walls. Community and family still exists.
Michelle focuses on the art of the place and the mosaic and the constant upkeep of the original designs. The incessant weight pressure of traffic requires constant upkeep, it shifts by 3/4 of an inch every year.
There are teams of caring people who are devoted to keeping this going. It is no simple task. Welders, iron workers, tile layers, etc. are on the scene letting their personalities (not just their trade) seep into the place. This is a labor of love. I’m not certain Magic House has the same vibe, but it is perfectly the vibe of Kirkwood vs. St. Louis.
The Restivo’s have raised a family here. They are thinking about a future without kid responsibilities and are considering their next options.
I know for sure, they have lived a life in a home and building and city that is like no other. You can tell these stories to people who’ve never been to St. Louis, and they wouldn’t believe you. You all lived a Willy Wonka life in tripped out, amazing place. We can’t all claim this level of unique living situations, but we can all claim we are St. Louisans.
Thanks for sharing your story, Josh and Michelle.
