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Community Corner

Have a Slice of History in Kimmswick

This little river town is known as the place for eccentric shopping and giant slices of pie.

Kimmswick is a mere shadow of its former self, but what an interesting shadow.

The town was founded 150 years ago and dozens of its oldest buildings have been restored into an eccentric shopping district. It’s also the home of the Blue Owl, a bakery and restaurant nationally famous for its towering pie.

Kimmswick is about seven miles south of Arnold, off Hwy 61-67, in Jefferson County.

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It’s that same highway that almost killed this river town years ago. Kimmswick once thrived on traffic from steamboats that traveled up and down the Mississippi and from the Iron Mountain Railway, which both brought visitors from St. Louis. From 1880 to 1918 visitors poured into town to visit the “healing” mineral springs (now abandoned) and the Montesano Springs amusement park. According to local historians, the spread of the automobile slowly strangled the town as businesses moved closer to highways, commerce abandoned the river and the Iron Mountain Railway stopped carrying passengers.

Today, the tiny town has 157 residents, but in its glory days it was much larger. It lost many of its historic buildings to decay and it wasn’t until 1969 when Lucianna Gladney-Ross, heir to the 7-Up fortune, decided to do something to save Kimmswick. She started a restoration project that continues today to preserve the historic buildings in town.

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If you visit Kimmswick be prepared to walk, shop and eat. Most of the shopping in town is located in a seven-block zone, so find a good parking spot and leave your car behind. If you come on a weekday this won’t be much trouble, but weekends can draw more shoppers, so you might have to park farther out.

Shopping in Kimmswick is definitely a recreational sport best enjoyed by girlfriends, ladies who lunch and the famed Red Hat Society. There are plenty of sweet shops in town to entertain youngsters, but serious mommy shoppers might want to leave their kids behind. Stores in Kimmswick serve up crafts, antiques, candles, jewelry, knick knacks, vintage goods, garden bobbles, jelly, jam, Christmas ornaments, potpourri and collectibles of every sort. Most children will probably bore quickly of a day in Kimmswick--and do you really want to bribe a child with homemade fudge then take them into an antique shop?

Any trip to Kimmswick should allow for a stop at the Blue Owl, either for lunch or just a slice of their famous pie. The 13-pound “Levee-High Caramel Apple Pecan Pie” has been featured by both the Food Network and the Travel Channel and contains a literal bucket of carefully stacked apple slices. If that seems a bit too enormous, the standard apple pie is just as tasty and a slice is still enough for two. The Blue Owl also serves up a mean coconut cream pie, pecan pie and French silk pie. The dessert menu has no less than 42 flavors of pie, plus cakes and cookies. Unfortunately, not all items are available every day, but they’ll always have something to tempt you.

The Blue Owl may be the most famous restaurant in town, but it’s not the only place to eat. If the line at the Owl is too long, or you really just want some pizza, try the Dough Depot Café on Market Street. They have sandwiches, St. Louis style pizzas, sweet or salty hot pretzels and ice cream. Try the Kimmswick Kooler on a hot day—frozen lemonade blended with vanilla ice cream.

Kimmswick is a great day trip destination for St. Louis County shoppers, but remember that this little burg is closed on Mondays and shutters the shops at 4pm on weekdays and 5pm on weekends.

If you’re interested in visiting Kimmswick by riverboat, Gateway Arch Riverboat Cruises books passage on the Tom Sawyer for a special trip between the Arch and Kimmswick in the fall. You can either take a two-hour cruise from St. Louis to Kimmswick, then take a motor coach back; or take a motor coach down in the morning and have a leisurely four-hour boat ride to the Arch. Either way, its $62 a person for the trip and you’ll be in town in time for lunch and shopping.

 

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