Soldiers Memorial Military Museum

Soldiers Memorial Military Museum
1315 Chestnut
St. Louis, MO 63103
Directions: One block north of Market Street between 13th and 14th Streets
Admission: Free
http://www.stlsoldiersmemorial.org/


A familiar site for many downtown St. Louis visitors, The Soldiers Memorial stands as a reminder of St. Louis' sacrifice in war. The Memorial was built to honor the "gallant sons and daughters of Missouri and of our City, who made The Supreme Sacrifice in the late World War (1)". President Franklin Delano Roosevelt traveled to St. Louis to dedicate the site on October 14, 1936. Appropriately, the memorial and museum officially opened to the public less than two years later on Memorial Day, May 30 1938. The museum has two galleries on either side of an open air loggia. Inside the loggia is a black granite cenotaph inscribed with the names of 1,075 St. Louis citizens who died serving in World War 1. The ceiling of the loggia is a tile mosaic of a gold star on a red field symbolizing the service flag for family members who have lost family members in conflict.

Inside the two galleries are various military items including uniforms, photographs, weaponry, posters and even a jeep from World War II. I personally enjoyed a display case containing World War II weapons, mostly rifles, from Japan, Germany, America and England. The museum is not merely a World War exhibit space. Artifacts from Korea, Vietnam and both Desert conflicts are also on display as well.


All-in-all, the museum does a great job of showcasing how American men and women, particularly St. Louis natives, have served their country for the last 90 plus years. I believe another website I found on the Memorial stated it best: "The Soldiers Memorial Military Museum is there to remind us of the sacrifices made by the men and women who wear the uniforms and put themselves on-the-line for their countrymen ."