Lectures are at 6:00 PM on Wednesdays. With assistance from the Regional Arts Commission, all lectures are FREE.
Walk-ins are welcome, but seating is limited. Registration is requested. Please register for each lecture individually by clicking on the 'Tickets' button on this event.*
*If RSVP capacity is reached, walk-ins may be limited to standing room only.
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April 29, 2026 @ 6:00 PM | Peter Hoffman, Managing Attorney, Neighborhood Advocacy, Legal Services of Eastern Missouri
"Disinvestment and the Built Environment: Legal Strategies to Reverse Vacancy in St. Louis"
Peter Hoffman will examine the legal framework that governs vacant and nuisance property in Missouri and explore why traditional public enforcement tools—while essential—often fall short of achieving timely stabilization and rehabilitation. His lecture will provide an overview of the statutory mechanisms available to address chronic abandonment, including receivership, and explain how place-based nonprofit organizations can use these tools to intervene where public systems lack capacity.
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May 6, 2026 @ 6:00 PM | Amanda Clark, Public Historian, Missouri Historical Society
"Gambling on Preservation: A History of Redeveloping Laclede's Landing"
For more than 60 years, the 10-block historic district just north of the Gateway Arch has been shaped by an ongoing push and pull between preservation and development. In this talk, Amanda Clark, Public Historian with the Missouri Historical Society, traces the cycles of reinvention that have defined Laclede’s Landing. Attendees will come away with a deeper understanding of how the neighborhood’s fortunes have shifted over time as well as how its story mirrors the evolving challenges of historic preservation today.
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May 13, 2026 @ 6:00 PM | Nick Sacco, Historian and Curator, Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site
"St. Louis Before the Civil War: The Photography of Thomas Easterly"
An exploration of pre-Civil War St. Louis through the daguerreotype photographs of Thomas Easterly that are housed at the Missouri Historical Society. No other photographer in St. Louis captured the city's built landscape of the 1840s and 1850s quite like Easterly.
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May 20, 2026 @ 6:00 PM | Amanda Doyle & Cameron Collins, co-authors of the Forest Park book from Reedy Press
"Forest Park: St. Louis's Gathering Place Since 1876"
The creation and preservation of Forest Park is at its heart a very American story, in keeping with the character of a still-developing city on the cusp of the Gilded Age. From its signature institutions and events to the 15 million-plus yearly visitors who use Forest Park for solace, for refuge, for recreation, for family time, for self-expression, for mental health, and for connection, the park offers something for all. The durability and flexibility that came to define the green heart of the city have made it the unquestionable gathering place for residents and visitors alike, from 1876 until today.
Event Venue
1805 S. 9th Street, St. Louis, MO, United States, Missouri 63104
Tickets
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