Historic Woolworth's to be New $13 Million Headquarters for Big Brothers and Big Sisters

It's hard to imagine the Fabulous Fox Theater in St. Louis as a "Grindhouse." Back in the seventies the once elegant theater was in disrepair and showing second-rate films to an average house that was only about one-third full. I remember my mom and I taking a bus there when I was just a little child. One time I got lost in the huge theater on my way to the bathroom. The bathrooms were enormous in and of themselves with a decorating theme of black and salmon colored walls. There was a "lounge" to go through first before you even got to the several layers of bathrooms. I wandered around for about an hour before I finally found someone to reunite me with my mom. For years afterwards, I would have nightmares about being stuck in that room with the salmon colored walls. That was until I attended the Grand Reopening in 1981 and there I was right back in my dream, but this time for real. I've never had the dream again since I realized where it was coming from. Sometimes, after the movie, we would go across the street and have dinner at the Best Steak House #2 (never did find out where the Best Steak House #1 was) or if we didn't have the money, we would get some freshly roasted cashews at the Woolworth's on Grand and Olive, right around the corner from the Fox.

The Fox Theater is one of the most famous theaters in St. Louis. "The Fabulous Fox" or "The Fox", as locals call it, is located in the arts district of the Grand Center area in Midtown St. Louis, one block north of Saint Louis University. It was designed in the 1920s by an architect specializing in theaters, C.Howard Crane, in a style known as Siamese Byzantine. Originally opened in 1929 by William Fox as a movie palace for silent films, the Fox Theater closed in March of 1978 and was purchased by Fox Associates in 1981. The theater was restored at a price of at least $3 million dollars and in comparison; the Fox cost $6 million dollars to build in 1929. (www.wikipedia.com)

The Woolworth's was the scene of the famous "lunch counter" civil rights demonstration in 1960 when blacks were not allowed to sit at the lunch counter at any Woolworth's. This prompted a nation-wide "sit-in" where most, if not all of the lunch counter seats were occupied by blacks across the country, including the ones here in St. Louis. Years later I would return to the Fox to watch "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" with Sidney Poitier, the ground breaking civil rights actor.

Now, according to a report in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, (www.stltoday.com) the historic old five-and-dine, which has been shuttered for years, is about to reopen as the new 13 million dollar headquarters of big Brothers and Big Sisters of America. The original lunch counter where history was made has been removed, but a lot of elements of the store, including parts of the old floor will be preserved. A special section of the building will pay homage to that moment in civil rights history.