Snapshot Archive of St. Louis, MO South City Tavern Bar Interiors 1950s-1960s for Sale

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Snapshot Archive of St. Louis, MO South City Tavern Bar Interiors 1950s-1960s For Sale

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Snapshot Archive of St. Louis, MO South City Tavern Bar Interiors 1950s-1960s:
$650.00

[Vernacular Photography] : [Taverns]. [Snapshots of St. Louis Bar Interiors]. [St. Louis, Missouri]: [ca. 1940\'s-1980]. Approximately 400 photographs. Various dimensions, the majority 3 1/2\" square snapshots about evenly split between color and black and white prints. With a few newspaper clippings. Approximately 50 prints trimmed (presumably to fit in a previous mounting). Acquired by us as a loose collection and now housed in mylar sleeves and clear album pages, all tidily stored in an archival binder.

A wonderful archive of St. Louis vernacular photography chiefly capturing the interiors of at least two different City bars and the family who lived above them during the 1950\'s and 1960\'s.

Piecing together dates and names infrequently written to print borders and versos has us confident in naming their source as a Mildred \"Millie\' Collier, nee Pinchback (1916-1982). Originally of Pocahontas, Arkansas, she came to St. Louis sometime after 1940 and seems to have begun working in bars shortly thereafter. Very little of this is identified, though signage repeating in the earlier black and white images appears to identify a place called the \"Silver Star\" and we note contemporary newspaper ads for a tavern of the same name located in the 4000 block of West Florissant Ave. in North City.

The color prints date to the 1960\'s and 1970\'s and we believe they capture a place Millie owned and lived above called Millie\'s Clique Lounge. We can find no explicit reference to the bar’s precise location, though archived issues of the Post Dispatch note 1961 property tax information for a Mildred Collier who owned a building at 2758 Wyoming St. and a series of 1957 classified ads offering for sale a tavern at the same address. The space is a long narrow one, matching the images seen here, and the South City location was at the corner of California Ave. just a few blocks west of Benton Park.

Many of the photographs capture typical family views though in all, more than 200 snapshots produce an endearing and uncommon glimpse into the customers and interiors of St. Louis taverns at mid-20th Century. More images available upon request.