- [Host] The things that make our city, our city, from soccer fans, to St. Paul Sandwiches, the local museum that brightens up your day, a landmark airport terminal that ushered in a new age of aviation.

♪ Get away with Ozark - [Host] And coming up with a design for a new kind of holiday that celebrates it all.

It's all next on a "Living St. Louis: 314 Day Special."

(bright ragtime music) (bright ragtime music continues) (bright ragtime music continues) - Let me be the first to wish you a happy 314 Day, which falls on March 14th, and in the 314 area code.

What started out years ago from an idea that originated in the local African American community has now grown into an unofficial holiday, celebrating all things St. Louis.

I'm not just talking about the Gateway Arch, Forest Park.

and the Cardinals, though.

I mean the quirky stuff.

What do you have to explain to out-of-towners when they visit?

In short, what is So St. Louis?

Rapper Murphy Lee of the St. Lunatics coined the term when the group was featured in the 2002 remix of the song, "Welcome to Atlanta."

♪ To let us slip, I'm so St. Louis, ask my tattooist ♪ - [Veronica] Since then, it's become a common way to describe the things that make our region special.

"Living.

St. Louis's" Leah Gullet interviewed Murphy Lee at Nelly's Black and White Ball in December.

- Yeah, I came over, you know, I had just got my first tattoo in the Saint, St. Lunatics, I only got a SDL symbol, so it was in my line.

- [Veronica] At the ball, a few members of the St. Lunatics shared what is So St. Louis to them.

- Chinese food, Imo's, Red Hot Riplets, Vess Soda, every day, all day.

- It's just the people, like, I tell everybody, like, they say, "Yo, what's happening in St.

Louis?"

I say, "We have a lot of great things to visit.

"We have a lot of places "that you should definitely get out and see," but to know the heart of St. Louis, it's about the people.

- And of course, there are countless things that are undeniably So St. Louis.

We are exploring some of the brightest parts of our region, along with the quirks, controversies, and contradictions that make our city unique.

We're diving into what makes St. Louis, well, So St. Louis.

(bright gentle music) - Here in the 314, we often sell ourselves short, except for when it comes to our sports teams.

We're the number-one fans in baseball, we bleed blue all year round, and we're the most all-in, energetic, chant-until-the-very-end-of-theh fanatics in the (bright upbeat drums) (crowd chanting) - STL!

- [Crowd] STL, STL!

STIL!

- [Anne-Marie] Even before a match starts at the newly-named Energizer Park, St. Louis City SC fans hit the streets, dancing, marching, chanting, celebrating their love of the game, and this team.

(group singing and chanting) - [Group] STL!

- And if you've been to a game, you know this spirit marches from the streets and straight through the stadium doors.

St. Louis City's motto is one city united by sport, and there is one section in City Park who makes it their job to do just that.

(crowd chanting) (upbeat drums) (crowd cheering) This is the Supporter Section.

What is a Supporter Section?

What is it and what does it mean to the sport?

- A Supporter Section is where you're gonna find, usually the cheapest tickets, but also where you're going to find the most passionate supporters of a team, where they gather together, they bring flags, they bring drums, they're standing up the entire time, jumping up and down.

They never stop cheering.

You dress up- - STL!

STL!

- Sometimes you take off your shirt, you know, it's like a music festival of sorts.

- [Anne-Marie] Carlos Restrepo is the founding president of STL Santos, one of STL City SC's recognized supporter groups, which has an affinity to Latino and Hispanic culture.

- We welcome members from all ethnicities, languages, walks of life.

We wanna bring that Latino passion and that Spanish language, chants, and support into the experience of watching a St. Louis City game.

- Am I overthinking this a little bit, but is it like having another player on the team?

Having the Supporter Section?

- If you have a good Supporter Section, that's the goal.

And I think the pressure is real, I think in St. Louis we have heard from, not from our own team, but from visiting teams that they felt a lot of pressure, that they couldn't communicate with each other, which has led to goals on our end.

The excitement of a Supporter Section can affect the outcome of a game.

But when you have really good energy happening, I think it inspires the players.

- [Anne-Marie] And it ignites the rest of the stadium, as well.

- Exactly, the best Supporter Section is one that can be contagious.

- [Crowd] STL, STL!

STL!

- On game day, supporter groups have a unified voice, they are one team.

(crowd cheering) It looks extremely organized.

It looks like there's been rehearsals, it looks like there's been all this planning into it.

How is that possible?

- Yeah, you have to have a really good crew of people and of fellow supporter groups.

So we are one of, I believe, seven recognized supporter groups in the Supporter Section of St. Louis City.

And we have meetings, we have channels of communications, we have activities that we do together.

The team helps us coordinate some of that.

There's regular updates from the team, there is rules that we abide by.

(crowd chanting) - [Anne-Marie] Who makes up the chants?

- We have a group called Fleur De Noise, and they are a group where supporters from all the other supporter groups come together to practice and rehearse.

And STL Santos, we have La Banda Santos, so we also have an arm that, we buy our own instruments, we have the rehearsals, some chants in Spanish, just that we can keep that Spanish culture and music going.

But ultimately, we practice with Fleur De Noise to make sure that we're all together and coordinated.

- [Anne-Marie] But like most clubs, supporter groups have their own unique memberships, rules, and meetings.

(crowd applauding) - I'm gonna say that now in Spanish, so bear with me.

- We talk about how our season and how everything, all of our goals went last year, what we're planning on doing this year, we do our elections, and we also unveil our newest jersey and scarf.

- How many of you are there?

- So we started with seven of us.

Last I checked, we're a little over 800.

- [Anne-Marie] Restrepo credits their growth, not just to their commitment to fun and soccer, but to the mission mindset of their organization, as well.

- We had actually a total of $8,050 donated to the local community.

(crowd applauding) Immediately when we formed, we formed a 501c3 with our board of directors.

And we wanna make sure that it wasn't just going and watch soccer games, so we raise money for organizations that are oriented towards the immigrant or Latino community.

So every month, we pick a different charity that we wanna support.

- [Anne-Marie] To be a Santos, first you must love soccer.

(crowd chanting) You don't have to be a season ticket holder, you don't have to sit in the Supporter Section, and you don't have to go to every game.

- [Carlos] It's just you.

You share our mission, our values.

Do you have that love for the immigrant community, for St. Louis and for the team and do you want to be a part of this?

I mean, we really don't have many requirements other than some rules to abide by with, you know, non-discrimination and non-violence.

But other than that, it's a party open to everybody.

(crowd singing and chanting) (upbeat drumming) - If someone in St. Louis calls you a Hoosier, chances are, it has nothing to do with the state of Indiana.

In fact, they're probably insulting you.

Growing up in South County, I heard this word a lot, and sometimes, it was even directed at me.

- A Hoosier is, it's a derogatory term.

- [Veronica] Amanda Clark is a public historian at the Missouri History Museum.

- It's a phrase for someone, usually in South St. Louis, kind of a rural, so maybe from the country that lives in the city now or maybe has certain behaviors that remind us of country, what we would associate with the countries.

- [Veronica] Though many people compare the word Hoosier to redneck or hick, Clark says those words don't quite fit.

- Redneck has its own thing and Hoosier is specific to St. Louis, even though anyone else in the world would think Indiana.

- [Veronica] Mentions of the word in a derogatory sense date back to the 1800s in St. Louis.

But historians can't point exactly when or why this word came about, but there are some theories.

- Yeah, they the labor site here in St. Louis.

So workers in St. Louis leave their jobs and the owners of the factories were able to recruit people from Indiana, which isn't that far away from here, recruit them to St. Louis to take those jobs.

- [Veronica] Another involves the Chrysler plant that opened in Fenton in the 60s.

- [Amanda] When the Chrysler plant closes in Indiana, you know, the theory was that they would bring people here to work.

- Hoosier comes with the class distinction.

Typically, it's used to describe poor, white South St. Louisans.

But over the years, some people have taken pride in the word.

A local ska punk band, MU330, even released a song celebrating Hoosiers in 1994 called "Hoosier Love."

♪ Hoosier love, Hoosier love ♪ South Side City Hoosier love ♪ Hoosier love, Hoosier love - St. Louisans has really like to claim something as their own, quite like provel cheese or you know, toasted ravioli, we like to say that's ours, and Hoosier's in that same bucket.

Hoosier's one of those words that can kind of say, "Yeah, I do live here.

"I know it, I speak the language."

- [Veronica] But whether you use the word as an insult or a source of pride, it's definitely So St. Louis.

♪ Hoosier love, Hoosier love ♪ South Side City Hoosier love - Every 314 Day is branded with an original logo designed to celebrate the spirit of our community.

When we met the graphic artist behind this year's logo, we learned the use of her talents to highlight the city is also a family affair.

St. Louis graphic artist, Chelsey Farris, loves the city as much as she does her work, and that work is eye-catching.

Farris's bold geometrics and fluid curves often blend with art deco and mid-century influences.

Farris has been an artist her entire life, but also wanted a financially stable career.

She was still uncertain about the future after graduating from the University of Missouri with a degree in fashion and working at odd jobs.

- And then my mom, she recommended, she was like, "Well you could maybe take some classes "at the community college, St. Louis Community College, "and see, you know, "maybe you wanted to go into interior design, "you know, maybe there's something else out there for you."

So I enrolled in a program at St. Louis Community College and took like two graphic design classes and was like, "This is the best thing ever," and fell in love with it there, because it really combines creativity with business and psychology and decision-making and just kind of all the things that really fascinate me.

- [Ruth] Farris's husband, James Butler, is a graphic designer too, and sometimes they collaborate on projects.

For instance, these posters for the bakery's Union Loafers and Bagel Union.

- And I did all the illustrations and he did a lot of the type setting and the composition layout design.

Not all of this is ours, but the St. Louis Pennant is one that James designed.

We actually did where we sold pennants and things and designed some like, mugs and T-shirts and things, so that's what Garner & Supply is.

The Gateway Arch posters, that's his, that one's mine, obviously I kinda matched that one.

That was for when the Arch became the 60th national park.

There was a group that had 60 designers come up with 60 different typographic posters celebrating the Arch.

- [Ruth] Farris's most prestigious project to date happened in 2024, when she created the theme art for the US Open Tennis Championship.

- [Chelsey] Come with me as I serve up a firsthand look at the US Open Tennis Championship.

Hey, I'm Chelsey Farris.

- [Ruth] When Ferris attended the championship in New York City, her alma mater, Mizzou, took to social media to show the many ways Farris's design was used in and around Arthur Ashe Stadium.

- [Chelsey] Seeing the art blend into the atmosphere of the tournament and the city was so rewarding since my goal was to create a design that aced the spirit of tennis and the vibrancy of New York City.

- [Ruth] And in 2025, the creativity of Chelsey Farris shines in the official 314 Day logo.

- [Chelsey] I called the concept, "Hey Neighbor."

People are just thriving in St. Louis in their neighborhood.

And when you look at it, you can tell that it's in St. Louis, but you can't tell where in St. Louis, because there's little pieces sort of poking out.

So you can't quite tell which neighborhood it is, which I didn't want anyone to know exactly where anything was happening.

- So it sounds like you and your husband are committed to staying in St. Louis.

- Yes, we specifically bought a house in the St. Louis area because we love the city and we want to see the city flourish and want to, you know, be able to vote and our taxes to go towards making St. Louis better.

- [Veronica] Though it might not get as much attention as toasted ravioli or gooey butter cake, many people consider the St. Paul sandwich to be a St. Louis hidden gem.

- I even know people who are not from that far outside of the metro area who have no idea what I'm talking about when I've mentioned this to then.

So it really is something that is very St. Louis at this point.

- [Veronica] Magdalene Linck is an Associate Curator at the Missouri History Museum.

She says a typical St. Paul sandwich usually includes white bread, some kind of protein, fried egg foo young, lettuce, tomato, pickles, and mayo.

- Usually restaurants will offer shrimp, chicken, pork, or beef.

There's usually like a deluxe or a special St. Paul on a menu.

- [Veronica] Linck says though it's delicious, a St. Paul sandwich is not necessarily something that will be served at a fine dining establishment.

They're usually found at chop suey or Chinese takeout spots.

- Cooking oil and stuff kind of seeps into the bread and makes us like, delicious, soft like, I don't wanna say gooey, but like, it's fried but it's not crispy and crunchy feeling to it.

Now that I say it out loud, it doesn't sound necessarily appealing, like, it doesn't sound that great, but like, it's really good, I promise.

- Since she made it sound so good, I decided to try it for the first time.

It's interesting, but it works.

I mean, the egg and the beef go well together.

I like the kind of sour crunchiness of the pickles.

It's good.

St. Paul sandwiches are particularly popular in North St. Louis, but they can be found all over the region.

A form of the St. Paul sandwich used to be more widespread across the Midwest.

- It was actually a really common sandwich on American menus in general across the US from the late 19th century through like, the early to mid 20th century.

And they were not on Chinese restaurant menus at that point.

- [Veronica] The early sandwich was different than what we would consider a St. Paul today.

Previous versions of the sandwich would include some kind of meat scrambled with eggs.

When St. Louis Chinese restaurants adopted the sandwich, they made a slight change.

- They had on their menu, egg foo young egg.

Egg foo young, really similar.

What I kind of think happened was that at some point in, you know, the mid 20th century as that sandwich sort of fell out of fashion elsewhere, it gained popularity, because Chinese business owners realized that they were already making something that was essentially that same sandwich.

- [Veronica] We don't know exactly when or why the sandwich was invented, but it was most likely created in or by someone from St. Paul, Minnesota.

- And it wasn't until you got to the 1960s, 1970s when it stopped being common on regular menus or just American standard menus and started being more common on Chinese restaurant menus in the St. Louis area.

- [Veronica] And Linck says the sandwich wouldn't be around today without the inventiveness of the local Chinese community.

- That just, I think, really speaks to the ingenuity of like, Chinese restaurant owners in St. Louis.

You know, our food landscape was really heavily shaped by various immigrant groups, and the Chinese community is certainly one of them.

(light gentle music) - St. Louis is a city rich with museums.

Some might even say we have more than our fair share, but you can never have too much of a good thing, especially when it shines a light on our city, which is exactly what the Neon Museum of St. Louis does, quite literally, illuminating along iconic Route 66, where nostalgia gets a little extra voltage.

(bright upbeat music) (patrons chattering) If you've ever driven down Chouteau near the intersection of Grand and thought, "If only this road had a little bit more pizazz," just come back on one of the four nights each month that the Neon Museum of St. Louis is open and you'll witness the glowing love letter to vintage and contemporary neon.

Over the past couple of years, artists Debrorah Katon has evolved what started as a temporary pop-up exhibit into a permanent home of electrified historic art.

- I like to call it the intersection of art and of history and of science.

- [Brooke] You might be wondering how one becomes an Executive Director of a Neon Museum.

And for Deborah, it was the perfect timing of skill and space.

As an established artist, Deborah was known for her work with glass blowing.

With such a niche medium, it was through connecting with other similar artists that she began to utilize neon and other gases in some of her contemporary pieces.

Utilizing her late husband's shop space, which once operated as a cafe/antique motorbike shop, she had ample room to house her larger pieces and soon began to invite other artists to showcase their work, as well.

- There's not a lot of neon vendors around anymore, you know, it's dwindling.

So we use the history of neon and the exciting science part to introduce people to contemporary neon work, which has been going on since the material was being used, starting in the 1910s.

(bright upbeat music) - [Brooke] Neon traces its origins to the late 19th century, when British chemists discovered invisible gases that when trapped and electrified in glass tubing, created a vibrant glow that would soon captivate the world.

By the 1920s, a Parisian engineer had transformed into a commercial marvel.

It soon became a symbol of urban allure, adorning everything from bustling Times Square to nostalgic motels along Route 66.

- We call everything neon, even though we do use other noble gases in the process.

If you look at a clear tube and it's red inside, that's neon.

If you look at a clear tube with blue inside, that's argon.

- [Brooke] The shades in between are created utilizing other noble gases and/or a phosphorescent coating inside of the glass tubing.

- And so that's the mad science stuff, where you hook it up to what we call a manifold, which is like a plumbing line with different lines coming out and on and off, only it's all glass.

And in different canisters, we have different gases, and you can adjust the pressure.

And then we make a vacuum inside of the tube to get all of the outside air out so we could fill it, and that involves bombarding it with high voltage.

- [Brooke] That's a lot that goes into that.

- And then, we hook it up to a high electricity.

So that's just the beginning.

(gentle music) - [Brooke] With such a precise and lengthy process, it's no wonder signs are now largely being replaced with more convenient lighting methods, like our famous Anheuser-Busch Flying Eagle sign being rewired with LED lights.

But places like the Delmar Loop who received international recognition for their neon signage remind us of an era when giant glowing signs once guided the way.

- Route 66 is, it's been coined the Neon Highway.

So we're the only Neon Museum directly on the Neon Highway, I believe.

I should check my sources.

- [Brooke] I checked, and aside from the Neon Park at the Illinois State fairgrounds, I think she is correct in the museum's claim to Route 66 fame.

But even if there are other neon destinations out there, according to Deborah, it can only create positive effects.

- Nobody leaves here like, mad, angry.

You know, you don't go, "Oh, hate that neon," you know?

You know, that's why bars are filled with it, it gives you dopamine.

I encourage people to buy art and to live with neon, because it makes you happy.

- [Veronica] One of the things that surprises visitors to St. Louis is our many free museums and attractions, like the zoo, Science Center, and Art Museum.

Why does St. Louis have so many free museums and attractions?

- The people that founded the museums back late 19th century, early 20th century, these are post-gilded age philanthropists, lots of money, a lot of men that were not born with money that rose to having a lot of money.

And so when they endow and create these organizations, they want them to be free for everyone.

- [Veronica] Philanthropists and leaders like William Bixby and David Francis were early proponents of free attractions in St. Louis.

But the Great Divorce of 1876, which split St. Louis city and county, would later cause issues when many city residents began moving to the county in the 20th century.

The new county residents no longer had to pay property taxes to support the attractions, but they still got in for free.

- So this is identified in the mid 20th century, as that population change is happening, someone says, "Wait a minute, we gotta figure this out."

- [Veronica] A man named Howard Bayer, who was Head of the Zoo Board in the late 60s, spearheaded the effort to save St. Louis's free attractions and got other local leaders involved.

- [Amanda] Philanthropists, attorneys, community leaders, come together, try to figure that out, and that's when they come up with the Zoo Museum District.

- [Veronica] In 1971, St. Louis City and county voters approved the Metropolitan Zoological Park and Museum District.

In the 1980s, the ZMD expanded to include the Missouri History Museum and the Botanical Garden, which is free certain days and times.

And taking pride in these free attractions is So St. Louis.

- We have a free zoo, but we have a free awesome zoo.

Like, it's not just a a free zoo.

And it's also a symbol of how we can crossover the city-county divide and we can work together for the good of all of us, and we are all St. Louis.

(typewriter clicking) (bright music) - This week in March of 1956, the brand new terminal building here at Lambert Airport was finally finished and ready to open for business, a strikingly modern structure that was a real symbol of progress for the city.

It now had a new airport inside and out that was ready to handle a new age of aviation, the jet age.

♪ Jet away with Ozark ♪ Fly with us ♪ We'll spoil you all the way (light gentle music) - [Jim] This ad would come later.

♪ Go-getters go Ozark - [Jim] But Ozark, St. Louis's hometown airline, later absorbed by TWA, was the first to use the new terminal just a few minutes after midnight on the first day of operation, and Ozark DC-3 arrived from Chicago, carrying just one passenger.

But air travel was booming in the years following World War II, and handling the volume of flights in the increasing use of jets.

While it was considered one of the biggest challenges facing major cities, and St. Louis took it on, started planning a new terminal in the early 1950s, selecting a design with more gates, bigger waiting areas, ticket counters, baggage handling, separating incoming and outgoing passenger flow, more shops and restaurants, and of course, plenty of parking.

In the coming years, the terminal would have to be expanded and then a second terminal was built.

But then TWA was taken over by American, which then stopped using Lambert as a hub.

Southwest now has more than half the flights, and there are plans to consolidate back into a single terminal.

The issues, they're the same as they were 70 years ago.

Keeping up with the needs of airlines, passengers, and the regional economy.

- I mean, this terminal was designed and built in 1956.

When it was built, it was known across the world as one of the most iconic fronts of any airport.

You know, as we grew over the years and as the industry changed, it's not the greatest setup.

We can't move forward if we can't let go of the past.

- [Jim] With all the changes coming, one thing will remain, the Landmark Terminal Building will still be there right in the center, just as it was when it opened in 1956, this week in St. Louis history.

(bright upbeat music) - And that's "Living St.

Louis."

You can find all these stories and more on our Nine PBS YouTube channel and at NinePBSs.org/LSL.

I'm Veronica Mohesky.

Thanks for joining us.

(bright upbeat music) (bright upbeat music continues) (bright upbeat music continues) "Living St. Louis" is funded in part by the Betsy & Thomas Patterson Foundation and the members of Nine PBS.