(gentle string music) - It's the process of moving history, but when it comes to finding and saving the region's log buildings- And there's more out there, right?

- Oh, yes.

- [Jim] The work is far from over.

The parks are small, but the ideas are big.

- It's available to everyone no matter who you are.

And everyone deserves beautiful public space.

- [Jim] A look at the where and why of Pocketparks.

(gentle string music continues) This teacher was big news back in the 90s and helped bring hidden stories into the open, and started History Month.

- And it used to be that in the LGBT community, that we would store our memories in our apartments.

- [Jim] And they come and go, but no one quite knows why the egrets like this St. Louis neighborhood, or even if they'll be back next year.

- We never know for sure what the birds are gonna do.

- It's all next on, "Living St.

Louis."

(gentle string music continues) (rhythmic music) I'm Jim Kirchherr, and we've probably all seen homes being built and maybe seen them being torn down, but we've been watching a couple of very old buildings being taken apart, I mean piece-by-piece, so they can be very carefully put back together piece-by-piece.

It's not a quick or an easy process, but when it comes to preserving our local history, well there are some very skilled and dedicated people.

(easy-going music) This is the Hackmann House.

It was in Conway Park on Creve Coeur, was in Conway Park.

On this day back in August, it was about to experience what its next door neighbor, the Clester Cabin, was going through.

They're both from the 1800s, and they were moved here years ago from other locations.

But, the Creve Coeur Parks Department decided to donate them to Faust Park's historic village.

And so, the Faust Park team showed up to do what they do.

Micah Kornblume was making sure that the pieces had been properly marked and recorded for reassembly 'cause this is something that requires careful documentation as well as heavy equipment.

That's Jesse Francis driving the forklift.

- And taking buildings apart and moving 'em is something I've been doing for the last 40 years.

- [Jim] This is not their first log house, and in fact, it wasn't ours either.

We first met this team last spring when they were working on another historic building that for years had been hidden inside a St. Louis County garage.

This was no ordinary cabin, this one-room log building had served as a school for Black children in the days of segregation.

- It will be the first building we have that is solely an African American building.

So, it's something that we've always wanted to preserve.

- [Jim] After taking it apart, they stored the pieces.

Every single piece before it was removed was tagged with a metal square, stamped with a letter and a number, and nailed on, indicating exactly where and how it would go back in.

And for the pieces that were rotten, or unstable, or missing, woodworkers were crafting replacements.

- Paint it white over top of it.

- And where needed, new logs were being hewn and notched in the very same way that the original builders did.

(wood cracking) (bugs chirping) By August, things were looking pretty good.

I mean, it's looking like a log house now.

(laughing) - Yes.

Yeah, it's looking different from the last time you were here.

Almost completely up is the back wall and the front wall.

There's one more log for each wall.

The side walls still need to be raised some, and then we...

This is the window.

- [Jim] We had expected to find the reconstruction continuing, but work on the schoolhouse project had been put on hold because the crews were busy out at Conway Park.

- You should come out and see the two cabins that we're taking down, they are very interesting as well.

- Yeah.

So yeah, we wanted to see that.

(machine motor revving) The Clester Cabin, built around 1800, was all tagged and in the process of being taken apart, and the pieces moved to Faust Park.

But the Hackmann House, it was still intact.

It had started out half this size and then was added onto, and Micah took us in for a tour.

I can see, I mean, it's still got wallpaper in there and- - Well, that's...

It's decorated differently because this portion of the house is not the oldest.

This is the part that was added on.

- Yeah.

- And it was added on later during the Victorian period.

And so, you have plastered walls, you have wallpaper.

Front door.

This is the original.

- Was the original home?

- This is the original cabin.

But, the house is lovely.

And just think, you're able to double, and triple, and quadruple the size of your home.

- [Jim] And that was the plan.

- That was the plan, yes.

- It's a starter home.

(laughing) - This was a starter home.

The next generation who lived here had 10 children, you needed to add on.

- [Jim] Yeah.

- And so, they were able to do that and they did.

(machine motor revving) - We've come back a few weeks later, and I'm glad we did because we expected to find out how things were going, did not expect to find that most of it was already gone.

But, there was still plenty of work.

The floor joists were no small matter.

The ones on the newer part of the house had massive saw-cut joists, 26-feet long.

And on the original one-room house, joists hand-hewn from logs.

You can still see the axe marks.

And Jesse Francis sees a lot more than that, every house has a story.

It's not just about the building, it's about the people.

- People that are trying to build a house to move into.

- Yeah.

- This is a weird house because this corner of this half of the house is a V-notch log and the other half of it is half dovetail.

So it's like somebody got mad and quit, and another carpenter came in maybe, I don't know.

Or the family goes, "I can do this."

And so they started with V-notch, and went, "Well, it's taken too long and mom wants her house done."

- [Jim] This is part of our region's history with people dedicated to preserving it.

And there's more out there, right?

- [Jesse] Oh, yes.

- Even even in this area, Creve Coeur.

- Oh, yes.

Two years ago I went to Ladue, went inside, this guy said, "I got this log house, but it's inside my building."

And it was in the middle of this beautiful estate, you know, it's like, "Why didn't they tear this down and build?"

Well, they just kept adding on.

And then, some architect came in and remodeled the whole outside, and you couldn't tell it was in there.

And I think there's some right now on Mason Road, just down the road here.

- So do you tell people, "Call me if you think you're gonna tear this down"?

- I generally let people know if there's something that peaks my interest.

- [Jim] Yeah.

- I'm still looking for a full-size completed French vertical log house somewhere either in South St. Louis or North County.

There's a couple up there, but I know there's gotta be more.

(easy-going music returns) - The smaller cabin that was here will be rebuilt at Faust Park next year.

The Hackmann House, in 2024.

And with those pieces now stowed away, (machine beeping) they're back to work on the schoolhouse, for completion by the end of this year.

(easy-going music ends) Back in the 19th century, there was a movement to build parks in crowded cities like St. Louis.

Those reformers were thinking big.

Anne-Marie Berger's story is about a modern parks movement, and they're actually thinking pretty small.

(bright music) - [Anne-Marie] St. Louis is filled with big, beautiful parks.

There's Lafayette Park, Tower Grove, and don't forget the crown jewel, Forest Park.

But when it comes to open urban recreational spaces, size doesn't matter.

- I really believe that the city gets its personality from public space.

- [Anne-Marie] Samantha Lee Smugala is a designer and strategist.

She saw a potential in abandoned, unused pockets around St. Louis.

- I found myself taking pictures of dilapidated buildings, and vacant lots, and sketching things over them that would make them community friendly or more beautiful.

I think the world needs more beautiful spaces.

And so once I realized I was doing this, I said, you know, "Maybe I should actually do something with these."

- [Anne-Marie] And she did.

In 2021, she founded Pocketparks.

They're intentionally developed on a small scale, using less resources.

They're low-maintenance, but designed to have a high impact.

- [Samantha] Pocketparks works to revitalize neighborhoods to create a safe and engaging outdoor space.

(wind blowing gently) - [Anne-Marie] Vacant properties and buildings are known to be associated with violent crimes.

By reducing vacancies in communities, Pocketparks aims to reduce those statistics.

- A vacant lot is really a detriment on the health of the community, the health of people, physically, mentally.

So we're creating a healthier, more walkable community, and really beautifying a space.

It's visually delightful, and people can have community pride, and it's available to everyone no matter who you are.

And everyone deserves beautiful public space.

(dramatic music) - Pocketparks are active year-round.

In fact, they see the most action during winter, spring, and fall.

And Smugala says that organizing these parks, actually running them, is manageable, and that's thanks to dedicated communities and committed volunteers.

And while these parks, they are small, you can't miss 'em.

(bright music continues) Currently, there are five pocket parks in the St. Louis area, and they are developed using three critical elements: art for a space with culture and personality, activation for a space that attracts visitors, and opportunity for a space where the community can hold events.

- This is her vision.

- [Anne-Marie] Walter Bonner is the West End Neighbors Association President, and this space will be the sixth park installation, the second in his neighborhood.

- Yeah, we have events there throughout the year.

There was a wine and paint event there recently that I attended, and it brought out 50 to 100 residents in the community who come together and discuss more than just parks, we talk about the entire community.

So, food trucks, just kids, artwork.

So, it's really great for our community.

It's a cohesive place where we can all come together, and enjoy, and see where our community is going.

- As a nonprofit, we rely on grants and donors who want to measure our impact.

So, we know that within a 10-minute walking radius of each of our parks, how many people live there, what their demographics are, how many children, and who were really providing value to.

(bright music continues) - For me, it took a blank empty field that was overgrown with weeds and everybody complaining about it, and they gave it an entirely new vision and brought in beauty to our community in one area that was once blighted.

And we still have many areas like that, so more pocket parks are great for our community.

(bright music continues) - October is LGBTQ History Month, and it's noted in many countries around the world, but it's a local story that all started here.

Brooke Butler tells us how a local teacher decided to speak the truth, and the rest is well, History Month.

- I bought this poster at the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC, in March of '94, and brought it back to my classroom.

We were talking about the Holocaust at that time.

I showed it to my students, I pointed out to them each of the symbols, what they meant.

For example, a French Jew, a German Jew, a Jehovah's Witness.

This is the pink triangle that gay people had to wear.

And then I said, "As a gay person, I would've been forced to wear a pink triangle had I lived then because I am gay."

Well, it was very hard for anyone in 1994.

I'm sure there had been other teachers who were exposed as gay or lesbian in Missouri and didn't survive that.

In this case, I felt it was really necessary that I make it.

- [Brooke] Rodney Wilson not only made it as a teacher, but his efforts to raise awareness and inclusion of LGBTQ plus history has since spread across the world.

History Month, that's celebrated through the month of October, that was Rodney, a social studies teacher at Mehlville High School.

In fact, he was the first openly gay teacher in the state of Missouri, a significant feat considering how it could have easily ended his career.

- If there had been a backlash that had removed me from the classroom, I felt that would be very harmful to all LGBT kids, to all LGBT teachers, to the idea of civil rights and equality in general.

- [Brooke] But as word spread of Rodney's coming out, there were many people who strongly opposed the lack of disciplinary actions by the district, as seen in local and national news coverage.

(momentous music) - [Announcer] Coming up, could this history teacher be history because he came out of the closet in class?

- This is totally inappropriate!

- That's right, and that was was bad taste and the bad judgment on the part of the teacher.

He should have been reprimanded or maybe fired, I don't know.

- The gay teacher speaks out tonight after he's verbally vilified at a school board meeting.

- Isn't that right?

And my kids don't like it.

- We do not need this in our school.

- No wonder our children are ignorant if that's what's being discussed in the classroom.

- Public education has impressed one foolishness after another in recent decades, but parents should scream bloody murder at the first sign of a school in their district- - [Brooke] "Parents should scream bloody murder."

- "Scream bloody murder," yes.

- If this got into school's curriculum.

And that just...

I mean, how did that feel to like hear someone so angry?

- To be denounced by a US congressman by name on the floor of the United States House of Representatives, actually now I take as a badge of honor that that happened.

But at the time, if I had been aware of it, that might have been a little disconcerting.

- [Brooke] Because surely, you would've had to have known this is going to get some negative response from faculty, from families, from the community.

I mean, were you prepared for that kind of response?

- I don't know if I had really thought much past the actual event, which I had been thinking about for quite some time.

I think a teacher needs to have some sense of control in the classroom.

And if there's some secret information about a teacher that begins to get out through the rumor mill, for example, that disempowers the teacher.

So, I felt that it was really important that I control when and how, under what circumstances, that I let that information be known.

(deep rhythmic music) - [Brooke] And just as there were many people who didn't think it was necessary for Rodney to come out to his high school students, there were just as many who praised his act of courage.

- The Mehlville teacher who told his students he's gay gets a tenured job in the South County district.

- It's being called a victory for gays and lesbians tonight.

- The fact that the guy refers to the fact that he's married is no problem for anybody, there's no difference here, he simply referred to his orientation.

- I think Rodney has the right to say he is gay.

It is part of our history, it's there, it is so predominant, and most people are so blind and they have such tunnel vision.

- It's always a landmark when we take any kind of step towards basic human rights.

- [Brooke] But, perhaps the most important reaction was from his students, some even were interviewed in the 1994 "Dateline Special" about Rodney.

- Someone started clapping and the whole class just started clapping, and saying, "Oh, Mr. Wilson, that was so brave.

I'm so proud of how you did that," and everything.

And everyone was just so proud.

And then, I was crying, and Mary was crying, (laughing) and I mean it was really great how he did it.

- The Missouri Historical Society Library and Research Center houses many of the items Rodney has donated, not only to commemorate him as the first openly gay teacher in the state of Missouri, but also mementos that went into planning LGBTQ Plus History Month.

In fact, that's what sparked Rodney's decision to come out to his class in the first place, as he hoped History Month would gain publicity.

And it did, thanks to Rodney and some dedicated friends.

Johnda Boyce was one of those dedicated friends who has been collaborating with Rodney ever since they met at Southeast Missouri State in 1989.

- And do you remember how Women's History Month was sort of a model, of course as Black History Month was the ultimate model, and this catalog from the National Women's History Project.

Do you remember what they had on... You could buy a pencil from them that had a very nifty saying, what was that?

- I remember buying a box of them.

It said, "Write women back into history."

And you, and I, and other folks, were back to write LGBT people back into history.

(easy-going music) I think it's important for anybody who is first realizing that they're a member of the LGBTQ community to find their history.

Not just find their people now, but find their history as well, to understand the past as a backdrop for what we're doing in the future.

(easy-going music continues) - [Brooke] Johnda played a key role in editing the proposals, in addition to being on the coordinating council for the first Gay and Lesbian History Month in 1994.

Was it specific to St. Louis, the first History Month?

- It wasn't because he's the only one who was here.

He was smart enough and managed to make connections in a pre-internet age to gather people from all over the country for his first coordinating council.

So, he was here in this area, I was in Columbus, Ohio, Kevin Jennings from Boston, Kevin Boyer from Chicago.

He got Jessea Greenman from California.

- Tory Wilson, Sarahlyn Chestnut, just to get their names into this conversation.

With them, we were creating a curriculum, we were creating ideas about how you might implement a Lesbian and Gay History Month in October.

- We could make it whatever we wanted so people could kind of just do what they liked to do.

If they liked film, then they could plan film.

If they liked lectures, they could plan a lecture.

Have a Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual themed Halloween party.

So, we just all tried to find institutions and people who could do some work to get those things to happen.

- [Brooke] And it didn't take long for the idea to catch on.

In 1995, St. Louis Mayor Freeman Bosley signed a proclamation for History Month, and other cities soon followed suit.

(celebratory music) After about a decade of continually spreading the celebrations of History Month across the country, it then caught wind overseas.

- We've since recruited 23 representatives from 16 History Months around the world.

- [Brooke] How does that feel to have that global impact?

- It's great, actually.

I thought this part of my life was over, that it had been done 30 years ago.

And then now, this international committee is creating new avenues of creativity,, and ways to express this idea, and the idea that we're now sewing the seeds for future History Months.

Now in my classroom, that first October of 1994, I wasn't able to do anything.

The school district made it clear that I wasn't to participate in that event.

- I hope he spoke to you about, or if not, you can certainly read about the NEA, National Education Association, treating it like a hot potato a little bit after first endorsing it.

This shouldn't be controversial, but it was!

(laughing) It was definitely controversial.

- [Brooke] Well, it still is today.

- It hasn't changed, you know.

I was very pleased in Jefferson City last year to find he was honored as a trailblazer in Missouri's Bicentennial exhibit in the capital.

But, it was only a few months after I saw artifacts from his starting History Month in our capital that a display about Kansas City's LGBT history was removed.

- That's something history teaches.

It's not always a forward trajectory, there are steps back, and sometimes those steps back are brutal.

Now, even though I wasn't specifically to be part of Lesbian and Gay History Month in October, 1994, still, I was able to bring things into the classroom when it's appropriate.

For example, you can't talk about 1960s social movements, African American Civil Rights Movement, Women's Movement, Native American Movement, Latino Movement.

You can't talk about those movements without also talking about Stonewall, lesbian and gay history, Pride Marches, the beginning of an attempt to make oneself in one's community equal in the larger societies.

I had students at the time recreate protest posters.

- Oh!

- Pro and con, all sides of issues.

- [Brooke] Oh wow, okay.

- So, we could have a conversation about, at the time, what did people think, pro and con?

Why did they have those thoughts, and where have we moved the conversation to today?

(gentle uplifting music) This place we're at, this Library and Research Center, is a place where we store our memories.

And it used to be that in the LGBT community, that we would store our memories in our apartments.

So, not having a history is a foundation from which one can build a life, build a career, build a community.

It means you're starting at a deficit.

Because the bottom line really is we want all of our young people to learn to read well, write well, speak well, think well, be part of the conversation, be good citizens, be good community members.

And if you're a gay, or lesbian, or bisexual, or transgender child, and you're in a school in which it's not safe to be those things, your ability to learn to read, write, speak, think well, is hindered.

So, if we believe in the value and integrity of all young people, then we have to practice that.

(gentle uplifting music continues) - Finally, a story about some of our neighbors here at Nine PBS in Grand Center.

They lived just down the street and up a ways.

They're mostly gone now, but before they left, Veronica Mohesky went to visit the urban egrets.

(birds calling) - [Veronica] Normally, you can find egrets and herons by lakes and rivers in Missouri.

But for the past five years, a lot of these birds have decided to try city living.

- So, we have two rookeries this year, we have great egress and little blue herons.

The great egrets are in the very tall trees, the little blue herons are in the smaller trees.

- [Veronica] Pat Leuders is a consultant for the St. Louis Audubon Society and a birding guide for naturalist journeys.

She says no one really knows why the birds decided to make their home in the Central West End in St. Louis City.

- They usually like to be closer to water.

We're not 100% sure where they're going, you'd almost have to put a tracker on 'em to follow 'em to see where they're going.

They could be going to Forest Park, they could be going to O'Fallon Park where there's a really large rookery, because those are the only two large sources of water that we know of that are close by this area.

- [Veronica] Leuders says, this is the only inland waterfowl rookery that the Audubon Society knows about.

And while it's very special to see, she reminds visitors to be mindful of the birds and the human residents.

- This is a residential area, so you don't wanna disturb the residents.

But, we come to check out the birds.

We're very respectful of the neighbors.

And there are public areas that people can park in to see 'em, and sure they could definitely come.

- [Veronica] She says most of the birds that are visible are juveniles.

- Most of the birds that we're seeing now that are just sitting in the trees are the juveniles, and the parents, I assume, are out looking for food and coming back and feeding them.

And they'll probably be here another couple more weeks and then they'll move, they'll migrate back down to the coast, and they also go down to Central America, down into Mexico.

- [Veronica] And Leuders says, we never know if they will continue coming back to this spot.

- Maybe it'll eventually just diminish and the birds will move on.

We never know for sure what the birds are gonna do.

So yeah, it's fun to see it, it's fun to try to figure out why the birds are here.

- [Veronica] But for now, St. Louis birdwatchers don't need to leave the city limits to see these migratory birds.

(gentle string music returns) - And that's "Living St.

Louis."

Thanks for joining us.

I'm Jim Kirchherr, and we'll see you next time.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer 2] "Living St. Louis" is made possible by the support of the Betsy and Thomas Patterson Foundation, the Mary Ranken Jordan and Ettie A. Jordan Charitable Trust, and by the members of Nine PBS.

(upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues)