The Delmar Loop, often referred to by St. Louis residents simply as The Loop, is an entertainment, cultural and restaurant district in
University City, Missouri
University City (colloquially, U. City) is an inner-ring suburb of the city of St. Louis in St. Louis County, Missouri, St. Louis County, in the U.S. state of Missouri. The population was measured at 35,065 by the 2020 United States Census, 2020 c ...
and the adjoining western edge of
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
near
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...
and
Forest Park
A forest park is a park whose main theme is its forest of trees. Forest parks are found both in the mountains and in the urban environment.
Examples Chile
* Forest Park, Santiago
China
*Gongqing Forest Park, Shanghai
* Mufushan National Fores ...
. Many of its attractions are located in the
streetcar suburb
A streetcar suburb is a residential community whose growth and development was strongly shaped by the use of streetcar lines as a primary means of transportation. Such suburbs developed in the United States in the years before the automobile, when ...
of University City, but the area is expanding eastward into the
Skinker DeBaliviere neighborhood of the City of St. Louis. In 2007, the
American Planning Association
The American Planning Association (APA) is a professional organization representing the field of urban planning in the United States. APA was formed in 1978, when two separate professional planning organizations, the American Institute of Pla ...
named the Delmar Loop "One of the 10 Great Streets in America."
Origin and overview
The area gets its name from a
streetcar
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
turnaround, or "
loop
Loop or LOOP may refer to:
Brands and enterprises
* Loop (mobile), a Bulgarian virtual network operator and co-founder of Loop Live
* Loop, clothing, a company founded by Carlos Vasquez in the 1990s and worn by Digable Planets
* Loop Mobile, an ...
", formerly located in the area.
Delmar Boulevard
Delmar Boulevard is a major east-west street in St. Louis, Missouri.
Route description
Delmar Boulevard starts at North 14th Street in Downtown St. Louis, as a westward extension of Convention Plaza. It passes through the neighborhoods of Down ...
was originally known as Morgan Street. According to Norbury L. Wayman in his ''circa'' 1980 series ''History of St. Louis Neighborhoods'', the name Delmar was coined when two early landowners living on opposite sides of the road, one from Delaware and one from Maryland, combined the names of their home states. The town of
Delmar, Delaware
Delmar is a town in Sussex County, Delaware, United States, on the Maryland border along the Transpeninsular Line. Its motto is "The Little Town Too Big for One State." The population was 1,597 at the 2010 census, an increase of 13.5% over t ...
, on the border between the two states, derived its name in similar fashion.
The
Delmar Loop station
Delmar Loop is a St. Louis MetroLink station. This station is adjacent to the Delmar Loop entertainment district that straddles St. Louis and St. Louis County and includes 362 park and ride spaces. Nearby attractions include the restored Tivo ...
, a stop on the
MetroLink Red Line, is located at the eastern end of the area.
The western demarcation of the Loop is generally considered to be the U. City Lions, sculptures of a male lion and a female lion on pedestals flanking Delmar immediately west of the University City City Hall. West of the lions, Delmar becomes largely residential. The eastern boundary of the Loop traditionally was the St. Louis City border, punctuated by The Delmar Lounge at the corner of Delmar and Eastgate, but the area began expanding into the city proper around 2000. This expansion has largely been due to the redevelopment efforts of
Joe and Linda Edwards, owners of Blueberry Hill, The Pageant, and Pin-Up Bowl, and the Tivoli Theater, the Moonrise Hotel, and Eclipse Restaurant. The St. Louis Regional Arts Commission completed its new headquarters on Delmar in 2003, creating performance and office spaces for theater groups. The Pageant, located across Delmar from the Arts Commission, has become one of St. Louis's main venues for mid-size popular musical performances, featuring rap, rock, and country artists, including St. Louisans
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the " Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into th ...
and
Nelly
Cornell Iral Haynes Jr. (born November 2, 1974), better known by his stage name Nelly, is an American rapper, singer, actor and entrepreneur. He embarked on his music career with the hip hop group St. Lunatics in 1993 and signed to Universal ...
.
The Loop attracts an eclectic clientele and wide variety of street life, due in part to its proximity to
Washington University
Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...
and dating back to the late 1960s when
Streetside Records and
head shops
A head shop is a retail outlet specializing in paraphernalia used for consumption of cannabis and tobacco and items related to cannabis culture and related countercultures. They emerged from the hippie counterculture in the late 1960s, and ...
dominated the retail landscape.
Attractions and institutions
Major Loop institutions include:
*
The Pageant
The Pageant (also called The Pageant Concert Nightclub) is a popular American nightclub in St. Louis, Missouri.
Built as a dedicated nightclub, The Pageant first opened its doors on October 19, 2000. It was named for a "long-gone Pageant movie ...
music venue
*''
Riverfront Times
The ''Riverfront Times'' (''RFT'') is a free progressive weekly newspaper in St. Louis, in the U.S. state of Missouri, that consists of local politics, music, arts, and dining news in the print edition, and daily updates to blogs and photo galler ...
'' newspaper
*
Tivoli Theater
*
University City City Hall
The City Hall of University City, Missouri, the seat of municipal government for University City, Missouri, was built in 1903 as the Woman's Magazine Building, the headquarters of a magazine publishing company, and became a city hall in 1930. The ...
*
University City Public Library
*
Blueberry Hill
"Blueberry Hill" is a popular American song published in 1940, best remembered for its 1950s rock and roll version by Fats Domino. The music was written by Vincent Rose, the lyrics by Larry Stock and Al Lewis. It was recorded six times in 1940 ...
pub and restaurant
*
Fitz's
Fitz's Bottling Company is a regional soda brand in the St. Louis area. The flagship brand is its root beer popularized by its microbrewery and restaurant in University City, Missouri, on the historic Delmar Loop.
History
Fitz's was originally ...
Restaurant and Bottling Company
Some companies, such as
Answers.com
Answers.com, formerly known as WikiAnswers, is an Internet-based knowledge exchange. The Answers.com domain name was purchased by entrepreneurs Bill Gross and Henrik Jones at idealab in 1996. The domain name was acquired by NetShepard and sub ...
and Integrity have their headquarters in the Delmar Loop.
Other establishments on the Loop include the 560 Music Center (owned by
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...
), COCA Center for Creative Arts, Craft Alliance Center of Art + Design, Moonrise Hotel, Subterranean Books, and Vintage Vinyl record store.
The Loop is also home to many local restaurants including Al-Tarboush deli, Peacock Loop Diner, Blueprint Coffee, Cicero's Italian Restaurant (closed in 2017), Corner 17 Chinese Restaurant, Gokul Indian Restaurant, Gyro House, Meshuggah Cafe, Mission Taco, Three Kings Public House, Seoul Taco
Korean Tacos
Korean tacos are a Korean-Mexican fusion dish popular in a number of urban areas in the United States and Canada. Korean tacos originated in Los Angeles, often as street food, consisting of Korean-style fillings, such as bulgogi and kimchi, pla ...
, Piccione Pastry, Ranoush Mediterranean Cuisine, Snarf's Sandwiches, T-N-T Wieners, and four Thai restaurants owned by Pat's Thai Restaurants.
St. Louis Walk of Fame
![Walk-of-fame-joe-edwards](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Walk-of-fame-joe-edwards.jpg)
The Loop is the home of the
St. Louis Walk of Fame
The St. Louis Walk of Fame honors notable people from St. Louis, Missouri, who made contributions to the culture of the United States. All inductees were either born in the Greater St. Louis area or spent their formative or creative years ther ...
, a series of brass plaques embedded in the sidewalk along Delmar Boulevard commemorating famous St. Louisans, including musicians
Chuck Berry
Charles Edward Anderson Berry (October 18, 1926 – March 18, 2017) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist who pioneered rock and roll. Nicknamed the " Father of Rock and Roll", he refined and developed rhythm and blues into th ...
,
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of music ...
and
Tina Turner
Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock; November 26, 1939) is an American-born Swiss retired singer and actress. Widely referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Queen of Rock 'n' Roll", she rose to prominence as the lead singer o ...
, actor
John Goodman
John Stephen Goodman (born June 20, 1952) is an American actor. He gained national fame for his role as the family patriarch Dan Conner in the ABC comedy series '' Roseanne'' (1988–1997; 2018), for which he received a Golden Globe Award, an ...
, bridge-builder
James Eads and sexologists
Masters and Johnson
The Masters and Johnson research team, composed of William H. Masters and Virginia E. Johnson, pioneered research into the nature of human sexual response and the diagnosis and treatment of sexual disorders and dysfunctions from 1957 until the 1 ...
.
Trolley
The
Loop Trolley
The Loop Trolley is a , 10-station heritage streetcar line in and near the Delmar Loop area of greater St. Louis, Missouri. It opened for service in 2018, then shut down in 2019 after revenue fell far short of projections. Service resumed in 202 ...
is a 2.2-mile fixed-track
heritage trolley
Conservation and restoration of rail vehicles aims to preserve historic rail vehicles.
Trains
It may concern trains that have been removed from service and later restored to their past condition, or have never been removed from service, like UP ...
line in the Loop,
that links the area with
MetroLink and
Forest Park
A forest park is a park whose main theme is its forest of trees. Forest parks are found both in the mountains and in the urban environment.
Examples Chile
* Forest Park, Santiago
China
*Gongqing Forest Park, Shanghai
* Mufushan National Fores ...
attractions, a project that received a $24.9 million grant from the Federal Transit Administration. The trolley officially began service on November 16, 2018, in the city of St. Louis
and one week later on its University City section in the Loop.
The trolley was shut down in December 2019 amid financial problems,
but reopened in August 2022.
History
During the 1950s, the Loop was the meeting place for U. City's teenagers. The Varsity Theater and the Tivoli showed first-run movies. Ed's
Billiards
Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as .
There are three major subdivisions of ...
which was located between the two theaters was always full of teenagers. There were restaurants up and down the Loop area. Enright Avenue, which was part of the streetcar turnaround, had a drug store and three restaurants plus a record store. There was another drug store on the corner of Delmar and Kingsland. Both drugstores had
soda fountain
A soda fountain is a device that dispenses carbonated soft drinks, called fountain drinks. They can be found in restaurants, concession stands and other locations such as convenience stores. The device combines flavored syrup or syrup concent ...
s. Delmar at Skinker wasn't considered part of the Loop but had a Garaveli's Restaurant and a well known nightclub Davy "Nose" Bold's across from it.
The video for the song "
Air Force Ones", by rapper
Nelly
Cornell Iral Haynes Jr. (born November 2, 1974), better known by his stage name Nelly, is an American rapper, singer, actor and entrepreneur. He embarked on his music career with the hip hop group St. Lunatics in 1993 and signed to Universal ...
was filmed in the Delmar Loop. Nelly's hit "
Country Grammar (Hot Shit)
"Country Grammar (Hot Shit)" (also known as "Country Grammar (Hot...)") is the debut single of American rapper Nelly. The song was written by Nelly and Jason "Jay E" Epperson, who also produced the track. Released on February 29, 2000, as the lead ...
", references the Loop extensively.
File:Pin-Up Bowl, Delmar Loop, Missouri.jpg, Pin-Up Bowl is a bowling alley
A bowling alley (also known as a bowling center, bowling lounge, bowling arena, or historically bowling club) is a facility where the sport of bowling is played. It can be a dedicated facility or part of another, such as a Meetinghouse, clubhous ...
located in the east section of the Loop.
File:Moonrise-hotel-joe-edwards.jpg, The Moonrise Hotel
File:The-pageant-joe-edwards.jpg, The Pageant Music Venue
File:2007-03-12 1600x2400 ucity city hall.jpg, University City City Hall
The City Hall of University City, Missouri, the seat of municipal government for University City, Missouri, was built in 1903 as the Woman's Magazine Building, the headquarters of a magazine publishing company, and became a city hall in 1930. The ...
File:Subterranean delmar.jpg, Subterranean Books
File:Delmar Loop - Parkview Gardens Historic District.jpg, Northeast block of Delmar and Kingsland
File:Loop Trolley's westbound City Limit stop, Dec. 2018.jpg, The Lofts of Washington University
Washington University in St. Louis (WashU or WUSTL) is a private research university with its main campus in St. Louis County, and Clayton, Missouri. Founded in 1853, the university is named after George Washington. Washington University is r ...
See also
*
Streetcars in St. Louis
References
External links
Delmar Loop home pageA blog/critique of certain aspects of the Loop, with photosLoop Trolley home page
{{STL Streets
Culture of Greater St. Louis
Culture of St. Louis
Economy of St. Louis
Entertainment districts in the United States
Neighborhoods in St. Louis
Restaurant districts and streets in the United States
Streets in St. Louis
Transportation in St. Louis County, Missouri
Shopping districts and streets in the United States
Tourist attractions in St. Louis
Tourist attractions in St. Louis County, Missouri