For our 7th wedding anniversary, we brought our two sons to a special brunch at the top of the Millennium Hotel. The food was great and views were amazing - including the newly opened Busch Stadium.
I was a 'houseman' there from 1969 to 1970. Our job was to set up tables, chairs and the dance floor in the main ballroom, we also set up the smaller conference rooms. One time, Edger G. Robinson attended a meeting in one of the smaller conference rooms. After they left we had to remove the tables and chairs and I saw he's name on a placard. (I wish now I had taken it). The main ballroom could be extended by removing the panels on either side. It was a massive ball room when those panels were hidden away. I met many nice people while working there. In the basement to the right of the escalator was a bar called the "Grog shop' which was typical of so-called hip bars and nightclubs of that time. The waitress worn sheer stockings and short bottoms, think of a Playboy bunny outfit.
One last note, my dear departed beloved brother (Gary) was the manager of the ballrooms for part of the time I worked there.
My parents knew it as Stouffer's Riverfront Inn and the Regal Riverfront Hotel. However, I only know it as the Millennium Hotel. I will never forget the one occasion I was able to have dinner in the revolving restaurant. Although the meal was amazing, the highlight was the iconic view. I have attended several dances (parties) in the early 1990s-2000s. A time was always had. I believe the groups putting on the parties was Breakaway Productions back in the day. Unfortunately, I am unable to find photos due to a house fire. However, I will always have my fond memories of the Millennium Hotel.
We ate at Top of the Riverfront after my 8th grade graduation (1991). It was the coolest place I could think to ask my parents to take us. I made the mistake of taking my dress shoes off under the table, then had to chase one of them, as it had stayed on the perimeter while the restaurant (and I) turned on without it!
It was Monday, September 6, 1971 and I turned 6 years old. My big sister, Sheila was 18 years older and treated me like a princess. She promised to pick me up from school and take me to the Top of the Riverfront Restaurant to celebrate. It was such a fancy restaurant for a little girl but that's the kind of thing she would do for me. I wore my favorite navy blue dress with bib suspenders trimmed in red to school. It had a beautiful flair when I twired around. Since I would be playing on the playground during the day, I wore a pair of red shorts underneath so no one would see my underwear when I was on the monkey bars. After school, she picked me up at we went to her apartment to freshen up and then on to the restaurant for dinner. I remember being so excited when they sat us in a window seat. I remember standing on the crack so my feet would separate as the room revolved and the platform remained stationary. That was the coolest thing in the world to me. The view was spectacular and I felt so special to be the birthday girl getting a fancy dinner with my big sister. Afterwards when we were leaving and going down an escalator to the parking lot, I spun around in my dress once I got to the bottom and she roared in laughter when she saw my shorts underneath my dress. I told her I needed to so the boys wouldn't see my panties.
I lost my big sister in 1994 to due a carbon monoxide accident. I miss Sheila dearly but the memories we shared especially at the Top of the Riverfront Restaurant will always be cherished. I am now 60 years old and share this memory with my adult children.
My late wife and I wanted to celebrate the year 2000 in style! We joined her sister and brother-in-law for an NYE dinner at Millennium. There were two seatings 8pm and 11pm. The 11pm was booked so we took the 8pm. We all gathered in the lobby and watched fireworks through the beautiful glass windows (I don't remember if it was before dinner or after, but grateful that there were TWO celebrations that night!), then went up to [or came down from?] the restaurant for dinner and a "spin" around downtown. My wife was in a wheelchair and I was very grateful that the restaurant and fireworks show were accessible. That was a new thing then. It was a wonderful experience and I'm sad that it is gone. It was something that my generation valued and I get that subsequent generations value something different. Happy memories!
For the CBC Prom night, my boyfriend wanted the night to be extra special. While friends of his were going elsewhere for dining, he decided to treat us to the Top of the Tower, it was called. Wow, what a magical night it was, he in his black bow tie tuxedo and me in my white dress. I imagined it was a marriage night as I was so in love. He ordered oysters on the halfshell and what an experience for a north county girl like me. Having never tried them, he coaxed me for a long while; he even showed me how it's done to swallow them after using the sauce. The whole experience, coupled with the spinning panoramic views of St. Louis, made the night one I've never forgotten. Oh, and I DID get the oysters down, my first and last time! What an iconic experience it has been to have the 'spinning' hotel in our fair city.
In the 1980's, my mother would take Bob & me along with our daughter, Kristine, and son, Rob (both under 12 years old at the time), to the revolving restaurant on top of the Stouffer's Hotel. The full revolution probably took about an hour so we could see all areas to the west, north, east, and south as we had our brunch/lunch. Our son, Rob, remembers going to the restroom and when he came out would have a hard time finding where we were sitting. :-) Fun memories!!
My husband, dead 8 yrs now, and I went to our first NHRA race in 2007? and we spent the weekend at the Millenium and had dinner in the AWESOME restaurant on "TOP",, The food was so good and there was a baseball game so we even had fireworks over the river to watch!,, it was THE MOST romantic and BEST FOOD EVER (steak just melted in your mouth!!! I will NEVER forget our time there!! It was the most special weekend we ever had!
I remember attending the Platinum Star Trek Convention (1986). There was a dinner for attendees. At the dinner Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) sang a couple of songs for the attendees.
This was one of the best nights having all the family and friends from near and far gathering for a happy occasion, a wedding. Capturing this memory means a lot. He was so happy.
My group of high school friends ate at the revolving restaurant at the top of building for our senior prom. We thought we were so grown and fancy! The views and ambiance were spectacular.
If you'd have told me 20 years ago that I'd be writing a sappy social media post about this hotel on a Thursday morning , I'd have said you were crazy. If you had this on your 2025 bingo card, go ahead and put a chip down, because that is what's happening.
The Millinium Hotel in St. Louis will be or already has finished being demolished this week.. which was not totally unexpected as it has been abandoned for some time. It once stood as a great titan over the city, bustling with activity and business. No longer..
At one point though, a little boy bounced up and down these halls with overwhelming intrigue and excitement . If you happened to have a room here back in the early 2000s, there was a decent chance I was there. Sitting at the bottom of the elevator just waiting on more Cardinals players to come by.. or running down to the card shop to see what I could get for a few dollars to try to get autographed later.
Every year, for a chunk of my childhood, Greg Petty would haul our little group up to the Millinium Hotel in January for the St. Louis Cardinals Winter-Warm Up. I got to meet some of my favorite players there .. like Edgar Renteria and JD Drew. I got to meet Hall of Famers like Tony La Russa and Lou Brock. I got to meet future managers like Mike Matheny and Joe Girardi. As well as many others.
More than anything, I made many happy memories. Core memories .. whether it be after a Cardinals win in May or on a frosty January night, feeling that cold wind blow in every time the automatic door opened for another guest, still waiting for that one last Legend to walk through the door.
In the end, this hotel will go down as legendary in my book. Thank you for housing so many great memories. I hope I was able to breathe a bit of that life back into you, one last time
One of the more memorable stories is when I had the opportunity to work along with the Secret Service advance detail and Welcome President Gerald Ford to the Hotel. Here I was a guy who grew up in St. Louis North County, standing in front of one of the best hotels in country, shaking hands and welcoming the President of the United States to our city and our hotel. For someone in their mid 20's it didn't get much better than that!
Five kids, under the age of ten. I booked a room for a very special vacation to see St. Louis, the Arch, and a Cardinal’s game. The desk clerk gave us an upper floor room with, as he put it, tremendous views of Busch Stadium. As I opened the door and the kids saw the view, they went running to the window. My wife envisioned them actually pushing the window out and falling to their deaths (she had a fear of heights), so made them back away from the window and had me stack whatever furniture that could be moved, as well as our luggage, to block the window - and the tremendous view! By the way, we also didn’t look out the windows at the top of the Arch! Great memories we still laugh about!
This was back before the time of smartphones, you didn’t have the Internet everywhere you went. So to pass time I would read. I remember reading the last Harry Potter book on the bottom floor of the Millennium Hotel waiting for people to come swim and they rarely did .
I attended several large sports celebration dinners in the large "ballroom" on the lower level. It was the best venue among St. Louis hotels for such events. When the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame was established about 18 years ago, I was among the founding committee and we picked the hotel to host our first induction dinner. As it turned out, we had the very last event in the hotel. I recall there were rumors among the staff that the hotel was closing. We thought it was just rumors. Turned out to be true. We were the very last event there. Sad. We loved the room and the location but the was obvious the rooms were very dated. We used to have out planning meeting in the revolving restaurant on the top floor.
Ron Jacober
St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame
My mother who was in her 50s and father who was in his 60’s and afraid of heights. gave me a special birthday dinner at Stouffers Riverfront Inn. Of course the revolving restaurant was the real appeal. My father loved to dance so he and I would get on the dance floor while mother watched us. The only problem was that the outer edge, about 8 inches in depth did not rotate while the seating area did. As many others experienced,,she set her purse on the 8 inch outer ring. Of course she just rotated away, leaving the purse behind. After some embarrassed hunting we were able to track it down. Sadly a while later, when she and my father were dancing it happened again. This time a kind waiter helped us on our hunt. The third time my mother for asked me and the waiter just to hunt for it on the sly, so dad never knew.
My first visit to Saint Louis was for the 82nd Airborne convention in 2008. I was on active duty at the time stationed in Fort Bragg North Carolina. A few solider friends and I made the drive to Saint Louis to party and have fun for a few days. The convention was held at the Melenium Hotel which somehow survived dispute our best efforts of bad behavior. We had a great time and to make a long story short, I ended up meeting my future wife on a riverboat cruise and I have been living in Saint Louis since 2010, we have been married for 14 years.
I got my engagement ring at dinner in the revolving restaurant,Top of the Riverfront, in October 1969. When we planned where to stay on our wedding night there was only one choice for us, Stouffer’s Hotel. We parked our car and checked in to the hotel. The next morning we left to head to New Orleans for our honeymoon. When we picked up our car, the attendant told us we had parked illegally and they were about to get us towed until they noticed the “Just married” sign on the car. They told us they didn’t want to disturb us which was so nice of them. Fast forward to 2008 when our son and wife chose to spend their wedding night at the same place as us though by then it had changed hands. My husband and I drove them there after the wedding and felt we had come full circle. We celebrated 55 years of marriage this past March and hold such fond memories of the hotel.
