the admiral riverboat casino st louis

The Admiral Architect: Maizie Krebs St. Louis's most famous sailing ship is older than it looks. Its hull comes from an older cargo vessel, the Albatross , dating from 1907. The Albatross was quite a massive beast, hauling 16 rail cars at a time across the river at Vicksburg, Mississippi. In 1938, Streckfus Steamers, Inc. began reconstuction of the vessel as their new excursion flagship. The luxurious new vessel launched in June, 1940; it was the largest inland passenger steamer of its time. The Admiral featured Streamlined Art Deco styling around her five decks, two of which were air conditioned. At 373 feet in length, she had room for 4,400 passengers. The Admiral was built as a steam-powered side-wheel paddlewheel boat; it was converted to diesel-powered propellers in 1973. The original steam engines are on display at St. Louis' Museum of Transport The Admiral was a local legend in her heyday, and a common sight as she made her way up and down the river, typically cruising south to Jefferson Barracks and back. Cruises featured dancing and live music, food and drink, jazz and big bands and rock and roll. The boat could be rented for banquets in addition to standard day and evening cruises. After spending many years cruising the river, Streckfus sold the Admiral in 1981, prompted by hull corrosion. After some years as a floating but stationary attraction, it was converted to casino use in 1993. A rather monstrous pink transitional dock was constructed at the time, crudely aping the ship's lines while blocking most of it from view. Little if any of the original interior remains, having been replaced by fairly standard casino fair -- mirrors, flashing lights, plush carpets, and scads of slot machines. After its conversion, the Admiral operated as the President Casino Laclede's Landing, and was eventually moved from its dock near the Arch to a new location just north of Eads Bridge. The President Casino company went went bankrupt in 2002. In 2006, the Admiral was acquired by Pinnacle Entertainment. Pinnacle sought to sell the vessel, citing excessive maintenance needs and declining business for the casino. Perhaps promted by a requisite 2010 Coast Guard inspection, Pinnacle ended all casino operations and closed the ship down in June 2010. The ship was sold to St. Louis Marine and Materials.

Next site | The death of the Admiral > > >

End of an era – The SS Admiral from cruising to gambling to ?

The Admiral was and still is a unique boat because of her size and because of her art deco streamlining. She was the first steamboat on the Mississippi river which was fully air-conditioned.

Concerns about hull strength prompted the boat’s permanent mooring. A businessman from Pittsburgh bought the Admiral in 1981, removed the engines, and months later sold the boat to St. Louis interests. She was sold several times and has served as a floating casino in Davenport Iowa in the late 1980’s before returning home to St. Louis and the riverfront near the Gateway Arch as the President Casino on the Admiral a few years later.

The boat is up for sale and an auction was scheduled for last week, but no serious bids were placed.  The boats future is uncertain.  Most of the boat’s  remaining contents will be auctioned off later this month.

She now sits idle just North of the Eads Bridge in St. Louis, MO.

More on the SS Admiral.

7 thoughts on “End of an era – The SS Admiral from cruising to gambling to ?”

I think it’s obvious… Around the world Big Ass Barbecruise!

LOL – There’s an idea.

I had the same thought…you have thousands of readers…if everybody sends in a lot of money, we have the SS B&PBABBQ, picking up chicks meeting readers all over the world and taking them into international waters, beyond the law sailing.

Let’s not hire this crew:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-0U2zE68yc

LOL. I haven’t watched that in a while. Was fun to see again. And you’re right…. that crew drinks too much to be running a boat. BTW: The captain of that cruise was my buddy Mel who died last November.

Better add some whores oars because the Admiral has no engines.

This one refused to use oars. As punishment she’s walking the plank.

https://bitsandpieces.us/2010/11/17/a-flattering-dress/

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The SS Admiral Makes its Last Voyage

by Nancy Curtis

July 19, 2011

Today, the Admiral riverboat is making its final voyage to Columbia, Ill. to be sold for scrap. The Admiral , built in 1907 and once the largest inland entertainment vessel in the world, started off as a side-wheel steamboat and was converted to an entertainment mecca as a concert venue and casino for decades until it was closed down in June 2010. Recently, salvage workers removed the top deck of the ship so it would fit under bridges during it's journey. In the past few months, no buyers came forward, except for a salvage company that wanted to buy its parts—all the rest of the ship was auctioned off.

Gateway Marine Services’ Bill Kline compares the recent dismantling of the historic SS Admiral to an “archaeological dig,” one that’s produced some interesting artifacts from its past lives as a river-cruising steamboat and casino.

Floored: As workers peeled back the casino carpet on the main floor, they discovered a ballroom floor on top of tile on top of more wood. The effort never yielded the original ballroom floor, though.

Holy Ship: Before making its way aboard the SS Admiral in 1974, the ship’s bell was salvaged from St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church.

Critical Mast: Most ships contain minimal flag masts. But the Admiral boasted a decorative mast with delicate curves to match the ship’s Art Deco style.

Have any fond memories aboard the Admiral ? Leave them in the comments.  

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Over the summer of 2019, the Pulitzer Arts Foundation and the Monument Lab team asked people about places they remember and monuments that should be erected. While the Arch was frequently mentioned and submitted in drawings of St. Louis, some submissions revealed spaces known only to people from certain neighborhoods at certain times, making them patchwork stories depicting scenes from their lives. The personal memories captured in the drawings show the myriad experiences of St. Louis residents which could be broken down by class, gender, and race.

One submission drew our attention to the SS Admiral, a steamboat that was once a floating fixture docked on the riverfront. According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch , its first excursion on the Mississippi was in 1940 and ended its cruises in 1980, while remaining open for patrons until 2001. Older generations of St. Louisans may recall the now defunct riverboat, regardless of race. Yet, in photos posted on the paper’s website, many of the images from the early days of the Admiral show white audiences enjoying their experience. It would not be until later decades that a shift toward a racially diverse clientele would be visible.

Once owned by Captain John Streckfus, Sr., and his family, the Admiral cruised the Mississippi river to attract families interested in entertainment on the St. Louis riverfront. Music scholar David Chevan explores the race-based entertainment history of Streckfus family and their steamboat business, Streckfus Steamers, which includes the Admiral. In his published article “Riverboat Music from St. Louis and the Streckfus Steamboat Line” drew from a 1967 dissertation on Streckfus Steamers to describe the racialized business practices of the company. Chevan used the marketing language of the Streckfus company to reveal its history of seeking the “very best class of people” as they “developed markets in every sector of white St. Louis society” starting in the early 20 th century. Chevan suggests that the Admiral and other Streckfus Steamers were almost exclusively white until a 1969 court order forced them to integrate its audience. 1

Although the submission was of SS Admiral, a site of memory for an older white woman, it was not meant to highlight the racial lines that maintained the residential and, apparently, entertainment-based segregation of St. Louis. For her, it was a fond memory, a place she enjoyed visiting over the course of her life. Whether or not any African Americans were in the audience of the Admiral while it cruised the Mississippi River when she was onboard is unknown. What her submission does offer us is how Streckfus Steamers, a company whose name has been lost to later generations, found their intended audience by leaving its mark on her memory in such a way that her experience would one day be added to our research database. Furthermore, it allows us to think about St. Louis and its sites over time and space, reminding us that treasured memories of a golden past may obscure the tarnish of Jim Crow segregation. It shows how places in this city are remembered in different ways depending on who is telling the story.

MK Stallings is an educator, poet, and community arts administrator. In 1999, he began organizing events under the name Urban Artist Alliance, and in 2001, founded Urban Artist Alliance for Child Development (UrbArts) where he serves as president and chief executive officer. Like UrbArts’ mission, he is dedicated to creating platforms and platforming creatives for youth and community development. 

S.S. Admiral, RIP

• Post author By Michael R. Allen
• Post date February 25, 2011
• 8 Comments on S.S. Admiral, RIP

by Michael R. Allen

Soon the S.S. Admiral’s streamline, art moderne superstructure may be converted into cold hard cash at the going rates as high as $300 a ton. As soon as next week the old boat may be towed away to be picked apart by the skilled hands at the appropriately-named Cash’s Metal Recycling . So goes the 71-year run of the city’s finest floating pleasure palace.

Yet preservation circles are mostly silent on the death of one of the city’s most beloved mid-century icons. Perhaps the end of the boat has seemed like a foregone conclusion ever since its engines were removed in 1979. That act tore away the best reason to set foot upon the Admiral: being able to glide up, down and around the Mississippi River while dining, dancing, courting and sparking. The Admiral’s short life as a moored entertainment center was a bust, and its subsequent use as a casino was extended not through any great affection but by Missouri’s now-defunct loss limit law that sent Lumiere Place patrons over to keep their fix flowing. The Admiral’s once-dazzling interior had long been denuded of any of the swanky swagger of yesteryear. What was left was an artifact — a riverboat left without engines, dining room, band stand or dance floor.

Of course, the S.S. Admiral was not a hopeless cause, and wild imaginations conjured future worlds in which the Admiral was pulled onshore and reclaimed with artistic license. Yet no one imagined bidding fairly on the Admiral at auction in November — not a single party. There were no last-ditch “Save the Admiral” campaigns, a fact counterbalanced by the persistent and now well-organized effort to save the earlier Goldenrod Showboat.

The swell of nostalgia that saves Historic Things did not flood over the Admiral, which may have been too young and too much a part of the unpleasant present-day reality of gambling to be a fitting subject. The S.S. Admiral’s demise points to the need for continued advocacy for parts of our built past that are within our grasp. A building (or boat) young enough to be part of the lives of many people still living should be revered because it touches so many lives still being led.

(For a personal look back at the S.S. Admiral, I recommend Marilyn Kinsella’s “S.S. Admiral, I Salute You!” .)

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Many memorable moments as a child on this boat. Not the gambling boat mind you, the family friendly boat. Have to find a picture of my brother with his Levin Hat shop hat on his head riding in one of the kids motor rides. Ahhhhh, oldie but goodie days!!!

I understand why a casino would want open boarding but I’d been to the Casino Queen when it still sailed and it was a blast. I also loved the skyline view from the upper deck*. I haven’t been to the new building but from what I can tell there’s not even a place to get outside and look. What a pity. I believe I’ve been in the Admiral once but unfortunately I barely remember it (not the Admiral’s fault).

* I don’t know if we were supposed to go up there, since nobody ever did, but we did anyway.

Sad to see the old boat go. I toured on it as a kid and a teenager. My mother would haul us there on a weekday, by bus, and we’d ride the boat, and mom would have packed a picnic of sorts. Then, the ride would end, and we would get picked up by my dad. Three of my sisters worked at the boat, selling souvenirs and popcorn. I was always envious, until I realized how hard they worked. As teens, we danced on that curved dance floor, and it was a blast. Save the Admiral? A good idea…but it’s too late. Engines gone, dance floor gone, Art Deco beauty gone…why bother.

Just out of curiosity, was the Admiral segregated originally?

When looking at your site I was struck with the similarity of the ADMIRAL and the A.S. Aloe Building.  They both opened in 1940,  It is sad, but true, that the ADMIRAL like many places in St. Louis was originally segregated.   

My mom and dad, both gone now, met on the Admiral in late 1944.  I saw it several times from the bridge when we were visiting family in St. Louis.  Life goes on and the river keeps on rolling.

I HAVE SEEN THE BOAT SEVERAL TIMES WHILE THERE ON FAMILY VISITS BUT NEVER DID GET ON IT. ITS A REAL SHAME THE CITY DIDNT DO MORE TO SAVE IT OR SELL IT TO A GROUP THAT COULD USE HER OTHER THAN FOR SCRAP CASH. WHEN A TREASURE IS GONE, ITS GONE FOREVER. SHE COULD STILL BE SAVED IF YOU WERE TO HURRY, CASH TALKS.

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(formerly St. Louis, MO)

The Admiral was built at St. Louis by Streckfus Steamers Inc. in 1938 – 1940 as a sidewheel excursion boat. Her hull came from the former railroad transfer Albatross built in 1907. She is 374 feet long and 92 feet wide and had a capacity for 4,400 passengers. In the winter of 1973 – 1974 she was converted to diesel-props, one in each paddlebox.

The Admiral was and still is a unique boat because of her size and because of her art deco streamlining. She was the first steamboat on the Mississippi river which was fully air-conditioned.

She served as an excursion boat until 1979. She was sold several times and has been serving as a floating casino above Eads Bridge in St. Louis, MO. In 2011, the Admiral eventually went out of service and has been removed from the St. Louis riverfront on July 19, 2011, apparently to be towed to a scrap yard.

(pictures taken in 2002)

The Whistle of the Admiral

It’s the Admiral’s 4-chime whistle, followed by the powerful stack exhaust. Recordings are from 1969 at St. Louis.

Here is another recording of the Str. Admiral’s whistle, featuring the Streckfus Steamers’ landing signal:

Thanks to David Tschiggfrie for the recordings and to Stephen M. McMullen for sending to us.

The Admiral Calliope

Listen to several minutes of calliope music from the Str. Admiral in 1969. One section has been playd while the boat was in dock, and the other while coming back upstream. The climax of the calliope is the wonderful sounds you hear when it goes under the two bridges before laying up in port to disembark the passengers. The first bridge is the MacArthur Bridge; the second is the Poplar Street bridge.

This recording was taped live aboard the Streckfus Steamer Admiral on Sunday, August 24, 1969, at St. Louis, MO, by David Tschiggfrie. The calliopist was Dick Renna.

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Admiral riverboat says farewell to St. Louis

The S. S. Admiral, built in 1907 and a long-time fixture of the Mississippi riverfront in St. Louis, was towed away Tuesday to be dismantled.

Columbia, Ill. will be the final dock for the riverboat following a long process of dismantling and an unsuccessful attempt to auction the vessel off on eBay .

The President Casino was formerly housed in the boat until last June , when the casino's parent company, Pinnacle Entertainment, surrendered its gaming license.

• Also, check out our "Remembering the Admiral" segment from Cityscape - it's a discussion about the Admiral and memories of St. Louisans who experienced it during its many years of traveling up and down the Mississippi River.

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Monday, February 21, 2011

St. louis gave up on the admiral years ago.

4 comments:

Thank you for posting this. I haven't had the heart to post anything myself... or maybe I just can't believe this is actually happening. What a catastrophe.

My mom tells a story about going on a date aboard the Admiral and discovering when she got there that her new dress almost exactly matched the wallpaper behind her. I think part of the problem was finding someplace for someone to put the Admiral. I honestly thought it would eventually end up by Concreteland in North City.

I went to Horace Mann Elementary School from 1965-1973 (K-8), later graduating from Roosevelt High School in 1977, and took dance lessons all those years just across the street (from Mann) at Miss Hadley's Dance Studio. Our dance recitals in those later years were on The Admiral, which was such a wonder-filled experience - it was magical. I grew up in a real community and have fond memories of such a wonderful, steadfast, architecturally rich and true immigrant city. Reading of the lack of appreciation and respect for the history of St. Louis buildings and communities saddens me, and current and future generations are truly missing out. Keep fighting to keep the foundations and keep telling their stories - our stories.

We were talking about the admiral at work and telling stories about the times we used to go on her. It was glamorous. People wanted to look nice and enjoy themselves. I danced on the admiral with a dance troop in the afternoon's. My biggest memory of how impressed I was as a child was the bathrooms. It was like in the movies. Down stairs there were all different machines for kids to play. Something for everyone. Sorry the young people won't be able to have the wonderful memories.

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Missouri’s ‘Boats in Moats’ Get That Sinking Feeling

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Mark Twain would scarcely recognize Missouri’s modern-day riverboat casinos.

They are more like buildings than vessels, connected to land by power cables, plumbing lines and data circuits. They never leave the dock; one doesn’t even have engines. Many of them aren’t directly on the Missouri or the Mississippi itself, but in shallow ponds filled with piped-in river water.

The boats exist by virtue of certain fictions created by law or regulation since Missouri approved gambling on the water in 1992.

But now Missouri’s highest court appears to have dealt a losing hand to these landlocked “boats in moats.”

The Missouri Supreme Court turned to the dictionary for a definition of “on” the river and ruled in December that “boats in moats” are not what the voters had in mind in 1994 when they amended the state constitution to allow games of chance on the Mississippi and Missouri rivers.

The seven justices ruled unanimously that casinos must be “solely over and in contact with the surface” of the rivers. Areas where boats float can be man-made but must be “contiguous to the surface stream.”

According to the state Gaming Commission, just three of the 16 operations comprising Missouri’s $652-million riverboat gambling industry are clearly on the main river channel. The agency will hold hearings later this year on whether the other boats meet the Supreme Court standard.

The operators of Missouri’s riverboats, which have 12,000 employees and paid $190 million in state and local taxes in 1996 alone, have said it’s business as usual while they fight to keep their licenses. But they warned that it would cost millions to move their vessels to the river.

“If the court rules for the plaintiffs, it will have a severe impact,” said Larry Pearson, publisher of Passenger Vessel News, a trade publication based in Metairie, La. “We’re talking about the loss of thousands of jobs.”

A few days after the Supreme Court’s decision, in fact, a judge refused to order the Gaming Commission to take final steps toward licensing an expansion of an existing casino boat on the Missouri River at St. Joseph. The boat operator, St. Joe Riverboat Partners, has run a casino on the main river channel since 1994 but wants to move to a larger boat in a basin nearby.

Owner Bill Grace argued that he has “played by all the rules” and had a $17-million investment on the line. He says he is facing financial ruin.

Missouri’s riverboats are more evocative of Las Vegas than of “Life on the Mississippi,” and look little like the big paddle-wheelers that Twain wrote about. (In fact, Hannibal, the Mississippi River town Twain made famous, has repeatedly voted down riverboat casinos.)

Harrah’s Flamingo boat in Kansas City has decorative smokestacks radiant with miles of neon and adorned with pink flamingos.

The President Casino in the shadow of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis is situated on the Admiral, a onetime floating ballroom that shimmers with a metallic Art Deco appearance.

At Maryland Heights, the Player’s Island Casino has four boats topped by a neon-wrapped dome visible from busy Interstate 70 heading to St. Louis.

Over the years, the Legislature changed the law to allow boats to float in basins filled with river water situated no more than 1,000 feet from the main channel. Lawmakers acted under heavy lobbying from boat operators, who wanted to avoid river cruises, citing safety concerns such as heavy river traffic, low railroad bridges and swift currents.

As a result, the Gaming Commission allows two-hour “cruises” in which the gangplanks are lifted but the boat goes nowhere. Passengers are free to step off the boats if they run out of chips, but they can’t come back on board.

The moats are just deep enough to slosh river water around the hull. At the Flamingo, the water actually has to be pumped uphill to fill the basin.

“This was a scam from the start. There is no cruising like they promised, and it’s a ridiculous setup,” said state Rep. Todd Akin of St. Louis, who brought the anti-gambling lawsuit that went to the Supreme Court.

The president pro tem of the Missouri Senate, Bill McKenna, chuckled about his first visit to Casino Aztar, docked on the Mississippi at Caruthersville. He was running late and wasn’t allowed to board minutes after the “cruise” began. “So I went to the dockside bar and had a beer and looked at the boat that was, as they said, ‘cruising,’ and I had to laugh,” McKenna said. “I was with some folks from another state who said it was absurd.”

If riverboat operators are sweating about the future, gamblers say they don’t understand the controversy. “If they’re going to allow gambling, it shouldn’t matter where it is,” said Tom Sproull of suburban Chicago, who traveled to the Player’s Island Casino, target of the lawsuit by gambling opponents. “They’ve got to restrict it to a boat. That ought to be enough.”

George Robinson of St. Louis said he felt a little sorry for the riverboats, even though they sometimes take his money. State officials have “already given their blessing,” he said. “It’d be kind of a shame to have all of this and take it all away.”

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Riverboat / Barge Accident St. Louis 4 April 1998

31 riverboat passengers injured in barge accident, return to recreational boat building industry home page.