the admiral riverboat casino st louis

(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.

Privacy Overview

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.  

By Nancy McMullen and Christina Stiehl

P.O. BOX 191606 St. Louis, MO 63119 314-918-3000

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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. 

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Annie Amantea Blum Remembers The Admiral

The Streckfus family’s Admiral riverboat served as a mecca for social gatherings for generations of St. Louisans.  Gracing the St. Louis riverfront from 1940 until 1978 with its distinctive art deco style, the boat took daily and nightly excursions on the Mississippi.  On its five decks, patrons could partake in a variety of entertainment including ballroom dancing, a number of dining choices, arcade games, rock bands for teens, glamorous powder rooms and more.  Its air-conditioned ballroom was one of the first in the area.

Annie Amantea Blum had just graduated from high school when she announced to her family that she intended on getting a job on the Admiral.  Over her mother’s objections, her father secured an interview for Blum with Captain William Carroll.  She got the job and spent the next 18 summers keeping books, doing payroll, counting money or working the stands, loving every minute of it.

Blum observed that the Admiral was a popular place for date night, dance recitals, graduation nights, starting and sometimes ending relationships.  It was a safe place and affordable.  People of all ages, from different races, including both males and females, enjoyed the entertainment offered on the the boat.  “When people said they were going to ‘the boat,’” said Blum, “everyone knew they meant the Admiral.”

The Admiral’s reign on the riverfront as a universal entertainment mecca ended in 1978 when it was turned into a casino.  Blum had no desire to visit it in that guise, preferring to bask in her memories of the Admiral’s glory days.

As a labor of love, Blum decided to document the history of the Admiral and other steamers owned by the Streckfus family in her book The Steamer Admiral and Streckfus Steamers, A Personal View .  She was Steve Potter’s guest on Cityscape to discuss the Admiral and her memories of it.  St. Louis Public Radio listeners shared their memories as well.

• S.S. Admiral, RIP at Ecology of Absence

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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.