Disney World, St. Louis, and the Spanish Pavilion

Go back in time to the 1960's. Travel to St. Louis, MO. Busch Stadium was being built downtown as was the Gateway Arch. Both were to become great symbols of the historic city on the Mississippi. Another historic attraction was negotiated to come to St. Louis around that time. What was it?

Believe it or not, Disney negotiated with the city of St. Louis to open their next theme park in downtown St. Louis. There was a good chance that what's now known as Disney World in Florida might have been in the Gateway City. But something hung up the negotiations and the talks failed in 1965.

What hung up the talks? The answer depends on who you talk to. One possible explanation is size of the park. Fitting into a major metropolitan area isn't realistic. A second possibility (and what most people think) actually has to do with the powerful St. Louis-based company of Anheuser-Busch. The reason why this theory is so popular is because AB was very powerful in the city of St. Louis, yet Disney (being the family-oriented company that it is) refused to carry any form of beer in it's theme park. AB wouldn't allow a public attraction to be in its turf that wouldn't carry its product. Both theories, but logical ones.

But the story doesn't end there. Alfonso Cervantes was the mayor of St. Louis at the time and he wanted some new attraction to come to St. Louis to help draw more patrons to the downtown region. That's where the Spanish Pavilion comes in. The Spanish Pavilion was an attraction at the 1964 World's Fair in New York, and Mayor Cervantes was impressed by it. It was a building on loan from the Spanish government which housed restaurants, exhibits, and shops. Mayor Cervantes was able to buy it from the Spanish government and have it moved completely from New York to St. Louis for a total cost of $6 million.

The Spanish Pavilion opened with a huge parade and much fanfare in 1969. Unfortunately, the only impact the Pavilion made was the initial opening. After that, hardly anyone visited, and it was closed a year later.

However, the building is still standing in it's original position downtown at the corner of Market and Broadway. What is it now? Two towers have been added since them for hotel space and it is now part of the Marriot Hilton.

The bottom part under the two towers was the Spanish Pavilion.

Bet you didn't know that!