Find your STL spirit on 314 Day at one of St. Louis’s most iconic places. Celebrate 314 day with a scavenger hunt at City Museum!

Willy Wonka had a golden ticket, Air Bud had a golden retriever, and we have a golden… shoe heel?

From the late-1800s through the mid-1900s, St. Louis was second only to New York in terms of garment manufacturing, especially for dresses and shoes. At one time, Washington Avenue had more shoe manufacturers than any other street in the world and was deemed “Shoe Street, USA.” This included the International Shoe Co. factory in what is now The Last Hotel.

Our building, which is connected to The Last Hotel by a breezeway, was International Shoe Co.’s warehouse. You may already be familiar with a few things the original tenants left behind, such as the supply chutes that became the spiral slides in the Enchanted Caves, as well as the roller spindles (which we recently repainted!) that carried packages down to the loading docks. They also left us some slightly less useful items… like thousands of leather shoe scraps.

But one man’s trash is another man’s treasure shoe heel! To celebrate the history of St. Louis, the Garment District, and our own digs on this area-code themed holiday, we’ve dusted off 314 shoe heels, painted them gold, and hidden them around the museum.

We challenge you to scour every corner of the Enchanted Caves, Architecture Hall, Beatnik Bob’s, and the rest of the museum to claim your prize — that’s right, every golden shoe heel you find is worth a prize! Turn your hard work and minor history lesson into candy, City Museum swag and apparel, or even a pair of tickets for your next visit.

Included with General Admission or Member Pass. Each golden shoe heel may only be redeemed once and must be redeemed during open hours (9:30am–10pm) on Friday, March 14.

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Sophisticated Living St. Louis — 314 Day Defines the Kaleidoscope that is St. Louis

Do314 — 314 Day “Hunt for the Golden Heels” at City Museum!