Jefferson National Expansion Administrative History

Union Station

One of the most unique experiments tried by JNEHA was the creation of an off-site store which would cater to the needs of general visitors and tourists who had an interest in national parks, but was designed to be seen in an environment away from the parks themselves. The store was eventually located in St. Louis' historic Union Station, a railroad terminal completed in 1894 which had been abandoned in the 1970s. Refurbished as a multi-purpose facility by Oppenheimer Properties through their developer, the Rouse Company, Union Station contained a shopping mall with more than 100 stores and restaurants, a Hyatt Regency Hotel, outdoor recreation facilities, railroad memorabilia, commercial office space, and a modern transportation terminal. Union Station was a National Historic Landmark located one mile west of Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, patronized by 5 to 6 million visitors annually. [32]

JNEHA Executive Director Ray Breun recalled the thought process which resulted in the Union Station store:

When we were talking about how to reorganize this association to make it more of a benefit to the Park Service in '83, we were toying with the notion of having outlets at off-site locations. We had a request from Famous-Barr at St. Louis Center, and also one at Union Station with the Rouse Company. . . I was interested because it was quite clear to me that we have a corner on the visitor market, but on the local market we don't make any impact.

We were the first to do this sort of thing as far as park sites. Now, museums have been doing this for ages; the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the Smithsonian, they've always had huge operations. But we wanted to get "off campus" as well. [33]

Superintendent Jerry Schober continued:

When we first got into it . . . there was a commercial building that came up over here [near the Park]. And they talked about the possible presence of some of the things at the Arch and [maybe] we could sell a few items. But it was something strictly that we did on our own. And the Director of the Park Service [Bill Mott] kept saying "You know, . . . I want evidence of the Park Service in places other than in the parks themselves." He didn't feel that we had the exposure. And you know he was right [about that], . . . we don't market ourselves at all.

We told him, if that's what you want, it could be done here. And so we had a meeting one rainy day at the Clarion Hotel, [myself] and the executive director of Eastern National Park and Monument Association [George Minnucci], which is the largest [cooperating association] in the system. And George said "You know, we need to get some things together, do things for the Park Service and sell things." And . . . I said "I want you to meet Ray Breun," . . . And oh, I'm telling you, these two fellows, all I had to do was get out of their way, and they began to talk about the possibility of Union Station. [34]

Breun continued:

I'd just been hit by a car, so I was still on crutches. . . George was in town and we began to talk about it, and we decided to do it as a partnership. Because Eastern has access to the eastern parks, and because we had to deal with the westward movement, we could sell all kinds of park stuff. . . . We liked the idea of doing it here in St. Louis, because . . . it's in the middle of the country, a [crossroads for visitors]. [35]

America's National Parks Store at St. Louis Union Station. NPS photo by Al Bilger.

Superintendent Schober added:

And so their final agreement was, that we operate it, and [Eastern National will] put the produce in, and we'll take care of the staff, and the rent, and all of this, and work their agreements out. We did not go into it to make big bucks. We went into it for the visibility. . . [36]

Breun recalled the planning stages of the store:

When this thing started, George [Minnucci] sent a number of his staff out to be helpful in terms of organizing it, . . . including the sales manager at Chattanooga-Chickamauga; Bill Cole, the manager at Gettysburg, and Shelley Napier from Colonial. [37]

Schober continued:

So we said, hey, [visitors] don't get to see all of the parks, but what if we could get them the information? Now here's where we wanted to carry the idea. We thought it would be good to go to the concessions association and say, "Why don't you put one of those big computers up so we can get information out to the public on the parks?" If you're to visit Grand Canyon, who'll you stay with? The Park Service? No. If you're to visit Yosemite, who'll you stay with? The Park Service? No, it's the concession every time. [So we wanted a computer with National Park information, including accommodations and camping, to be put into the Union Station Store, paid for with various concessionaire's money]. . . . We even went and got an FTS line into the store. For who? The concessioner, so that the public could pick up the phone and make reservations . . . We could've given them all this information, and the biggest benefactor would have absolutely been the concessioner. [38]

Although the Union Station store was an excellent idea which brought millions of people into contact with National Park concepts and management objectives, concessions information and computerized data on the National Parks were not added during the 1980s. In fact, the Union Station store failed to turn a profit. The idea of an off-site store spread, however, to two other areas, in San Francisco and Salt Lake City. Ray Breun elaborated:

In San Francisco it's [run by the] the Park Association at Golden Gate, and in Utah it's Zion's association. In each case they got a better deal from the landlord than we did, but they're just basically following the same pattern. Eastern National has been talking about doing something in Washington, but there's so many associations that they're getting in each other's hair, so I don't know how that will all come out. [39]

JNEHA Executive Director Raymond A. Breun with Director of the NPS William Penn Mott, Jr., in the America's National Parks store, 1988. NPS photo by Al Bilger.

Interpretation at Union Station

In 1987, a special nationwide interpretive program, called the Union Station Urban Initiative pilot project, was developed at Union Station as another method of bringing the national park concept to St. Louis visitors. A three-month trial period confirmed the great potential for reaching a major metropolitan audience with information on the NPS. Although visitor statistics were difficult to keep given the crowded circumstances in the shopping mall, the project made more than 9,000 significant contacts through either formal or informal programs. Superintendent Schober recalled:

We hit upon the idea of [representing] every region; we went to the Regional Directors, and said "We're going to put on demonstrations that represent other regions of the Park Service, and you have the opportunity, if you want to participate, to say, 'Ah, well, I'll just send anybody,' or, if you want your region to come off looking really good, you'd better send some sharp suckers down here." Because we found out they'd had 10 million visits at Union Station in an 18-month period.

Representatives of eight regions and twelve individual parks took part in the program between June and September 1987. A total of fifteen rangers came to St. Louis with a wide range of experience, interpretive methods and styles which significantly contributed to their success. Their work was characterized by enthusiasm and flexibility, qualities that proved extremely beneficial. [40]

Under the direction of the JEFF staff, programs varied from living history, to formal interpretive programs, to skills demonstrations. After gaining the attention of visitors, each of the interpreters effectively conveyed their message on the scope and diversity of the National Park System. [41] Living history programs included presentations about one of Abraham Lincoln's neighbors; two Civil War soldiers from opposing sides, and a U.S. Dragoon from the 1840s. Formal programs covered such topics as the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the legacy of Carl Sandburg, and NPS areas in the West. Park Rangers from Carlsbad Caverns National Park presented one of the most effective programs of the project, rapelling from the rafters of Union Station in a demonstration of climbing skills. These demonstrations gathered large crowds for a talk on ground water quality and other resource management concerns in cave areas. [42]

Park Rangers Gary Candalaria and Karen Gustin tell visitors to St. Louis' Union Station about the National Park System. NPS photo by Al Bilger.

Superintendent Schober recalled:

Bill Mott said, "To do those ranger shows and all of that, I'll put up one half, Jerry. You and the Region put up the other half." Because this hadn't been something we'd programmed for, that sounded reasonable. He got back to Washington, and they were sitting in with the then head of concessions . . . and they said "Oh boy, having that store as the focal point, man, the concessionaires are going to take you apart," and they really worked on the Director. And the Director never sent us any funding. But they did send one directive: Don't do those ranger programs anywhere around . . . your association store. Now what was worrying them was that it looked like you were making a profit in that store. . . . Concessions who would never sell an association book because it didn't have enough mark-up, now were becoming jealous of associations. The concessions figured the associations were making money and that they ought to have those opportunities. . . . And you know what was funny? The visitors that were looking at it always said "Why didn't you put [your programs] on next to your store down there? That would sort of compliment it." [43]

Following the demise of the Urban Initiative Project on a national scale, JEFF continued with a program staffed with its own interpreters, working on a daily basis during the summer months, June 24 through September 2. This intense off-site program, coordinated with Union Station management, JNEHA and Eastern National Park and Monument Association, highlighted various areas within the National Park system through the use of special interpretive themes, such as wildland firefighting, hats of a park ranger, predators (including humans) in the national parks, and biodiversity. Rangers also assisted the public with questions concerning the NPS, including vacationing and camping in and near NPS sites. [44]

The program was expanded on several occasions for special events. On August 25-26, 1990, JEFF sponsored a special event at Union Station commemorating the 74th anniversary of the National Park Service. Programs included canoe demonstrations by park rangers from Ozark National Scenic Riverways, living history by a volunteer group of African-Americans recreating the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, and a display of birds of prey by a local raptor research center. This project enhanced the role of the America's National Parks store as a source of information about the National Park System. [45]

Park Rangers from Carlsbad Caverns National Park demonstrate rapelling from the rafters of Union Station in 1987. NPS photo by Al Bilger.

Beginning in late spring of 1991, and running through the end of the year, JEFF rangers expanded the program of informal interpretation at the America's National Parks Store to seven days a week. Programs were also conducted on weekends (when staffing allowed) during the off-season, and special Black History Month programs were conducted during February. Through these special details, rangers were able to increase public awareness and appreciation of the National Park Service and its mission. This aspect of the operation received greater emphasis when the 75th anniversary of the NPS was celebrated by rangers from the Grand Canyon and Ozarks. Joining the JEFF staff, these guest rangers were stationed at three different locations within Union Station on August 25, 1991. Nearly 28,000 public contacts were made during 1991. [46] The intensive program at Union Station was the fulfillment of the original interpretive purpose of the off-site store as outlined by Director William Penn Mott, and the dissemination of national park information to non-traditional park visitors realized the original concept of Ray Breun and Jerry Schober.

The Future

Superintendent Jerry Schober summarized:

[JNEHA] has set a number of precedents within the service. They do all sorts of good services, and to me, these are partnerships. You talk about partnerships with the outside, [these are] partnerships with our association. And they should be tools where we can use each other in a way. You might say, well, how does the association get anything from you? Their mere existence means they've got all these jobs. And all of us have some mission in life, and theirs is to raise the funds, so that other things can go on, and so that you can pay salaries. So there's a complementary thing with all of us, and yet we share that biggest mission, which is why there's a spark here. So I don't think we've touched the potential of what could be there and I don't think the Park Service knows what that potential is. [47]

During the 1980s, JNEHA expanded their sales operations within Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, opened an off-site store, funded important projects within the park and became heavily involved in support for educational and interpretive programs. The decade was a period of transition, growth and change for the organization, which became an essential part of the Memorial's operation. The symbiotic relationship between the park and JNEHA included many unique aspects rarely seen within the National Park System, and promised great innovation and continued experimentation during the 1990s.