Tribute to Sarah Kate “Peasy” Love
Last week, we learned that Mrs. Sarah Kate “Peasy” Love of St. Louis and Tenants Harbor, Maine, has died. She was a visionary client of ours for nearly twenty years.
Peasy was a one-of-a-kind person. She raised her children in a glorious mansion in the famed Central West End of St. Louis. I say “glorious” not to allude to pretension or grandeur; the Loves are very private, modest people. No, I use this superlative term in the context of a neighborhood developed during the gilded age of St. Louis, a neighborhood that Peasy and husband Andy helped to transform. Originally developed in preparation of, the 1904 World’s Fair that celebrated the one-hundredth anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase the Central West End had deteriorated as many urban cities had in the 20th Century. Peasy and Andy saw value in the architecture, streetscape and open space and were some of the first “pioneers” to reinvest. Lindell Boulevard forms the northern edge of Forest Park and is one of the Central West End’s most prestigious addresses. The Love’s home fronts on Westmoreland and spans to Lindell, where a stable was located. From this stable, Peasy taught her children – “B,” “Fats,” and “Martha B.” to ride horses in the park, an activity that fostered a strong and loving attachment to Forest Park. You may remember that following the World’s Fair, which took place in Forest Park, the landscape languished and eventually became a pock-marked hinterland marked by lagoons and the remnants of a river. Decades of neglect and a lack of direction caused the once majestic Forest Park to play host to a disconnected series of parking lots, golf courses, and municipal offerings such as a Planetarium, ice rink, a zoo, and several museums (undoubtedly good components, but disastrous when haphazardly placed without a master plan). Tired and disorganized, Forest Park (a third larger than Central Park) was a shadow of its former glory as St. Louis’ 19th Century urban landscape park. Peasy recognized this, and it spurred her to find Forest Park Forever, a public-private partnership with the City of St. Louis that raised the money to update the master plan and restore the prestige of this iconic landscape.
In 1998, Peasy heard Jim van Sweden give a talk in Santa Barbara where she was showing horses with daughter Fats. Peasy was taken with what Jim preached that day, the philosophy of the New American Garden, and hired OvS to assist in The River Returns project. In preparation for the World’s Fair, the city had buried the River Des Peres deep below the park. In the decades following the fair, the river had become a subterranean urban sewer. Bringing it back to the surface was financially and environmentally impossible. OvS joined a team of architects, engineers, and hydrologists to successfully create a cohesive river on the surface of the park. That was nearly 20 years ago.
Today, work remains to be done and we hope to join a team to continue work on the waterways. Forest Park now serves the region as the urban landscape park it was originally intended to be and the new river mitigates storm water runoff and provides a diverse habitat for flora and fauna that balances the ecology of this urban oasis. It could not have been done without the pioneer spirit of Peasy Love.
On a personal level, I got to know Peasy during annual summer vacations in Maine with my family. Harts Neck Road in Tenants Harbor was where the Love Family has summered for over one hundred years. From the rocky coastline to the dense Spruce woods with a carpet of Cornus Canadensis, this magical place was where my sons and I would reconnect with sailing, swimming in the 55-degree water, fishing on the dock, picnics on the beach eating soft-shell lobsters and wild blueberries. Peasy changed our lives with her generosity and we will be forever grateful.
I will travel to St. Louis this weekend to say goodbye.
We will miss you Peasy – friend, patron, mentor.
Eric