Join author Amanda E. Doyle for a behind-the-scenes page-through of her book, "Tower Grove Park: Common Ground and Grateful Shade Since 1872," and what she uncovered of its past, present, and future.

Following the success of his Missouri Botanical Garden, English transplant and enthusiastic philanthropist Henry Shaw turned his attention to creating the first large park in St. Louis, a Victorian showplace full of verdant trees and shading pavilions. Such a tranquil oasis served to uplift, refine, and refresh human beings whose lives were becoming increasingly mechanized, crowded, and complicated. 150 years after its founding, Tower Grove Park continues to fill that role in the lives of St. Louisans.

Drawing on the extensive archives of the Park, the Missouri Botanical Garden, the Missouri Historical Society, and the St. Louis Public Library, as well as dozens of interviews with city leaders and park neighbors, the richly illustrated book "Tower Grove Park: Common Ground and Grateful Shade Since 1872" arrived just in time to commemorate the Park's sesquicentennial.

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