New Chess Hall Of Fame Opens

I had posted this item in another forum but I don't think that it has yet been mentioned here in the News Form. The September 2011 issue of Chess Life has a feature article on the World Chess Hall Of Fame now located in St.Louis. The 8-page article also has several photos showing some of the items on display including the famed Silver Set awarded to Paul Morphy in 1857. It was the prize that Morphy received for winning the first American Chess Congress. The new Hall Of Fame is located in a 16,000 square foot facility and should be quite an intresting place to visit. 

I've just checked the totals and it seems that there have been 175 viewers to this thread. I hope that someone in that group was in the St.Louis area and has had a chance to visit the new Hall Of Fame.

Just re-checked and saw that there have now been 294 viewers to this thread. It would be very nice if we had someone report back who has visited the New Hall Of Fame. It would be nice to hear if it lives up to the advance billing. 

Total for viewers is now up to 466. No news on anyone in that group having a chance to visit The Hall Of Fame ( someone in that area ).

Thanks for the post --A, but until you visited I had been doing all of the posting here myself  lol.

Well the new total for Visitors to this thread is 786. No report yet from anyone that may have had a chance to check out the Hall of Fame.

I've been there.  What would you like to know?

Thanks for the post Steven1572. As I mentioned in my first post here I had gotten some info on the Hall Of Fame from Chess Life and the person who wrote the article seemed very happy with the new facility. So first of all I guess I was wondering about your overall impression of your visit, for example the Silver set awarded to Paul Morphy must be quite nice. Also I gather that the World Hall Of Fame and the US Hall Of Fame are in the same building, so I'm interested if you thought that idea works out.

The Dec.2011 issue of Chess Life has an 12 page article on a recent Chess competition held in St.Louis and also has a bit more info on the Hall Of Fame as well. It's mentioned that the new Hall is near the St.Louis Chess Club and Scholastic center which should help to draw vistors to the area. Also I gather that the collection of Chess artifacts is quite large so they will be having to use rotating displays. Any thoughts that you have on the new facility would be interesting.      

They are right across the street from each other and that area is a pretty busy part of town already. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to go there. The last time I was in St. Louis was for work and the museum closes at 5 p.m, so it wasn't possible for me.

I did get to visit the chess club. It is a very nice facility and since both are funded by the same person, I would guess the museum is also very nice.

You can see some pictures from the club and museum online:

http://www.stlouischessclub.org/

http://www.worldchesshof.org/

I've been there - the Rueben Fine Psychoanalysis Tent was cool, but my favorites were Morphy's "Where's Staunton?" coaster and Fischer's "It's a Small, Small New World Order Controlled by the Russians, Americans, and Jews" ride.

@Count Rugen: East St. Louis is in Illinois.  The chess club/hall of fame is in the city of St. Louis itself, which is Missouri.  

@cabadenwurt: The Hall of Fame is extremely professionally done and much larger on the inside than the outside looks.  I did just get an email today stating that the exhibition that was there is moving out and a new exhibition is coming in shortly.  

well im glad it exists....

My hubby and I are going to St. Louis in April. Maybe we'll stop by.

Nice 50 cent word.  Would you not consider visiting NYC because of Jersey City?

Anyway, East St. Louis gets a bad enough rap as it is.  I don't know why people don't leave them alone.  Why throw a rock at a stray dog?

I lived in St Louis for years. It's pretty silly to try to scare people about going into downtown because of East St Louis. The river is approximately a mile wide.

Thanks to Everyone for all of the recent posts and for the info as well. This had been a very quiet thread for some time now and it's nice to see all of these messages here. 

PS: Wow we even made it onto the hot topics forum, I didn't think that this quiet little thread would make it over there  lol. 

Thanks for pointing it out. We will be there to visit family, but it won't hurt to have something interesting to do during the visit.

Huh? I thought St Louis was known for having a pretty decent chess club.

Thanks again for the posts Corrijean and Cookiemonster. According to the Dec.2011 article in Chess Life things are doing very good on the Chess scene in St.Louis. Some local libraries may have back issues of Chess life on file.