Cementland: St. Louis’ Greatest Lost Attraction - Short Documentary
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- čas přidán 27. 04. 2024
- Bibliography
Addo, Koran. “Nothing’s concrete on Cementland’s future” St. Louis Post Dispatch, July 15, 2015. stltoday.newspapers.com/image...
“City Museum St. Louis Missouri Full Tour” CZcams, uploaded by Fantabulous Travels. • City Museum St. Louis ...
Deem, Jason. “Bob Cassilly’s Cementland Sold at Auction” NextSTL, May 28, 2022. nextstl.com/2022/05/bob-cassi...
Fenske, Sarah. “Bob Cassilly was Beaten to Death, Medical Expert Concludes.” Riverfront Times, October 11, 2016. www.riverfronttimes.com/news/...
Fenske, Sarah. “Crime Watch Daily to Focus on Bob Cassilly’s Death in Episode Airing Monday.” Riverfront Times, November 17, 2016. www.riverfronttimes.com/news/...
Fowler, Nancy. “Cassilly Kids Help Keep Bob’s Spirit Alive At City Museum, Three Years After His Death.” STLPR. September 18, 2014.
www.stlpr.org/arts/2014-09-18...
“Rare lost interview with Bob Casilly.” CZcams, unloaded by Hydraulic Pictures, July 17, 2017.
• Rare lost Interview wi...
Ihnen, Alex. “38 Images of Cassilly’s Unfinished Cementland.” NextSTL, June 4, 2016. nextstl.com/2016/06/cementland/
Michael DeFilippo. “Bob Cassilly.” Behance, September 30, 2013. www.behance.net/gallery/11211...
Naffziger, Chris. “Cementland, April 2023.” Saint Louis Patina, April 20, 2023.
stlouispatina.com/cementland-...
“The Unfinished and Abandoned Cementland Amusement Park” CZcams, uploaded by LordExplores, 19 August 2019, • The Unfinished & Aband...
Wilson, D. J. “There He Goes Again.” Riverfront Times, September 13, 2000.
www.riverfronttimes.com/news/.... - Hudba
The clips at the start are from an interview done by Hydraulic Pictures, go check out the full length video on their channel!
City museum, my aunt was good friends with Bob, I knew him as a child. She helped with many of the mosaics. Honestly i wouldn't be surprised to see her or her art in this video. She is a well known Saint louis mosaic artist and is in many homes, businesses, and museums. RIP Bob you'll never be forgotten. It was so sad for that community when he passed. Thank you for covering this topic. My aunt still lives in Saint Louis and helps with a lot of the art community and community projects. The Saint Louis art community is a beautiful community of people. So sad what happened to Bob.
Are you a St Louis native @Z3pher2246? If not thank you for making this to draw attention to some of the amazing places and people from and living in our city. St Louis gets a bad rap because of excessive violence and a good bit of corruption. But it is also an amazing city with a culture all its own. Well worth the visit to see the many wonderful attractions, and not just city museum. The Shaw botanical gardens, THE only FREE city municipality Zoo in the nation (not to mention one of the best in the country). And our many historical homes and sites all over the city. Plus Busch stadium, home of the Cards!(Cardinals) Despite all the bad publicity I do love my home city very much.
@@Yuriel1981 I am! Born and raised. I've been going to all those places you mentioned my whole life, St. Louis has so many underrated gems.
City Museum is a one of a kind treasure.
Easily one of the coolest places I've been
It's just a big playground, I love it.
It used to be. Still cool, but the corporation that owns it now chased off all the good employees with low pay and now all that's left is people who don't care as much. That took a lot of the charm with it.
@@tremble4me so you were an employee there?
@@tremble4me I very much agree. Premier parks and their corporate transplant bosses have ruined the museum.
Have quite a few friends that worked for bob. Not one of them thinks this was an accident. To think we could have had two city museum.
Yeah. His family doesn’t think there’s a chance it was either but who and why is a big question.
@@JimLake.Junior Money and location
@@SaltySalt69 I don't think there was any money, and the Location sat unused for over a decade
I guess it's possible he was killed over a debt but those kind of ppl usually collect from the family if nothing else, and there's nothing to suggest that
I spent lots of time, near and on that location. My family lived nearby. This area was in a dangerous neighborhood. The site, itself, was very dangerous due to heavy old structures, all over the plant. It is easy to see how this may have been an accident, considering the exact work that he was doing, that day. I'm pretty sure that he was moving large structures around, at that specific time. I was informed that he was crushed while bulldozing. Given the area, I thought that he had been robbed, or shot. I'll never know.
Because Bob was a trailblazer, it seemed he had resistance to building places, like the City Museum. I could not believe that he was ever going to get this place fixed up, to the extent that he had planned. I'm pretty sure that he was doing much of the work, by himself, all day long. This project would have taken Years to come to fruition. The project was barely making progress when he passed.
He sounds like an amazing man. Truly a loss for St. Louis. I missed the city museum and so much more. 3 nights was not enough
We've explored the Cementland area, and been on what was supposed to be the observation deck. It's really hard to describe the feeling you get when you realize this was all someone's dream, and that it was cut short before it could be brought to reality. Its gorgeous. Its chaotic.
To be fair, “Its gorgeous, it’s chaotic” is a pretty good description of all of Bob’s works.
If I hadn't seen City Museum, I'd have said that Cementland was an impossible dream that could never exist in the US. But given how amazing City Museum is and how far it stretches what's possible, Cementland would have been astounding. I had no idea about the death or the project. Both are tragic losses.
I am the person who donated the slab of glass you can walk out on (on the roof of the city museum)... and hung out with the the whole crew and fam..
I also was the rooftop concession stand guy below the ferris wheel!
Was tragic what happened to Bob and his son. Glad Daisy and Max are still around doing their fathers work or something similar!!!!
Next week I'm donating two more slabs of glass to be installed on the rooftop sometime this or next year!
That's really cool, thank you for contributing to such a unique part of St. Louis!
Thank you
One time I had snuck into cement land before I even knew what it was or qho owned it. I had just moved to stl and lived behind the property when I went with a friend who also was not from STL. We were roaming around all day when we noticed a couple of people in vehicles on the property. We thought we were busted and thought we were surrounded by people who knew we were there or thought we were there so we decided we had seen everything we could amd went to leave and was caught by Bob himself. He was an awesome person to talk to and invited us to come over and roam around anytime we wanted. He even introduced us to his wife. He was such a genius and a kind person from what I had seen and who I met in person. Such a loss to this world and such a crazy death.
That's really special that you were able to explore Cementland and meet Bob, thank you for sharing!
I grew up in St. Louis in the late 90s and 00s. Even as I was growing up, the City Museum was always changing. No theme park or amusement park can approach the uniqueness, adventure, and ability to just get lost of the City Museum.
This loss remains painful. His vision deserves new life. How can the people reclaim it???
Unfornautely that won't be possible as the City of St Louis condemned the property a few years ago
nice job from someone who knew the guy . we built the darkness haunted house and st louis escape. Really liked your video!
Oh wow! That's great, I didn't know that he worked on that stuff.
Scary Gary and Bob Cassily are St. Louis icons!!! 🙌🏻
no idea he worked on darkness thats awesome
I've snuck in there a few times to do photography.
I loved Bob.
His passion for making art accessible made want to do the same with photography.
Everyone with a cellphone and some creativity can do so much.
Everyone should be able to find a medium to express themselves and he knew that.
Parts of him still live on and I they continue to do so for always.
Brilliant docu short!
Thank you!
im a native here and the first ive heard of this wow
I'm glad you came across my video then!
@@Z3PHYR2246 me too
Get out of the county, girl!
same!! I really loved your video, but damn it was a painful watch. RIP Bob, they’ll never be able to recreate his touch but I hope they continue to repair our city 🥺💙
St louis lifetime local, my nephews love the city museum. I had no clue that cementland existed.
It really takes a certain type of person to be able to imagine such a destination and further be able to actually carry it out. Bob Casilly was truly a one of a kind person
Thanks. I always take visitors to the City Museum. Although the Cementland site is in a sketchy area, his death sounds like a professional hit job. Study the subsequent real estate transactions for possible evidence..
Definitely a lot of fishy stuff about his murder.
He had prime property and someone else wanted it is what it sounds like
a white guy alone in the middle of north st louis late at night making a bunch of noise on a bulldozer and then subsequently beat to death by local blacks is the theory of local police
Yes thank you that’s what I was gonna post. I feel like there could be some wealthy peeps who don’t want to STL to actually move past is socio-economic gap. Makes me pissed cause STL is a hidden gem and deserves more than a spot in the “US Rust belt”. Deserves a new golden era.
I am a carpenter. And city musium was one of the coolest places I have been. Amazing craftsmanship
Im gonna be honest ive lived in st louis all my life and i didnt know about this place. It honestly breaks my heart that someone could take such a kind and imaginitive soul out of this world. I grew up going to the city mueseum and the magic house (i know he didnt work on the magic house but still) and to think we were robbed of this mans vision is devastating. He will forever be remembered for the way he brought art to life for children and adults everywhere. RIP Bob
He was a visionary, such a sad ending. City museum will forever be one of my favorite places and my my kids favorite places to run around and play!
I wish Cementland could've been finished. And i really wish it hadn't been bought out. I love exploring there. It made me great to be surrounded by all the greenery but still enjoy a sense of wonder in exploring what he left behind.
I live in the St. Louis area and have been to the City Museum several times, but I didn't know about Cementland. Thanks for making this video.
Never heard of this guy, or his project or his untimely death. Somebody wanted Bob's property so bad they would kill for it! The fact his widow and daughter have been muzzled tells you all you need to know. And the auction of the properyt for a fire sale price 2 years ago speaks volumes.
Seems that many things in our current world speak volumes of corruption and greed.
He seemed like a reasonable man who didn't get his chance to do an unreasonable thing
Yes, there's a lot of mystery around it, we may never get the full picture.
that is such a dumb theory. yes ppl wanted the property so bad they killed the owner and then waited 11 years to buy it for more money than he originally paid for it and more money than the surrounding properties sold for. you're an idiot.
I’ve been to Cementland over a dozen times and although it was never finished…
I always thought it was beautiful how he was creating an “industry-meets-nature” style art piece and that’s what it inevitably became.
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Thank you for making this documentary.
Breaks my heart to hear Bob’s death wasn’t an accident after all…
but I’m glad to see the truth be exposed & I hope they’re able to find justice someday.
Fantastic work, glad the CZcams algorithm sent me here. I’m a documentary filmmaker based in Saint Louis so it’s awesome to see people tell stories like this. Keep making stuff, people will watch it!
The man clearly had an eye for adventure, and provided it to so many kids in and around the city. Being able to climb around in something crazier than i could imagine in City Museum was magical. Watching this brought a tear to my eye and a smile looking back of all the fun i had all those years ago. Thank you for the video, and a nice trip down memory lane
I used to go to Cement Land when I was younger. It's sad the state it is in now compared to when I used to go right after the project was cancelled.
I’ve worked at the city museum as a caricature artist for a bit, I didn’t know about cement land. Every day at work, bob makes me smile. I see something he made and it brings me so much joy. It breaks my heart that he didn’t get to finish something so special
❤️
How much did he pay for the cementland property? I went to STL that weekend he died and was going to go to city museum that day when i found out they closed because he died. I hope the truth comes out, it usually does .
Such a damn shame. I worked with Bob in the early 90's. One of the great blessings of my life. If you have been across the decorative Kingshighway bridge. I was on the three person crew who hand cast all the panels and coulping. The dragon's bordering the City Museum parking were us also. Kind of broke my heart seeing Bob at the beginning of the video. It had been a long time.
Talk about a small world... the company I've been with for over 5 years now owns Concrete Land.
Gail, if you happen to see this it's Mark from the Lafayette studio. Howdy. Been a long time.
This was a great video and a history lesson to a STL native, thank you very much! I was shoked to see the quality production at such a small channel size, definitely keep up the good work!
The City Museum is so great because it's the type of architecture your brain makes up in dreams. I had no idea who made it, or that he was planning a second location. Really sad we didn't get to see it turn into the amazing place it was sure to be.
Hold up. This is your first video essay?? Keep it up. Loved the style.
Really nicely composed documentary. Born and raised in and around St Louis. Its history and stories fascinate me.
Thank you for creating this!!
It was actually for a school project, but I enjoyed making it and I hope to do more videos in this style.
St Louis has homed some of the most brilliant minds ever. known or not
Great mini-doc
Love the mix of liminal and eclectic. Cant wait to see what you put out next!
If you're from StL you're a fan of the City Museum. Adults kids teens. I'm 41 and 20 years ago I went to a rave at the city museum. There was wedding ceremony during the rave. Amazing memory. Thank you.
Now that sounds like a party!!!
Jealous!!
Thank you for making this. I always thought the city museum and cement land were poetically perfect.
St. Louis is an old city with beautiful buildings and factories left to disrepair and decay. It is also a city on the river that processes a lot of scrap, shipping, and waste materials.
Combining that to reimagine these forsaken places of a more prosperous time into unique art made from cast-away materials couldn’t be more uniquely special to the place in my opinion.
Crawling around in city museum is what keeps me young
i worked at the city museum for a year and got very familiar with the spirit of bob cassily. you can feel his energy present in the space to this day. he is a special man and one of my greatest inspirations as an artist myself. his creations are pure magic. spending day after day walking through the museum and observing his work you constantly notice more in the details. many nights i’d be the last one left in the caves and i’d sit and pray to bob within the vastness of the space. i wish i got to meet him, but honestly i didn’t need to, his legacy echoes through the walls. one thing though i am worried about as someone who was behind the scenes is city museum has taken a more modern route with some displays recently that i think stray away from what bobs vision was. i want to see more unique art implemented like the original creation, and less cheesy pop up’s. i wish the best for the city museum. seriously the best place in st. louis and one of the best in america
What a sad story. I really enjoyed the video and hope to see more like it!
I hope to make more in this style!
@@Z3PHYR2246 Looking forward to it!
I drive past this all the time when I take 270 home (at least before they started working on Chain of Rocks Bridge again). I have always wondered what all of the cement truck mixers lined up against Riverview were for. Thank you for this informative video, and much love to the City Museum, Bob, and all of his hard work.
I was just at the city museum yesterday and it’s remains one of my favorite places ever. I’ve known the story of Bob Cassilly for a few years now and it has given me a new perspective and appreciation for his art. May he rest in peace and know us STL natives have full hearts for him.
Liked and subscribed. I appreciate this sort of content.
I plan on making more!
Wow thank you for making this video!!! I also grew up there and didn’t know the backstory. This video is really well done though, major props to you!
Thank you!
Im from KCMO and this video made me want to drive the 4 hours there to sneak in
i live in kc now and i try to go to CM at least once a summer
I'm from Springfield and...same.
It's cool but it's the only thing here😂
I LOVED THE CITY MUSEUM WHEN I WAS A KID!!! thanks for talking about this!
Well told story. thanks for sharing it. Mighty adventurers, take care when investigating this site. Go by day light and not ever alone. Cars can be stolen very quickly.
Thanks for the heads up. It is not a good area which is a shame
Great work!
Thanks!
been a city museum lover since i was 5 when it first opened its amazing to see how things have changed since is opening(its not as fun when you 29 and over 200lbs) but it still holds a special place in heart . so many great memories. I dont know if i want children yet but if i do this will be part of their childhood! so sad what happened to him, Bob was an OG and STL GEM. he deserves so much more respect. Would love to see his all his dreams realized. could be an almost poetic for the change stl has been through.
I loved the city museum as a kid, would love to see Cementland happen too.
I remember reading about this. His death and his vision and that he'd been working on it for decades but that's all I remember. How sad that would have been very special and it was his dream😮
It would have been real special if it had been completed.
A childhood friend of mine knew him. It was a great loss for everyone. The city museum is such a loved place.
Great video. I did something similar a few years ago that I never published and it is great to see someone do Bob and his work justice. I'm always wary of people covering the murder and aftermath since many innocent people got caught up in it, but I think you did a good job of not dwelling or pointing fingers. Walking on some of those roofs at cementland was always great for the adrenaline.
I'm glad to hear you think I did a good job covering the story.
I would love to see the video you made
City museum is one of those places that made memories when i was younger sneaking in by parkour or taking dates there good times everytime!❤
hey fellow st louisan! holy shit i love this video:) city museum was my childhood and i explored cementland a while back w some friends, it was really bittersweet seeing what it could've been :,) thank you for putting our city in the spotlight, we need it!
Of course, I want to do more STL focused videos, so many good stories
Used to work private security for a little at Cementland before it was sold.. what a magical place. Worth the view if you ever bike the trail!
Great documentary!!
I love the City Museum. This is wild.
Some of my best pictures were taken there. Sure, you can take pictures of the caves nearby, but there's something special about that place. I believe I've captured the love he had for that place in my photos, there's no place quite like it
Are your photos posted anywhere? I would love to check them out.
@@Z3PHYR2246 I have about 30 pictures in total, but I cherry picked 5 and posted
For anyone's reference, Ferguson, yes even shortly after the riots, (and Spanish Lake which has notoriety) is 200% nicer of a place than Riverview. I used to live within shouting distance of this property and it's so haunting. Riverview is the kind of place where people are just shooting or otherwise killing each other all the damn time, anything nice you try to do will be destroyed for no reason, street signs get mowed down by trucks and replaced almost weekly, "ah yes they're shooting at each other on the main road again" is just another day in the life, and half the vehicles on the street act like they're trying to take someone else out with them. Sadly that's not to say the majority of people living there aren't very nice hard working people who happen to be stuck in a hellhole.
We used to live next door to a house this man's widow apparently owned. It's the kind of modestly nice house that belongs in a middle to upper class suburb. I don't think she ever really lived there by the time we moved in though, or if she did, she was a complete shut in; zero signs of life at that property other than trucks sometimes coming and going.
Somebody sold off alot of the properties he had in the last couple years. Ive been seeing them on auction sites.
I remember the news articles covering the planning of this place. It's sad to hear the project came to a tragic end.
I used to know bobs mom, i can see the resemblance, and my dad worked in one of the other businesses in the city museum building so i got to use it as my own personal playground before they ever opened it to the public
Wow, that's neat.
I've been to the city museum as a child, and I can confirm there are ways to get out of bounds if you're small enough. One time I was adventuring through the caves room, and I slipped through a gap between two sheets of plastic. I ended up underneath the cave wall, and I could see the supports holding it up and electrical wires running to the lights. I freaked out and climbed to the surface.
As someone who grew up in saint Louis it’s surreal stumbling across this video. The city museum is fucking awesome.
great video, the clips in it are from long ago, now all the trees are bulldozed and its becoming a swamp in the middle, ALSO I PISSED THROUGH THE BROKEN DOORWAY AT 9.25 I HAVE A PICTURE OF IT TOO
City museum is like the inside of my head. I never heard of it but now want to see it. It’s sad his vision wasn’t finished. Would have been really neat.
You should definitely check it out if you have the chance.
Exploring cement land when I was a teenager was unreal. I hope somehow the project gets resumed, but without bob, i don’t know how it could
It's a shame he passed. He was a incredible builder and visionary. Riverview is a tough drive for me, between the twins death on the bridge and Bobs a mile away, I generally just avoid the area now. Wish that would have worked out. What a loss.
Bob's life would make an awesome movie. The incident with Michelangelo's Pieta alone is jaw-dropping.
I would love to see a movie about Bob's life
Nice documentary!
having gone twice in the past month, i can say its still a beautiful and somber place
Glad to hear that it's still intact for the most part.
great video thanks
Good job on this
Why thank you.
Really wish he was able to a achieve his dream.
the City Museum is single-handedly one of the coolest fucking things I've ever experienced. Used to go ALL the time as a kid. I miss it.
loved exploring cementland! wish it was still easily accessible. Maybe one day one of us will get rich and can finish bobs vision.
How sad. I don't know why people can't leave good people alone in their lives. My prayers to his wife and daughter and friends and family, God bless.
Nice vid, I didn't know the whole story.
I remember this! ❤
I've been to the abandoned leftovers of this place multiple times. It's pretty dangerous, but quite fun. It's sad knowing it'll never see the light of day. It was cool to find the different parts of attractions they planned to put in.
I got a private tour about a decade ago, local moped rally with that as a stop for a few hours.
Really rad and eerie place. Super dangerous with deep pits and holes in the buildings
Beautiful. City Museum shaped my life in certain ways. Always mythologized Cementland, and never learned about the man behind it. You should look into Henry Mercer and his concrete building
I'll have to look into that, thanks for the suggestion.
I will never forget this place or the feeling of climbing that tower feeling like i was about to die lol
i used to drive by this place all the time, and I never knew what it was until now. what a sad sad story. may his killers come to justice, and may his family prosper and find happiness!!!
It’s truly a magical experience to explore cementland with a few good friends. You feel like you guys are the only people left in a dystopian world with hidden art installations at every corner. Never felt anything like it. Also bob was 100% murdered by his business partner.
I have done work in the city museum. It’s a really cool building
Explored there a few years ago. It was so crazy seeing his ideas here after being to the city museum. He was a mastermind like no other. That’s why when he died there was no one to take over he was one of a kind. At 9:12 in the video my buddy and I walked out on that metal beam
Spanning the gap between the concrete catwalks. It was pitch black so scary
I’ve lived in the area most of my life, and even worked right down the road from here for a while. I always wondered what was up with that upturned cement mixer up front. Guess here’s my answer, I never knew that existed until now
I’ve been to Cementland before- in 2014 and again in 2017. I really wish it could have been completed
Great video. What could’ve been :(
For those who are wondering who is that guy behind Bob, in the yellow shirt at 4:11. That is the OWNER of the restaurant Blueberry Hill that sits on Delmar BLVD. The restaurant also doubles as a concert venue called The Duck Room. One thing you’ll notice when you go to Blueberry Hill is owner had photos with A LOT of famous people. Bill Clinton, Eminem, Kid Rock, Lady Gaga, Tom Cruise. The list goes on!
Also as a native of St. Louis I’m familiar and have driven past “Cementland” numerous times. As it sits today, it’s dilapidated and overgrown. There are signs up that say “No Trespassing” too. You however can see the cement buoy type things clear as day from the road.
I used to work at a bar downtown that’s not around anymore and we had a drink called the Cassilly
I love the rebelliousness of a giant tower to throw rocks off just for fun
I grew up in that area and drove past it almost daily growing up til adulthood when i moved. It was always so mystical to me and I couldnt explain why
Now I know
Ive actually explored this place with 3 friends of mine. We live like a 30 minute drive from there. We went thru a hole in the fence. It was pretty interesting. Found a goldfish pond still full of goldfish. And this cool building that looked kinda like a castle
City Museum is a treasure. Too bad Cementland did not come to fruition. What a boon that would have been for North St. Louis.
That place looks awesome to trip balls in
Haha someone has definitely done that
Bob was a great guy! We love the City Museum so much, we got married there! I hope his legacy lives on!
I didn't even know you could do that, sounds awesome!
ive snuck in here multiple times at night, creepy but cool
City museum in stl is amazing
I experienced astral projection while listening to this music. I was transported….to Cementland.
My buddy climbed that smoke stack a few weeks ago