Walks & Talks

Walks, Tours, Programs, Lectures and Book Signings

presented by author/historian NiNi Harris.

More book signings and book programs

are scheduled throughout the year.

Check back here for additions.

NiNi Harris’s walking tours, bus tours and programs are based on her original, primary source research.

OASIS Walking Tours

For more information or reservations for OASIS programs call:

The registrar at 314-862-4859 x 24

or visit www.oasisnet.org/stl

If the tour dates are filled, put your name on the waiting list. Additional tours dates will be opened, so everyone can be accommodated.

Old Carondelet (two opportunities)

The Carondelet neighborhood of South St. Louis City was founded as a French farming village in 1767. Author/historian NiNi Harris will guide you along streets laid out by French settlers. The walk will highlight sites in African-American history, the homes of Confederate officers and the residences of abolitionists.

Tuesday, April 19, 10:30 a.m.

Wednesday, April 20, 10:30 a.m.

Compton Heights South

The miniature castles of Compton Heights will delight participants on this walking tour. Harris will show how this neighborhood and adjacent neighborhoods reflect the German-American heritage of St. Louis.

Tuesday, May 24, 10:30 a.m.

Wednesday, May 25, 10:30 a.m.

A Century of Skyscrapers

Downtown St. Louis’s extraordinary skyline is the subject of this walking tour — which reveals the whole evolution of the American skyscraper.

Wednesday, June 8, 9:30 to 3:00

For More information call Southwestern Illinois College

Travel program: 618-234-4410 ext. 7042

Sacred Places in the LaSalle Park Neighborhood

St. Louis’s Bohemian, French, Syrian, and German heritage will all be featured on this walking tour.

Tuesday, September 20 10:30 a.m.

Wednesday, September 21 10:30 a.m.

Additional Walking Tours

A Century of Skyscrapers

Downtown St. Louis’s extraordinary skyline is the subject of this walking tour — which reveals the whole evolution of the American skyscraper.

Wednesday, June 8, 9:30 to 3:00

For More information call Southwestern Illinois College

Travel program: 618-234-4410 ext. 7042

Summer Talks Offered through OASIS

For more information or reservations for OASIS programs call:

The registrar at 314-862-4859 x 24

or visit www.oasisnet.org/stl

Oldest St. Louis

Featuring the oldest park, statue, family-owned bar, school, cookie bakery, billiards hall — you name it — in St. Louis. Oldest St. Louis provides a fun way to explore our city’s history and look at some of the cultural institutions and businesses that make up the fabric and character of our city. The program is based on Harris’s latest book, Oldest St. Louis.

The program will be hosted by the St. Louis Altenheim, located atop Chouteau’s Bluff overlooking the Mississippi River.

Refreshments will be provided by the St. Louis Altenheim.

Tuesday, July 12 10:30 a.m.

Wednesday, July 13 10:30 a.m.

St. Louis As Grant Knew It

Join author and historian NiNi Harris for a special lecture and tour that begins at the Campbell House and continues to the Central Library. The shops on the riverfront, the buildings lining the streets, and even St. Louisans themselves changed radically during the mid-19th century. This program by local historian NiNi Harris will look at the evolution of St. Louis through the lens of Ulysses S. Grant's life here. We will begin at the Campbell House, where he once dined, and continue the program at the Central Library. NiNi Harris is the author of A Most Unsettled State and Downtown St. Louis.

Hosted by the Campbell House Museum

in Downtown St. Louis.

Tuesday, September 13, 10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Wednesday, September 14, 10:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Private or Group Walking Tours

NiNi Harris also offers private tours for clubs and individuals.

To schedule a private tour call 314-752-2304 or send an

e-mail to niniharrisstl@gmail.com.

Bus Tours with NiNi Harris

Day-long bus tours will be returning during the spring of 2022 through Directions Tours.

For more information call 314-577-0077.

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Additionally:

Sheila Harris (who worked with her sister NiNi on many projects)

is well-known for her paintings and batiks of St. Louis architecture. Her acrylics and batiks were inspired by her travels in both this country and overseas.

Building entryways in places like Dublin are admired, immortalized on small cards and then sent through the post the world over, but the thresholds of our humble-yet-gorgeous city structures are barely noticed, as long as they allow us to move from one side of a wall to the other. To raise our local portal perception, St. Louis artist Sheila M. Harris has painted images of the doors of our historic homes, storefronts and factories, and she has put these watercolor works on display for all to enjoy. Harris’ Historic Doors of St. Louis was recently hanging at Washington Avenue Post

(1312 Washington Avenue).