Walks & Talks

The response to and interest in the Concordia Cemetery walking tour was so great throughout March, that it will continue to be the featured tour for April.

Walks, Tours, Programs, Lectures and Book Signings

presented by author/historian NiNi Harris.

All the tours are based on Harris' original research.

Spring 2021 Schedule

More book signings and book programs

are scheduled throughout the year.

Check back here for additions.

Private Walking Tours

Cemetery Tour – featured in March and April

The response to and interest in the Concordia Cemetery walking tour was so great throughout March, that it will continue to be the featured tour for April.

In March and April, as weather permits, NiNi Harris will be offering a walking tour in and around the final resting place of the early German immigrants who arrived here in 1839 seeking religious freedom – Concordia Cemetery. This delightful acreage in South City's landscape offers a remarkable story of inspired pilgrims overcoming disturbing obstacles. While they established the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, with nearly 2 million members, they enriched both the spiritual and commercial life of our City.

The tours are all based on NiNi Harris's original,

primary-sourced research.

A maximum of six individuals are allowed on each tour and participants must wear masks.

Each tour will be scheduled a week in advance, according to weather reports. The fee is $20.00.

To get on the list for specific days or make a reservation, contact NiNi by calling 314-752-2304.

OASIS Walking Tours return in May and June

For more information or reservations for OASIS programs call:

The registrar at 314-862-4859 x 24

or visit www.oasisnet.org/stl

The Holly Hills Walking Tour sponsored by OASIS

Silent movies provided the inspiration for this South City Neighborhood. The developers combined early Hollywood images from the silent screen with the Revival styles that were so popular during the Twenties and Thirties to create this unique neighborhood.

Wednesday, May 12

repeated Thursday, May 13

starting at 10:30 a.m.

Central West End Literary Tour sponsored by OASIS

Walk streets line with St. Louis' turn-of-the-century palaces while seeing sites important to some of St. Louis' literary giants -- nobel prize winning poet T. S. Eliot, folklorists and feminist novelist Kate Chopin, the Presbyterian nationally-recognized for his sermons the Rev. Samuel Niccolls, journalist Martha Gellhorn, and the playwright Tennessee Williams.

Wednesday, May 26

repeated Thursday, May 27

starting at 10:30 a.m.

Directions St. Louis Bus Tours with NiNi Harris

For more information call Directions: 314-577-0077

Made In St. Louis II

The fabric of our local economy is energized by little-known work shops, artisans' studios, and smaller industries. This is the second of a series of tours visiting these surprising and entrepreneurial endeavors that strengthen and enrich our area's commerce.

(At this point the tours are full, but placement on a waiting list is encouraged.)

Thursday, June 10

repeated Friday, June 11

German Heritage of South St. Louis

Featuring the architectural, cultural and landscape heritage of South St. Louis that was rooted in the area's German ancestry. The tour will feature an historic German Church, an historic German landscape, German monuments, and several German neighborhoods.

(Details of this tour will be available later through Directions.)

Monday, July 12

repeated Tuesday July 13.

PLEASE NOTE: Only 15 people max are allowed on the 50-seat buses through Directions St. Louis.

These tours are all based on Harris's original research

using primary sources.

Because of demand for the tours, additional dates will be scheduled as needed.

The staff at Directions can explain the rules for safe bus touring.

Private or Group Tours

To schedule a private or group tour of St. Louis with NiNi Harris call 314-752-2304 or e-mail niniharrisstl@gmail.com.

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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).