(upbeat music) - [Narrator] We tour a St. Louis landmark, exploring from the basement to the dome and get a lesson in how to treat and not treat mental illness.

It's a successful St. Louis business that has a lot of people playing their games.

How Across the Board grew from its start in a garage.

- Then we just took a leap of faith.

We decided we kind of had something here.

- [Narrator] And his historic transatlantic flight in the Spirit of St. Louis made him an international celebrity.

But today, the Charles Lindbergh story carries a lot of baggage.

It's all next on "Living St. Louis".

(cheerful music) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) - I'm Ruth Ezell.

Our first story is about a place you might recognize.

It's one of South St. Louis' most prominent landmarks.

Veronica Mohesky recently explored the building and its history, from 19th century asylum to 21st century treatment center.

(upbeat music) - [Veronica] If you live in St. Louis, you've probably seen this building towering over Arsenal Street, but many St. Louisans don't know what it is, and even fewer have been inside it.

We were lucky enough to be given a tour by Dr. Felix Vincenz.

Since it is still a medical facility, we were asked to wear masks for the tour.

- And if you were of a certain vintage, my age, maybe 10, 20 years younger, many people would be threatened with, if they misbehaved, with mom and dad, be threatened to be dropped off on Arsenal or at the Dome.

- [Veronica] Today it is known as the St. Louis Forensic Treatment Center, but when it was built in 1869, it was called the St. Louis County Insane Asylum.

- The architect was William Rumbold.

He's very notable because he was the architect responsible for the old courthouse.

- [Veronica] The St. Louis County Insane Asylum was given the same signature green dome as the courthouse.

This main building used to see patients, but today it is mostly used for administrative purposes.

Many rooms and floors aren't used at all though due to deterioration.

- Before we actually built some cottages for our physicians, some of our physicians and their families were actually living in apartments right on either side of this hall.

- [Veronica] On the tour, Dr. Vincenz showed us the basement, the library, some very small old patient rooms, and took us all the way up to the dome.

- [Felix] And you're gonna see some interesting features in this room.

- [Veronica] He explained that the building brought a huge change to mental health care in our region.

Before asylums, he says mental health was largely mishandled, if not ignored altogether.

- People with mental illness actually did not end up in hospital environments, they ended up in jails and prisons.

- [Veronica] But things changed in 1844, after the governor of Missouri, Thomas Reynolds, died by suicide in his office.

The shock of his death caused the public and state officials to think about how Missouri should address mental health.

The issue was pushed even further when Dorothea Dix, an advocate for mental health asylums, came and spoke to the Missouri General Assembly in 1847.

- So they constructed at that time what was the first psychiatric hospital west of the Mississippi, and that was Fulton State Hospital.

- [Veronica] The Fulton Hospital was completed in 1855, and the St. Louis County Insane Asylum 14 years later.

Dr. Vincenz says the treatment style at the St. Louis Hospital was called the Moral Model.

- It was all predicated on the notion that people who were experiencing emotional turmoil or struggles of one sort or the other would be given the opportunity to get away, go off to the countryside, and be in a building where they could look out over rolling grassland, see sunshine, have fresh air, have fresh water, and be able to sort of rest and recuperate.

- [Veronica] And he says this model actually worked in some patients, but this peaceful form of treatment didn't last.

- These facilities were built with relatively few beds.

Fulton State Hospital opened with 125.

This hospital opened with 250.

And people just started to come crushing into the facility in waves.

And soon, facilities like this, as I said, housed 250, had 4,400 people in it.

And under that kind of population pressure, the Moral Model collapses.

- [Veronica] And before modern medicines to treat mental disorders came along, methods we might consider barbaric today took place at the hospital.

- People were sometimes encased in iron cages.

People were sometimes placed in seats and whirled around like in a centrifuge.

And then later on, well into the 20th century, we would do things like ice pack baths.

We would actually, you know, put packs of ice on people's body, or we would put them in hot water.

The idea here was that by promoting some pretty extreme temperature dysregulation, we would kinda shock the brain and reset it.

- [Veronica] From about the 1930s to '50s, lobotomies were performed at the hospital.

But over time, treatments changed and the number of patients decreased.

- As a result of a lot of research and a lot of pharmaceutical advancement, we began to introduce a whole new pharmacopeia that could help our patients.

But in addition to that, we brought a lot of evidence-based psychosocial treatments in.

- [Veronica] Changes and debates about mental health treatments are still ongoing.

The hospital has gone through some major transformations itself.

The east and west wings of the main building have been torn down, and there are new residences for current patients.

The types of patients have also changed.

Dr. Vincenz says most of their current clients are forensic patients.

This means the majority of them are either awaiting a criminal trial or have been declared not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.

- One of the things that the mental health treatment that we provide has demonstrated is that people with mental illness, if appropriately treated, actually are no more dangerous than anyone else.

- [Veronica] Dr. Vincenz says there's been a major shift in the stigma surrounding mental health since he began working at the St. Louis Forensic Treatment Center in the '80s.

- People now begin to see individuals with mental health histories as just like everyone else, as deserving of admiration and respect, as deserving of acknowledgement of the tremendous gains they've made and their commitment to improving their own condition.

- [Veronica] The facility even offers tours to the public for those interested in learning about the history of mental health treatment in St. Louis.

And he says that hopefully by touring the center, St. Louisans will come away with a more positive view of the facility and stop using it as a way to scare their kids.

- And hopefully a visit to Arsenal Street now would be no longer a source of pain or fear, but actually an opportunity to see how far we've come.

(upbeat music) - It's not always easy to take a hard look at our past, reexamining our country's history, its monuments, its heroes.

Last month, the "St. Louis Jewish Light" and the "Riverfront Times" did just that in an article entitled, "Confronting the Lindbergh Legacy".

In a moment, Jim Kirchherr will talk with the author of that article about Charles Lindbergh of Spirit of St. Louis fame, but that's not the complicated part.

- [Jim] His solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927 backed by St. Louis business leaders helped define the post World War I world, an era of technology, American ingenuity, rugged individualism, and media coverage.

And when Charles Lindbergh landed in Paris, he became arguably the most famous and admired man in the world.

He took a very public and active role in the growing world of aviation.

In the early days, TWA was dubbed the Lindbergh Line.

- [Narrator] And now Colonel Lindbergh, on a coast to coast inspection of the line passes our ship in midair.

- But the kidnapping and murder of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh's child in 1932 was a terrible price he had to pay for being a modern day celebrity.

But when Lindbergh spoke, people listened, even if it wasn't about aviation.

And with a war on in Europe, there was his admiration for Nazi Germany, his America-first isolationism, and his public statements about Jewish influence in the media and government, pushing America into war.

He had his supporters, but his antisemitism made many uncomfortable then and is once again coming under scrutiny as we approach in just a few years the centennial of the historic flight by a historic figure so closely associated with St. Louis.

And the author of last month's article in the "Jewish Light" and "Riverfront Times", "Confronting the Lindbergh Legacy", was local journalist Shula Newman.

Shula, thanks for coming here.

You know, this is a story, we've talked about this, I've been interested in this a while with the upcoming centennial.

And you went ahead and wrote the article, so good for you.

This is a difficult topic for St. Louis, and I think for America in general, dealing with its heroes and some of their failures in life.

So first of all, the reaction you might be getting from this article locally?

- So far it's been overwhelmingly positive, which is nice.

I was worried a little bit that it might not be that.

But people are saying, wow, this is, one, people said, "I had no idea that Lindbergh actually isn't from St. Louis".

You know, people just don't know a lot about him.

So it was like, oh, that's why we have all these Lindberghs everywhere around the city.

But overwhelmingly people are like, this is really thought provoking.

This is a lot of information I didn't know.

And they seem very appreciative to have the food for thought.

- I have to say that the flight is one of my favorite stories of the 20th century, up to 1927, right?

Because of all it meant and the world reaction to it.

Can we separate that, the incredible accomplishment, can we separate that from what he spoke of later in his life?

- I think so.

I think that this is the challenge that we have when we examine all of our heroes.

He was an amazing aviator.

His contributions to aviation, to modern day aviation, we still, some of the flight patterns that we follow, he established, you know?

So there's no separating how integral he was to creating society as we know it today.

But he was a complicated man, and in many ways, not somebody that I would wanna spend time with, but a complicated man.

And that's the whole point of what I hoped to get at in this article is like, look at our heroes, and say they did some amazing things, but they were also bad people.

Both can be true.

- Yeah, was his antisemitism, you refer to something called genteel antisemitism, country club antisemitism, which was not new then and frankly, it's not new now.

Was he more than that?

Was he more than just a man of his time in terms of how Jews were looked at?

- I don't think he was.

I think he was very typical for the class that he came from.

And he did have some people that he, some Jewish people that he called friends.

But he felt like the people that he was comfortable associating with who were Jewish, they were the exceptions to how we saw the masses of Jews and the immigrants that were swarming the shores.

I think that that was very typical for a lot of white Anglo-Saxon, upper middle class people.

So I don't think-- - But he spoke, but he had the microphone.

- That's what makes him different.

And that's what makes-- - He becomes an authority, right?

In a sense.

- He's a hero and people believe what he says.

And when he says, when he talks about some people have a disproportionate control over the media, every, you know, other person in the country understood that he's talking about Jews.

- Yeah, and it wasn't new then and it's not new now.

Antisemitism unfortunately is never old news.

So what's the relevancy?

I mean, why run this article now, besides from a historical perspective?

What should we be thinking about?

And I encourage people to read this article, by the way.

- Oh, thank you.

I think that the relevancy is that even before October 7th and the war with Hamas and Israel right now, even before then, there was a rise in antisemitism already happening in this country.

And I think I wanted to make sure that we examine as a society what antisemitism looks like now, what it looked like historically, and why we continue to tolerate it.

That's why I felt like it was important to write this article, that and to have people question themselves, you know?

- Yeah, the thing about Lindbergh, and I interviewed his daughter many years ago, Reeve Lindbergh, and she thought that in 100 years he would be remembered as the aviator, the rest of this might be forgotten.

And in fact, we were talking before, 1957, "The Spirit Of St. Louis" movie comes out.

So everything that he was saying before World War II seems to have been erased at that time.

- Yes and no.

It's very interesting.

I mean, on the one hand, I think that not a lot of people, younger people especially, have any idea who Lindbergh is.

When I first started this article, I was talking with some high school students and I asked them, and you know, they had no idea.

Lindbergh, Bloomberg Boulevard, what?

So I don't think that anybody knows who he is.

And I think those who do know are predominantly Jewish people or avid historians.

And they think, oh, Lindbergh, antisemite.

- Well, share the article.

Shula Newman's the author of the article, "Confronting the Lindbergh Legacy".

You can find the article on the "Jewish Light" and "Riverfront Times" websites.

Shula, thanks so much for joining us.

Appreciate your coming.

- Oh, you're welcome.

Glad to do it.

(energetic music) - [Jim] This week in 1920, 104 years ago, the deadline for registering to vote in St. Louis's special bond issue election was approaching.

And the question was, would women for the first time be allowed to vote?

The 19th Amendment was just two states short of ratification.

Missouri and Illinois had been early ratifiers in 1919.

That's Missouri Governor Frederick Gardner signing the ratification.

A year later, Washington and Delaware could put it over the top any day now.

But here was the problem, only men were being allowed to register.

But what if women got the right to vote after the registration deadline, but before the May 11th bond issue vote?

Would the results be valid?

There was talk about delaying the election, allowing women to register anyway, maybe having male and female ballot boxes in case the votes were challenged.

Turns out, while Washington State approved, the Delaware legislature voted down women's suffrage, and it wouldn't be until August that Tennessee became the 36th state needed for ratification in time for women to vote in the 1920 presidential and all other elections.

But they missed out on the bond issue that spring in Missouri.

The city was ready to let them vote, but just couldn't legally allow them to register.

This week in St. Louis and women's history 104 years ago.

- Our next story is about the business of fun and games.

Not the video games so popular today, no, sir.

Brooke Butler's story is about old school board games.

They're made by a local business that has come far from its start in the family garage.

(upbeat music) - [Brooke] It's one of those parts of life that we can all relate to, playing games.

Whether you're part of a yard game family, nerd out on board games, or like myself, are teaching the next generation some of the most valuable learned lessons right at the kitchen table, games are an essential part of the human experience.

And right here in St. Louis, there's a place where craftsmanship is championing the art of quality time spent together.

- Across the Board started about 15 years ago.

My husband Ryan and I attended a, after a dinner party, and we played a horse racing game, and we had a whole lot of fun playing the game.

However, my husband thought he could improve the design of the game, he could improve the odds, the way it was played.

So he started tinkering around in our garage the next day, and he designed what is our current Deluxe Horse Racing Game.

- [Brooke] What started as a fun hobby for Kim and Ryan just to gift to their family and friends soon turned into a way to supplement their income.

And when they took their games to a local festival, they completely sold out, with new orders starting to pile in, all simply from word of mouth.

- Somebody would take our horse racing game to a party and they would play it, and the next morning, two people would order it.

So we worked out of our home, out of our garage, making games for about four to five years.

And it was just the two of us.

He would make them in the garage, he'd bring them into the living room.

I'd sit on the ground with our little kids and pound away and put the games together.

Then we just took a leap of faith.

We decided we kind of had something here.

- [Brooke] In 2012, the McDaniels moved their operation to this warehouse in Crestwood, the same site that's still used today to carry out the full process of creating the board games, from cutting and sanding to printing their custom designs to placing each intricate little detail.

They evolved from a two person operation to employing 30 dedicated workers that maintain the same sense of perfectionism that Ryan implemented from the beginning.

However, despite achieving tremendous success, Across the Board has lost a major player.

- In 2013, Ryan, my husband, was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer at age 42.

And so with three small kids and a business that we both, was our livelihood, it was scary, it was really scary.

He was diagnosed in September of 2013, underwent treatment for 20 months, and he passed away in May of 2015.

So then it was a big decision.

Do we continue with Across the Board as a single mom of three small children?

Or do I work where financially it's a little bit more stable and a little bit easier for all of us?

But I decided I wanted to be able to pick the kids up from school and I wanted to attend their different school activities and I wanted to be more accessible for them.

And I wanted to see Ryan's dream come true.

And the kids were on board with that.

- [Brooke] With his creation of the signature horse racing game, one of Ryan's dreams was for it to become licensed as the official horse racing game of the Kentucky Derby.

- So after he passed away in January of 2016, I went out to Las Vegas to the Sports Licensing and Tailgate show, and took the oval board that he had designed and walked the show, and found the folks that did the licensing for Kentucky Derby.

And within a month we had the official license.

So we are now the official horse racing game of Kentucky Derby.

- That's huge.

- It was big.

It was so exciting and so bittersweet, like, you know, wanted him to see that.

But we do put his initials on every single game that we make, every single Kentucky Derby game as a tribute to him and his dream.

- [Brooke] But why just stop at the horse racing game?

Across the Board then went on to become the official car racing game for NASCAR, the official golf game for PGA Tour, and just in time for opening day, their baseball game was recently licensed by MLB.

- One of our most proud St. Louis moments, we were selling our classic baseball game at Busch Stadium and Stan Musial's family saw it, and they approached us and asked us if we would make a Stan Musial baseball game.

- [Brooke] In fact, Kim has many proud St. Louis moments as she credits much of Across the Board's success to the support of the city.

- We built our business thanks to the St. Louis community and all word of mouth.

We're national, I mean, we even ship worldwide now.

But we started here in St. Louis and St. Louis is what got us to the point that we are now, and they still support us tremendously.

- [Brooke] Yes, it definitely helps to have the support of the community for any local business owner, but it also doesn't hurt that there is an increasingly growing popularity of board games worldwide.

Reports show the global board game market is valued between $11 and $13 billion, with a prediction to grow at least 7% over the next five years.

As with a lot of things in our world, the pandemic had something to do with the growth as more people were staying home and playing games together.

But Kim agrees that there's a little more to it than that.

- We all know that we're all tied to screens, you know, I mean, we're all guilty of it.

And it's just nice to put those away for a night, have a family game night, invite some friends over and just reconnect.

You know, I think that's what's kind of lost in the world today is just that human interaction and that reconnection.

And it's so fulfilling to be part of something that I know brings so much joy to other people.

(upbeat music) - Finally, we end with some weird stuff produced by a man who says his job allows him to stay connected to his 13-year-old self.

Here's a portrait of artist Tom Huck by stl.org.

(upbeat music) - Society is not set up for people to make a living off of selling art.

Society is set up for people to make a living in the corporate structure.

You're gonna have all these people that tell you this is impossible.

From the time I was 12 years old, people were telling me this is impossible.

(energetic music) I'm a person that built my life around the art.

I just did it instinctively because that's the kind of creative life that I wanted to live.

I don't want to have a regular job, so I make woodcuts about the downfall of society.

This part of art making was hurled forward by an artist named Albrecht Durer.

I found his imagery when I was 13 years old and everything appealed to me in his prints.

Being a 13-year-old Iron Maiden heavy metal fan, all of Durer's prints could have been, any one of 'em could have been an album cover for Iron Maiden.

I mean, there were all the dark, lurid, medieval subject matter that heavy metal fans adore.

So in some weird, weird way, I've found a way to perpetually be 13 years old professionally for the rest of my life.

The only thing that really grounds me is going, being able to draw and carve on my blocks and draw on my sketchbook every day.

They start from a thought in my head that I sit on for a long time.

I have an idea here in this part of my head and I have a title in this part of my head and I have another idea in this part of my head.

And then most of the time over a lot of drawing and a lot of thinking and a lot of drawing and a lot of thinking, usually those three things, they come together.

(pensive music) You do the work like I do about the downfall of society, I don't know man, I don't make this stuff to match people's couches.

The rewards are coming more these days now that I've got 27 years.

And I think that there's some context being put into my work where I'm getting to show with like, guys that are my heroes.

It's very hard to do something that most people don't think is a viable way of life.

So you can love the art all you want, but it don't have to love you back.

I think you have to put the art first if you wanna make art your life.

That's kind of where I'm at, all day every day.

(pensive music) - And that's "Living St. Louis".

Thanks for your comments and your story ideas.

Keep 'em coming to NinePBS.org/LSL.

I'm Ruth Ezell.

We'll see you next time.

(cheerful music) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) (music continues) - [Narrator] "Living St. Louis" is funded in part by the Betsy and Thomas Patterson Foundation and the members of Nine PBS.