The Delmar Loop is located just outside of University City in St. Louis. Whether you are looking to grab a bite to eat with friends, catch a show at one of the many venues or do some shopping at the various small business boutiques or antique stores down there, it’s got something for everyone.
“Delmar Loop is a very popular spot,” Fitz’s worker Daniel Avilez said. “You can get a little bit of everything and it’s just a nice place to come walk, look around.”
Delmar is packed with tons of local small businesses shaping the community. Places like Found Vintage, a thrift store with curated pieces offering an environmentally friendly option to the community, or Strange Donuts bringing a unique flavor profile to the donut industry.
“We try to stay true to our family recipes here,” Steve Shih, owner of Poke Doke said. “A lot of people think we are a franchise but we’re definitely just a small family business.”
Delmar is more than just a part of St. Louis. It’s a community. The streets are covered in small businesses and artwork ranging from paintings on buildings to statues on the streets. Local musicians will play on street corners to bring sounds to the streets. The Delmar Loop would not be the way it is today without the support of all its visitors.
Building the Loop Through Blueberry Hill
Walking into Blueberry Hill on the Delmar Loop, it is easy to see how the restaurant, arcade and live music venue have become a staple in the culture of the area. Businessman Joe Edwards is not only the creator of Blueberry Hill, but a number of other locations on the Loop as well. Spending his career rebuilding the area led to the Delmar Loop being one of the ten great streets in America, according to the American Planning Association.
“I chose this particular building, this particular block in Delmar because when I was at that young age, I had no money and couldn’t afford to do anything else, and didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life,” Edwards said. “The rent was so low I decided I wanted to buy it, which I did six years later. But it just enabled me to just kind of create something artistic and incorporate music into themes and the pop culture stuff. It’s just fun.”
September 8, 1972, marked the opening of Blueberry Hill, which ended up being the first of many openings on the Loop for Edwards.
“When I opened Blueberry Hill in 1972, it was a great way for me to put up all my pop culture collections and build display cases all around the place, and that was one of my motivations,” Edwards said. “The other was being able to program the jukebox back then, before internet jukeboxes, [with] my record collection of 30,000 records. I could rotate [it] every two weeks.”
Other locations such as The Pageant, Pin-Up Bowl, the Moonrise Hotel and Delmar Hall followed, changing Delmar’s reputation for the better. The Loop quickly became a center for live music in St. Louis, drawing famous artists from around the world to the strip. Every celebrity Edwards has met is featured in a collage of photos covering every inch of wall space in Blueberry Hill.
“People like Chuck Berry and Paul McCartney from the Beatles and other people, a lot of current people, too, and they just like coming into Blueberry Hill,” Edwards said. “And even when they’re playing at the pageant or downtown the big arena, they’ll still come in here, which is really nice.”
Edwards has also had an impact on the community through events and community service. The St. Louis Walk of Fame nonprofit honors St. Louisans that have had an impact on the community at a national level, with a star on the sidewalk of the Loop. The Loop Trolley that runs from Delmar to Forest Park is another project he was a major part of that created a source of pride for the community.
“I just love the Delmar Loop, because everybody is welcome here,” Edwards said. “That’s the other reason that I opened the various places. People from around the country, no matter what background, what race, whatever it is, they can walk in here, and they’re going to be welcomed, and they’ll feel it right from the get-go. It’s contributed to the long-term success. A lot of places open, and they’re closed in five years. We’re still open.”
