And since the transfer of the property had to be approved by 100% 
of the owners, the plan stalled. Nevertheless, the Academy did not for- 
sake hope that it might acquire the Faust House. Instead, it tried to con- 
vince the property owners that it was financially sound and that a museum 
at Portland Place would be an asset. These efforts, which lasted 
throughout 1943, included the publication of a detailed description of 
the Academy and the election of an influential Portland Place property 
owner to the Academy’s Board. All of the other owners could not be 
persuaded, however, and the Faust House eventually faded from the 
list of possible sites for a new permanent home. 
Another possibility cropped up in 1944 when Palmer B. Baumes, 
St. Louis Park Commissioner, notified the Academy that the Laclede 
Police Station in Forest Park would be rehabilitated. Baumes suggested 
the Academy might consider trying to acquire the building. After some 
deliberation, the Academy abandoned this possibility because of the 
limitations of the old police station.* 
The Academy appointed a special committee in 1944 to study and 
outline some options for the immediate post-war construction of a science 
museum in St. Louis. This committee drafted a detailed plan that called 
for the development of a science center to include a planetarium, an 
aquarium, a museum of natural history, and a museum of science and 
industry. One committee member even suggested a possible design for 
the science center—a huge structure in the shape of a globe. The com- 
mittee also recommended that steps should be taken to have the science 
center included as an item on a bond issue to secure funding.° 
This plan met with enthusiasm and optimism. Unfortunately, the 
construction of such an institution appeared unfeasible in the 1940s. 
The Academy, however, remained determined to create a new museum. 
In August 1944 Stratford Lee Morton announced at a meeting that 
Joseph Desloge, President of the Academy, had located a residence at 
4642 Lindell Boulevard that would be satisfactory for use by the 
Academy as a headquarters and small museum. The price of the building 
was $16,500. President Desloge was willing to donate $8,000 and the 
balance could be had by selling the Academy’s Olive Street building.°® 
The members agreed that this purchase seemed the proper course, and 
the Academy sold the Olive Street property and bought the building 
on Lindell Boulevard. 
The Academy lost no time in setting up a museum in the Lindell 
building. It formed a new committee to plan it and appointed curators 
to develop specific exhibit topics. The curators were Harold A. Bulger, 
anthropology and archaeology; Edward P. Meiners, invertebrates; Carl 
Miller, geology and paleontology; John J. O’Fallon, aeronautics, and 
Max Schwartz, birds and mammals. 
51 
