Southern Air In early 1934, the Missouri State Highway Commission gave final approval to a new "Super Highway 40" that would extend from Wentzville, across a new Missouri River bridge, and traverse St. Louis County.
The new Daniel Boone Bridge across the Missouri River was dedicated and opened to traffic on June 26, 1937.
The following notice appeared in the Warrenton Banner on January 15, 1937.
In July of 1937, the Harlan brothers – Joseph Jerome and Francis Marion – opened the Southern Air Cafe and Garage in Wentzville at the intersection of Super Highway 40 and Highway 61 – just weeks after the dedication of the new highway and bridge. F. M. Harlan managed the garage and service station in the south end of the building, which sold Dixie gas and lubricants. Initially called the Harlan Motor Co. at Southern Air, it soon became known as the Southern Air Garage. George Wilmes was in charge of the car painting department, while Charles Willerding operated the pumps and assisted in general service.
The Southern Air Cafe was operated under lease
by Russell and Nadine Lewis. The cafe, with less than a dozen dining
tables and a lunch counter, was open day and night, and soon became
quite popular.
By October of 1938, the Harlan brothers had sold the Southern Air Cafe and Garage to Mr. and Mrs. Gene Andrews. The Andrews' son-in-law, George Wilmes, who had worked at the Garage since it opened, became its proprietor. Russell and Nadine Lewis continued to lease and operate the Cafe. In the spring of 1941, the Southern Air Cafe and Garage again changed hands; Hugh L. Robertson became its new owner. But unlike his predecessors, Robertson's interest was the Cafe. * * * * * Hubert Ledford Robertson was born on September 10, 1902 in Lockhart, Texas. From 1930 to 1940, Robertson and his wife Edna lived at 7327 Richmond Place in Maplewood, Missouri. During that time, Robertson worked as the manager of the Tunnelway Restaurant in Famous-Barr's basement.
After managing Famous-Barr's basement restaurant for over ten years, Robertson decided it was time to manage a restaurant of his own. In March of 1941, he purchased the Southern Air Cafe and Garage from the Andrews, with the Andrews' son-in-law, George Wilmes, continuing to manage the Garage. In 1945, the Andrews sold their Wentzville home at 1005 Pitman Avenue to Robertson, where he, his wife Edna and his daughters, Betty Sue and Jill, would live for many years. Under Robertson's management, the Southern Air Cafe continued to grow throughout the 1940s and 1950s.
In March of 1962, a new wing added to the north
side of the restaurant was open for public dining, private banquets
and parties. It included the Azeala Room, which could seat 90
persons.
In August 0f 1963, the Southern Air Garage was
razed and a new two-story addition was added on the southeast corner
of the building; it opened in November of 1963. The Southern Air
Cafe was now the Southern Air Restaurant.
The new addition, approximately 74 by 42 feet in size, tied in with the colonial architecture of the existing building. With a large banquet room downstairs, seating up to 250 persons, and three meeting rooms upstairs, with available space for 100 diners, the addition made it possible for the restaurant to seat a total of 570 diners at one time.
The banquet room was provided with a stage and
complete public address system, making it suitable for dinner
parties, sales gatherings and banquets. It was known as the Rebel
Room, carrying out the Southern theme.
The Dixie Room, the original dining room on the west aide of the budding,
remained a popular spot; it provided ample space for 60 diners. The
remodeled cocktail lounge – the Missouri Room – had space for 40
diners and the Coffee Shop had space for 60 diners.
In January of 1968, Hugh Robertson sold the
Southern Air to Edward E. Fries, a St. Louis executive.
Robertson, who sold his restaurant because of poor health, died in
June of the same year.
Fries remodeled the second floor of his new restaurant into living quarters for his family, with three bedrooms, two baths and a living room. He would own the restaurant until 1981. In its heyday, the Southern Air was a prestigious meeting place. Big names in Missouri politics – Stuart Symington, John Ashcroft, Christopher Bond, Tom Eagleton – were regular customers. Entertainers James Michener, Loretta Lynn, Barbara Mandrell and the Four Freshmen dropped in for breakfast or a meal.
St. Louis residents
often drove to Wentzville on weekends for a fried chicken dinner, a
house specialty. Fries recalled that in the 1970s, Colonel
Harlan Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame finished his meal at the
Southern Air and told him, "You've got a fine restaurant."
An undisputed attraction at the Southern Air was its cocktail lounge, the Missouri Room, which featured wallpaper depicting stylishly dressed dogs impersonating people at a bar. Lawyers, physicians and other professional men from rural areas around Wentzville would steal away from their conservative hometowns and enjoy a drink without being seen by their teetotaler clients and patients. For years, the Southern Air was the only place between St. Louis and Columbia that served mixed drinks. After a football game in Columbia, the restaurant and the bar were rocking.
The Missouri Room was also a hideaway place for
a lot of executives from St. Louis. Fries recalled a regular
customer at the cocktail lounge, "an auto dealer from St. Louis who
would rendezvous there with his girlfriends."
In 1981, Edward Fries sold the Southern Air to Darryl L. Haynes. Haynes, originally from Wentzville, had been in the restaurant business in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Business declined in the mid-1980s. In 1988,
Haynes sold the Southern Air to rock 'n roll legend Chuck Berry, who
had a home in Wentzville. The remodeled restaurant opened on
September 12, 1988, complete with a music room in the south wing,
featuring live music.
However, late the next year, a female employee
accused Berry of videotaping her as she and other women used the
restroom at the restaurant. About 60 women later joined in a
class-action suit against Berry, making the same accusation. Berry
denied involvement in the videotaping, but in 1995 settled the suit
for $1.2 million.
In 1999, Lindenwood University purchased the Southern Air building from Berry. The school spent $1 million to buy and renovate the old restaurant into an extension center with 11 classrooms and other amenities. Dennis Spellman, Lindenwood president and a history buff, was credited with saving the building. He felt it was important to preserve the historic link to the past, and Lindenwood agreed to leave the Southern Air sign up so it would be recognized for its historical value.
However, in 2010, after James D. Evans became
president of the university, Lindenwood petitioned the City of
Wentzville to replace the Southern Air sign with a Lindenwood
University sign in an effort to attract more students to the
satellite campus. The City of Wentzville agreed to allow the change,
and the historic Southern Air sign was removed from the building.
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