(soft music) - [Announcer] The renovation of the Old Courthouse is nearing completion with new exhibits coming in.

It's been improved in ways you won't see and restored in ways you will.

- [Jeremy] This building is held to the highest standards of historic preservation.

- [Announcer] Our Lady of Guadalupe represents love and unity, something students and parents are holding onto as they celebrate her feast day for the last time at the school that bears her name.

- The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, that's bigger than Christmas for them.

- Yay!

(audience applauding) - [Announcer] He had a hit record, but this St. Louisan was much more than a one-hit wonder.

We remember Bob Kuban and a lifetime of making music.

- And the old saying, "What if?"

And apparently this was the way it was supposed to be.

- [Announcer] It's all next on "Living St.

Louis."

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - I'm Brooke Butler, and we're going to start off with an episode we might call "This Old Courthouse."

One of St. Louis's most prominent landmarks, the Old Courthouse, has been closed to the public for some time, now undergoing major renovations and modernizations.

Kara Vaninger checked in a few weeks ago to see how things were going and found out they're getting close.

(lively music) - [Kara] The closed sign might still sit in front of the Old Courthouse, but inside it's clear that its major renovations are nearing completion.

(elevator chimes) A grand opening is scheduled for spring 2025 and will serve as a dramatic finale to over a decade of work on two of St. Louis's most iconic sites.

- It's actually the largest public-private partnership in the history of the National Park Service, which started in 2013 with the renovation of the arch grounds.

But this is part of that same project, so it's a partnership between the National Park Service and the Gateway Arch Park Foundation, our official philanthropic partners.

- [Kara] Since its completion in 1862, the Old Courthouse has only been renovated once, so a refresh was not only welcome but necessary.

- Modernization was a huge part of it, so, replacing the HVAC system, replacing windows with new modern energy, efficient windows, getting everything up to modern codes and just making it a more usable building 'cause it's not only a public space, but it's also the park's headquarters.

- And just the beauty of this room.

I look at the capitals of these columns, and they are just gorgeous.

- Pam Sanfilippo, program manager for museum services and interpretation, took us on a tour of the building, pointing out updates and sharing some Old Courthouse history.

- The upgrades that we needed to do for fire suppressions and safety, today you can see those sprinkler heads, which aren't historic, of course, but they do blend really well.

We didn't want to impede too much on that historical integrity.

- One of the most significant updates was the replacement of the original sash windows throughout the building.

What a view, right?

- Yes, and one of the great features is that we have these new windows, and we don't have to worry for the exhibits that will be in here.

Typically, you know, you have to make sure that there's not a lot of sunlight, but these all have modern UV protection so that those exhibits will be preserved.

We can keep the windows open.

Visitors will be able to get a sense of place, where they're at in the city of St. Louis.

- [Kara] This particular room will house an exhibit on the art, architecture, and craftsmanship of the building.

An interactive model will show the stages of construction, including the then unique dome designed by William Rumbold, who received a patent for it.

- And because this is part of a national park, this building is held to the highest standards of historic preservation.

So, you know, before the project actually started with construction in February of 2023, we'd spent years in a design process working with historians, working with architectural historians and cultural resource professionals and the State Historic Preservation Office to make sure that our plans and designs were gonna balance modernization and updates with that need to protect the historic fabric of the building.

(button clicks) - [Kara] The renovation will also open doors for everyone to be able to engage in the full experience this historical site has to offer.

- For the building's entire history, you've never had access to the second floor for anybody with mobility challenges.

So there's a lot to see up there.

You'll be closer to the rotunda.

You'll be able to actually approach the railing and look down from the second floor onto the rotunda floor.

New ramp, new glass railing.

As you can see, there was a trough in there that posed a risk for people to step into or roll into, so that's now blocked by the glass.

But we did this in a way that it doesn't prevent people from seeing everything that there is to be seen.

- [Kara] One of the highlights of the second floor is being able to get a little closer to the beautiful paintings that adorn the rotunda.

From allegorical to historical, they captured the ideals and artistic styles of the age they were painted in.

- They're gorgeous to see, but you can't really see a whole lot of the detail in those.

And so in our new Designed for Justice Gallery, we'll have an actual interactive component that will allow visitors to see those close-up on a nice big screen and explore.

- [Kara] Although officially completed in 1862, the building was in use long before that.

- In 1849, during both the fire that happened in the city of St. Louis and the cholera epidemic, meetings were held here as to how the city was going to respond to those tragedies and recover from them and move forward.

So the speaker would stand in the center of the rotunda on the floor there.

People would just pack these balcony areas right to the edge, all the way up.

- [Kara] The second floor will also feature two incredible recreations of original courtrooms.

- We will actually use this for doing mock trials, both with school groups and with the public.

The public loves doing these mock trials as well.

So this was Circuit Court Number 4.

Beautiful, ornate, really gives you a sense of the seriousness.

This is also the courtroom that Louis Brandeis was first admitted to the Missouri Bar, went on to be a US Supreme Court Justice.

- We're always learning new things about history, and this building is no different.

And in the past several decades, we've learned much more about how this building was used.

- [Kara] In addition to holding court hearings and public gatherings, the building was also home to the city's fire bell system and served as a sort of dispatch station in the mid to late 1800s.

Although all of the equipment was removed many years ago, this fact further demonstrates just how central the courthouse was to everyday life in St. Louis.

Of course, the most moving aspect of the building are the stories of the hundreds of enslaved people, including Dred and Harriet Scott, who dared to climb the courthouse steps, pass under that imposing rotunda, and sue for their freedom.

- So the Old Courthouse itself, it represented that you could go someplace and receive justice, but there's also that counter aspect of it, that those who sought justice here, many of them did not receive that justice.

Over 300 freedom suits were filed here at the Old Courthouse.

Only about half of those individuals were actually freed through the court system.

- The Old Courthouse is a nationally significant civil rights site.

And the reason the National Park Service manages places like this is that they are important to all Americans.

We're gonna have our Pathways to Freedom Gallery, which is gonna be about African American life in St. Louis.

And then were also gonna have a lot more information about Dred and Harriet Scott, not just in their role as part of a court case, but in their role as people, you know, what was it like to spend 11 years fighting for your freedom through the judicial system and how did that affect them as individuals and as family members.

- The courts moved out in 1930.

The building went through various phases of occupation, and one of them was a community art council that was using the space for art classes and studios and things like that before it was donated to the National Park Service.

- I'm glad it's come back around so that it is a record of all the important people and things that happened here.

- Yes, it's just wonderful to be this close to that reopening and sharing all of these stories that we've, you know, been wanting to tell for many years and finally able to do that in just a beautifully restored structure.

- Elementary school children put on performances and create reenactments as part of curriculum all the time.

Some may reflect a historical event they're learning about in school, and others may have a religious or cultural meaning.

In this next story, Anne-Marie Berger takes a look at a bittersweet tribute to the patron saint of Mexico.

(solemn percussion music) - [Anne-Marie] Every year on December 12th, Catholics in Mexico and the United States celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, a day commemorating the Virgin Mary appearing to a peasant named Juan Diego in 1531 in Mexico City.

- [Narrator] Juan Diego became more confident that everything was going to be all right.

- [Anne-Marie] And at this parish school named for Mexico's patron saint, students reenact the miracle on the hill as a sacred tradition.

- [Jack] The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, that's bigger than Christmas for them.

Our Lady of Guadalupe was bringing a new age, a new time.

- [Anne-Marie] Father Jack Schuler is the former pastor at this parish.

When he arrived here, it was primarily a white, English-speaking congregation and school.

- I was pastor here at Our Lady of Guadalupe for 16 years, and after the first year, we opened the doors to Latinos, and they kept coming.

(laughs) - [Anne-Marie] Our Lady of Guadalupe is located on South Florissant Road in North County.

There are about 205 students, and they have about a 98% minority enrollment.

Anayeli Cortes went to school here, kindergarten through eighth grade.

She was the first non-English speaking student to attend this school.

- I used to cry, not wanting to come to school because I would say that I don't understand them.

I don't know what they're saying.

- Then more and more people came.

Some knew English, some didn't.

So we had special programs to help them understand.

And a lot of people kind of helped us financially because most of the people that came to the school could not pay the full tuition.

- And then I started learning.

I had a lot of help from teachers, and I started learning, I believe, by like second grade.

I was a little bit more fluent, and I was able to speak.

And me learning English, I was able to help my parents because they didn't speak English.

So I helped them a lot throughout me learning, being the first generation from my family to speak English.

- So there was a big community effort, and then there's this mutual learning going on, you know.

We had to change the way we do things here because of the traditions and customs of the Hispanics, especially the Mexicans.

- [Anne-Marie] The Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe is a perfect example.

And while this is a celebration for the Latino community here, this particular day is a sad one.

Just two days earlier, the archdiocese, citing recommendations by parish leaders, announced they would be closing Our Lady of Guadalupe School at the end of the 2024-2025 school year due to a lack of financial sustainability.

Three of Anayeli's four children are enrolled here.

What makes you emotional about it?

Is it about your past, or is it about for your children?

- I think a little bit of both, past 'cause I had a lot of support here, all the staff, everybody, teachers, friends that I went to school with and also because of the kids because here I felt like comfortable with them here because I knew the teachers.

I knew the principal.

And I know how it is to go to school here and what they can expect.

So I guess now that new change of going somewhere unknown that you don't know much of.

So it's both, a little bit of both.

- [Anne-Marie] Three parish elementary schools in the archdiocese closed at the end of the 2023-2024 school year.

At this time, Our Lady of Guadalupe is the only school set to close this year.

(congregation singly indistinctly) - I pray for these kids now that they're gonna have to be uplifted and go to a different place, who knows where.

But wherever they go, they're gonna be marginalized because here, one of the things that I learned was that you need a critical mass in order for people to come out.

Wherever they go, they're not gonna be a critical mass anymore.

- [Anne-Marie] Our Lady of Guadalupe represents love and unity, something these students and parents are holding onto as they celebrate her feast day for the last time at the school that bears her name.

(solemn percussion music) - Finally, Musician Bob Kuban passed away at the age of 84.

As a young man, he had a hit record, and the term one-hit wonder applies but doesn't really tell the story of a successful career entertaining generations of St. Louisans.

Years ago, he told that story to Anne-Marie Berger, and tonight from our archives, we remember Bob Kuban.

(attendees chattering) - [Coordinator] Let's do a book signing, folks.

- It's been a long time.

- [Anne-Marie] St. Louis music legend Bob Kuban has written a book co-authored by Nancy Wenger, reflecting his life from his side of the bandstand.

- Going up to Club Imperial, my first experience was to witness Ike Turner.

And this was sort of my inspiration, and my goal was to get a band like Ike's, you know, with the horns and be a recording artist someday.

Hey, we need you to sing along to the music we're dancing off.

Get down to "Sweet Home Alabama."

- [Anne-Marie] Since the late 1950s, Bob Kuban has been entertaining St. Louisans with rock and roll, from dance parties to football/Cardinal games, to the Veiled Prophet.

Bob Kuban has created music that spans generations.

Although he has had his ups and downs.

There was the gold record, "The Cheater," where in 1966, Bob Kuban and the In-Men were on track to be the next big thing.

♪ For the fool-hearted clown ♪ Look out for The Cheater ♪ He's gonna build you up just to let you down ♪ - [Anne-Marie] Only to have that end in disappointment.

♪ All of you girls had better stay inside ♪ - The more I talked to Bob, the more I discovered there was a lot to his life that people had no knowledge of.

- [Anne-Marie] It was eight years ago when Nancy and Kuban began to write this book, and in it he reveals a lot about his life growing up in North St. Louis County.

- Actually I was born in South St. Louis, and then we moved to North County.

And we lived in St. Ann, and then we went further out to Bellefont Neighbors later on.

But I'm pretty much a...

I consider myself a North County guy.

(upbeat rock music) - [Anne-Marie] Kuban grew up the oldest of three kids.

His father was a milkman for Pevely Dairy, and as he put it, they were poor.

- You know, my mother did typing at home.

You know, she got a penny a label or something, that type of thing.

So we didn't have a lot of money, that's for sure.

- [Anne-Marie] Kuban describes his childhood as a happy one, running with the neighborhood kids and going to the neighborhood schools.

His desire to be a drummer started when he was just nine years old, and he didn't even have any drums.

- Well, I ran into a of mine who showed me how to hold some drumsticks, and so I started banging on things.

- [Anne-Marie] Back in those days, there weren't many music programs in grade schools, and private lessons weren't in the Kuban family's budget.

But one day in junior high, Bob finally got the chance to bang some sticks on real drums.

But what's amazing is who gave him that chance.

(upbeat rock music) ♪ Maybellene, why can't you be true ♪ - Chuck Berry was a guest one day, and it was when he had his song "Maybellene."

He came out, and he hollered.

He says, "Is there anybody out in the audience can play drums?"

Well, a bunch of guys all got together and said, "Yeah, Kuban," 'cause they got me up there.

So I went ahead, and I played.

I worked with Chuck.

I got up there and played, and after I finished playing, you know, he says, "You did a good job."

You know, he was commenting me.

"How long you been playing drums?"

I says, "About 10 minutes," 'cause it's the first time I'd ever played on a set.

I'd never played on a set before.

- [Anne-Marie] Even though he was just in junior high, that one stint with Chuck Berry got Kuban noticed, by his classmates, anyway.

Upperclassmen wanted Bob in their bands, and by his senior year, he was a member of the Rhythm Masters and was earning admiration from kids all across town.

These young musicians in the late 1950s, like Kuban, weren't just offering entertainment.

They were creating an atmosphere for young people.

They played all over town at teen nights and school functions.

And it wasn't long before The Bob Kuban Band had made a name for itself.

- Well, we pretty much had North City and County sewed up.

As far as a place to go, if you want to hear a band, you had to come out to hear us.

(upbeat rock music) - [Anne-Marie] The Bob Kuban Band began to spill over onto the South Side when a young good-looking singer named Walter Scott joined the group.

♪ All the things they said are true ♪ - Yeah, about 1963, Wally had heard about the band.

Obviously, they were in a South St. Louis band.

He was in a group called The Pacemakers, but he was getting ready to leave that group.

He wasn't happy with the situation or whatever, and so he came out to hear us.

And he came, sat in with the band, and then the rest is history.

♪ And I wanna know ♪ About you - [Anne-Marie] It may sound like generations ago, well, it was generations ago, but playing at venues such as Teen Towns is what launched Kuban's career.

Back in those days, there was no MTV.

There were no multimedia outlets.

But there was radio.

- Back then too you had disc jockeys here in town, and they'd talk about you on the radio, you know, after they'd see you at a dance function.

So that sort of helped the cause a little bit, you know, as far as, "I heard this band last night, Bob Kuban Band over at so-and-so's Teen Town, and they're a great band, and you guys gotta come out and hear 'em.

Next week they're gonna be at St. James Church," you know, or whatever.

So that sort of helped the thing.

And then as people would see you, you'd start seeing all these numbers showing up.

And then you'd figure, well, we're gonna practice more and more and more because, you know, we realize this is gonna do something.

- And it did.

The more appearances they made, the more mentions they got on the radio, and the more popular they became, The Bob Kuban band, which eventually became known as Bob Kuban and the In-Men, were covering bands from the time such as the Four Tops, the Temptations, The Righteous Brothers.

And then along came "The Cheater."

♪ Haven't you heard about the guy known as The Cheater ♪ - [Anne-Marie] Bob Kuban and the In-Men signed with a local record label, and they had an instant hit.

It wasn't long before they had a gold record on their hands, and "American Bandstand" came calling.

On April 30th, 1966, these local boys were seen all across the country.

- The song is called "The Cheater."

Here's Bob Kuban and the In-Men.

- Yay!

(audience applauding) ♪ Haven't you heard about the guy known as The Cheater ♪ - [Bob] That, you know, when you'd see that on TV, and especially if you started in the business, that was your goal, to be on "American Bandstand."

I mean, that was it.

That was the, you know, the summit.

- Was that when you were like, "Okay, we've officially made it because we're on this program?"

- You know what?

You almost feel that way.

You really do.

I mean, to go and meet Dick Clark, you know, and actually perform on that thing, it was one of the greatest things of our lives.

- The late 1960s was an awesome time to be in a rock and roll band, and Kuban did achieve his dream of becoming a recording artist.

However, the 1960s had a lot more going on than rock and roll.

- The Vietnam War was going big time.

I was draft bait.

I was out of...

I wasn't ready for the...

I mean, I was ready for the draft, but they weren't gonna take me because I was what they call 3-A 'cause I was teaching school.

I was a teacher at DuBourg High School.

Well, I checked into it.

We started getting these calls to go to Australia, you know, and everything 'cause it was a big song over in Australia, number-one song in Australia.

And obviously they wanted us to go to New York, wanted to go to California and travel.

We had a big hit record.

Well, I checked in with the draft board, and they told me, they said, "Well..." And I wanted to take a leave of absence from my job.

They said, "Well, you take a leave of absence, you know, from the teaching gig, you take a leave of absence, you'll be classified 1-A, and you'll get drafted."

- [Kara] So for Kuban, whether he quit his job or not, a tour was never going to happen.

There were many factors involved, but it wasn't long before Bob Kuban and the In-Men disbanded, and he and Walter Scott went their separate ways.

It just all ended.

- The rug was pulled right out from underneath me, yeah.

(mellow upbeat music) - [Anne-Marie] But don't feel sorry for Bob Kuban.

The last four decades, he's been on top.

- "The Cheater," I think, is not necessarily Bob's only claim to fame.

He was a landmark here, and I think he probably would've been a landmark here with or without "The Cheater."

- [Anne-Marie] And just ask him, he has no regrets.

Do you ever look back and say, "No Vietnam War, and I would've gone," how different your life would've been?

- You know, that's a great question and the old saying, "What if?"

And apparently, this was the way it was supposed to be.

I mean, I might have... What if we'd become another Rolling Stones or something like that?

I don't know if... You don't know, but I'm thankful.

I've got a nice home.

You know, I could retire if I want to.

I don't want to.

You know, I would just soon continue with...

I'm gonna hopefully play till the day I die.

But it was apparently what the guy upstairs had planned for me.

♪ They pick me up when I'm feelin' blue ♪ ♪ Now how 'bout you ♪ Sweet home Alabama ♪ Where the skies are so blue - And that's "Living St.

Louis."

We welcome your questions and comments and story suggestions at ninepbs.org/lsl.

I'm Brooke Butler.

Thanks for joining us.

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