Written by Doug
By the time venture capitalist and team owner Robert Schilling arrived at his recently constructed Riverlands Field the morning of October 19, 1894, the flames had mostly subsided. The large, newly painted grandstand and its buttressing block towers lay charred and crumbled. Firefighters scrambled about, and layers of smoke leapt and danced in the breeze, like silent, stinging taunts. Or, at least, that’s how it seemed to Robert Schilling.
Scorned by his family, Robert set out on his own as an investor and venture capitalist. After older brother Andrew moved considerable family capital into upscale department stores across Midwestern cities, Robert founded a rival chain of department stores, more appealing to the burgeoning middle class in the region, which he named, simply, “Robert’s.” When Saint Louis newspapers heralded Andrew’s purchase of a baseball franchise, to become the Saint Louis Reds in the newly minted Legacy Baseball League, Robert moved quickly to land a team of his own to rival and outlast his brothers’.
The younger brother of the famed Schilling Shipping and Trade Company family, Robert was left from his father’s will after what many in the family described simply as a disagreement concerning morality, horses, and the necessary quality of leather for workmen’s boots. However, whispers over expensive whiskey tell of Robert’s hatred for his favored older brother, Andrew, the heir to the family’s vast assets, as the reason.
Robert secured a parcel of land to build a ball field to the south of the city, overlooking the confluence of the Mississippi River and the winding River Des Peres. He took great care and foresight in the ballpark’s construction, designing the tall block towers himself down to the slightest of details, and hiring, for above normal wages, only local skilled carpenters and craftsmen. He wanted to build a park where the more common of men could watch a ballgame as kings.
The fire turned his dream black and smoldered. When onlookers and firefighters noticed the stoic expression on Robert’s face as he took in the devastation, all became quiet. The sound of a falling tree along the banks of the River Des Peres interrupted the silence. It was soon discovered a beaver had felled the tree. Robert took the moment as a sign to rebuild.
A humbler grandstand was erected during the winter months, and, upon the first game played in the spring of 1895, locals began referring to the team as the Beavers, in recognition of the moment of hope provided by a beaver, the tenacious spirit of their team’s owner, and the hardworking laborers who rebuilt the field and now watch their team as fans.
A sign over the main gate, painted in blocked white letters, reads, “Built by you, for you. Beat the Reds”.