Erica Threnn needed to get out of the house.
In 2020, when COVID-19 forced Threnn into depressed isolation, she began walking — then running — through her then neighborhood, Benton Park.
“I kept running past a mansion,” Threnn, 41, said. “It looked very haunted, very dark and dirty and dingy. And after the 50th time of running past this mansion, I went home and I thought to myself, ’How hard would it be to look up who lived here?’ I mean, it’s a really cool mansion, somebody must have researched it at some point, right?’"
Somebody had researched it. After Googling the address and words like "historic" and "St. Louis," Threnn learned that the mansion was built for a man who once ran a brewery on Cherokee Street.
Amazed by the finding, Threnn did similar research on other unique buildings she encountered.
“While I was running I would take pictures of houses that I thought were interesting,” she said. “Then I would go home and I would research the houses.”
In September 2020, under the usernames found.stlouis on Instagram and Found St. Louis on Facebook, Threnn began to share images of structures around the city that piqued her interest. She added details and information she found during her research.
“[St. Louis] is a part of who I am at this point, it’s not a place I live in,” Threnn said. “It is part of me. Because of that, I have really taken to studying St. Louis history.”
Threnn is not a trained historian. She graduated from Metro High School and holds a communications degree from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. It’s no accident that many of her favorite photographic subjects are schools. Her day job is as a data manager for a school in St. Louis.
“Seeing the fact that [students] don’t know that they live around some really historic landmarks inspires me more, because when the adults learn about St. Louis history, their kids will learn about St. Louis history,” Threnn said.
Channeling her grandfather
The story of the city is the story of Threnn’s grandfather, who also grew up in St. Louis. He taught chemistry at Roosevelt High School in Tower Grove East. The building is a favorite subject of hers.
“I would hope that [my grandfather] is proud to see that his granddaughter is teaching in her own way, maybe not the traditional path,” Threnn said.
The City of St. Louis excavated Picker’s Cemetery, also known as Holy Ghost cemetery, to build the high school.
“There are still things under that building, remains of people who lived a full life in St. Louis in the early 1800s, and that’s kind of magical,” Threnn said of the cemetery.
In 1922, architect R.M. Milligan was tasked with designing a structure that could serve as a place of learning for thousands of students, as the St. Louis Public Schools system was bursting at the seams. Now, given the city’s population decline, the school serves just under a thousand students.
Sharing history in easy-to-digest social media posts inspires Threnn.
“It’s really fun to seek out that history and share it with people,” she said. “I feel more connected to my city and I receive a lot of messages that it helps other people feel more connected to the city too.”
Threnn also finds connection with her roots through her photos and research.
“I’ve talked to many people who were students of my grandfather who said that he helped them learn about something that was just an extremely difficult subject for them,” Threnn said. “That stays with me because I think that history can be a very daunting subject for a lot of people, and I would like to think that maybe I am helping people learn about a topic that was previously hard for them to learn about.”
A learning journey
While today she is determined to learn more about the history of the city that made her who she is, Threnn wasn’t always this interested in the stories behind the buildings around her.
“When I was a teenager I wanted to leave St. Louis like most teenagers do,” Threnn said. “You always want to leave your hometown. In my twenties I still wanted to leave St. Louis.”
Eventually, she said, she figured out many of the reasons she wanted to leave did not stem from her location.
“I’ve realized over the last few years that I would have been unhappy wherever I went, because most of my issues were internal,” Threnn said.
Now, Threnn enjoys St. Louis through its architecture.
“I think 8- or 10-year-old Erica would never imagine that Erica in her forties would be going around saying, ‘These old buildings are fantastic!’ She would be shocked, actually,” Threnn said.
Her younger self would also be surprised that she enters the historical field today as an amateur with an unapologetic attitude. Growing up, Threnn said she was taught to minimize herself by playing down accomplishments.
"I would like to think that maybe I am helping people learn about a topic that was previously hard for them to learn about.”Erica Threnn, amateur historian
“This has changed my life for the better in more ways than I can describe,” Threnn said. “I have tremendous social anxiety, which kind of intertwines with the idea that I’m not good enough to be doing this, or that I’m not educated or experienced enough. These academic fields are very intimidating for those of us who don’t consider ourselves academics. I’ve never gained confidence the way I have now.”
Threnn’s four years of documenting St. Louis history has transformed her thinking.
“Now I can probably say I am a historian, I am good at this, I am a good researcher. And I may not be the best, [but] I’m always working at it.”
“I realized [these] last few years, given the opportunity to research whatever I feel like researching, whenever I feel like researching it, that the way in which I was taught history was not a good way for me to learn history,” Threnn said. “And I feel like the people that follow me are in the same boat.”
She continues to make St. Louis history accessible, for “people with short attention spans.”
