Some retirees spend their days on the golf course. Others spend their time in the recliner doing crossword puzzles. But a group of retirees in St. Louis is spending their time remaking an old boat.
Sheet metal workers played a central role in the building of the SS Admiral, which had a long history on the St. Louis riverfront. In 1980, members of the St. Louis branch of the union, Sheet Metal Workers Local 36, constructed a replica of the famous steamboat to honor their craft and the city’s history.
The 1:20-scale model has had a life with as many twists and turns as its larger, more famous cousin. Now, retirees from Local 36 are working to restore the replica to its previous glory.
On a recent summer morning, about a half-dozen men buzzed around the union’s training school in Downtown West. One group cut sheets of metal to make sure the measurements for the final product are correct. Another welded together a wheeled chassis to make it easier to move the 20-foot model around.
Local 36 built the model to compete in a regatta on the Meramec River, said retiree Ed Hoganson.
“But it would also be a project that the apprentices could work on, on and off, over a period of about two years,” he said. “It really showcased our ability of what we can do as a trade and our welding skills.”
Hoganson first saw the model of the Admiral in 1982, when he started his apprenticeship. By that time, it had begun its second chapter as the union’s float for the city’s Labor Day parade.
In 1987, the Admiral, which had stopped sailing the Mississippi River about a decade earlier, reopened as a stationary entertainment center docked just north of the Gateway Arch. That same year, Local 36 sold the model to the boat’s owners.
“I think it was just a promotional thing,” Hoganson said. “At that time, you didn't know that the real Admiral was going to disappear.”
The steamboat saw a third act as a floating casino after the State of Missouri legalized riverboat gambling in the early 1990s. But its performance worsened as newer, fancier facilities opened. It closed for good in 2010 and was scrapped a year later.
The model ended up in the hands of local collector Gregory Rhomberg, who died in 2023. The union acquired it earlier this year.
“It was in terrible shape,” Hoganson said. “It was very beat up. It had a lot of body putty on it, was handpainted with household paint, and the windows were painted on it.”
Folks at the training school, he said, “were just looking at me with their eyes crossed, like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ But, you know, this is what we do. We know how to restore things. This is going to be a museum piece.”
For its final acts, the model will go on display at the National Museum of Transportation in St. Louis County. Starting in March, it will be part of an exhibit celebrating the 100th anniversary of Route 66, said Curator Coby Ellison, and then get a permanent home in one about the Admiral.
“We’ll hopefully be able to incorporate other things, like maybe some sort of living history, you know, people telling their stories about [the Admiral],” he said.
Jake West, marketing director for Local 36, said he hopes people also appreciate the craftsmanship that went into the model’s construction and restoration.
“This isn't something that's made by a computer in a factory,” he said. “This is made by sheet metal workers having a flat sheet of metal, laying out all the patterns and then forming it up into the shape that it needs to be for the finished project.”
Despite their early skepticism, Hoganson said, the retirees love working on the restoration.
“I just think it gives them a sense of fulfillment,” he said.
