International Photography Hall of Fame finds a St. Louis home

With any luck, the third time will prove the charm.

The International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum, which will officially open its doors in Grand Center on Friday night, is much-traveled. It was founded in 1965 to honor inventors and photographers of note but didn’t have a physical home.

Possessions, in the form of photographs and equipment, came in steadily, however, and in 1977 the first Hall of Fame and Museum opened in Santa Barbara, Calif. In 1983, it moved to the Kirkpatrick Center in Oklahoma City.

There, it was located in a science building; when a decision was taken to limit its exhibits solely to the scientific, the photographers had to find a new home. They looked in Rochester, N.Y., and in Miami. Then executive director John Nagel met Grand Center head Vincent Schoemehl, and found just the place in St. Louis, above the Triumph Grill.

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