Robert - In St. Louis this past April for the Vincentennial celebration there, I was lucky enough to have a chance to see Vincent Price's childhood home. As you can see, it's beautifully kept to this day--no longer in the Price family, but some other family's cherished home. As the family's finances improved (Vincent Sr. was a prominent St. Louis businessman--he ran a very successful candy company), the Prices moved from one "better house" to another. Vinnie's mother, Marguerite, was what you might call "house proud", and this was the family's final home, a real beauty of a place!
Givens Hall, the architecture building on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis, stands directly across the street from Vincent Price's boyhood home. When it was built in 1934, Vinnie's mother, Marguerite, took an instant and towering dislike for it, as it blocked her view of the administration building. Mrs. Price was very proud of her British ancestry and had always like the idea that University the old administration building resembled Windsor Castle! When this upstart Graeco-Roman building was put up, she took is as a personal insult and for six months she peppered the University's head honchos with letters insisting that Givens Hall be taken down! Of course it never was--it stands there today--but while his mother lived, Vinnie heard endless repetitions of the continuing story of Margeuerite's fruitless battle with Washington University.
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