Third District Station (Mad Art Gallery & Pokotok)

Built in 1937, this Art Deco building was designed by City Architect Albert Osberg as the third district station of the St. Louis Police Department. In the 1930s, Osberg designed a series of six similar police stations throughout the city, with the third district station located in Soulard. As early as the 1850s, the land at this site contained a bottling shed for the Arsenal Brewery, founded by a German immigrant, Louis Oberg. Today, the Art Deco building is home to the Mad Art Gallery, an event planning company that hosts special events and exhibits featuring local artists. Pokotok, a pop-up Mexican restaurant, is also on site. A historical marker was placed outside the building by the Soulard Historical District in 2019.

As early as the 1850s, the land at this site contained a bottling shed for the Arsenal Brewery of Soulard. At the time, many German immigrants who arrived in St. Louis began founding breweries in the area, while making use of the vast network of limestone caves that ran below the city as a place to store their beer and naturally keep it cold. One immigrant, Louis Oberg, established the Arsenal Brewery directly across the street from the Bavarian Brewery (which later became Anheuser-Busch), and he set up a bottling shed on Soulard's South 12th Street. Oberg became known as one of Soulard's "beer barons" because of the success of his business, and he eventually built a Second Empire-style mansion in the neighborhood for his family. According to the St. Louis historian Nathan Jackson, the Arsenal Brewery's original logo featured an eagle flying through the letter "A," bearing a marked resemblance to the Anheuser-Busch logo. Oberg decided to change the logo for the Arsenal Brewery to instead depict an eagle flying through the letter "O."

In the twentieth century, this property became the site of the third district station for St. Louis Police Department. During the 1930s, City Architect Albert Osberg designed a series of six Art Deco police stations throughout St. Louis, with the third district station located at the former site of the Arsenal Brewery bottling shed in Soulard. St. Louis city archivist Chris Naffziger has described Osberg's architectural designs as follows: “They are some mighty fine buildings; in a world where police stations now often look like crumby suburban office buildings, these instead had a real sense of style. And of course, they had garages as well." The six district stations were later consolidated into two main superstations in the 1980s, with the remaining buildings repurposed for other uses. Soulard's third district station contained a detective bureau, report room, jail, assembly area, and offices. While the interior has since been converted into an event space by the building's current owner, Mad Art Gallery, the former police station still contains its original holding cells.

An event planning company, Mad Art Gallery also hosts special events on site, including art exhibits featuring emerging and established local artists. In 2022, a pop-up Mexican restaurant, Mad Mex STL, opened within the Mad Art Gallery, drawing hungry visitors to the Art Deco building in Soulard. The restaurant's name has since changed to Pokotok. During an interview for Sauce Magazine, Ron Buechele, head chef and owner of Pokotok, stated that the menu would not feature typical restaurant cuisine. Instead, he planned to offer what he called 'traditional Mexican street food,' the types of authentic dishes that people might expect from a street vendor in Mexico. Buechele reconnected with his own Mexican heritage after reuniting with his estranged father in 2015. Afterwards, he was able to trace his family’s roots through his paternal grandfather, who arrived in the U.S. by train from Davalos, Mexico. He was also able to identify the indigenous heritage of his paternal grandmother, who was a member of the Mexica tribe. For this reason, Buechele considers the ‘Mex’ in his restaurant’s name to be a reflection of this tribal heritage, which he is proud to share.

Althoff, Nicky. "Mad Mex STL has opened inside Mad Art Gallery in Soulard", Sauce Magazine. February 7th, 2022. Accessed March 10th, 2023. https://www.saucemagazine.com/a/59673/mad-mex-stl-has-opened-inside-mad-art-gallery-in-soulard.

Jackson, Nathan. "Beer Barons of Soulard (St. Louis) | Nathan's Neighborhood History", YouTube / This House Channel. Accessed March 10th, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZlA2ukZZGU.

Naffziger, Chris. "Another Art Deco Police Station", St. Louis Patina. September 11th, 2014. Accessed March 10th, 2023. https://stlouispatina.com/another-art-deco-police-station/.

"Osburg Police Stations", Built St. Louis. Accessed March 10th, 2023. https://www.builtstlouis.net/albert-osburg-police-stations.html.

"Third District Police Station," Soulard, Built St. Louis. Accessed March 10th, 2023. https://www.builtstlouis.net/southside/deco-police-soulard.html.

Voight, Jason. "Mad Art Gallery: 2727 S. 12th Street", Hmdb. October 31st, 2020. Accessed March 10th, 2023. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=159009.