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Designed by famed architect Isaac Taylor, the National Bank of Commerce building became one of the tallest buildings in St. Louis when it was completed in 1901. The bank was formed in 1857 as the Building and Savings Association and became one of the leading financiers in the region. As the nature of banking changed in the second half of the 20th century, the bank sold the building and it became known as the Chamber of Commerce Building. The building became too expensive to maintain in the 1970s as newer buildings were constructed and many companies abandoned the city core for modern office buildings throughout the city. The building was demolished in 1977 in order to create a parking lot despite the efforts of preservationists. After several years of sitting empty, construction began on a modern office building, known today as St. Louis Place.

National Bank of Commerce (1902-1977) and St. Louis Place (1983-Present)

This tour starts at the Gateway Arch and makes a loop through the downtown area, concluding at Laclede's Landing. The tour includes a variety of monuments, historic buildings, and other sites designed to give a representative look at the history of St. Louis. While the tour only includes a fraction of the museums and landmarks in the city, it includes several museums and highlights such as the statue of Dred and Harriet Scott, the Basilica of St. Louis, the Old Courthouse, Christ Church Cathedral, and the Orpheum Theater. 

St. Louis Walking Tour- Gateway Arch to Laclede's Landing

The Gateway Arch, designed by the late Eero Saarinen, soars 630 feet above the banks of the Mississippi River, serving as the centerpiece of the Thomas Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. Saarinen’s submission was selected ahead of 172 others in an architectural competition to select the most appropriate design to symbolize St. Louis’s role as the Gateway to the West. Sadly, the Finnish born Saarinen, a graduate of Yale University, passed away from a cerebral hemorrhage in 1961 and never lived to see his masterpiece. The Jefferson Memorial site was set in motion in 1935 by
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to celebrate Jefferson’s role in the
Louisiana Purchase and America’s territorial expansion to the West, but the
lasting effects of World War II and the onset of the Korean War in 1950 halted
the completion of the project for several years. During that time the necessary
funds were raised to realize the Arch, still the tallest monument in the United
States, with Roosevelt chipping in $3 from the government to match every dollar
raised by the city of St. Louis. The inverted catenary arch, the shape formed
by a chain of flexible cord hung between two points, was finally completed in October
of 1965 at a cost of $13 million. Saarinen’s stainless steel Arch is more complex and subtle
than the pure geometric form of a catenary arch, with heavier links on its ends
and progressively smaller links towards its apex, making its shape much rounder
than a pure catenary. The Arch was built in triangular sections with larger
sections at the base that continue to get smaller as it works its way up 630
feet. All 142 sections are equilateral triangles of carbon steel on the
interior and stainless steel on the exterior, held together by welded steel rods.
The small spaces between the double walls are filled with concrete up to the
300-foot level on each side, and each section is welded to the one above it.
The result is that the structural framework is the steel and concrete skin
itself.





The outer width of the Gateway Arch, from the North leg to
the South leg, matches the height of the arch at 630 feet. Each leg at the base
is 54 feet in dimension, with the apex piece of the arch at 17 feet. The margin
of error to make sure the constructed legs would meet at the apex was a mere
1/64th of an inch, incredibly realized with the relatively crude instruments
available at the time. The need for a high-strength, flexible mortar from
LATICRETE for the surrounding pavers is magnified by the Arch’s need to sway in
high winds. In 150 mile-per-hour winds, the Arch will sway a maximum of 18
inches, nine in each direction.The two bases of the Arch are equilateral triangles (triangles with three 54 foot-long sides). At the top of the arch, the triangle is only 17 feet long on each side. Visitors enter the arch from an underground Visitor’s center, and can travel to the observation deck at the top in a 40-passenger tram that runs inside the arch.

The Gateway Arch is a monument to western expansion and is the centerpiece of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial which pays tribute to the Louisiana Purchase. Intended to revitalize the crumbling St. Louis riverfront, city boosters envisioned a memorial park and monument as early as 1933. Construction began in 1963 and the arch was completed in 1965. At 630 feet, the Gateway Arch is the tallest man-made monument in the United States. It is also the world's tallest arch.

Gateway Arch, St. Louis

In 1764 a log structure was built in present-day St. Louis to serve as a Catholic church. For many years it was the only church in the area. The church, like the rest of the city, was named St. Louis after King Louis IX of France, a Catholic saint. In 1776 a larger church was built to replace the original. It was at this church that Sacagawea's son, Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, was baptized. In 1826, St. Louis became a diocese, and, the following
year, Bishop Joseph Rosati became the first bishop of the Diocese of St. Louis. The present-day stone cathedral church&nbsp;was built in 1834. Designed by Morton and Laveill, construction costed over $63,000. It became the first Catholic cathedral west of the Mississippi.&nbsp;Church membership continued to grow and in 1914 it was replaced with the construction of the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis. The 1834 church remained popular however and became known as the "Old Cathedral." It was the only building in the neighborhood to be spared demolition for the creation of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial in 1959. In 1961 Pope John XXIII officially designated the Old Cathedral as a basilica, naming it the Basilica of St. Louis, the King. It was also added to the National Register of Historic Places.The Old Cathedral most recently underwent a massive $15 million restoration, the first since 1959. The renovations included restoring the interior to its nineteenth century appearance. Today the church continues to hold regular services and can be booked for weddings. It also has a museum containing items relating to the Catholic history of St. Louis.

The Basilica of St. Louis King of France, affectionately known as the Old Cathedral, was the first cathedral west of the Mississippi River and until 1845 the first and only parish church in the city of St. Louis. The church was founded in 1770. It sits just west of the Gateway Arch and is surrounded by the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial grounds.  It is the oldest building still standing in the city of St. Louis that remains in the hands of its original owner. 

Basilica of St. Louis, King of France - The Old Cathedral

Dred Scott was born in Virginia around 1799 as property of
the Peter Blow family. He was illiterate and had spent his entire life as a
slave. Dred Scott moved to St. Louis with the Blows in 1830, but was soon sold
due to his master's financial problems. He was purchased by Dr. John Emerson
and accompanied him to Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory, which had
prohibited slavery by the Missouri Compromise of 1820. During this period, Dred
Scott married Harriet Robinson, also a slave, and had two children, Lizzie and Eliza.
John Emerson later married Irene Sanford. In 1842, the Scott's returned with the
Emerson’s to St. Louis where John Emerson died the following year. It is
believed that Mrs. Emerson hired out Dred Scott, Harriet, and their children to
work for other families.&nbsp;On April 6th, 1846, Dred Scott and his wife Harriet filed
suit against Irene Emerson for their freedom. Scott had previously lived in
free territories, yet made no attempt to end his servitude. There are several
theories as why Dred Scott waited to petition for his freedom - the theme
between each being that Scott felt it was not detrimental to seek a life
elsewhere. In fact, his original owners, the Blows family, by most accounts
treated Scott fairly well, albeit he remained a slave. This could account for
Scott waiting to petition for his freedom. The exact reason for Scott
petitioning for his freedom is not known, although historians have considered
three possibilities: He may have been dissatisfied with being hired out by Mrs.
Emerson; Mrs. Emerson might have been planning to sell him which would have
meant a great chance of a rough life working tirelessly under a brutally-strict
slave owner; or he may have offered to buy his own freedom and been refused by
Mrs. Emerson. It is known, however, that the suit was not brought for the
political reason of abolition of slavery. 

It is thought that friends in St. Louis who opposed slavery encouraged
Scott to sue for his freedom on the grounds that he had once lived in a free
territory. In the past, Missouri courts supported the doctrine of "once
free, always free”, and for this reason many in the North, in addition to their
collective inclination to support abolition, felt that Dred Scott could win his
case. The case would encompass eleven years from its birth on April 6th, 1846
to a resolution on March 6, 1857. 

As he was illiterate, Dred Scott needed help with his suit.
John Anderson, the Scott's minister, may have been influential in their
decision to sue and the Blow family, Dred's original owners, backed him
financially. Support of those around them helped the Scott’s through this
trying time as the case would encompass eleven years from its birth on April
6th, 1846 to a resolution on March 6, 1857. A chilling reminder of such
unimaginable difficulties during this period can be noted within the body
language of Harriet and Dred Scott in their dedication statue. 

In 1850, the state court finally declared Scott free.
However, Scott's wages had been withheld pending the resolution of his case,
and during that time Mrs. Emerson remarried and left her brother, John Sanford,
to deal with her affairs. Mr. Sanford, unwilling to pay the back wages owed to
Scott, appealed the decision to the Missouri Supreme Court. The court
overturned the lower court's decision and ruled in favor of Sanford. Scott then
filed another lawsuit in a federal circuit court claiming damages against
Sanford's brother for Sanford's alleged physical abuse against
him. The Missouri court&nbsp;ruled that Scott could not sue in federal court because he had
already been deemed a slave under Missouri law. Scott appealed to the U.S.
Supreme Court, which reviewed the case in 1856.&nbsp;

It is difficult to understand today, but under the law in
1846 whether or not the Scotts were entitled to their freedom was not as
important as the consideration of property rights. Slaves were considered
property rather than people, however, sweeping verification of this by a
Supreme Court decision had not yet taken place before this case. Therefore, the
Supreme Court’s verdict in Dred Scott vs. Stanford on March 6, 1857, decided
several imperative facts that had overwhelming implications across an already
divided society.&nbsp; On the south lawn of the Old Courthouse in St. Louis, the Dred
and Harriet Scott Statue Dedication depicts the pair as close, holding their
heads high, hands strongly and passionately intertwined,&nbsp;their eyes directed not only Arch-ward and across the Mississippi
River, but toward a horizon of freedom in which they believed enough to one day
finally see.&nbsp;

On April 6, 1846, a slave named Dred Scott and his wife, Harriet, sued for their freedom from their slave owner Irene Emerson in the St. Louis’ Old Courthouse.  The case itself spanned nine years, and at its conclusion saw the decision favor of Ms. Emerson by way of retaining the services of Dred and Harriet Scott. The Supreme Court decided the case in 1857; Chief Justice Roger B. Taney announced the decision in the case of Dred Scott v. Sanford. He stated that Americans of African ancestry were not eligible to be citizens, based on the historical claim that they "had no rights which the white man was bound to respect." This meant that Americans of African descent, whether free or slave, were not American citizens and could not sue in federal court. Furthermore, The Court also made clear its intentions to uphold slavery in the United States by ruling that Congress lacked power to ban slavery. Finally, the Court declared that the rights of slave owners were constitutionally protected by the Fifth Amendment because slaves were categorized as property. As a result, the issue of slavery further divided the North from the South and thus expediting the start of the Civil War. It is therefore believe that this case is one of the most important ever to be tried in the United States. On the south lawn of the Old Courthouse in St. Louis, the Dred and Harriet Scott Statue depicts the pair as close, holding their heads high, hands held together for loving support. This was a trying time for the Scott's, a time which would test their character and resolve. 


Dred and Harriet Scott Statue 

<div>In 1816 Auguste Chouteau and Judge John B.C. Lucas donated land to St. Louis County for a courthouse near the St. Louis riverfront. Built between 1839 and 1864, this Greek Revival,
three-story, brick and stone structure was designed by several architects over
the period of its construction (Henry Singleton, William Twombly, George I.
Barnett, Robert S. Mitchell, Thomas D. F. Lanham, and William Ruumbold) , and
has been altered several times, including a major restoration and remodeling
completed in 1942. Basically a Greek Cross in plan, the junction of the four wings
forms a central rotunda surmounted by a Renaissance style cast-iron dome and
lantern. In the interior of the rotunda, the first three-stories are Greek
Revival, but the later, upper levels, including the dome and lantern are Late
Renaissance, almost Baroque, in style.This upper dome is the first cast iron dome ever built. It was erected in 1862 and still stands today as part of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. The dome features four beautiful frescoes created by Carl Wimar, a German immigrant famous for his paintings of American Indian lifestyles and westward expansion. The four murals align with the four cardinal directions, and
each depicts a significant event in St. Louis’ history that occurred in that
direction: Hernando DeSoto encountering the Mississippi River in 1541, Pierre
Laclede and Auguste Chouteau founding St. Louis in 1764, the British-led
Revolutionary War attack on St. Louis in 1780, and the proposed
transcontinental railroad route through the Rocky Mountains’ Cochetopa Pass.
Allegorical and portraits of famous Americans were painted over other Wimar
originals by Ettore Miragoli in 1880.</div><div>The Old Courthouse was the site of hundreds of suits for freedom, but one gained notoriety - It was the scene of Dred Scott’s historic slavery trial in 1847, which focused national attention on the slavery issue. Scott won his case in St. Louis but the decision was
overturned in the U.S. Supreme Court in 1857. The court ruled that Scott was not
a citizen and therefore not entitled to sue. The decision served as a flashpoint
for the start of the Civil War. After the decision, Scott and his wife Harriett
were freed by their owner. Scott died in 1858.&nbsp;The Old Courthouse features an exhibition on this pivotal event, called “Dred Scott: A Legacy of Courage.” Re-creations of the trial are conducted throughout the year at the Old Courthouse, and Scott’s grave can be visited at Calvary Cemetery.&nbsp;The last known slave sale in St. Louis was held as part of a property settlement on the steps of the Old Courthouse in 1861. A large anti-slavery crowd refused to bid, and slave traders never tried it again in St. Louis.&nbsp; It is also the place where Virginia Minor's case for a woman's right to vote came to trial in the 1870s. Virginia Minor was an officer in the National Woman Suffrage
Association, which during the 1872 presidential election decided to challenge
voting restrictions in the United States which excluded women. The nation-wide
movement of 1872 originated with Virginia and her husband Francis Minor.
Virginia Minor’s attempt to register to vote was refused by the ward registrar
in St. Louis, and the Minors sued him in the St. Louis Circuit court.&nbsp; </div>

The Old Courthouse in downtown St. Louis is one of America’s most important historic sites. The courthouse used to be a combination of a federal and a state courthouse. The courthouse building was the tallest building in Missouri until 1896, when Union Station was built. Today it is one of the centerpieces in the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, together with the mighty Gateway Arch. It features restored courtrooms, a decorated dome, Dioramas, the "Gateway To The West" film and galleries depicting the history of St. Louis. Over the past 150 years, Old Courthouse remained as one of the St. Louis’ most prominent architectural landmarks. 

Old Courthouse - Jefferson National Expansion Memorial

Similar to other establishments in St. Louis, the American Hotel accepted only white guests while the American Theatre segregated&nbsp;Black patrons to the top balcony. The theater ended its policy of racial segregation in 1952 in response to protests. The following year, the theater closed and the building was demolished in order to provide space for a new parking garage.&nbsp;

Constructed in 1907, this thirteen-story "skyscraper" was once the pride of downtown St. Louis with its ornate lobby, luxury hotel, and the city's most prestigious theater. The theater discontinued the practice of booking vaudeville acts shortly after completion in favor of Broadway touring acts and other high-brow entertainment, boasting that the American Theatre was "only legitimate theater" in the city. The hotel offered 275 rooms and hosted American presidents such as Harry S. Truman. 

American Hotel and Theatre Building (St. Louis, 1907-1953)

Ellis Wainwright inherited from his father, an English immigrant, a successful brewery business whose profits he promptly doubled. He bought out many small breweries in the area and became president of the St. Louis Brewers' Association, as well as one of the most prominent businessmen and financiers in St. Louis of his day. Wainwright's mother, Catherine D. Wainwright, bought the empty lot at the corner of Seventh and Chestnut for $127,000 (a vast sum at that time) to construct an office building, and her son joined the project. He hired the Chicago-based architectural firm of Adler &amp; Sullivan to design it. Louis Sullivan, who had already created Chicago's 10-story Auditorium building, wished to create a new structure that cast aside all European-influenced precedent for such buildings. He breathlessly wrote that the skyscraper, "must be tall, every inch of it tall. The force and power of altitude 
must be in it the glory and pride of exaltation must be in it. It must 
be every inch a proud and soaring thing, rising in sheer exultation that
 from bottom to top it is a unit without a single dissenting line."&nbsp; His design stressed the verticality of the building, but it was also unique in that its exterior reflected the functions of its interior. The first floor was to contain shops and therefore included ample openings from the street. The second floor – for public offices
such as banks and ticket offices – was accessible by stairs from the first
floor. The next seven floors would contain offices with identical windows: "cells in a honeycomb," Sullivan called them. The top floor, which was for the building's machinery and water tank and was thus not open to the public, was to be adorned with a foliage frieze and small, round, "bulls-eye" windows. Thus, the entire building (floors one and two, floors three through nine, and the top floor) forms a tripartite structure, on the model of a columnn (base-shaft-capital). Each of the three parts is separated by a wide ledge clearly visible from the street. In an 1896 article, Sullivan justified this "transparent" design with the phrase, "Form ever follows function." Even more impressive than the basic design is the building's ornamentation. Sullivan designed thin, vertical piers to connect the base to the wide cornice at the top. Between these piers, above and below the windows, he created elaborately-designed spandrels to unify the building horizontally. Each floor's spandrels has a different design, repeated between each set of piers. According to one source, Sullivan "managed to do what no one else had accomplished: provide a paradigm for attaining visual unity in the tall building." Ironically, Ellis Wainwright, after whom the building was named, was a rather disreputable figure. In 1904, he was condemned in Lincoln Steffens book, The Shame of the Cities. Accused of bribery, he lived high in Europe until the main prosecution witness died off, then, when the charges were dropped, he returned home. After disinheriting his adopted daughter, the sick and elderly Wainwright became such a Howard Hughes-like recluse that when the maids at his hotel came to clean his rooms, he moved ahead of them from room to room, so that he could not be seen. He died in 1924, the same year as Louis Sullivan. His misdeeds are now forgotten, but two great architectural monuments in St. Louis bear his name: the Wainwright Building and Wainwright's Tomb (also designed by Sullivan), where he and his wife lie buried.

The Wainwright Building at 709 Chestnut Street is a 10-story, steel frame, red brick office building constructed in 1890-1891 and still operational today. It was designed by the distinguished American architect Louis Sullivan in collaboration with his partner Dankmar Adler. It was built for a wealthy St. Louis brewer, Ellis Wainwright, and named for him. Though not, of course, especially tall by today's standards, the building was one of the first American skyscrapers and was one of the reasons Sullivan came to be called "The Father of Skyscrapers." It was in an article describing this building and his artistic intentions for it that Sullivan coined the famous phrase "form... follows function."

The building has received widespread critical and popular acclaim since it was first constructed and it has been called a "highly influential prototype of the modern office building." Sullivan's protégé, Frank Lloyd Wright, said that it was "the very first human expression of a tall steel office-building as Architecture." It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in May 1968, and is currently owned by the State of Missouri. 


The Wainwright Building

When it was completed in 1913, the Arcade Building offered a grand two-level indoor shopping space (known as an "arcade" in the early 20th century) from Olive Street to Pine Street. These arcades were located in every major city and offered a grand shopping concourse, a precursor to the shopping malls of the late 20th century in some regards. The St. Louis Arcade wowed visitors to the city with its ornate entrances and vaulted ceilings that featured tiled roofs and chandeliers. Above these two stories, the Arcade Building features two towers that housed offices for decades before the building fell onto hard times along with other historic downtown buildings. The building was renovated in 2015 and is now an apartment buildings for artists (at cheaper rates) and others. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. 

The Arcade Building, St. Louis

In the 1880s, five Federal buildings were created within the fastest-growing cities in America, in order to handle the official duties of the Federal government during the Reconstruction Era and to symbolize the power of the U.S. government in those cities. Alfred B. Mullet designed the St. Louis building in 1872, assisted by William C. Potter and James G. Hill, who redesigned the building's cupola and added the moat that surrounds it. Because of the then-recent horrific Chicago fire, great care was taken to make the building fireproof through the extensive use of wrought iron, cast iron and brick, rather than employing flammable materials. The use of iron also allowed for elaborate ornamentation, which would have been prohibitively expensive if hand-carved materials, such as wood, had been used. Overall, the building represented the most up-to-date technology of the day. The Second Empire style that the architects employed was so common to Federal buildings of that era that it became known as "General Grant architecture." Indeed, none other than Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman spoke at the Old Post Office's dedication, describing it as "... a symbol not only of the business sense of the republic, but an emblem of power, an evidence of the kindness of the government of the United States." A noteworthy feature of the Old Post Office was a sculpture in front of the cupola by Daniel Chester French, future creator of the massive statue of Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial, called "Peace and Vigilance" (now located in the atrium). Many government offices over the years operated here. According to the building's website, the St. Louis Post Office at that time was the "main conduit for commerce and correspondence to and from all points west." It was also home to the 8th Circuit Court, which became the largest circuit court in America, covering ten states and four territories. Other U.S. offices included the U.S. Courthouse and Subtreasury, the Steamboat, Lighthouse and Post Office Inspection Offices, a branch of the IRS, the U.S. Corps of Engineers and even congressmen's offices. By the 1980s, there were few tenants remaining and the building itself was in severe disrepair. A renovation attempt in the 1990s failed. In the final years of the 20th Century, a public-private partnership was created. A free transfer of the building was carried out from the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) to the Missouri Development Finance Board (MDFB), in effect turning the Old Post Office into a state government building for the first time. Innovative sources of financing were found, and by the time of the rededication ceremony in 2006 (one hundred twenty-two years after the first dedication), the building was 100 percent leased. Current tenants include Webster University, the Missouri Court of Appeals, the St. Louis Public Library, the Missouri Attorney General's and Secretary of State's offices, and Teach for America.

Located on an entire city block in downtown St. Louis, the Old Post Office (sometimes known as the United States Customhouse and Post Office), dedicated in 1884, was one of five grand Federal buildings ordered constructed in the aftermath of the Civil War. (The other four buildings were located in New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Cincinnati – none of them are still standing.) The St. Louis building was designed by architect Alfred B. Mullet in the Second Empire Style (the same style as that of the Louvre in Paris), and is one of the few remaining buildings in that style. It housed not only the Post Office and the Custom House, but a wide array of government offices. 

In 1957, the building was declared surplus property by the Federal government. Threatened with demolition, it was saved by a public-private partnership established near the end of the 20th Century. The Old Post Office eventually became a mixed-use facility (which it remains today), in which governmental organizations and private enterprises share use of the building. It was entered in the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.


The Old Post Office (St. Louis)

The downtown area of St.
Louis began to grow and develop following the construction of the Old Post
Office building in 1884. Many high-rise buildings soon followed. The Century
Building was built in 1896 amidst the construction boom. &nbsp;It was designed by the Chicago architects
Raeder, Coffin &amp; Crocker in neo-Classical style. It stood ten stories tall,
stretched for half a block, and was the only commercial building in St. Louis
to have an exterior made of marble. While successful, the building was soon
sold to the Syndicate Trust Company in 1902. In 1906 the Company added a
sixteen-story annex to the Century Building, expanding it to cover an entire
city block. This new section was referred to as both the Century Annex and the
Syndicate Trust Building. 

The Century Building
and the Century Annex each contained a wide variety of tenants over the course
of its history. Early ones included insurance and loan companies, publishers,
medical offices, the Kinloch Telephone Company, the St. Louis-San Francisco
Railway, the local branch of the White Star Line, and the Winkle Terra Cotta
Company. Another tenant was the Equal Suffrage League, St. Louis’ leading women’s
suffrage organization. The third floor was occupied by the Bryant &amp;
Stratton Business &amp; Shorthand College. Several floors were occupied by the
1,600-seat Century Theatre. Perhaps the largest tenant was the Scruggs, Vandervoort
&amp; Barney dry goods firm, which occupied at least seven floors. The last
business to exist in the Century Building was a Walgreens that operated on the
first floor until 2002.

By the late 1990s and
early 2000s many of the large commercial buildings in downtown St. Louis were
vacant and deteriorating, including the Century Building. In 2001 plans were
made to refurbish the Old Post Office as part of a plan to redevelop and
revitalize the downtown area. As plans were underway some of the Post Office’s
prospective tenants, including Webster University and the state appellate
courts, demanded parking space within view of the building. It was decided to
build a parking garage on the site of the Century Building because it was the
only close site large enough to hold the necessary amount of cars. The decision
met staunch resistance from preservationists; a petition received thousands of
signatures, several lawsuits were filed, and the building was added to the
National Register of Historic Places all in an effort to halt the demolition
plans. The National Trust for Historic Preservation controversially gave its
approval for the demolition, arguing that destroying the Century Building to
make parking space was the only viable way of preserving the Old Post Office
and other historic downtown buildings. The Century Building was demolished in
October of 2004. Today the 9th Street Garage stands on the former
site of the building.

The Century Building was a ten-story neo-Classical building that stood across from the Old Post Office in St. Louis, Missouri. Constructed in 1896, it was used as retail space, offices, and a 1,600-seat theater. Noteworthy tenants included Kinloch Telephone, the Equal Suffrage League, and the St. Louis branch of the White Star Line. It gradually fell into disuse during the second half of the twentieth century, like many buildings in the downtown area. In the early 2000s the Century Building became the source of much controversy over plans to demolish it and build a parking garage in its place. Despite petitions and lawsuits, the Century Building was demolished in October 2004. Today the 9th Street Garage stands in its place, providing parking space for downtown businesses.

Century Building, St. Louis (1896-2004)

In 1878, the first telephone exchange, using a modified telegraph board to route calls and serving a total of 12 subscribers, was established in St. Louis. In 1885, the exchange's downtown office was destroyed by fire and it was decided to construct a brand new building to house the exchange. The plans of the architectural firm of&nbsp;Shepley, Rutan &amp; Coolidge were accepted; its final costs were about $155,000. The completed building included six floors (rather than the seven originally planned), with the switchboard room located on the entire top floor. Due to expansion, the company added a seventh floor after all in 1919. This floor included a kitchen, dining area and a room with a piano and rugs, which could be rolled up when employees felt the urge to dance.&nbsp; Between 1917 and 1920, the St. Louis Bell Telephone Company expanded greatly when it merged with three other phone companies serving Missouri, Texas, Kansas, Arkansas and Oklahoma: this system became known as Southwestern Bell Telephone Company. Two more towers were constructed in the city by Southwestern Bell, one completed in 1926 just southwest of the original building, and another tower to the east in the 1980s.&nbsp; One of America's most significant, though brief, architectural trends in the late 1880s was based on the highly personal style of prominent Boston architect H. H. Richardson.&nbsp;Characteristics of the style include the use of heavy rugged masonry; Romanesque arches or arcades; battered bases offering the appearance of greater mass; compact silhouettes; and carved stone detail, particularly Romanesque or Byzantine motifs. George F. Shepley&nbsp;of Shepley, Rutan &amp; Coolidge, who was a St. Louis native,&nbsp;was Richardson's son-in-law. (In the 1890s, his firm would turn to the increasingly popular Renaissance Revival style.)&nbsp; &nbsp; Two bays wide at the north (Olive Street) side and four bays wide at the west (Tenth Street) side, the building includes three-story arcades springing from ground-level storefronts. The fifth and sixth floors use progressively smaller windows, grouped at each bay.&nbsp;The addition of the seventh floor in 1919 was constructed in a compatible style and&nbsp;does not obscure the original Richardsonian design.&nbsp;The other major alteration was the addition of limestone sheathing to the first floor in 1940, typical of storefronts in downtown St. Louis. Despite the subsequent modifications, the building retains the architects' essential clarity. When Southwestern Bell moved out of the building, ownership was taken over by the S.G. Adams Printing Company, which began in the 19th Century as an office supply company and later became the first manufacturer of license plates. (They were also the first license-plate company to&nbsp;make use of the Federal prison system to employ its inmates to manufacture its products.) In 1959, Comfort Printing and Stationery&nbsp;purchased S.G. Adams, but retained the name. This company went bankrupt in 2001. The vacant ground floor was then occupied by City Grocers in 2004, which closed in 2010. The upper floors have been renovated as the Bell Lofts apartments.&nbsp;

Constructed of red sandstone and brick between 1889 and 1991 on the corner of Olive and Tenth Streets in downtown St. Louis, this building was the original St. Louis headquarters of the Bell Telephone Company, serving as its main exchange and largest center in the area from 1891 to 1926. It is probably the first building constructed for the telephone industry in St. Louis, and one of only a few remaining commercial examples of the Richardsonian Romanesque architectural style in the city. It is also one of only a few remaining such buildings designed by the firm of Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, inspired by the style's creator, H. H. Richardson, and it retains many of its original architectural features. For many years, the structure was owned by the stationery company S.G. Adams, and is thus often known today as the S.G. Adams Building. The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in August, 1999. 

Bell Telephone Building, St. Louis, aka The S.G. Adams Building

The Christ Church Episcopal congregation, consisting of 26 people, was formed in 1819, four years before St. Louis was chartered as a city. The first Christ Church was constructed ten years later, at the corner of Third and Chestnut. A decade after that, the congregation moved to a church two blocks away, at Fifth and Chestnut. However, due to the rapid growth of the congregation in the middle of the 19th Century, the organization purchased land at the corner of 13th and Locust for a new, larger structure. Designs for a Gothic cathedral and cost estimates were requested of four distinguished architects: Leopold Eidlitz of New York, John Notman of Philadelphia, Calvin N. Otis of Buffalo and Richard Upjohn of New York. The design created by Eidlitz, a Prague-born architect trained in Vienna, was the one approved in July 1959, and construction was begun soon afterwards. However, the church's timing was poor, as within two years the Civil War began, so that men, materials and money suddenly became very scarce. Consequently, several features of the original design, such as a tower and rose window, had to be abandoned. The opening service was held on Christmas Day, 1867. The church became the cathedral of the Diocese of Missouri in 1888. The church has been described as, "Fourteenth century 
Second Pointed or Early English Decorated, and the plan is cruciform, 
with shallow transepts and apsidal chancel." The original nave was 121-feet long. There are galleries in the north and south transepts. A new tower, designed by Kivas Tully, as well as large, steel-cast silver bells that were cast in a German foundry, were dedicated in 1912. The Bishop Tuttle Memorial Building, designed deliberately to harmonize with the design of the main church, was constructed in 1927-1928, and contains parish offices, a bookstore and a homeless shelter. The reredos behind the altar, carved between 1909 and 1911 from cream-colored stone, comprises 52 religious figures and biblical scenes. Its sections were shipped to the cathedral in 230 cases. The church was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1994. The original stained glass windows, executed by Owen Doremus of Montclair, New Jersey, were described in 1867 as "of the most gorgeous colors and truly artistic in design and workmanship." (Some replacement windows were added in the late 19th and early-to-mid 20th Centuries.) The church is a frequent venue for musical performances. The church organ, which contains over 5000 pipes, is a combination pipe and electronic organ of the Aeolian-Skinner type. The long-running Shepley Concert Series currently held at the church is described as, "Promoting aspiring and established musicians, artists and actors through concerts, exhibits and theater at Christ Church Cathedral in downtown St. Louis for over one hundred years."

Christ Church Cathedral is an Episcopal church which was constructed at its present location beginning in 1859, with the opening service held in 1867. (The eight-year delay was primarily due to the Civil War.) It was designed by New York-based architect  Leopold Eidlitz in the Gothic Revival style, emulating the style of the English 14th Century. It is constructed in a cruciform (i.e., cross-shaped) plan and is made of Illinois sandstone; a tower and porch made of Indiana limestone were added by 1912. The interior of the cathedral is most renowned for four features: the steel church bells, dating from 1912; the large combination pipe and electronic organ, built in 1965; its imposing stained-glass windows; and the sculpted wall rising over 30 feet behind the main altar, called the reredos. The cathedral still functions as a local parish, as well as a diocesan seat. The structure was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.


Christ Church Cathedral (St. Louis)

In 1901, the City of St. Louis wanted a library that would rival those on the east coast. A letter was sent to the industrial tycoon and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie in New York City requesting one million dollars to fund the construction of a new library in downtown St. Louis. Carnegie sent a reply agreeing to fund the project; however, he stipulated that only half of the money could be used for a Central Library, while the rest should be used to construct branch libraries, as he believed that these were more effective in reaching the public. Partly crediting his own success in life to a private library that he visited as a boy in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Carnegie sought to expand public literacy by making books more readily available to the masses, and he funded over 1,600 libraries throughout the U.S. The money that he gave to the City of St. Louis for its public library system was one of his largest donations.In his reply letter sent on March 12, 1901, Carnegie noted that "the buildings should be dignified, but not ornate. The building is only the frame. The treasures of a Library lie within." The City accepted the money and also decided to spend an additional million dollars of its own funds, rising the total construction cost for the Central Library to $1.5 million. The result was a very grand building indeed, though it was considered relatively restrained in ornamentation compared to others of its time. The architect, Cass Gilbert, considered the library to be one of his most important commissions. His plans for a Neo-Classical, Beaux Arts building in the Italian Renaissance Revival style featured an interior oval-shaped Great Hall surrounded by four wings in a rectangle. The original blueprints, mounted on linen fabric and works-of-art in themselves, included drawings up to six feet wide, revealing the monumental scale of the building. Interestingly, Gilbert responded to a query asking when he would finish the design, and he replied by saying, "You can't draw plans for a million-dollar building in a few days. I am taking my time."In choosing a location, the City decided to build at site of the St. Louis Exposition and Music Hall (built 1884), which was demolished in 1906 to make way for the new library. Its massive foundation had to support not only the building itself, with its granite facade and interior walls lined with marble; it also needed to support the weight of the books inside. When construction began, the workmen used cranes and other machines for heavy lifting, yet they also depended on teams of mules, often transporting materials on the animals' backs. In 1909, the building's steel frame was erected and surfaced with slabs of granite from Mt. Waldo in Maine. By 1910, craftsmen had begun creating huge plaster tiles for the interior ceiling of the Great Hall and Periodicals Room, modeled after Michelangelo's Renaissance-era design of the Laurentian Library in Florence, Italy. When the new Central Library was completed in 1912, it occupied an entire city block and was considered one of the best examples of Neo-Classical architecture in the U.S..After receiving a City Landmark designation and serving the public for a century, the Library temporarily closed from 2010 to 2012 for a major renovation, which was completed in time for its 100th Anniversary. Cannon Design restored and modernized the library, preserving the original footprint and distinctive classical architectural features, while incorporating modernist elements. A new auditorium, meeting spaces, and research rooms were added, along with a new entrance facing Lucas Park to better connect the library with surrounding communities. New steel beams were installed, as well as updated electrical, mechanical, and environmental systems for improved energy conservation. Installing high-speed data technologies throughout the historic building meant that workers had to carefully remove and replace ceiling tiles or large slabs of stone flooring and walls. Speaking to these challenges, Cannon Design noted that: "while its grandeur is one of its great assets, historic buildings of this scale are anything but flexible." The result was an improved Central Library equipped to meet the needs of the public in the twenty-first century.

Constructed from 1909 to 1912 at the site of the former St. Louis Exposition and Music Hall, this grand library has served as the central location for the St. Louis Public Library system for over a century. It was originally designed by one of the foremost architects of the day, Cass Gilbert, who designed many other prominent buildings throughout the country, such as the U.S. Supreme Court Building in Washington D.C. and the Woolworth Building in New York City. In 2010, the St. Louis Public Library system temporarily closed its Central Library for a major renovation project, which was completed in 2012. State-of-the-art technology, a new research room for local history and genealogy, rare books collections, an expanded children's section, and an accessible entrance facing Lucas Park were among the renovations. Docent-led architectural tours are offered on site at Central Library, one of the most recognizable landmarks in the city.

St. Louis Public Library (Central Library)

The initiative to construct a memorial plaza and memorial building to honor the citizens of St. Louis, who made the ultimate sacrifice in the World War I, began in 1923. Over the course of several years, the city of St. Louis and its citizens raised money for the project. Under the leadership of Mayor Bernard F. Dickmann, in 1933 additional funds were raised, and with the help of money from the federal Relief and Recovery Act, the construction of the building began in 1935. President Franklin D. Roosevelt traveled to St. Louis to dedicate the site on October 14th, 1936, and the memorial and the museum officially opened to the public on Memorial Day, May 30th, 1938.&nbsp;

The Soldiers’ Memorial, located between Market and Pine and 13th and 14th Streets, is the first of the two war memorials in St. Louis completed in honor of World War I veterans. Soldiers' Memorial Military Museum was dedicated by Franklin D. Roosevelt, as a memorial for veterans and as a museum for preserving a historic collection of military artifacts, on October 14th, 1936.
 
Two museum galleries contain a collection of military-related objects of both local and national historical significance, such as photographs, posters and printed materials, uniforms, flags, medals, firearms, edged weapons, and a range of war-time memorabilia from the battlefront and the homefront.
  
The building was designed by St. Louis architectural firm Mauran, Russell & Crowell in a stripped Classical style, with a severely simplified form and limited ornament. Notable features include the massive stone columnns with carved stone panels between the columnns that bear the faces of war veterans. On the north and south sides of the building are large stone statues of winged horses and martial looking men and women, representing courage, loyalty, vision, and sacrifice.

Soldiers Memorial Military Museum

Development of the
Opera House began in 1923 when St. Louis voters approved a massive $87.4
million bond, the largest bond in the nation at that time, to modernize the
city with projects including a Municipal Auditorium complex. The complex opened
in 1934 and included a 3,500-seat opera house and a 9,300-seat convention hall.
The first performance held in the auditorium was a production of the opera
Aida, on April 21, 1934. Many of the events from the Opera House’s early days
included operas, musicals, symphonies, and performances from local acts. In
1943 the Municipal Auditorium was renamed the Kiel Opera House, and the
Convention Hall renamed the Kiel Auditorium, after former mayor Henry W. Kiel,
who had spearheaded the project to build the complex. 

The Kiel Opera House
hosted many notable celebrities during its heyday. On October 30, 1948,
President Harry Truman held his last campaign speech, just four days before
winning reelection. On June 20, 1965 Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy
Davis Jr. held a benefit concert broadcast on closed-circuit television, and
hosted by Johnny Carson. On July 11, 1978 the Rolling Stones held a highly-anticipated
concert in the Opera House; tickets had sold out in seventy-five minutes following
a single radio advertisement. There were performances by other major
entertainers such as Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Louie Armstrong, Bob
Hope, Johnny Cash, Judy Garland, Benny Goodman, Ray Charles, Elvis Presley, Bob
Dylan, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, and The Eagles. From 1934 to 1968 the
Opera House was the home of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. It was also used
for graduation ceremonies for an estimated 400,000 high school and college
students in the local area. 

By the 1980s the Kiel
Opera House and Kiel Auditorium were struggling to remain relevant. The Opera
House finally closed in 1991, with the final performance being a concert by the
St. Louis Philharmonic on May 4. In 1992 the Kiel Auditorium was demolished to
make way for the new Scottrade Center arena. The Kiel Opera House was spared
demolition and remained idle for the next twenty years. Various proposals were
floated to refurbish the Opera House as an art museum, a Ulysses S. Grant
library, and even a Hard Rock Café, none of which came to fruition. In 2009
plans were announced for a $79 million complete restoration of the Opera House,
with most of the money coming from government subsidies. In 2010 the Kiel Opera
House was renamed the Peabody Opera House after Peabody Energy purchased the
naming rights. The Opera House finally reopened on October 1, 2011 with a gala
featuring Jay Leno and Aretha Franklin. Today the Opera House continues its
original purpose of hosting concerts and other events throughout the year.

The Peabody Opera House, formerly known as the Kiel Opera House, is a historic performing arts center in St. Louis, Missouri. The 3,500-seat complex was built in 1934 and originally was named the Municipal Auditorium. Over the next six decades it hosted many notable events including a campaign rally for President Harry Truman and concerts by the Rolling Stones and Frank Sinatra's Rat Pack. The Opera House closed in 1991 and sat idle for two decades. It reopened as the Peabody Opera House in 2011 after a $79 million restoration. Today the Opera House hosts concerts, musicals, lectures, and comedy acts. 

Peabody Opera House

In the mid 1850s, the area where the Campbell House is situated
was named Lucas place. It was the first suburban clearly defined wealthy neighborhood,
a very expensive, upscale residential neighborhood with very large homes. 

Built in 1851, the first house in this elegant Lucas Place
neighborhood, the Campbell House was built by &nbsp;John H. Hall (born in 1801 in Kentucky) who,
along with his business partner James F. Donaldson (born about 1800 in
Maryland), owned a hardware, cutlery, and mechanics tools store. Hall sold the property
at 1508 Lucas Place to Cornelia Wilson in April 1853, witch lived here for only
one year. In 1854 Robert Campbell, legendary fur trader and merchant, became
its third owner, and the house remained in his family for more than 80 years, until
1938.

After settling in St. Louis, Campbell began an important
business career which included the fur trade, dry goods, steamboats, banks and
real estate. He also helped develop places like Kansas City and El Paso, Texas.
At the end of this career, Campbell owned the Southern Hotel, the biggest hotel
in St. Louis. When Campbell died in 1879, he was considered the wealthiest man
in Missouri. 

Two of Campbell's sons, Hugh and Hazlett, continued to live
in the house after Robert's death. After Hazlett's death in 1938 the house was
willed to Yale University and it was put it up for sale. The furnishings were
sent to the Selkirk Gallery to be auctioned. Stix, Baer and Fuller, a local
department store, bought the home in 1941 as part of its 50th anniversary
celebration and gave it to the Campbell House Foundation, a group that was
formed to turn the home into a museum. The Foundation raised enough funds to go
to Selkirk Gallery to buy back 90 per cent of the Campbell furnishings. The
house was opened as a museum in 1943 showcasing Victorian furnishings and
decorative arts.

In 1973 an important album of 60 photographs was donated to
the Museum. The photos, dating from about 1885, show the house interior, exterior
and surrounding neighborhood. The discovery of the Campbell House photo album
allowed for accurate restoration of the interior of the rooms and after the exterior
in 2005, returning the building to its opulent 1880s appearance. 

The house was one of the centers of St. Louis society,
hosting notable Americans as President Ulysses S. Grant, General William
Tecumseh Sherman and Sioux Chieftain Red Cloud. It is the only surviving
building from the Lucas Place neighborhood.

Since opening in 1943, the Campbell House Museum has served the greater St. Louis area as one of the nation’s premier historic property museums.
The house served as a family home of Robert Campbell from 1851 to 1938. The Museum preserves not only the Campbell’s house, the family home of Robert Campbell—a prominent figure in the history of St. Louis and of the American West— but also the family’s collection of original furniture, fixtures, paintings,  letters, objects , thousands of pages of family documents, and unique album of 60 interior photographs taken in the mid-1880s. 
In 2000, the Museum began a meticulous restoration project that returned the building to its opulent 1880s appearance, when the house was one of the centers of St. Louis society. The museum  is considered to be one of the best preserved mid-Victorian house museums in the United States.

Campbell House Museum

What was once an old shoe factory in
the Great Depression is now an astounding museum enjoyed by the young and the
old alike. Bob Cassilly, a creative classically trained sculptor and building
contractor’s son, used his creative mind to open his astonishing tourist
attraction in the middle of the largely abandoned field of warehouses in
downtown St. Louis on October 25th, 1997. &nbsp;Although the museum is seen as a children’s museum,
Cassiliy has said that the it was meant for visitors of all ages. The City
Museum of St. Louis attracted 300,000 visitors per year just two years after
its opening. Cassilly was in the process of completing another project, called
Cementland, but was killed in 2011 when his bulldozer flipped over.

&nbsp;The museum grounds feature a giant urban
playground that Cassilly and his crew of 20 artisans, known as the “Cassilly
Crew” constructed from all sorts of repurposed materials---objects that were
donated by the people of St. Louis. The jungle gym is full of secret
passageways, including multi-story slides that drop into underground caves that
were originally the parts of its former shoe factory where workers would drop
shoes through chutes. Its most prominent features include a fully-functioning
Ferris Wheel and an old school bus that was donated by the Roxana School District
that sit atop the roof.&nbsp;<blockquote>“City Museum makes you want to know,” said Cassilly.
“The point is not to learn every fact, but to say, ‘Wow, that's wonderful.' And
if it's wonderful, it's worth preserving.”4&nbsp;</blockquote>The museum constantly continues to
grow and change, thanks to the hard work of the Cassilly Crew. &nbsp;It also offers days for
homeschool groups and workshops and overnight visits for Girl Scouts and
families.

&nbsp;Inside the museum, the first
floor and the Mezzine levels allow visitors to walk on a mosaic tiled floor and
view columns decorated with aquarium creatures and oyster shells. This area is
used for group events, performances and presentations. The Vault Room on the
second floor, also available for group rental of the museum is embedded with
St. Louis relics, a hallway of mirrors, and a marble bar. This floor also housed the World
Aquarium where visitors could visit sea creatures such as sharks, turtles, and
stingrays but was closed in 2015 after being in the museum for 11 years. This
was due to the fact that the museum did not promote it very much, so visitors
did not know it was there, and also because they had to pay a separate
admission fee for it. The aquarium is now located at the St. Louis Riverfront.&nbsp; &nbsp;

Established in 1997, St. Louis's City Museum was built by internationally acclaimed artist, Bob Cassilly. The museum was constructed largely from repurposed architectural and industrial objects and is housed in the former International Shoe building in the Washington Avenue Loft District of St. Louis. The 600,000 square-foot museum is an eclectic mixture of children's playground and museum with fantastical caves, funhouse exhibits, rides, and surrealistic architectural wonders. The museum attracts about 740,000 visitors each year, more than double of St. Louis's population.

City Museum

From Swathmore College's Database of Non-Violent Action: "In 1947, The St. Louis chapter of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), a national group that aimed to practice the tactics of nonviolence against the oppressive forces of segregation, was formed.In 1948, St. Louis CORE chose the Stix, Baer &amp; Fuller Department Store as a target for a comprehensive non-violent desegregation campaign. CORE chose Stix for a number of reasons. First of all, the store layout was conducive to maximizing the exposure of the campaign. The store had a large, first floor lunch counter that fit 97 patrons and was visible to pedestrians passing by. Furthermore, the store was a focal point of downtown commerce and was frequently called the “Grand Leader.” Secondly, the overtly hypocritical policies of Stix provided a target for the letters, leaflets, and signs that CORE distributed as part of the campaign; Stix allowed Blacks to shop in the store, but would not serve Blacks at the lunch counter. Finally, Stix was owned by local St. Louisians who were seen as community leaders and thus more subject to the pressures of the community.At the same time as the initiation of the Stix campaign, CORE members tried to work with officials at other downtown businesses, including Famous-Barr and Scruggs, Vandervoort, Woolworth’s, and other dime stores. However, Stix remained the focal point of the campaign and due to the wide variety of nonviolent tactics used there, in many ways it served as a case study for CORE in terms of what was effective and what was not.CORE members began the Stix campaign by sending letters to Stix officials encouraging them to institute non-discriminatory policies. When these letters went unanswered, CORE members began distributing leaflets outside the store. The leaflets explained that African Americans were being denied service and pressed people to complain to the management. Sayings on the leaflets included, “All we ask for is fair play” and “You be the judge: Is it fair to refuse restaurant service to Negroes while accepting money from them in other departments?” CORE members also tailored their tactics to events that happened at the store, such as pamphlets specifically designed for attendees of an ecumenical association meeting that was held in Stix in November of 1948, so as to relate to a variety of different audiences.On January 31, 1949, when white CORE members went to the lunch counter and ordered hamburgers and pie, they proceeded to share the food with four Black members who had joined them at the counter. Management put up closed signs on the counter. CORE proceeded to have a few more small sit-ins in the days that followed. CORE orchestrated parallel tactics of maintaining a sit-in presence at the lunch counter, as well as sending letters to the Stix officials. Soon CORE began to hold weekly sit-ins that averaged twenty to thirty people. By April of 1949, CORE had as many as 57 people sitting in the cafeteria for the whole day. Rather than sitting next to each other, the demonstrators sat in every other seat to occupy more room. They placed signs in front of them that read ‘We are being refused service’ with explanatory pamphlets.The campaign began to draw media attention and several newspapers, including the St. Louis American, covered the events. Stix employees tried to counter the demonstration with a sit-in of their own so that the CORE members could not occupy the seats. However, this only stopped business, helping the CORE cause. Needless to say this move was quickly abandoned.CORE continued diversifying their tactics. On May 12, 1949, two members attempted to receive service while holding their infant children. As a result, the local paper printed a picture of the two mothers and their infants being turned away. Two African American war veterans requested service; when they were turned away they filed formal complaints with the management and other customers bought food for them.In the summer of 1949 students from the Association of Southern Churches arrived to aid the St. Louis CORE campaign. Ten of the white students would order food at the counter and then pass it to Black members. Meanwhile, CORE urged the African American community to boycott Stix Department Store all together. Many community groups supported CORE’s efforts by letting them explain their campaign to their members. On August 29, 1949, the NAACP recognized CORE’s efforts and subsequently passed a resolution advocating a citywide boycott of Stix, Baer &amp; Fuller.On July 28, 1949, CORE sent a letter to the Stix management saying that they would suspend the demonstrations to allow Stix time to change their policy and save face. CORE members also emphasized that most white customers had shown willingness to share the counter with Blacks. CORE’s withdrawal allowed them to regroup and focus on other surrounding businesses. However, leaders of CORE continued to send letters to the Stix management. On November 31, 1951, St. Louis CORE leaders Walter Hayes and Charles Oldham met with Stix executives. They discussed their successes with other stores in the area, but the Stix executives refused to change their policies.In April 1952, Charles Oldham, who was the acting president of CORE, composed “A Plan for Establishing Equal Restaurant Service in St. Louis Department Stores” and sent it to influential community leaders. The plan received plenty of positive feedback and fed the publicity of the campaign. It reached numerous members of the community as well as the inner circles of local businesses. Stix held their ground through 1953, but in 1954 the department store finally opened its counter to white and Black customers alike."

The St. Louis Chapter of CORE led sit-ins throughout the city between 1949 and 1951. The sit-ins that attempted to integrate the lunch counter at Stix, Baer, and Fuller were the largest of these protests. Continued 

Sit-ins at the Stix, Baer, and Fuller Department Store, 1949-54

This handsome theater was built in 1917 by St. Louis millionaire Louis Cella. Architect Albert Lansburgh designed the building in the Beaux Arts style. As such both the interior and exterior are highly decorative. The theater, which can seat 1,500 people, operated as a venue for vaudeville acts until 1930, when Warner Brothers bought and converted into a movie theater. By that time, the popularity of vaudeville acts was in decline; movies began to take over as a major form of entertainment in theaters. The Orpheum reopened in 1960 as the American Theater and became a performance venue. Artists such as Pearl Jam and Alicia Keys performed here. Real estate developers Michael and Steve Roberts eventually bought the theater, invested money into renovation, and changed the name to the Roberts Orpheum Theater. In 2012, they sold it to another developer, UrbanStreet Group, which then sold it to the current owners, Jubilee World, which presents Christian-themed music, in 2016. 

Orpheum Theater

The National Blues Museum aims to tell the story of how blues emerged from the slave plantations and evolved as former slaves traveled northwards, settling in St. Louis, Chicago, and other northern cities. The museum celebrates the music that would eventually be the basis for Jazz, Rock &amp; Roll, Funk, and R&amp;B, featuring interactive exhibits, photographs, guitars and some outfits worn by blues legends. It opened on April 2nd, 2016 and was designed by internationally-recognized museum design firm, Gallagher &amp; Associates. The museum also offers performances, lectures, film showings, and other events. William Christopher
(W. C.) Handy was said to be “The Father of the Blues”. Born on in 1873 in
Florence, Alabama, Handy grew up in a strict household where he was forbidden
to play any musical instruments, but secretly bought a guitar that he would practice
with. He could also play many others, including the piano and organ and was
particularly skilled with the trumpet. In 1892, he left Alabama to travel to
the Midwest where he would join various other music groups. Through 1900-02, he
worked as a teacher, and then the next year, Handy conducted his own orchestra
called The Knights of Pythia, in Mississippi up until 1921. During those years,
he would arrange harmonizing tunes, influenced by the music by the Mississippi
Delta and Memphis, Tennessee. He joined Harry Pace and they would form a music
company that would become the Handy and Pace Music Company. Handy’s music had a
melodic element to it, which can be heard in his “Memphis Blue’s”, a campaign
song that he wrote for elections in Tennessee that was the first example of
music to be written and published as sheet music. The origins
of blues can be traced back to the 19th Century in Northwestern
Mississippi where it was being sung by former slaves and would eventually
spread to the rest of the South and the rest of the U.S. The Blues music that
was performed would often accompany those who were traveling, such as doctors,
musicians, circuses, etc. that would go anywhere to be able to share their
music. There were also many different styles of blues music such as ballads,
folk music, gospel, and ragtime. The music had both melancholy and upbeat tunes,
for both the hard times and the pleasures of life. The crowds were often
segregated due to the Jim Crow Laws.&nbsp;

During the time, thousands of settlers would travel along the Mississippi
and Missouri rivers, that would become known as the “Gateway to the West”. By
1890, St. Louis was the 4th largest city in the U.S. as it became a
place where people could exchange new ideas and old traditions, especially in
regards to music. African Americans who were former slaves would be important
contributors to the development of blues, ragtime and jazz by combining their traditional music based with
the tunes they would hear in bands, parlors, and dance. Blues music
would continue to grow and evolve in St. Louis into the early 20th Century.
Jazz and swing would become popular in the 1930’s and 40’s. After World War II,
blues music became electric and would turn into what we now know as R&amp;B and
Rock and Roll, with musicians such as Chuck Berry and Tina Turner.&nbsp; 

&nbsp;

The National Blues Museum opened to the public in 2016 in what was once a downtown St. Louis department store for nearly a century. One of the goals of the museum is to educate those about music and its importance when speaking of America’s culture, race, and diversity. Blues is the foundation for nearly all music that became popular, such as jazz and rock and roll. The museum encourages even those who are not blues fans to visit in order to gain appreciation for the music. The Blues Museum holds various events, including live music, and visitors can sign up for a newsletter on the official website to find out more about them. 

National Blues Museum

Located on the northwest corner of Locust and Seventh
Streets in downtown St. Louis, the Ambassador Theater Building was a
seventeen-story office building, incorporating a six-story theater. The
building was designed by Chicago architects C. W. and George L. Rapp and was
completed in 1926. Chicago theater architects Rapp &amp; Rapp designed the
building as a movie palace fantasy version of the French Renaissance. &nbsp;It was the first six stories luxury movie palace
downtown St. Louis, originally constructed with three thousand seats, and
reported in 1926 to be the most costly theater built to that date. In the mid-1930s, the theater, which had been running a mix
of live entertainment and films, switched to movies full-time.The Ambassador closed in December 12, 1953 and Cinerama opened there on Feb. 10, 1954.&nbsp;In February 1953
the first 3D movie came to the Ambassador, a premiere of Bwana Devil. Articles
in the St. Louis newspapers announced that both the Fox Theatre and Ambassador
Theatre were likely to close.The steel-framed building was roughly rectangular in
footprint, measuring approximately 150 by 180 feet. Its primary exterior materials
were buff-colored brick and cream terra cotta. The buff brick exterior featured
a cornice and lower stories embellished with "modern Renaissance"
designs in terra cotta. Monumental windows opening to the lobby displayed
Winkle terra cotta motifs described as the "largest detail of its
kind" built in St. Louis. It was also noted that one of the largest steel
trusses in the world supported the roof of the theater auditorium and the
eleven stories above. Commanding a prime corner site at Seventh and Locust
Streets, the Ambassador Building was at the "geographic center of the
downtown”. Imported marbles in the office building lobby would lend an
"aristocratic atmosphere" while generous five-foot windows in each
office were designed to provide plentiful light and air.In 1970’s as the population spread out toward the suburbs,
downtown movie palaces like the Ambassador fell on hard times. The Ambassador
Theatre under the direction of the Arthur Theatres made many attempts through
the 1970’s to make it as a movie theater and live concert venue but they all
failed. The seventeen stories of offices above remained viable for many years
afterwards. However, efforts to find an operator for the theater failed; after
ten years of trying to renovate the building, its owner ultimately stripped it
of its elaborate interior decor, which was then auctioned off. At this times it
was considered to be one of the three surviving movie palaces from the
"Golden Age", and the only luxury theater in the Central Business
District.







Several years later, Mercantile Bank grant a demolition
permit from the city of St. Louis. Demolition began in March of 1996. After
demolition was completed in 1997, a "plaza" involving paving stones
and garden areas was installed on the site; some decorative terra cotta panels
from the Ambassador's interior were attached to a neighboring building.

Ambassador Theater Building was a seventeen- story office building incorporating a six- story theater. Ambassador Theatre was the first six story luxury movie palace downtown St. Louis, originally constructed with three thousand seats, and reported at the opening in 1926 to be the most costly theater built to that date. The building was designed by Chicago architects C. W. and George L. Rapp, in French Renaissance style. Anchoring the corner of Seventh and Locust Streets in the heart of the Central Business District, the building completed Seventh Street's prestigious corridor of office buildings which began development with the Wainwright Building two blocks south of the Ambassador.

Ambassador Theatre 

At the time of its construction, the Railway Exchange Building was&nbsp;St. Louis’s largest commercial and office building. However, as stated in its NRHP nomination form (2008), "the building’s rich history was built more on the shoulders of the companies it was designed to house than the structural supports and ornamental flare it boasted in its design." Chief among those companies was the enormous department store Famous-Barr.&nbsp;William Barr &amp; Company opened as a drygoods store before the Civil War, in 1850. Famous Shoe and Clothing Company began in a small building on Franklin Avenue about a quarter century later, in 1873. In 1911, the two venerable stores merged and became part of the May Department Store company. The company moved into its new home in the summer of 1913. The store included two restaurants, three-level escalators, four elevator shafts and seven stories of retail commercial space. To quote the&nbsp;NRHP nomination form, "Famous-Barr is an excellent example
of a local company that encouraged the national department store phenomenon by
marketing the consumer experience to women shoppers as a leisure and social
activity."<div> John Mauran of Mauran, Russell and Crowell, one of St. Louis’s most prolific architectural firms, had originally begun his career in Boston, moving to St. Louis when his firm assigned him to its branch in that city. He started his own firm there in 1900, and became&nbsp;so prominent in the area that he eventually was elected president of the St. Louis chapter of the American Institute of Architects. Like many other buildings the firm designed, the Railway Exchange Building had a&nbsp;terra cotta exterior, and the Chicago-Style tower with classical elements is typical of the firm's work elsewhere in St. Louis. Its terra cotta&nbsp;facings, which includes piers, spandrels, brackets, and columnns, have led the structure to be called "perhaps the most lavishly ornamented building in the entire city." He attributed his use of brick and terra cotta to the climate of the city, writing in a 1904 article, "...&nbsp;as wood construction is neither cool enough nor sufficiently durable, and native granite difficult to quarry, the local&nbsp;material, clay, has lent itself admirably to a brick and terra-cotta expression of the solution of the same problem in 'sunny Missouri,' worked out so many years ago in Spain and Italy."&nbsp;More than ten of the firm's buildings are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.&nbsp;</div><div> When the building was designed in 1912, fireproofing designs had already reached St. Louis. The Railway Exchange Building boasted of its status as a "perfectly fireproof building." An extensive sprinkler system, with the nozzles placed every 94 feet within the building, helped the brick and steel structure, with its metal-frame windows, resist fire. A ground-level fire engine could circulate water throughout the building if the sprinkler system failed. In addition, the "complete enclosure of all floor openings" kept fires from spreading down stairwells and between floors. All these precautions persuaded the fire department and other officials that the building would serve as a barrier to fire rather than spread it, and so waved the usual height restrictions for the 21-story building.&nbsp; Famous-Barr became the city's largest retailer, and when in 1949&nbsp;it opened its first suburban store, the company was making twice the profits of any other company in the city. The downtown store remained open until 2006, when Federated Department Stores bought out the May Department Store Company and replaced Famous with Macy’s, which&nbsp;utilized the building’s lower department store and several of the upper levels for its Midwest headquarters. In 2008, Macy’s moved its headquarters to Ohio. The store itself closed in 2013.&nbsp; </div><div>Hudson Holdings purchased the vacant property in early 2017. At a November 2017 meeting, the city’s Industrial Development Authority considered issuing $160 million in Housing Revenue Bonds to help finance redevelopment. The plan was to include not only retail and office space but a residential component of perhaps 600 apartments. Total renovation costs are expected to top $250 million. </div>

The Railway Exchange Building, completed in 1914, is a 21-story building occupying an entire city block at 600 Locust Street in downtown St. Louis, MO. It was designed in 1912 by the St. Louis architectural firm of Mauran, Russell & Crowell and constructed in 1913 in the Chicago architectural style. It was the tallest building in the city at the time it was constructed, and contained 31 acres of floor space. Originally, its most prominent tenant was the Famous-Barr Dry Goods Company, which occupied the lower 10 stories. It was also the headquarters of the May Department Stores Company, of which Famous-Barr was a part. Despite the presence of the department store, the building’s official name was derived from the many railroad company tenants that originally occupied it. Although currently vacant, it is historically significant in both the areas of commercial history and engineering and architectural history. In 2009, the building was entered in the National Register of Historic Places.

Railway Exchange Building

This new museum located offers a unique&nbsp;educational experience that will offer a deeper understanding of the economy. The museum offers a number of&nbsp;educational resources on its website&nbsp;as well as a mobile app that includes lessons about economic history.&nbsp;Inside the museum, visitors will&nbsp;learn about the&nbsp;economy by using "displays, games, sculptures, and videos."The museum is divided into zones 1-5. Each zone focuses on specific factors that affect the economy. By interacting with these exhibits, the visitor can learn their place in the economy and how their actions affect the economy. Begin your visit with a video that "transforms the teller lobby from historic to modern, then setting the stage for your dynamic experience!"2 Learn about spending, trade and the market, history of the Reserve, and more on the economy. After your visit, you won't go home empty handed. The museum gives you a bag of shredded money to carry out as a souvenir! Plan to visit this new museum and all its interactive exhibits. Bring your Identification and children must be accompanied by an adult. Check out the official website for more details and enjoy your visit to St. Louis' INSIDE THE ECONOMY MUSEUM!

The Federal Reserve of St. Louis features the Inside the Economy Museum. Located near the Gateway Arch, the museum offers nearly 100 exhibits. With interactive exhibits, you will have the opportunity to experience how inflation is affected by expenses as well as have the opportunity, at one exhibit, to use your sense of smell to understand the economy!  Learn the history of the Federal Reserve as well as other interesting information such as the changing economy during the history of the United States when you visit this fascinating new museum. 

Federal Reserve of St. Louis/Inside the Economy Museum

&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;The Old Judge Coffee Building is a staple in St. Louis coffee culture. Although this brick, industrial building was intended to be a warehouse and office space for Scharff, Bernnheimer and Co.(1)&nbsp;In the 1918's David Evan's Co moved the Old Judge Coffee and Spice business into the building. At it's prime the business produced three million pounds of coffee&nbsp;(1) and progressively led the use of sealed cans in the production. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; St. Louis was leading the country with coffee roasting during the late 1800s and early 1900s this hub made coffee an important resource within their economy. Some&nbsp;pioneering coffee firms in the area were; "David G. Evans &amp; Co.; James H. Forbes; Wm. Schotten &amp; Co.; Fred W. Meyer; H. &amp; J. Menown; Cavanaugh, Rearick &amp; Co.; and Frederick A. Churchill &amp; Company By 1920 there were over 86 coffee roasters locally.(1)&nbsp;" &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;In 1962 Old Judge Coffee sold to Chock- Full-O-Nuts, but the smell of cinnamon can still be found lingering within the building.(2)&nbsp;The building was revamped again in 1977 creating a home for restaurants, businesses, and even back to its roots in coffee. Historic St. Louis is a hub for industrial buildings, but this landmark is one no coffee lover should miss.&nbsp;

The Old Judge Coffee Building is a historic, industrial building in St. Louis. This five story brick building has been converted multiple times, but most famously remembered for the lingering smell of cinnamon and coffee. This historic landmark is significant in the coffee history of St. Louis.  During the late 1800s and early 1900s St. Louis had a significant amount of local coffee roasters, and was an asset in their local economy.  

Old Judge Coffee Building 

In 1763, a French fur trapper named Pierre Laclede, along with Auguste Chouteau, set out from New Orleans to explore the Illinois Country to establish a trading post.&nbsp;In 1764, he chose the west bank of the Mississippi River, north of the River des Peres and south of the Missouri River. In 1784, the site was cleared and temporary cabins were built. Laclede named the settlement St. Louis in honor of the patron saint of the king of France. The village of St. Louis contained three streets: La Grande Rue, now First Street; Rue d'Eglise, now Second Street; and Rue des Granges, now Third Street. Soon the village became the center of commerce with furs as the main source of exchange for goods. Today, Laclede's Landing is&nbsp;an entertainment district with a variety of&nbsp;shopping, dining, and entertainment options.

Laclède's Landing is a small urban historic district in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. It marks the northern part of the original settlement founded by the Frenchman Pierre Laclède, whose landing on the riverside the name commemorates.

St. Louis Walking Tour- Gateway Arch to Laclede's Landing

National Bank of Commerce (1902-1977) and St. Louis Place (1983-Present)

Introduction

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