Henry Semple Ames or his mother?most likely had this building constructed in 1889, during the boom years for Grand Center. Its neighbors are gone; it was later owned by a Ms. Cushman after the Ames family moved out in the early Twentieth Century. Ames served as the president of a myriad of railroads and other industrial concerns, fitting for a resident of Lindell Boulevard.?Ames Place was later named after his family. This style of architecture, a combination of many different styles such as Shingle, Romanesque and others is fast disappearing in St. Louis. It now serves as a banquet center for SLU.
Hmmm, I wonder how much–and how badly–the entrance way was changed. The presence of new-ish brick work, and the unlikelihood that a Romanesque facade such as this one would feature a flat, unadorned entrance gives it away. (Not to mention the ridiculous and cheesy neo-colonial doorway. Oh, and yeah, the display window; oy, the display window).