I looked at the Hawthorne Apartments a long, long time ago, and I was walking down West Pine Boulevard recently, realizing again what a beautiful building it was. It’s typical in that it has a heavily ornamented base, much like a classical Greek or Roman column, then a less decorated shaft, and the finally a highly terracotta encrusted summit.
Taking the place of what was probably a row of mansions, it reflected the new prestige of living in apartment buildings. If St. Louis had continued to increase in density, surely other high rises would have joined it next door.
The ornamentation is decidedly Beaux-Arts in origin, showing how the style adopted to a new type of building. I originally photographed it back in December of 2008.
Joe Wick, Jr., son of the Old Judge Coffee company president, lived in the Hawthorne at the last of it’s heyday. When he and I visited in 2011, Joe wanted to see his old home again. The lobby was still nice, but the furnishings were dated. There was no longer a concierge, either. Beautiful old place. Maybe the resurgence of the hospital around there will bring in enough new tenants to keep it in a state of repair for another century. I surely hope so.