Locust Avenue, Downtown West

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For the life of me, I can’t find the old post from around 2009 when I featured this collection of beautiful buildings on Locust just east of Jefferson Avenue. It was once automobile row, and the buildings were designed as automobile showrooms. I was disappointed to see that most of them remain vacant. The economic crash is still reverberating to this day. At least some buildings are still occupied.

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The People’s Hospital, an African-American hospital, is still vacant; originally it was the Saint Louis Provident Association Building

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Here is an example of one of the automobile showrooms.

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Interesting…Locust used to be lined with mansions back at the turn of the century. They were slowly turning into rooming houses by 1909.

West Locust

St. Louis Skin and Cancer Hospital once occupied the rowhouses on Jefferson Avenue. It is the predecessor of the Siteman Cancer Center. The Tuholske Hospital, the previous occupant, has its own interesting story. The hospital’s next stop, before the Central West End, was this Grand Center building.

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