It’s hard to believe considering how long suffering the Alverne Building was, that I was able to stand on the top floor recently and deliver a lecture. It’s now renovated into some interesting apartments, including some two-story ones, and the problem with the building having some small windows that couldn’t be altered in order to obtain historic tax credits was resolved. I snapped these photos out the windows; the two above and below are to the west.
Below is to the east, towards the Syndicate Trust Building.
Here’s an interesting view of the stairway tower of the building.
Looking down into the lightwell of the former hotel, we can see how the method of construction, hidden from the façade, and how balconies now punctuate the exterior.
The Alverne originally opened as the Missouri Hotel in 1924, became the Hotel DeSoto in 1933 and the Alverne Hotel in 1956 when the Archdiocese of St. Louis purchased it for use as rooms for the elderly. Most of the first floor was converted into the Our Lady of the Angels Eucharistic Shrine (most commonly called by Catholics as simply the “Alverne Chapel”).
In its heyday, that chapel was more active than most free-standing Catholic churches in St. Louis. The number of office workers downtown was so large that 3 to 5 Masses were offered daily as well as three different times for confession. On Holy Days of Obligation, it was “standing room only” and a makeshift chapel in the basement was opened for the overflow.
When I worked at the Old Post Office just two blocks east, I’d come over during a work break for one of the three Communion services they also offered daily. The Archdiocese closed the senior residence in 1987 and the chapel in 1991.
That’s so interesting that it served downtown workers in that capacity! I had no idea it held mass every day.