Masonic Temple Revisited, Dusk

North St. Louis and Grand Center 120

That massive, hulking limestone Parthenon sitting on its own man-made Acropolis is for sale again. If you have a couple of million dollars and don’t mind them using some of the rooms occasionally, it can be yours.

North St. Louis and Grand Center 062

The vacant lot next door with the rubble retaining wall was once a mansion, demolished for more parking.

North St. Louis and Grand Center 063

Designed by Eames and Young and originally finished in dedicated in 1926, the interior was never finished.

North St. Louis and Grand Center 064

“‘Let there be light,’ and then there was light.”

North St. Louis and Grand Center 121

2 Comments Add yours

  1. Tom Maher - Kirkwood MO says:

    The sheer massiveness of this building has always amazed me; what an enormous amount of stone! What a Herculean effort!
    It even overshadows the almost-as-massive Scottish Rite Cathedral two “doors” away. That building seems rather viable and in use for its intended purpose as well as serving as a venue for other events, however.

    The large mansion in between these two structures, however – what was its use before SLU bought it for the Art Gallery? Someone told me when I was a student at SLU in the early ’60s, that it had a connection to the Woolworth family or business, but that may have been just a legend.
    A-HA! I found a (partial) answer: http://www.slu.edu/sluma-home/sluma-history
    Since it was used, according to the link by various companies, maybe the Woolworth story was true?

    1. Tom Maher - Kirkwood MO says:

      I was right on Woolworth – and apologize for not continuing research:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Louis_University_Museum_of_Art and http://www.builtstlouis.net/midtown/02e.html

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.