Opened in 1927-8 to designed by the firm Study & Farrar, the Municipal Services Building is diagonally across Clark Street and Tucker Boulevard from City Hall. It is perhaps a building that is missed by many people, but is still used in part by the City of St. Louis. It is actually a collection of different uses put together. Based off the architecture of the Palazzo Publico of Siena, which I’ve seen back in 1998, minus the campanile, it is a massive structure taking up an entire city block.

The southeast corner, above, was the original firefighters’ training facility, which has now moved to North Jefferson Avenue.

On the northeast corner is the old power plant, which was operational into the 1970s! The Clean Air Act put an end to the party, but while it was active, it provided steam (and hot water?) to City buildings. It is now the offices of the architecture form Canon Design.

There are some great cartouches with an artistic rendering of the seal of St. Louis, which of course is still a riverboat.

The northwest corner of the building, which perhaps takes up the most square footage, is the garage, which holds automobiles that employees use for City business.

I love the terracotta lettering above the garage entrance.

Finally, at the southwest corner is a fire station, which I once was told is one of the busiest stations in the United States, or something like that.