Constructed at a cost of $800,000 in addition to the $1,000,000 that the original police headquarters to the north, the police academy, gymnasium and garage was built in 1928.
I wrote about the construction of the police headquarters at St. Louis Magazine back in 2014, and Mauran, Russell and Crowell were the logical architects for the police academy at South 12th and Spruce just as they had been for the building to the north at 12th and Clark.
Interestingly, part of the reason the buildings were built here was to create a “screen” to hide the train tracks of the Mill Creek Valley to the south, thus creating an elegant barrier for the new civic center growing around Market Street to the north, according to a newspaper article from the time.
It’s a restrained building, reflecting the increased unpopularity of the Beaux-Arts and the rise of the Art-Deco and Modernist styles after World War I. Obviously, Beaux-Arts buildings continued to be built, but they were more and more rare.
The gymnasium is still used, and when I visited there was the obstacle course set up that officers are required to complete in a set amount of time to be allowed to patrol.
From 1973 I started working in the 15 story Mart Building 12thand spruce street. On the opposite corner just North was the Police academy. Some or the Cadets used to come over and eat in the Mart building cafeteria on the ground floor. Eventually, The Army Aviation Systems Command relocated to Goodfellow BLVD. Andn in 1997 after BRAC 95, we moved from St Louis to Alabama (Redstone arsenal). Remeber the academy well.