I made an interesting discovery near the Rock Church just off North Grand Boulevard regarding this building.
Due to the size of the smokestack, I assumed this was a factory, but since at 1909, this building was a school supply warehouse for Saint Louis Public Schools. The fourth floor was labeled “bindery,” so I wonder if the district produced its own books. Perhaps a reader remembers.
The southwestern portion is the oldest part, but it clearly looks to have been substantially expanded in the 1920s or 30s. It is still owned by SLPS.
Typically school binderies are part of the school library system. They are responsible for putting the Dewey Decimal tags on book spines. They likely also bound budgets and assorted internal docs that needed more than to be a stack of loose papers.
Hello Michael here in Special Collections at Central Library. This was a challenge to research since the City Block numbers and street names have changed. But here you go. Building permit #5192 issued April 2, 1908. 4-story warehouse at 3425 School Street, city block 1050. Architect W. B. Ittner.
9/15/25 a 1-story warehouse was built at 3420 Thomas St which was located in the same city block.
10/17/1930. 4-story Shop building built at 3412-3416 Thomas St,
10/24/1930 1 Concrete Stack and brick school 3411 School St.
Of course the old Central High School was at 1030 N. Grand, directly to the west of this warehouse and suffered horrible damage in the tornado of 1927. It was torn down and those other buildings were built in 1930.
Very cool! Thanks for the info. That’s so interesting that William B. Ittner designed this building along with all the schools he did.
Looks like it is not only owned by the district but still in use, given the ACs, general condition, parked vehicles and well-maintained fence.