The Sheldon Memorial was built in 1912 for the Ethical Society according to designs of the architect Louis Clemens Spiering.

Spiering is actually a very interesting figure, having participated in the design of the 1904 World’s Fair, as well as being a descendant of the famous German Marxist Karl Ludwig Bernays. St. Louis, as pretty much everyone has now forgotten, was once a hotbed of left wing and radical thought and activism since before the Civil War.

Sadly, Spiering’s promising career was cut short in 1912, the very year the Sheldon Memorial was completed, at the young age of 37.

The building has always been named in honor of Walter Sheldon, one of the founding members of the Ethical Society of St. Louis.

Of course, the Ethical Society is now out west on Clayton Road near the Galleria; I looked at that location, which is in itself an architectural landmark, back in June of 2022.

This building is an interesting expression of the Beaux-Arts, the school which Spiering had the opportunity to study at in Paris.

The one aspect of the design which I find interesting is that Spiering chose to go crazy with the acroterion motif, which are those fan shaped decorations that appear in between the windows above and in their proper locations on the roofline.

The Ionic order is used nicely here, as well.

Thankfully, the Sheldon Memorial has been adapted to new uses with an addition to the east and now puts on concerts and other special events including art exhibits.

This is actually a pretty terrible photo of the building under construction, but I wanted to show it anyway because it demonstrates how Midtown was still very much a residential neighborhood at the time, filled with stately houses, now swept away for parking lots which sit empty 95% of the year.