The Grant Medical Clinic is an interesting building just south of the Optimist International Building, which I featured in a post back in August of last year (Whoa–it was that long ago? Time sure flies by). Washington University Physicians make use of the building, which revolutionized doctors’ offices with a more residential feeling with couches…
Tag: Office Buildings
The Roebling Bridge, Between Cincinnati and Covington
One of the most important bridges in the history of architecture and engineering spans the Ohio River in between Cincinnati, Ohio and Covington, Kentucky. Opened in 1866, years before the revolutionary Eads Bridge in St. Louis, it served as the important prototypical step for the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. Construction faced the same challenges:…
Former Clifton Heights Public School
I knew there was something up with this building, which is now the headquarters of the Service Employees International Union. It clearly had been a much older structure with a Modernist update in the central portal. Sitting on Clifton Avenue, which apparently used to be Old Manchester Road, this was Clifton Heights Elementary School, and…
Old Carter Carburetor Offices and Pythias Hall
I’ve looked at the old Carter Carburetor Plant on North Grand Boulevard before many times in the past, and it has been demolished and remediated for PCBs. But the office building for the company was located in the heart of Grand Center. Originally intended to be a skyscraper in 1925, only the first two stories…
Chouteau Trust and Banking Building
The old Chouteau Trust and Banking Building is one of those landmarks that maybe gets taken for granted, sitting right at the eastern gateway to the Grove neighborhood. But it is significant for being such a large office building in what is otherwise a low-rise neighborhood. It is perhaps obvious that it once had a…
Hubertus Schotten House
This exemplary example of the Romanesque Revival sits in the western end of Saint Louis University’s campus on the West Pine Boulevard pedestrian mall. Like its more famous neighbor to the east, the Samuel Cupples House, it features massive tower with hulking proportions. An ornate terracotta panel accents the second floor. Hubertus Schotten, whose picture…
The Optimist International Building
Update: On August 23, 2021, the Optimist building’s demolition received another denial from the Preservation Board. No word on what the Optimists will do with their building in the future. The Engineers Club, further down Lindell to the east, is now threatened with demolition for a similar conversion to an apartment building. As of this…
Downtown Wentzille
Downtown Wentzville, which straddles the railroad, has a wealth of interesting historic buildings, including these on the southeast corner of Main Street and Linn Avenue. The storefronts are full of restaurants and other businesses. The Trinity Executive Building is further west down Main Street on the south side facing the railroad tracks. There is a…
Merchant Laclede Building, Revisited
The Merchant Laclede, or Merchant’s Laclede Building, depending on whom you ask, was another of the historic skyscrapers in the financial district of St. Louis, often forgotten in favor of the more famous Chicago School buildings to the west. It was built in 1886. It’s been simplified over the years, losing its pediment and conical…
Security Building, Revisited Again
I found some photos of the Security Building deep in the St. Louis Patina archives, and I thought they should see the light of day. The standard story always goes is that it’s the last, or one of the last Romanesque Revival skyscrapers in St. Louis before the coming of the innovative Wainwright Building, but…