__NOTOC__ The Washington Avenue Historic District is located in Downtown West,

St. Louis St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

along Washington Avenue, and bounded by Delmar Boulevard to the north,

Locust Street Locust Street is a major historic street in Center City, Philadelphia, Center City Philadelphia. The street is the location of several prominent Philadelphia-based buildings, historic sights, and Tower block, high-rise residential locations. It ...

to the south, 8th Street on the east, and

18th Street 18th Street may refer to: Los Angeles * 18th Street gang, an Hispanic street gang Manhattan, New York City * 18th Street (IRT Broadway – Seventh Avenue Line); a subway station serving the trains * 18th Street (IRT Lexington Avenue Line), a ...

on the west. The buildings date from the late 19th century to the early 1920s. They exhibit a variety of popular architectural styles of those years, but most are revival styles or in the commercial style that would later come to be known as the Chicago School of architecture. Most are large multi-story buildings of

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

and stone construction, built as

warehouses A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the rural–urban fringe, outs ...

for the St. Louis garment district. Many have

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

accents on their facades. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the decline in domestic garment

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

and the preference for single-story industrial space led to many of the buildings being vacant or underused due to functional obsolescence. The district includes: * Ely and Walker Dry Goods Company Building (1906–07), designed by

Eames & Young Eames and Young was an American architecture firm based in St. Louis, Missouri, active nationally, and responsible for several buildings on the National Register of Historic Places. History The principals were Thomas Crane Young, FAIA and Will ...

, now a residential loft building. *Lesser-Goldman/Ferguson-McKinney Building (1901) at the northwest corner of Washington and W. 12th, also designed by

. It is "A half-block in size and enriched with classical, round arches with voussoirs and keystones, quoins, and a copiously enriched cornice, the building was in keeping with the standards of architectural design of "the great commercial warehouses which are making Washington Avenue a monumental street." The building has piers defining 13 bays on its Washington Avenue facade and nine bays on its Tucker Boulevard facade. It has distinctive

quoins Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th century encyclopedia, t ...

. It has several large, round-arched openings with

voussoirs A voussoir () is a wedge-shaped element, typically a stone, which is used in building an arch or vault. Although each unit in an arch or vault is a voussoir, two units are of distinct functional importance: the keystone and the springer. The ...

. The main entrance, at center of the Washington Ave. facade, is surrounded with

work and set with a large scrolled keystone. Above, windows are in sets of twos or threes separated by brick

mullions A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid supp ...

pilaster In classical architecture Classical architecture usually denotes architecture which is more or less consciously derived from the principles of Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, or sometimes even more specifically, from the ...

-like piers. At the seventh story, "the piers curve to form round arches with keystones.

Spandrels A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame; between the tops of two adjacent arches or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fill ...

between the stories are ornamented with scrolled corbels." With photos, the 15th being a 1986 photo of the Ely Walker building (page 79 in PDF).

Redevelopment

The area began to experience some redevelopment in the 1990s. In 1998, the state of Missouri adopted a

tax credit A tax credit is a tax incentive which allows certain taxpayers to subtract the amount of the credit they have accrued from the total they owe the state. It may also be a credit granted in recognition of taxes already paid or a form of state "disc ...

for the redevelopment of historic buildings, making large-scale

renovation Renovation (also called remodeling) is the process of improving broken, damaged, or outdated structures. Renovations are typically done on either commercial or residential buildings. Additionally, renovation can refer to making something new, ...

financially feasible. Local and national developers have acquired many buildings along Washington Avenue and in other parts of downtown. The buildings are being redeveloped with

loft A loft is a building's upper storey or elevated area in a room directly under the roof (American usage), or just an attic: a storage space under the roof usually accessed by a ladder (primarily British usage). A loft apartment refers to large ...

-style condominia and apartments.

References

* National Register of Historic Places - Nomination Forms ** **

External links

City of St. Louis - Washington Avenue Loft District

Downtown Saint Louis Partnership

St Louis Lofts Directory

St Louis LoftStyle

Urban St Louis
{{St. Louis Economy of St. Louis Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Missouri Neighborhoods in St. Louis Warehouse districts of the United States National Register of Historic Places in St. Louis Downtown West, St. Louis 1987 establishments in Missouri Tourist attractions in St. Louis

Redevelopment

See also

References

External links