Built St. Louis > > Central Corridor > > Downtown West > > Washington Avenue
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A cluster of surviving warehouse and industrial buildings stands at 21st, between St. Charles on the south, north to Delmar. The group holds two National Register of Historic Places nominations. |
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Majestic Stove Building (background)
Majestic Stove was founded in 1892 and quickly expanded enough to require this new building, as well as a second building behind it a decade later. Majestic became a leader in the market for stoves. The company remained here until 1951; their massive painted lettering remains clearly visible today. The building has been renovated as loft housing. August Gast & Co. (foreground)
Originally home to a lithography and printing studio until 1926; the Gross Chandelier Company moved in in 1920 and eventually took over the building, making gas and electric lighting fixtures, and later aircraft parts during World War II when brass became unavailable. The company remained here until the 1960s. More recent occupants, circa 2009, have included Metrix Computers and Robbins Law Firm |
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St. Louis Woolen Mills (left)
Originally home to a fairly short-lived wool mill, which left in 1896. The building was soon purchased by Anchor Steam Laundry, who stayed there into the 1950s. Additional uses during the 1920s included a shoe machinery company and a leather goods company. Today, painted signs for Anchor Laundry are still visible on the facade. Majestic Stove expansion (right)
The taller right-hand building was an additional section of Majestic Stove. |
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Desnoyer Shoe Company
One of St. Louis's leading shoe manufacturers built this factory as their business expanded. Desnoyer sold their business in 1903; two more buy-outs over the next 11 years brought a series of shoe companies to the premises: Courtneney Shoe Co., then Burrow, Jones & Dyer (who made Billiken children's shoes here), then McElroy-Sloan Shoe Co. The McElroy company expanded their business into a new building to the south (the present-day Adler Frame Building), connecting the two with a 4th-floor sky bridge. |
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Adler Frame Lofts
The first of two expansions by the McElroy-Sloan Shoe Company, whose original building connects to it by sky bridge. Later a printer's loft; it held commercial art studios in the 1990s and is now home to loft condominiums. |
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McElroy-Sloan Shoe Co
The second of two rapid expansions by the neighboring shoe manufacturer, who used it to make their Billiken line of children's shoes until 1928. It then was used by Emerson Electric building to construct fans and motors, in conjunction with the plant in the nearby present-day Sporting News Building. |
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