A few days ago I posted a picture of an old downtown building. A poster covered one of the vacant ground floor windows that said "Where Will St. Louis Take You Next?" I said I would come back to the building itself and then got distracted by the opening of the baseball season.
The place is called the Railway Exchange Building. It makes me think of a bunch of rich guys in top hats like in the Monopoly game literally exchanging railroads. It occupies an entire block and is vacant. Our biggest department store, Famous Barr, was there, along with the headquarters of The May Company, a major national retailer. Big downtown stores withered, Macy's sucked up everything and then closed the place. It's been empty for some time.
But the terra cotta facade is a wonder. If there is no use for the building itself the decoration should go in a museum. It is fairly well preserved and I don't want us to lose it.
5 comments:
It is worth saving for sure.
I believe the building is worth saving, too.
I don't know if that building is an appropriate location for a poster that says "Where Will St. Louis Take You Next? From the looks of the building it has been taking us the wrong way for the past several years.
Love that old ornamental architecture! I shopped in Famous Barr as a girl, and my dad worked there for a little while. Fond memories!
Many, many years ago I walked through those doors to do some serious shopping. Growing up in Quincy, St. Louis was the closest big city and I loved going there. Famous Barr was my all time favorite place to shop. I can still close my eyes and picture a pair of shoes I bought there. The other place I remember was Stix Baer & Fuller. I rode my first escalator in one of those stores. Ahhh..thanks for the memories.
Something ought to be done with the building, something positive.
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