Vacant Early Retail Mall Building in Saint Louis MO

Arcade Building, St. Louis Missouri

Date added: April 04, 2024

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The first portion of the Arcade Building, individually known as the Wright Building, was designed by the prestigious St. Louis firm of Eames & Young in 1906. Built on the site of the Louis Benoist mansion, the Wright firmly established the commercial nature of the district which had been developing around the Old Post Office since the late 1880s. At 18 stories, it towered over most of its neighbors.

Edward Mallinckrodt, a chemical manufacturer and philanthropist, set up a trust and arranged for the establishment of the Jane Holding Company through provisions in his will. All stock was owned by Mallinckrodt's estate. The trust was primarily for the construction and maintenance of an arcade building; in 1917, three structures on City Block 192 were razed and excavation for a ten-story building commenced. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported the discovery of site problems in its September 17^th edition of that year, and architect Tom P. Barnett's revised plans and elevations for a sixteen-story building were published in the May 29^th, 1918 American Architect. Had this structure been built, the Wright and Arcade Buildings would have remained completely separate. Instead, in the final design Barnett fully integrated the Wright into the Arcade plan. The entrance on Eighth Street, the two banks of elevators, and the opening into the long arm of the crossing were all manipulated with space stolen from the Wright Building. This new identity was made clear with "Arcade Building" written above the Eighth Street entrance.

While early reports called for a ten or twelve-story building, the Arcade as built was 16 stories facing Olive and 13 facing Pine Street. The additional floors were added to generate revenue, offsetting the additional excavation and foundation costs imposed by the discovery of quicksand on the site. (The same bed of quicksand had forced the builders of the Old Post Office across the street to devise an ingenious footings system some 40 years earlier.) Further improvisation was demanded by the wartime steel shortage. The Post-Dispatch described the overruns:

The Arcade Building. ..was built under war conditions and at war wages and prices, and it cost $3,500,000 instead of the $2,500,000 which its promoters originally expected to spend, when they intended to make it a 12-story structure. The increase in height was determined upon when it was found that the foundations would cost much more than had been expected, it being necessary to sink caissons to a depth of 80 feet. Then the requirements of the Government cut off the supply of steel, and reinforced concrete was substituted in erecting the skeleton. When almost all other building industry in St. Louis was at a standstill, this undertaking went on, partly because it was too big to stop halfway, and partly because one of the large sub-contractors was interested in Government work, and had facilities which otherwise he might not have had.

During construction, this use of technology drew attention in the national architectural press. The American Architect, under the headline "A Notable Example of Reinforced Concrete Construction," described the concrete caissons, girders, and floor slabs. According to the article, special attention was given to wind bracing, a "new problem in construction for buildings of this kind" because concrete frame was almost never used for a building of this height. The local press reported that the Arcade was in fact "the highest concrete structure of its kind in the world."

The area's first arcade-style building was widely heralded at its completion. The St. Louis Star devoted almost a full page to images and descriptions of "St. Louis' new shopping center." In a lengthy homily on arcades throughout the world, the article lists some of the most famous, pronouncing St. Louis' not only the largest (with over eight acres of floor space - apparently including upper floors in the count) but the best.

While the Star article offers more boosterism than architectural assessment, the Arcade Building is a good example of the arcade form towards the end of its development. The first arcades, according to expert Margaret MacKeith, evolved at the end of the eighteenth century from a diverse set of factors:

… exchanges and colonnaded shopping pavements, a growing population with enough wealth and a desire for luxury goods, unconsidered trifles and personal adornment … It was an age when people loved to promenade, to keep in fashion, to be seen, and when window shopping was as attractive a diversion as visiting pleasure gardens and assembly rooms." By MacKeith's definition, the first arcades were developed in Paris in the 1780s. Based on French prototypes, they began to appear in England after 1810.

With advances in technology, the early glass-covered passages evolved into complex structures embracing multiple stories and many different kinds of tenants. One of the most ambitious was built in Cleveland, Ohio.

Known simply as "The Arcade," MacKeith places it as the largest arcade in the world and the "most daring" of those built in America.

Many factors are credited with the decline of the traditional arcade, including the rise of the modern department store, the decentralization of urban populations, and the advent of reliable electrical lighting. In her survey of English examples, MacKeith writes that after 1910, with only one exception, "the arcades that were built were insignificant and usually of simple corridor plan … usually without skylights."

This lack of natural light is one of the major factors distinguishing the building from the traditional arcade. While the historical arcade often served the function of turning disused mid-block alleys into weatherproof pedestrian passages, this function was unnecessary in major new construction where interior passages were electrically lit. By removing the natural lighting, a full-block arcade could be constructed and then covered with a modern office building above it.

The advantages of the arcade form were well-appreciated by the local press, reminding us that the arcade is the progenitor of the modern shopping mall: "A congregation of small shops not only makes business for the shop keepers, but as well, makes shopping more convenient for the customers" and "Here will be found a community of retail specialists in every line of the retail trade, thereby congregating in one building all the merits of a super-department store, each shop being a high-class specialist in its particular line."

Architect Tom P. Barnett holds a special place in St. Louis architectural history. Son of the pioneering architect George I. Barnett, whose work helped define the emerging metropolis in the mid-19^th century, Tom went into partnership with his brother and then set out on his own. He proved to be one of the city's most versatile architects of the early 20^th century, working in a variety of styles (in some cases offering the area's only identified examples, as in his Pueblo Revival and Vienna Secession-inspired work). His mastery of the Gothic Revival proved to be no exception. While the Arcade is certainly one of the city's largest and finest Gothic Revival commercial buildings, it is the masterful interior arcade that seals its significance. In a language of graceful arches, vaults, tracery, and ribs, Barnett created a two-story indoor street.

Building Description

The Arcade Building at 810 Olive Street in St. Louis was constructed in two stages beginning with the 1906, 18-story Wright Building designed by St. Louis architectural firm Eames & Young. The later and larger section was designed in 1918 by Tom P. Barnett, and constructed beginning in 1919. It is 14 stories at the south end and 16 at the north, incorporating the Wright Building in its southeast corner. Terra-cotta Gothic ornament decorates the brick Arcade Building from top to bottom and is especially pronounced on the Olive and Eighth Street facades where elaborate tracery and bay windows extend across the facades. Gothic decoration penetrates the interior where a splendid two-story arcade under a rib-vaulted corridor connects Olive and Pine streets. The building is vacant and has suffered from deterioration and vandalism. Some of the exterior terra-cotta is damaged, storefronts are altered and interior fixtures have been stolen, but most exterior and interior features remain intact.

The 1906 section of the building, originally called the Wright Building, is 18 stories and situated in the southeast corner of the block at the intersection of Pine and Eighth Streets. The Wright section is buff-colored brick and 18 bays wide on Eighth Street and 12 bays wide on Pine Street. The lower-story storefronts have been remodeled by the application of stone-like veneer. Some of this has been removed, however, revealing that portions of the original storefronts, such as bay divisions and transoms, have remained intact. The Wright section of the building has an Eighth Street entrance at its north end with scroll brackets and a heavy entablature displaying the name "Arcade Building". Pre-1919 photographs show that the Wright Building originally had a main entrance in the center of its facade on Eighth Street. A terra-cotta frieze with egg and dart molding survives between the first and second stories. Pilasters that alternate between plain and decorated divide the window bays in the second story. The buff brick shaft of the Wright section has pilasters that extend, unbroken, a height of 14 stories. Single windows are positioned between the pilasters. The top two stories are embellished with decorative terra-cotta pilasters dividing the window bays vertically and terra-cotta wreaths in the spandrels. The only alteration to the Wright section of the building besides the storefront alteration is the removal of a broad, Renaissance-style cornice.

The 1919 Arcade Building occupies the remainder of the half-block and incorporates the Wright Building into its design. It is comprised of two parts: a 16-story section at the corner of Olive and Eighth streets, and a 14-story section facing Pine Street. The 16-story section, situated on a prominent corner in the heart of downtown St. Louis, is embellished with Gothic decoration. Five Tudor arch bays were originally positioned on the first level of the Olive Street facade. Two are covered in recent stone veneer but the other two arches remain intact although their storefronts have been altered. The arch holding the building's main Olive Street entrance is unaltered as well as the wood-framed tracery transom over the double door openings. The lower story facing Eighth Street is similarly altered with four altered bays (covered with sheets of veneer) and two bays where the Tudor arches and tracery transoms are intact.

The second and third stories of the Arcade Building's 16-story section have two-level, terra-cotta-clad bay windows. The center opening of each bay window is a broad Tudor arch with narrower flanking, double-hung windows. Raised crests decorate the terra-cotta spans between the windows. A terra-cotta stringcourse of quatrefoil panels follows the undulating outline of the bay windows and divides the terra-cotta-clad lower stories from the brick shaft. Stories three through 14 of the 16-story section of the building have unbroken brick pilasters that, with their triangular-shaped terra cotta blocks at the top, imitate buttresses. Two pairs of windows as well as terra-cotta spandrels with a tracery design are positioned between the pilasters. A plain brick string course divides the shaft from the cap. The Arcade Building's two-story cap emulates a Gothic clerestory. Two bays of three-part windows between brick pilasters are clad in terra-cotta. The top-story windows are adorned with a tracery design. The brick pilasters extend to the brick crenelated parapet. Terra-cotta panels with a quatrefoil design are situated between the pilasters.

The 14-story section of the Arcade Building faces Pine Street. It shares many characteristics with the 16-story section but lacks bay windows and the elaborate Gothic cap. Features of this facade include four bays of Tudor arched openings at the second story. The second bay is wider, recessed, and situated over the entrance. A plywood wall on Pine Street makes it difficult to see the lower story but it appears to have remodeled storefronts. The shaft on this facade is identical to the 16-story section. A crenelated parapet with quatrefoil panels at its base caps the Pine Street facade.

A magnificent two-story arcade extends straight through the building between the Olive and Pine Street entrances. A rib vaulted ceiling is carried on a structure of second-story Tudor arches. The lower-story store openings are rectangular and faced in marble. The floor is marble tiled. The balcony overhangs the lower story and is clad in white glazed terra cotta. Glazed terra cotta brackets appeared to support the balcony originally but have been removed since the building has been vacant. A marble staircase on the southern end of the arcade ascends to the second level of storefronts. The second-story storefronts are positioned in Tudor arches with wood-framed tracery transoms.

A broad Tudor arch under the balcony opens into the Wright section of the building where a corridor with a bank of elevators leads to Eighth Street. A second set of elevators is located on the opposite side of the arcade. The lower stories have suffered from vandalism and pillaging, fixtures have been removed and the floors are littered with broken glass. The ceilings in some of the shops have been lowered. The spaces, however, are clearly intact and retain their tracery transoms and doorways.

The upper-story office levels have been remodeled by the adjustment of spaces over the years. The main corridors are unchanged.