The Ballroom Hotel, located in downtown Saint Louis, was at one time the largest and most well-known hotel in Saint Louis throughout the first half of the 20th Century. It was hurriedly constructed in the early 1900's to assist in accomodating the 19.7 million guests who would attend the 1904 World's Fair in Saint Louis.
Contruction broke ground in March of 1903 and work at the site would see sixteen hour days in order to meet the impending deadline. Prior to officially opening for business, this hotel was chosen as the location...
The original Wright building was constructed in 1906 as a retail shopping center. The design featured storefronts facing a vaulted atrium running the length of the building from the front to the back. In 1919, construction began on the addition which wrapped around the 18 story gothic structure. The new portion housed an additional 1000 commercial shops and when completed was "the highest concrete structure of its kind in the world" (St. Louis Star, May 22, 1920).
Funeral Home opened in December of 1929 in Saint Louis and is among the oldest in the city. It was the first building in the area made solely for conducting funerals.
Funeral Home remained in service for about 100 years, having opened their orginal location in 1908, before ultimately shutting down sometime around 2010. Since closure, this beautiful building has been under constant threat of demolition. Various fights have been waged against demolishing the building and, for now, it remains.
The National Guard Armory was erected in 1937. It went into service in 1939 as the Headquarters of Saint Louis' own 138th Infantry.
This building was used, like the other armories, for the purpose of storing ammunition and equipment as well as training soldiers. It remained in use from the time of its initial entry into service in 1939 up until some time in the mid 1960's. The below-ground parking garage housed tanks and other heavy equipment during this time. The building was operated by the 138th as late as 1963...
The Sun Theater in Saint Louis was built just prior to WWI in 1913 as the Victoria Theater. It has undergone several name-changes throughout the years, becoming a Jazz club and even an X-rated movie theater, until eventually obtaining its current designation as the Sun. It has been abandoned since its last occupants, the Faith Tabernacle, left in 1981.
Crumbling from the inside out, full of pigeon excrement and overall badly deteriorated...
This building was constructed in the mid 1920s. It served as a grand entrance to a theater which sat directly behind it. It is an example of an early shopping mall with storefronts facing the atrium, the centerpiece of which was the beautiful marble staircase. This design predated the modern indoor mall.
The theater burned down in the 1960's, but fortunately this gothic trimmed building remains.
This themepark opened in 1990 and featured a variety of carinval rides and attractions designed for a young audience. The park closed in 2010.
