Albert Bartleton Groves was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1868; both of his parents were born in England. His father was a mechanical engineer and iron manufacturer who built the rolling mills at Rome, New York where the family moved when Albert was three. After graduation from high school in Rome, Groves attended Cornell University and received a degree in architecture in 1888.

Two subsequent years of work for Denver architect F. E. Edbrooke were followed by study and travel in France and Italy before Groves came to St. Louis in 1891 as a draftsman for Grable & Weber. The firm, whose senior partner Grable could trace his practice back to 1865, was one of the best established in the city with clients in Vandeventer Place and other exclusive residential areas.

Groves married Clara Baker of St. Charles in 1892; by 1895, he had become a partner in Grable, Weber & Groves. Three years later the younger partners bought out Grable's interest and the firm continued as Weber & Groves until Weber's death in 1905. One of that partnership's last important commissions was the 1904 rotunda at City Hall.

Groves practiced on his own until his death in 1925. His commissions from those twenty years represent one of the most diverse and prolific portfolios of any early 20th century St. Louis architect. In addition to numerous houses for wealthy clients (such as #11, #14 and #43 Washington Terrace), Groves designed hotels, banks, office buildings, apartments, churches, warehouses, hospitals and factories. The Mark Twain Hotel (originally the Maryland, then the Baltimore) at 8th and Pine is one of downtown's overlooked treasures. Designed by Groves in 1907, the rich terra cotta ornament from Winkle Terra Cotta Company and the fine apricot-colored brickwork triumph over layers of grime and signs.

Far more elaborate and winsome than the nearby Majestic Hotel, the future for the Maryland is not bright. Three buildings designed by Groves have been razed in the last year: the Kroeger-Amos- James Building in Laclede's Landing, the Sawyer Building and Scott Building on Real Estate Row in the 800 block of Chestnut Street.

West of Tucker, however, one can still find more work by Groves than any other architect. His "White House" for Brown Shoe Company is gone but the Monogram Building, the Advertising Building, the former General American headquarters, the Drygoodsman Building and the Leather Trades building are among a full dozen extant designs by Groves.

Churches designed by Groves include the Union Avenue Christian, Westminster Presbyterian, St. Paul's Presbyterian, Maple Avenue Methodist and Christian Science Churches on Russell near Grand and Page west of Union. Groves' first large commission in Midtown was the St. Louis Medical Society Building on Lindell; his last, with Thomas C. Young of Eames & Young, was the monumental Masonic Temple that was under construction at the time of his death in 1925. Groves' eldest son Theron had entered his father's office by the early 1920s and continued the practice as Albert B. Groves, Inc. from the family home at 5419 Maple until 1939. That house, described in 1910 as English manor style of the Tudor period, is still standing.

All information and illustrations on these pages
are from the collections of the Landmarks Association of St. Louis, Inc.
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