There have been religious buildings in St. Louis from the earliest period of French settlement. In 1775 the first permanent church was constructed of logs; a brick church was begun in 1818 but never finished. Little is known about the design of the very early churches; most no longer stand, having been demolished-long before the razing of the original city blocks-when commercial and industrial expansion had driven congregations westward to the outskirts of town.
Greek Revival Style
The oldest church still standing in St. Louis is the Old Cathedral, completed in 1834, a design by the early St. Louis architectural firm of Morton and Laveille. The limestone structure is the oldest cathedral west of the Mississippi, and was the first Greek Revival building in Missouri. The front and tower are sheathed in smooth, ashlar stone; the rest of the building was completed in coursed rubble. The front facade has a projecting portico with four Doric columns supporting a frieze and pediment. Above a tall, narrow steeple with lancet openings once contained a clock. The side elevations have six bays, each containing a tall, round-arched window.
Romanesque Revival Style
The Romanesque Revival-and Gothic Revival style as well-is a product of the Picturesque movement, which became popular in American literature, painting, and architecture, in the time before the Civil War. The Picturesque was an appeal to emotion and sentiment in contrast to the logic and order of the previous classical period. The romanticism of the Gothic and Romanesque stands in contrast to the refined geometry found in Federal and Greek Revival designs.
The Romanesque Revival had a significant influence on St. Louis church architecture in the Walking City period. A few of these buildings remain, most notably SS. Cyril and Methodius Catholic Church, St. John the Apostle and Evangelist Church and St. Vincent DePaul Catholic Church, which were all constructed during the 1840's and 50's. Romanesque Revival buildings are characterized by round-arched windows, arched corbel tables, and one or two towers at the front facade.
 
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SS. Cyril and Methodius Church is the oldest of the Romanesque Revival churches left in the city. Designed by Eugene Greenleaf in 1857, its exterior decoration is restrained. The red brick church has an asymmetrically placed tower on the south side of the front facade. The north and south elevations have tall round arched windows, that are interspersed with pilasters. |
Gothic Revival Style
The Gothic Revival style was equally predominant with the Romanesque in St. Louis church design between the 1830's and 1860's. Gothic Revival churches that still stand are the Unitarian Church of the Unity, and the Lutheran churches of Holy Cross and Trinity Evangelical. These churches are characterized by narrow, pointed arched windows, steeply pitched roofs and ornate portals at the entrance.
Holy Cross Lutheran Church, at 2650 Miami Street in the Dutchtown neighborhood, was constructed in 1869, at the end of the Walking City period. However, it is similar in form to many St. Louis Gothic Revival churches that dated from the Walking City period and have been demolished. The brick church has a centrally placed tower on the north facade, which projects above the steeply pitched gable roof. A large pointed-arched window is centered above the entry portal on the tower, with windows on either side. Tall pinnacles rise from slender buttresses at each corner, emphasizing the verticality of the building. Note that the amount of wall surface is considerably reduced from that of the two preceding styles, and the exterior of the church more highly decorated.
Only one building associated with St. Louis' first generation of municipal buildings remains; many of the government buildings that have been demolished were distinctive. The First Courthouse on the site of the Old Courthouse was designed by George Morton and Joseph Laveille in 1826, and was primarily Federal in design. It was constructed of brick, but the front facade was veneered in stone. A round portico with Ionic columns was flanked by multi-light windows, recessed within blind arches. A fanlight window was set above each. The north and south facades had four bays of twelve-over-twelve windows with rectangular lintels; the center bay of each facade displayed another large fanlight at the second story. The First Courthouse was retained as the east wing of the new courthouse but demolished in a later expansion.
The other important government building from the Walking City period was the United States Custom House and Post Office, designed by George I. Barnett under the supervision of A. B. Young in 1852. (See page __ of Section One). The building, in the Greek Revival style, is similar to custom houses Young designed for the Federal government throughout the United States. The front facade of the building had a tall first story of rusticated stone; on the front facade, a temple front of the Corinthian order projected from the center five bays.
The Old Courthouse is the only government building that from St. Louis Walking Period that is standing today. Designed by Henry Singleton as a Greek Revival building with a cruciform plan and center cupola, the Courthouse was remodeled by Robert S. Mitchell in the 1850's. Mitchell removed the wing containing the First Capital, and constructed additions to the north and south. In 1860-64, William Rumbold designed the current cast iron dome, the first of its kind in the world. The building has a temple front on both the east and west wings, with a geometric frieze beneath the cornice. The temple fronts are reproduced on the north and south wings with pilasters and pediments. The building is built of brick and stone, and painted white.
Business District Commercial Buildings
There are few commercial buildings in St. Louis that date from the Walking City period. Almost all of the earliest commercial structures were demolished with the construction of the Gateway Arch. What remnants remain of St. Louis' first commercial district, which was almost entirely east of 4th Street, can be found in Laclede's Landing.
The earliest commercial structures are three to four stories tall, and built of brick. Typically, the first story contained a storefront, with offices on the upper floors, a pattern that has been used from the early 19th century to the present. Examples of this commercial type are 721 North 2nd Street and 801-805 North 2nd Street. They date from the middle 1850's.
The example at 721 North 2nd Street is four stories tall, with two sets of paired doors and transoms. The front facade is separated with pilasters into three bays. Windows on the second and third stories are two-over-two, with narrow lintels. The fourth story windows are also two-over-two, but are set beneath pointed arches; a detail from Gothic Revival architecture. The building has been restored; the brick walls have been painted.
The row at 801-05 North 2nd Street is four stories tall. The first story contains tall narrow openings separated with brick piers, containing either paired doors or shop windows. The upper stories have double hung windows with multiple lights under flat lintels, the windows of each story decreasing in size from that below. A simple cornice with brick dentils marks the parapet above.
Cast Iron Buildings in the Business District
An important innovation during this period was the advent of cast iron in commercial storefront design. Cast iron provided greater structural strength, allowing for wider first story openings, while easily supporting the weight of the masonry above. Larger shop windows could be created, letting more light into the building and providing additional display space. Iron could be cast in a variety of designs. Use of the material became so prevalent that ultimately entire cast iron facades were constructed.
An example of the early use of cast iron in a commercial structure can be seen at 723 North 2nd Street. Originally the building was four stories in height; the top floor has been removed. The upper stories of the front facade are carried by a large iron lintel above the storefront windows. The columns separating each bay of the storefront are slender compared to the heavy masonry piers of the building to the left.
Neighborhood Commercial Buildings
Neighborhood commercial buildings were built to serve people in areas removed from the center city. These buildings were smaller in scale than those found in the city's business district. The early neighborhood commercial structures were designed with commercial space on the ground floor, with residential units above.
The earliest commercial/residential structures left in St. Louis are not unlike the Federal town houses of the period. They display the same proportions of windows and the same simple corbelled brick cornices. In fact, the earliest stores were located in houses, or in buildings whose exterior appearance was indistinguishable from them. As time went on, commercial design adapted to expanding merchant demands, and shop buildings came to be constructed with larger entry doors to accommodate patrons and deliveries; windows were enlarged for the display of goods.
One example of such an early commercial building is the row of storefronts at 1908-14 Cherokee Street. The first story entry, with transom and sidelight, is considerably wider than the traditional Federal doorway, which can be seen at 1910 and 1912 Cherokee. A detail of another commercial building of similar date, 1911 Cherokee, gives a clearer illustration of the design of these early storefronts.
Public Schools
The first school in St. Louis was organized in 1775, when Jean Baptiste Truteau opened a fee school for sons of the leading families. (The first public high school was not completed until 1876; it was the first in Missouri). During the Walking City period, the largest concentration of inhabitants lived in the area east of Jefferson Avenue, between Park and St. Louis Avenues; it followed that most of the earliest school buildings were located in this area. When the town's business district expanded, however, most of the older schools were demolished. Public schools still standing from the second period are generally square in plan, exhibiting Italianate design features, like many of the houses of the time.
The Lyon School, at 721 Pestalozzi Street, is a three-story brick building constructed in 1868. On the front facade, a projecting section of three bays has a rusticated first story; windows of the first and third stories have segmental arches, while those of the second are round. Stone trim appears in belt courses around the building, and at the center bay, where it forms the window surrounds and elaborate enframement and segmental crown of the entry. After its closing, the Lyon School was acquired by August Busch, and now serves as administrative offices for the Anheuser-Busch brewery.
Private Schools
There were parochial schools in St. Louis dating from 1818, when Bishop DuBourg arrived in St. Louis from Rome to establish a seminary and school for girls. However, none of these early school buildings are standing. One remaining example constructed during the Walking City period is the former Evangelical Lutheran Bethlehem School, constructed before 1875. The two-story, brick, hipped roof building is seven bays wide, with a central projecting bay containing the main entrance. The four-over-four windows have segmental arches, and the cornice is corbelled. An addition has extended the first two stories of the central bay.
Lafayette Square Park
Lafayette Park is the last remnant of the original St. Louis Commons, the only piece that has never been separated from the City. It was designated as a public park in 1836. The park's current appearance has evolved slowly over the years, beginning as a formal, symmetrical plan park with four walks radiating outward from a small central pool. Today's Lafayette Park is a product of the second period, and reflects the Victorian's taste for picturesque vignettes.
Hospitals
The only remaining hospital from Period I is the St. Louis Sanitarium or Insane Asylum, now part of the Malcolm Bliss Mental Health Center. The first facility for the care of the mentally ill in St. Louis, it was constructed in 1869 on a large open site that was then outside the city limits, and directly adjacent to the City Poor House and the Female Hospital (previously the Social Evil Hospital). Located in what is now The Hill neighborhood, at 5400 Arsenal Street, the architect of the building was William Rumbold, designer of the Old Courthouse dome. The large, red brick structure has a five-story central block, with four-story wings on either side. In the Italianate style, stone quoins adorn each corner, and a pronounced, bracketed cornice stretches across both center block and wings. First story windows are arched; those of the rest of the building have rectangular stone lintels. The most prominent element of the building is a distinctive cast iron dome and cupola above the central portion, which can be seen from anywhere on the City's south side. The main building was the first of numerous later building campaigns lasting through the late 20th century. The complex is now owned by the State of Missouri.
Asylums
The Mullanphy Immigrant Home, at 1609 East 14th Street, is the only surviving social service structure associated with the Walking City. It was created by the bequest of Bryan Mullanphy, an early St. Louis philanthropist in 1851, for immigrants of all nationalities and religions, who were provided a home without cost while they looked for work. Designed by George I. Barnett and Albert Piquenard, in the Romanesque Revival Style, the brick building was constructed in 1867, and is four stories in height. The front facade has a central projecting section of three bays and contains the original entry; windows are set beneath round and segmental arches. As originally constructed, the building had a shaped gable and a small cupola on the front. Greatly altered, it is now used as a factory; however, the row of Federal vernacular residences directly opposite on East 14th look very much as they did when the Home was first constructed.