La Salle Building (Hotel Indigo)
The history
Isaac S. Taylor, 1908 — thirteen storeys at 501 Olive, diagonally across Broadway from the Marquette. Taylor had just come off four years as Director of Works for the 1904 World's Fair, and he wrapped the first two floors of this one in white glazed terra cotta: caryatids standing at the piers, fleur-de-lis in the window grilles, swags and a heavy bracketed cornice, with bay windows in brick running up from the third storey. The fleur-de-lis is not decoration for its own sake — the building is named for René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, the first European to run this river to the Gulf, in 1682. In 1939 the owners hacked part of the terra cotta off the street front to make the place look modern. It emptied out, was restored in the 1980s, and reopened in 2021 as the Hotel Indigo; National Register listed, and inducted into Historic Hotels of America in 2022.
In brief
The La Salle Building at 501 Olive Street was designed by Isaac S. Taylor and completed in 1908–09, a thirteen-storey Chicago-commercial block at the corner of Broadway and Olive with its first two storeys clad in white glazed terra cotta — caryatids, fleur-de-lis grilles and a heavy bracketed cornice — and brick bay windows above. It is named for René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle. A 1939 remodelling stripped part of the terra cotta from the street front; the building was restored in the 1980s and reopened in 2021 as the Hotel Indigo St. Louis Downtown. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and was inducted into Historic Hotels of America in 2022.
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