Mississippi Valley Trust Company Building
The history
Eames & Young, 1896 — two storeys of limestone on the northwest corner of Fourth and Pine, Beaux-Arts and deliberately temple-like, because a trust company in 1896 was selling permanence. Cherubs, garlands and shells are carved along the frieze and around the cartouches; the round-arched windows are set in giant orders that run the full height of the block. The company was incorporated in 1890 and became one of the city's great financial houses, underwriting the Kinloch Telephone Company, Union Electric, and the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition. It merged into Mercantile in 1951, and the name ran on through Firstar into U.S. Bancorp. It is a St. Louis City Landmark and has been on the National Register since 2001. There is a coworking floor inside it now and a coffee-and-cocktail bar called Trust in the old banking hall — and the Arch stands reflected in the plate glass of the front windows.
In brief
The Mississippi Valley Trust Company Building is a two-storey limestone Beaux-Arts bank at 401 Pine Street, the northwest corner of Fourth and Pine in downtown St. Louis, built in 1896 to designs by Eames & Young. The Mississippi Valley Trust Company, incorporated in 1890, financed transportation and communication networks across the region — among them the Kinloch Telephone Company and Union Electric — and was a backer of the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition. The company merged into Mercantile Bank & Trust in 1951 and the line ran on through Firstar into U.S. Bancorp. The building is a St. Louis City Landmark and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2001; it now holds a coworking floor and a bar called Trust in the old banking hall.
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