Security Building
The history
Peabody, Stearns & Furber of Boston, 1892 — eleven storeys at 319 North Fourth Street, pink granite on the bottom two floors with SECURITY BUILDING cut in the frieze, red brick and terra cotta above, built when this was the financial district and a steel frame this tall was still a novelty in St. Louis. The arcaded two-storey base and the deep round-arched entry under its stone balcony are Richardsonian Romanesque going out of fashion just as the Chicago frame arrived; fleur-de-lis are worked into the capitals. Offices from the day it opened, now apartments; on the National Register. Set into the granite by the door is a Mark Twain marker: across Fourth Street from this spot, the teenage Samuel Clemens set type for the St. Louis Evening News in 1853. He lodged at different times on Pine, Locust and Chestnut. 'The first time I ever saw St. Louis, I could have bought it for six million dollars, and it was the mistake of my life that I did not do it.'
In brief
The Security Building is an 11-story building in St. Louis, Missouri, built in 1892 in what was then the city's downtown financial district. Designed by Boston architects Peabody, Stearns & Furber, the building consists of granite on the bottom two floors, with pink limestone and brick above. The building is featured on the National Register of Historic Places and has been designated as an official landmark by the City of St. Louis. It was listed on the National Register in 2000. It was deemed notable due to its architecture and also as one of only eight remaining examples out of approximately 30 tall office buildings built in St. Louis in the late 1800s.
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