The Pennywell (Merchants–Laclede Building)
The history
Stephen D. Hatch of New York with L. Cass Miller, begun 1885 and finished 1888 — eight storeys of red brick and terra cotta on the corner of Fourth and Olive, round-arched and Romanesque, built for the Laclede National Bank. A few years after it opened Laclede merged with Merchants National and the building took the name it still carries: the Merchants–Laclede. It was a bank and offices for well over a century, Hilton bought it in 2005, and it reopened in December 2022 as The Pennywell after a gut renovation that kept the 1880s bank vaults and the marble through the lobby. A Historic Hotels of America plaque is bolted to the granite by the door.
In brief
The Merchants–Laclede Building at 400 Olive Street, on the corner of Fourth and Olive, was begun in 1885 and completed in 1888 to designs by the New York architect Stephen D. Hatch with L. Cass Miller. Eight storeys of red brick and terra cotta, it was built for the Laclede National Bank, which merged a few years later with Merchants National Bank to give the building its lasting name. It served as bank and office space until Hilton acquired it in 2005, and after a full renovation it reopened in December 2022 as The Pennywell, keeping the original 1880s bank vaults and the marble of the lobby.
Read more →The archival photograph
Shown on its own rather than side-by-side: the archival frame is not the same view as mine.
My photos
