Grossman Building - East St Louis, Illinois

The Downtown East St. Louis Historic District was determined to be locally significant for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) under Criterion A for Commerce & Criterion C for Architecture. The district is the last remaining contiguous group of cultural resources related to the twentieth century economic growth of East St. Louis, Illinois. In the first three decades of the twentieth century, two cities were growing rapidly on the banks of the Mississippi River below its confluence with the Missouri. While the fame & fortune of St. Louis was already well assured, its neighbor across the river, East St. Louis, was an insurgent urban force. The emergence was staggering: in 1900, East St. Louis had a mere 29,734 residents, but by 1930 that number was 74,397. Between 1900 and 1928, downtown East St. Louis was remade from a modest city center into a central business district built on a scale anticipating future growth. The core of downtown East St. Louis gave rise to buildings of as much architectural refinement as contemporary buildings in St. Louis, but with a distinctly local mark. East St. Louis’ embrace of urban modernity would be shaped by local designers like Albert B. Frankel and J.W. Kennedy, St. Louis’ Mauran, Russell & Garden and William B. Ittner, and Kansas City’s Boller Brothers. The remaining architecture of downtown East St. Louis shows signs of open experimentation, like the Murphy Building’s bakery brick façade, the Ainad Temple’s boldly Moorish style, and the Sullivanesque ornamentation of the Spivey Building, alongside many examples of traditional one & two-part commercial blocks. By 1930, downtown East St. Louis could boast a modern air-conditioned movie palace seating over 1,700; a hotel capable of hosting statewide conventions; a skyscraper employing the design tenets of the progressive Prairie School; well-designed banks; office buildings of all sizes & styles; and department stores & other retailers. In 1960, with a peak population of over 82,000 residents, East St. Louis publicly was named the “All America City” but the city nearly immediately began a precipitous decline. The period of significance for the NRHP begins in 1900, when the oldest building likely was built, through 1960, when the decline of the District became evident.

The Grossman Building (seen in the photograph above), built in 1928 with a Renaissance Revival style of architecture, occupies about half a city block at the southeast corner of Missouri & Collinsville Ave. It is a two-story glazed terra cotta building with intricate terra cotta ornamentation and a flat roof. The main corner of the building is a three-story tower with a chamfered first-floor supported by a square column located at the intersection of Missouri & Collinsville Ave. The two side elevations of this tower are identical: the second floor has one unglazed window opening with a tall decorative terra cotta lintel and is topped by a small dripstone; the third floor has three unglazed arched window apertures with deep slanted sills; and on top of the tower is an elaborate cornice composed of 'S' curves and coats of arms. Small spherical finials top the corners of the tower. The elevations on either side of this corner entry bay both have seven bays on the first floor that are defined by cast terra cotta piers & lintels and nine window openings on the second floor.

The Downtown East St. Louis Historic District was added to the NRHP on September 17, 2014. All the information above was borrowed from the original documents submitted to for listing consideration and can be found here:
npgallery.nps.gov/NRHP/GetAsset/84aa7a4b-9371-491b-b0fd-f...

Three bracketed photos were taken with a handheld Nikon D7200 and combined with Photomatix Pro to create this HDR image. Additional adjustments were made in Photoshop CS6.

"For I know the plans I have for you", declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." ~Jeremiah 29:11

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Taken in: United States / Illinois / East Saint Louis (show map)

Taken on: September 3, 2022

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Sets appears in: • East St. Louis, Illinois • National Register of Historic Places more » • HDR • Historic Buildings, Old Barns, and Other Things... « less

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Camera: Nikon D7200, f/5.0, 1/1266 sec, 18mm, ISO 250 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D7200
Aperture:	f/5.0
Exposure Time:	0.001 sec (1/1266)
Focal Length:	18mm
ISO:	250
Color Space:	Uncalibrated
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS6 (Windows)
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