J. C. Penney Co. Warehouse Building (St. Louis, Missouri)

The J. C. Penney Co. Warehouse Building, formerly also known as Edison Brothers Warehouse Building, and now Edison Condominiums, is a historic warehouse building in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. The building now serves as a condo-hotel.

J.C. Penney Co. Warehouse Building
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
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Location	400 S. 14th St., St. Louis, Missouri
Coordinates	38°37′27″N 90°12′7″W
Area	1.7 acres (0.69 ha)
Built	1928-1929
Architect	Miller, John F.; Starrett Bros.
NRHP reference No.	98001563[1]
Added to NRHP	December 31, 1998

History

The building was constructed in 1929 as a warehouse for the J.C. Penney retail chain. It occupied the building until 1954, after which it was donated to the University of Missouri as a location for an education center, which never materialized. In 1967, the university leased the warehouse to Edison Brothers Stores, which used it as a warehouse for its retail operations until 1994.^[2] In 1983, the company commissioned muralist Richard Haas to paint a trompe-l'œil mural on three sides of the building that mimicked architectural stonework, using themes derived from the 1904 St. Louis World's Fair.^[3]

The building reopened in 2001 after a $54 million renovation as a combination of condominiums and the Sheraton St. Louis City Center hotel. The hotel left Sheraton in 2014 and was unbranded until 2018, when it became a Red Lion Hotel.^[4] It closed in 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and reopened in 2022 as an OYO Hotel. It is set to be renovated, at a cost of $46 million, and will regain its Sheraton flag.^[5]

References

1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
2. "400 S. 14th Street (J.C Penney/Edison Brothers Warehouse)". What That Was. 2014-01-27. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
3. "Edison Brothers Building, Trompe L'Oeil Mural, 400 Fourteenth Street, Saint Louis, Independent City, MO". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
4. Jacob Barker (2018-03-02). "St. Louis City Center Hotel to become Hotel RL". St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Retrieved 2019-06-13.
5. "Downtown St. Louis hotel with World's Fair mural is set for renovation and rebranding". 22 August 2023.

• "J. C. Penney Co. Warehouse Building - St. Louis, Missouri" Waymark
• Edison Condominimums: 400 South 14th Street - St. Louis Lofts