The Century Building
The theater eventually closed and was demolished, the space being infilled with additional floors which were occupied by retailer Scruggs-Vandervoort-Barney, who first moved into the building in 1913. Other notable occupants included the St. Louis office of ocean liner company White Star Lines, and the headquarters of Equal Suffrage League.

The Century/Syndicate Trust complex was a central and thriving address during the middle of the 20th century. But they, like the rest of the city, declined in the 1960s, particularly when Scruggs-Vandervoort-Barney closed in 1967. A series of owners worked to no avail to fill the building to capacity. A new owner bought the building in 1986, but defaulted on a loan used for the purchase two years later.

Developer Mark Finney bought the buildings at auction for $600,000 in 1993, originally intending to redevelop them. The buildings were emptied and gutted... then renovation halted. Years of legal wrangling ensued as Finney attempted to demolish the buildings for a parking lot, and the city blocked the attempts. Meanwhile, the buildings sat vacant, deteriorating and surrounded by a chainlink fence which blocked the sidewalks and streets around them.

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