The American Hotel
619 Market Street
Built: 1907
Architect: unknown
Status: demolished circa 1953 to make way for a parking garage. Site today is green space.

The American Hotel as built. Image from the building files of the St. Louis Public Library.

The American Hotel as it appeared after World War 2 -- nearly unchanged except for the loss of its cornice. Image from the Globe-Dispatch.

The American Hotel was a short-lived building; it was only 45 years old when a 1953 newspaper article announced its impending demolition to make way for a parking garage. The repetoire of its theater -- originally a vaudeville venue -- was shifted to the American Theater a few blocks north; the development company responsible stated that "the decision to erect a big garge expresses [the] company's confindence in the future of downtown St. Louis."

It was instead a harbinger of its downfall.