Beaumont Medical Building
Architect: LaBeaume & Klein
Built: 1926
Demolished: 1997

In Midtown St. Louis stood the Beaumont Medical Complex, a group which included the primary 1926 tower, a conjoined expansion tower built in 1946, a small 2-story annex building, and a 3-story garage likely dating to the 1960s. After many years as part of the bustling Midtown area, the buildings lost tenants to suburban flight in the 1960s; the Beaumont was vacated in the mid-1970s.

These handsome towers were already facing emminent doom when I first visited them in early 1997. Gutted, stripped of much ornamentation, window panes empty, and with the entire entrance facade removed, the Beaumont was still a good-looking building.

Large portions of the building's terra cotta ornament were removed prior to the Beaumont's demolition by implosion. Some of these are now on view at the City Museum. Some section of the carved detailing were still attached to the building when it went down, however, and were sent to the landfill.