In April, the city’s Cultural Resources Office recommended an application to the National Register of Historic Places be prepared for the Brahm-Mitchellette Motor Car Company building. In February, a $1.28M building permit for “interior/exterior renovations” was recorded with the city. The building’s owner is listed as IPX Garcia LLC. Work is currently underway at the building.
Property summary from the city’s Cultural Resources Office Preservation Board meeting:
The Brahm-Mitchellette Motor Car Company, located in St. Louis Independent City at
3537 S. Kingshighway, is nominated as locally significant under Criterion A and Criterion C, architecture, under the associated Multiple Property Documentation Form, Historic Auto-Related Resources of St. Louis. The period of significance extends from the Spanish Revival style automobile dealership’s 1927 date of construction through 1944, the final year that the property was used exclusively as an automobile dealership. The Brahm-Mitchellette Motor Car Company was one of the earliest dealerships to be constructed on S. Kingshighway, which became “Automobile Row,” after World War II when many auto-related businesses located there. The building is an exemplary example of its design and era of construction, reflecting the period of time when building owners and local architects — not automobile manufacturers — made design decisions about automobile dealerships.