Update – The Post Dispatch reports that the permit application was unauthorized – Cotton Belt demo permit application unauthorized, building owner says
Valentine’s Day brought no love for the Cotton Belt Depot in the Near North Riverfront neighborhood. Instead of flowers, the Grim Reaper was spotted lurking in the area. Justine Peterson submitted a $910,000 demo permit application to raze the building. The organization acquired the property in 2018 among others after the NFL stadium debacle. The Post-Dispatch’s Jacob Barker reported on their Near North Riverfront acquisitions at the time.
As for the Cotton Belt, Schulte said that while he loves the building, he doesn’t want to be too attached to structures. He’s seen them ruin people. Whether it’s demolished or preserved, he hopes to see it become something that helps people because he has “no interest in facilitating anything that doesn’t produce living wages and sustainable jobs.”
StlToday – North riverfront in downtown St. Louis looking for a makeover
The Cotton Belt has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 2004. The demolition permit application will go to the Cultural Resources Office for review and likely before the Preservation Board.
The St. Louis Southwestern (best known as the Cotton Belt) Railroad Freight Depot located at 1400 North 1st Street in St. Louis is eligible for National Register listing as locally significant under Criterion A for TRANSPORTATION. Opened January 1,1913, the depot exemplifies the history of the Cotton Belt line during a long, tumultuous era when fortunes were made (and lost) in railroads. Whole regions were economically dependent upon capturing the hinterland by rail; the Cotton Belt provided the valuable trade connection from St. Louis through Arkansas into Texas. Although St. Louisans, from pioneering entrepreneurs in 1875 to solid managers in the early 20th century, played essential roles in its development and multiple reincarnations, the St. Louis Southwestern Freight Depot is the only St. Louis building constructed by the Cotton Belt. It retains substantial integrity in spite of more than a decade being open to the elements. The period of significance runs from 1913 to 1954, the arbitrary fifty-year cutoff.
National Register of Historic Places Registration Form
NextSTL – 2015 – North Riverfront Vision Offers Development Plan With or Without NFL Stadium
Architectural Afterlife – The Historic St. Louis Cotton Belt Freight Depot
RFT -2011 Best Old Building
