National Register of Historic Places

Forest Park Hotel

St. Louis (Independent City), St. Louis County, Missouri
Listed
March 22, 1984
Type
Building
Period
Industrial
Ref No.
84002632

About this property

The Forest Park Hotel is a six-story building located in the Central West End neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The six-story building was built in 1923 and is made of reinforced concrete with red brick curtain walls trimmed with terra cotta. Following the early success of the hotel, a seven-story addition was built in 1926 that closely follows the design of the original building. A one-story stone and glass addition was added to the building's northeast corner in the 1960s. The original building was designed by Preston J. Bradshaw, a prominent St. Louis architect who also designed the nearby Chase Park Plaza Hotel, Mayfair Hotel, Lennox Hotel, and Coronado Hotel. The center wing addition was designed by George D. Barnett, Jr. and includes several small private dining rooms of considerable architectural interest. The Forest Park Hotel was once famous for the Circus Snack Bar nightclub located in its ground floor retail space fronting Euclid Avenue. During the nightclub's heyday in the 1930s and 1940s, it was run by local hotelier and businessman Harold Koplar and hosted performers such as Liberace, Louis Armstrong, and Sarah Vaughan. In 1983, restaurateur Harold Butler, founder of the restaurant chain Denny's, bought the Forest Park Hotel and performed $7 million in renovations. Financial trouble, however, led to the building's sudden foreclosure and vacancy in December 1990. In 2003, a private development group renovated and converted the long dormant Forest Park Hotel for $20 million into a 115-unit apartment building. Two successful restaurant owners in the CWE recently signed a contract to open a new restaurant on the first floor of the hotel facing Euclid.

Location

4910 W. Pine Blvd.
St. Louis (Independent City), St. Louis County, Missouri
38.64143, -90.26242

Categories

ARCHITECTURE
National Register nomination ›
Sources

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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Nearby Historic Sites

Bel Air Motel
Industrial
0.1 mi
Colchester Apartments
Industrial
0.1 mi
Butler House
Industrial
0.3 mi
West Pine-Laclede Historic District
Listed
0.5 mi
Shriners' Hospital for Crippled Children
Industrial
0.6 mi

Nearby Battles

Action at St. Louis (Spanish Fort San Carlos)
1780Revolutionary War
3.5 mi
Capture of Cahokia (Illinois 1778)
1778Revolutionary War
6 mi

Questions about this property

When was Forest Park Hotel listed on the National Register?

Forest Park Hotel was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on March 22, 1984.

What type of historic resource is Forest Park Hotel?

Forest Park Hotel is classified as a building in the National Register of Historic Places.

What is the period of significance for Forest Park Hotel?

The period of significance for Forest Park Hotel is recorded as the industrial era.

Can I research the history near Forest Park Hotel?

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