United States · Missouri · St. Louis
Washington Avenue Historic District, St. Louis — Area Guide & Where to Stay
Terra cotta and brick face the old garment warehouses of the Washington Avenue Historic District, a loft quarter inside Downtown West in St. Louis.
About Washington Avenue Historic District
Where to stay in Washington Avenue Historic District
Each area has its own feel; here's who each one suits.
Beds in the Washington Avenue Historic District sit inside the warehouses themselves, on the upper floors of brick and terra cotta blocks that once held garment stock. Washington Avenue carries the late-night trade. Quieter rooms lie toward Locust Street, the southern boundary, or at the 18th Street end, west past the Ely Walker Lofts.
If you want the walk to the Gateway Arch and the river short, take the eastern blocks nearer 8th Street instead.
About Washington Avenue Historic District
What are the main landmarks in Washington Avenue Historic District?
City Museum is the district's best-known address, an old International Shoe Company warehouse on Washington Avenue rebuilt into a warren of slides and industrial salvage. Ely Walker Lofts is the second-largest block. The Ferguson-McKinney Building takes half a block at 12th Street, its round arches and enriched cornice among the heaviest work on the avenue.
East beyond 8th Street the riverfront opens, and the Gateway Arch stands over it.
What is the history of Washington Avenue Historic District?
The Washington Avenue Historic District was raised as the warehouse floor of a garment trade, in brick and stone dressed with terra cotta, from the late nineteenth century to the early 1920s. Revival styles run beside the plainer commercial frame later called the Chicago School. Domestic garment production fell away after the Second World War, single-story plants pulled the work to the edges, and the tall blocks stood vacant or half-used.
The register listing came in 1987. A Missouri rehabilitation tax credit adopted in 1998 made conversion affordable at scale, and Ely Walker Lofts was among the warehouses turned to apartments.
Where is Washington Avenue Historic District?
The Washington Avenue Historic District runs east to west from 8th Street to 18th Street, closed by Delmar Boulevard to the north and Locust Street to the south.
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Updated September 2026