Event: Cupples Station construction
Category: Architecture
Brief Description: After construction on the Union Station passenger depot began, Cupples Station was built nearby as a large-scale freight handling complex. The 18-building complex was located in an area bounded by 7th, 11th, Poplar, and Spruce Streets, near the mouth of a mile-long tunnel that connected the Eads Bridge with Union Station. The complex was designed by Eames and Young. The complex was constructed between 1894 and 1917. The complex was developed by Robert Brookings (partner and president of the Samuel Cupples Woodenware Company). The architects unified the complex using continuous pier and spandrel systems, fenestration patterns, material and understated ornamentation. Cupples Station was connected directly to railroads by an intricate system of tunnels and spur lines. The "Inland Architect" said the complex had "brought warehouse design to a point where little improvement is possible," while the "Scientific American" remarked on the technological mastery on a "scale of elaborateness with a perfection of detail unequaled by any similar institution in the world." In 1900, Samuel Cupples and Robert Brookings donated all of their stock in the Cupples Station property to Washington University, a gift valued at $3 milllion. Nine of the original 18 buildings remain today. (Toft)
Year: 1892
Decade: 1890 - 1899
Beginning Date: 1892
Ending Date: 1892
Structures
Cupples Station Complex
 |
people
• structures • events
• sources • home
about
historic preservation• new entries• 4 kids only• map it!
This
site was made possible by: the City of St. Louis Planning and Urban Design Agency and
the City of St. Louis Community
Information Network.
This site was funded in part by Federal funds administered by the Missouri State Historical Preservation
Office, Missouri Department of Natural Resources, The National Park Service, and the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Version 1.0