Washington Avenue with Holiday Decorations

Following up on my previous post about pre St. Louis Centre retailing is another view of 6th & Washington looking west in the mid 1960's from the Pyramid archives.  As one of the epicenters of retail for Downtown St. Louis the intersection is fully decked out for the holiday shopping season including tinsel covered bell towers at the four corners.  Stix Baer & Fuller is at right on the north side of the street.  Further west can be seen the sign for Loew's State Theater, whose Washington Avenue lobby survived until the early 1990's when the convention center was expanded.

All of the buildings on the south side of the street west to the Statler Hotel (now restored as part of the Renaissance Grand) have been demolished.  In their place are the now vacant St. Louis Centre, the US Bank tower and parking garage and the new portion of the Renaissance Grand.  At the southwest corner of the intersection two older buildings have received a modern slip cover with continuous storefront windows for a large shoe store.  Beyond was Richman's, which was one of many smaller independent department stores that existed at the time.  Happy Holidays everyone!