American
capitalism after World War I. A contemporary of America's other great art deco
skyscrapers, the Continental Life Building was completed in the same 12-month span as
the Chrysler Building and the Empire State Building.
The Continental Life Building, the finest building of its kind in St. Louis in the early 1930s, boasted many prestigious tenants, including David O. Selznick Movie Studios, General Motors, Desoto, Plymouth, Falstaff, Dow Chemical, Eli Lilly, McGraw Hill and Western Electric. It was the premier office address in St. Louis from the early 1930s until the mid-1950s.
The Continental Life Building is a legendary landmark in St Louis. Not only is the Continental one of the tallest buildings in St. Louis, it is also highly visible from both Interstate 64 (Highway 40) and Interstate 44. The building has been owned and managed by Mayor Alphonso Cervantes, Mayor Bernard Dickman, Harold Kopler, Kansas City Life, New York Life, the City of St. Louis and the State of Missouri. The building is the site of the largest unsolved bank robbery in St. Louis history.
Unfortunately, the once proud building began to decline in the early 1960s as urban decay began to creep into the Midtown area and vehicular traffic moved south to Highway 40. The last tenant moved out in 1974. Since that time, the building has been proposed for a variety of uses including a state office building, a penthouse restaurant, and the High School for Visual and Performing Arts.
Because of the building's historical importance and its high visibility, it became a development priority of St. Louis University, Grand Center and the City of St. Louis. These institutions, along with many others, assisted Owen Development in initiating the long-awaited rehabilitation of the Continental Life Building in 2001. The Continental Life Building's redevelopment serves as a powerful symbol of the importance of urban revitalization and what it means to the St. Louis community.
