St. Louis City Hall

As the old “City Barn” city hall at 11th and Chestnut began to age and sag, a national design competition yielded this French Renaissance Revival fantasy, vaguely styled on the City Hall of Paris. Outside, pink granite and buff sandstone towers and dormers echo architectural elements of the Chateau de Chambord on the Loire River in France. Inside, a grand central rotunda, almost 100 feet square and four stories tall, rises to a grand skylight through a series of elaborate staircases. The words “City Hall” were engraved in the stone on the entry door arches only after the City Art Commission denied Mayor Bernard Dickmann’s request to hang a red, white and blue neon sign above the doors.