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Franklin Avenue, looking West from 6th St., courtesy of St. Louis Time Portal.
In the image above, which I found at the amazing St. Louis Time Portal postcard website (pay them a visit; you won't be sorry) you can see windswept people, as well as what appears to be a giant copper diving helmet topped off with an American flag.
Franklin Ave. looking West from 7th Street, close-up of the Globe building's clock, courtesy of St. Louis Time Portal
A close-up view reveals, however, that it's actually a large clock. I can't tell if it was a stylized attempt to evoke a diving-helmet clock (yes, there is such a thing!) or if it's just supposed to be .... well, a large copper clock. Not like it wouldn't have been expensive to maintain, but what a lovely jewel of a building. I'm seriously doubting the sanity of the city fathers for tearing it down. After a Quick Google-maps search, I can't quite tell where it used to stand. Franklin Ave is over near SLU, but 6th and 7th Streets are downtown. Its former place on the grid may be impossible to detect, since we've chopped it up with freeways and whatnot. If anyone has any information on what happened to the building, or what's now standing on this spot, I'd love to know. --Stefene Russell
