A property just listed for sale in South City has already earned its spot in St. Louis music history. The 3,200-square-foot building at 3628 Bates is featured on the cover of no fewer than two Son Volt albums, both of which were recorded on site. It was owned by the alt-country pioneer’s frontman, Jay Farrar. And it’s currently owned by Laura Jane Grace, known for founding the punk rock band Against Me! and fronting Laura Jane Grace & the Devouring Mothers.
The 100-year-old building was previously set up as a two-family, and at one point housed Electric Eel Plumbing. A limited liability company associated with Farrar owned it from 2004 to 2016, according to the listing agent, Bridgette Fyvie of Garcia Properties. It was during that period that Son Volt recorded both American Central Dust (the cover art shows the band playing inside the space, with the painted tin ceiling visible above their heads) and Notes of Blue (you can see the building’s exterior on its cover).
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More recently, Fyvie says the creative team behind the Netflix hit Cheer has been working on a documentary about Grace and filmed her extensively at the property in the past two years.
Grace is relocating to Chicago to be with her wife, giving someone else a chance to own the property, which went on the market yesterday for $320,000. Maybe another musician? Says Fyvie, “Laura and I were talking, and we hope that it appeals to somebody in the music industry in St. Louis, since it’s already built out with a great studio and the sound is good. We’re hoping that a band would be interested in buying it to keep that use going.”
The recording studio is downstairs. Upstairs is an apartment. (The building is currently zoned residential.) “I was shocked when I went in. It has all the beautiful original woodwork and hardwood floors and stained glass, and that’s a two bedroom, one bathroom apartment with a huge kitchen and has a lot of really nice updates,” Fyvie says. It also has a three-car garage. “It’s kind of a compound,” she adds.
And what musician couldn’t use a compound to pursue their dreams? Says Fyvie, “It’s really laid out perfectly for somebody who wants to live in the space and either use it as a music studio or an art studio on the first floor.”
