“If you ever have occasion to interview Isaac S. Taylor, the well-known architect, summon all your courage and strength of purpose before sending in your card, otherwise you may experience that very uncomfortable feeling akin to having a gigantic structure fall on you. Isaac Taylor sat on his throne in all his avoirdupois and glory and surveyed the writer critically over his glasses.”
So began a profile of the titan of St. Louis architecture in a St. Louis Star and Times published in 1911. Taylor may have been intimidating at first glance, the article explained, likening him to a grizzly bear, but when he settled down with his visitor, he was more like a teddy bear. When asked what he did for fun outside of his architecture practice, he laughed:
“What are my enjoyments? Well, I guess it’s safe to say a good dinner.”
Taylor’s humor aside, his contributions to the present and past of St. Louis architecture resonates 100 years after the height of his career. Two years before his interview, Taylor’s plans for the additions to the new Civic Center, part of a contribution by several architects inspired by the City Beautiful Movement, added Beaux-Arts class to what could be otherwise rudimentary buildings. Over the course of his decades-long career, he would learn from, work with, and inspire many of the most important architects in St. Louis. And sadly, despite his prolific output, estimated by the Westliche Post at over 20 major buildings, Taylor might also bear the distinction of being the architect with the greatest number of prominent buildings that have been torn down in the last 50 years.
Photograph by Emil Boehl, 1881, courtesy of the Missouri History Museum
George I. Barnett and Isaac Taylor, New Southern Hotel, at 4th and Locust
Southern Hotel
Taylor was born in Nashville in 1850 but attended Saint Louis University, graduating in 1868 (some sources say 1869). His career began right after graduation when he joined the firm of George I. Barnett, and Taylor worked for him until 1881. Barnett’s own two sons, of course, would become prominent and influential architects and contemporaries of Taylor. While Taylor worked for the elder Barnett, he collaborated in the design of the second Southern Hotel, after the first had burned down in 1877. The elder and young architects’ design reflected the refined tastes of St. Louis in the years after the Civil War; the hotel is both monumental and restrained at the same time, looking like an Italian Renaissance palazzo, decorated with marble and the latest technology on the interior. Sadly, the hotel was demolished in the 1930s.
Photograph by W.C. Perons, June 5, 1938, courtesy of the Missouri History Museum,
Isaac Taylor, Planter's House Hotel, Later Cotton Belt Building, 4th Street between Pine and Chestnut
Planter’s House Hotel
Taylor soon began to acquire his own commissions with his independent firm, and the third Planter’s House Hotel, on the block north of the Old Courthouse, proved to be an early important work. Built in 1894, the Planter’s House seems to ignore the revolutionary designs of Adler and Sullivan’s Wainwright and Union Trust buildings only a couple of blocks to the west. Constructed in what could best be described as a Romanesque Revival style, the hotel featured 400 rooms, many with sweeping bay windows. The lower floors were covered with rusticated stone blocks, and elaborately decorated windows, giving the building a commanding presence in the heart of the city. Unfortunately, like the Southern Hotel, the fortunes of the Planter’s House faded, and it was converted into an office building. It was demolished in 1976.
Photograph by Chris Naffziger
Isaac Taylor, Former Municipal Courts Building
Municipal Courts Building
As the 20th century dawned in St. Louis, Taylor, like his colleagues in the Barnett Family, pivoted toward the Beaux-Arts style, which had begun to make inroads into St. Louis. Serving in an official capacity for the World’s Fair, he designed many of the gargantuan temporary buildings that sprang up in the western reaches of Forest Park. As the ephemera came down after the Fair, Taylor began to win commissions for permanent buildings, including the former Municipal Courts Building at 13th and Market, just to the west of City Hall. Old buildings were being torn down by the hundreds for a new Civic Center, and the Municipal Courts and its matching, and now demolished City Jail, showed that even the staider functions of government could be beautiful. He also secured the commission for the Jefferson Memorial, another Beaux-Arts civic commission, appearing in a group photo at the ceremony where it was officially given to the City of St. Louis. The famed architect, fourth from the left and of “great physical bulk,” could boast of having the largest head in St. Louis, with a hat size of 8¾.
Photograph by E.D. Hampson, courtesy of the Missouri History Museum
Ceremony of the presentation of Jefferson Memorial to the City of St. Louis. Isaac Taylor is fourth from left. February 8, 1913.
Mercantile Trust Company Bank
Taylor continued to work through World War I, designing the Mercantile Trust Company’s new bank on the east side of 8th Street between Locust and St. Charles streets in 1917. The St. Louis Globe-Democrat reported at the time that the bank floor was the largest in the world, was “one of the prettiest pieces of architectural and construction work in St. Louis,” and would cost $500,000 when completed. It is still a beautiful building today, and one that often goes forgotten in downtown. The colonnade of Ionic columns, each made of two massive chunks of granite, are still impressive 100 years later. The bank presents an aura of stability and resiliency.
Photograph by W.C. Person, c. 1921, courtesy of the Missouri History Museum
Mercantile Trust Company, 721 Locust
Taylor, a lifelong bachelor, was found dead by his butler at his home at 5814 Bartmer in the fashionable West End neighborhood on October 28, 1917. In his will, his jovial and generous personality shone through; he donated $3,000 to his alma mater, Saint Louis University; $5,000 to Father Dunne’s Newsboys’ Home; $5,000 each to his superintendent of construction Oscar Ender and his draughtsman Josie Graham; and even money for his maid and butler. A newspaper article in November of that year reported Taylor’s estate as having assets of $234, 827.75; the bulk of this money went to his brother George. His obituary tells remarkable tales of Taylor’s bon vivant lifestyle, recounting great feats of competitive eating at the famed Faust’s Restaurant. While a fearsome opponent, on one occasion Taylor lost to a smaller opponent who managed to eat 256 Blue Point oysters in a single sitting.
Perhaps Taylor’s love for his friends and good-hearted competition, combined with a love of history and creativity is what made his career so successful. Now, 100 years later, and suffering the loss of so many of his wonderful works, we can appreciate Taylor’s talent in the buildings that remain with us today.
