The Famous-Barr Parking Garage is a utilitarian mid-century parking structure featuring a straightforward concrete design with horizontal bands of openings that provide ventilation while creating a repetitive linear pattern across its facades. Its functional modernist aesthetic, characterized by exposed concrete and minimal ornamentation, reflects the practical approach to downtown parking facilities during the postwar era of urban automobile accommodation.
The Famous-Barr Parking Garage was constructed in 1962 to serve the flagship Famous-Barr department store located on Washington Avenue in downtown St. Louis. Famous-Barr, which had been a dominant force in St. Louis retail since the late nineteenth century, built the garage to accommodate the automobile-dependent shoppers of the postwar era. As downtown retailers competed with newly emerging suburban shopping centers, providing convenient parking became essential to maintaining customer traffic in the urban core. The garage served Famous-Barr customers for decades as the department store remained a anchor of downtown St. Louis commerce. Famous-Barr itself underwent corporate changes over the years, becoming part of the May Department Stores Company. In 2006, following Macy's acquisition of May Company, the Famous-Barr name was retired and the downtown store was rebranded. The parking structure continued to serve the area even as the retail landscape of downtown St. Louis shifted dramatically in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Today the garage remains standing at 200 North 7th Street, continuing to provide parking in the downtown district. While its original retail anchor has long since closed, the structure serves the parking needs of the surrounding area, which has seen various redevelopment efforts over the years.
