One of the last cast-iron storefronts left in downtown St. Louis. The Washington Avenue front is divided into three bays framed by composite Corinthian columns, the original upper-story windows retained above and the fine cast ornament of its type intact. It stands among the oldest surviving buildings on the avenue.
Built in 1876 for the wholesale jobbers Pratt, Simmons & Krausnick, the building was acquired in 1899 by Crawford's Department Store, whose architects Weber & Groves joined it to the neighboring Bradford-Martin Building of 1875 and added a glass-domed entrance to the combined store. From 1904 to 1913 the joined buildings served as the flagship of David May's May Company — then among the largest retailers in the country — until the company moved to the Railway Exchange Building following its 1912 merger with the Barr Dry Goods Company. It is reckoned the third-oldest surviving building on Washington Avenue.
