J. Kennard & Sons Carpet Company Building

A seven-story Italian Renaissance commercial block of light brown brick and cream terra cotta at the foot of Eads Bridge, its long east and north elevations wrapping the corner of Fourth Street and Washington Avenue. Two-story terra-cotta arcades tie the second and third floors together, springing from carved lions' heads, with projecting box bays set over the entrances. Above, the wall rises as a nearly flat plane — quoin-framed windows through the middle floors, then smaller openings beneath a scalloped terra-cotta cornice — an unusually plain treatment for its date. The cream ornament was modeled by the Winkle Terra Cotta Company.

J. Kennard & Sons traced back to 1857, when John Kennard, a Baltimore rug dealer, settled in St. Louis and opened a carpet and floor-coverings shop near Fourth and St. Charles Streets. His sons joined the firm, and after his death in 1872 Samuel Kennard took over as president. Samuel became a fixture of St. Louis civic life — head of the St. Louis Exposition Company and the Veiled Prophet organization, and a vice president of the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, the enterprise that also made Isaac Taylor its chief architect. For the company's new headquarters and showrooms the Kennards chose a site at the foot of Eads Bridge, on the west side of Fourth Street across from their older quarters. The building permit was issued in December 1900, naming Taylor as architect and Conrad Kellerman as contractor; construction ran through 1901 and was complete by December. J. Kennard & Sons did not survive the Depression, closing in September 1934 and selling its stock to Scruggs, Vandervoort & Barney. Edison Brothers Stores assumed the lease in 1952, remodeled the interior in 1954, and added a compatible seven-story wing to the west in 1966. The building was later listed on the National Register of Historic Places for its architecture.