The Mercantile Club Building was an asymmetrical Romanesque/Gothic Revival structure at the southwest corner of Seventh and Locust Streets, designed by Isaac S. Taylor and completed in 1892. Influenced by the Romanesque Revival of H.H. Richardson and the French Renaissance tradition, Taylor's design featured a roofline punctuated by tall gables and thin spires, with a Missouri granite base rising to brick walls enlivened by terra cotta ornament. The building's picturesque massing made it one of the more distinctive works in Taylor's largely commercial portfolio, departing from the restrained office blocks that defined most of his practice.
The Mercantile Club commissioned Isaac S. Taylor to design its new headquarters after Taylor won a design competition in 1891, beating entries from several other architects including Louis Sullivan. Had Sullivan won, Seventh Street would have been home to three of his works, with the Union Trust Building immediately to the south. The chosen site had previously held a townhome belonging to botanist Henry Shaw, which was relocated to Tower Grove Avenue near the Missouri Botanical Garden before construction began. The Mercantile Club was a prominent organization in St. Louis's downtown business community, and its new building placed members squarely at the center of their commercial world. Taylor's winning design was featured in the Northwestern Architect in December 1891 — one of his most picturesque commissions, with a silhouette of spires and gables that stood apart from the plainer commercial blocks he typically produced. The building later passed to other tenants and became known as the Compton Building. It was demolished in the early 1970s and replaced by a surface parking lot, which remains on the site today.
