A raised Renaissance Revival branch library of red brick with limestone trim, its symmetrical Lafayette front reached by a broad granite stair to a central entrance. The stone entablature is carved ST·LOUIS·PUBLIC·LIBRARY, with SOULARD BRANCH cut above the door and carved stone flambeau ornaments set against brick piers to either side. Tall multi-pane windows run in groups of three, and diamond-patterned panels of brick and stone are worked into the walls. A dentiled cornice carries a hipped tile roof with green-copper cresting and round-arched copper dormers. On the downhill side the main floor rides above a lower level set into the slope.
The design came from a 1908 competition won by Louis C. Spiering, briefly in partnership with George W. Hellmuth. The branch opened on March 21, 1910, one of the St. Louis Public Library buildings erected under the system's Carnegie-funded branch program, and served Soulard until the library closed it in 1962. The building afterward housed restaurants and bars, and its lower level has held commercial storefront space.
