A limestone-clad Art Deco skyscraper that climbs in a series of setbacks, its continuous vertical piers rising past recessed spandrels to a stepped, buttressed crown bristling with pinnacles. At the base, three deep round-arched portals of Romanesque cast carry banded chevron and zigzag moldings and carved rosettes; SOUTHWESTERN BELL TELEPHONE CO. is cut in the stone above the central arch, whose travertine vault is coffered around a bell medallion. Hexagonal bronze lanterns bearing the same bell hang within the arches. The tall shaft reads as an unbroken grid of windows between the piers, its ornament concentrated at the base and the many-roofed summit.
Mauran, Russell & Crowell designed the tower, with I. R. Timlin as associate architect, as the headquarters of the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company; it was completed in 1926. Rising 28 stories to about 397 feet, it was the tallest building in Missouri when finished and one of the first in St. Louis to be massed in setbacks, stepping its upper floors back so as not to cast the surrounding streets into shadow. It has remained in telephone-company use, later passing to AT&T.
