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Tap Room Restaurant

Few of the crowds of St. Louisans who witnessed the great warehouse fire of May 1, 1976 could have imagined that the burned-out hulk of the Swift Printing Company, as this building was then called, would be a St. Louis landmark more than twenty years later.  The beautiful little English Renaissance building facing Locust Street and the classic commercial building behind it were both designed in 1901 and completed in 1902 for the newly organized Lambert-Deacon-Hull Printing Company.  James Nixon Hull, the company’s president, had years of experience in printing, but Albert Bond Lambert and Arthur Deacon had the money.  Lambert and Deacon were president and secretary, respectively, of the Lambert Pharmacal (later Pharmaceutical) Company, whose 1891 office building, right across the street at 2001 Locust, was being enlarged by the same architect at the same time.  (It too has been restored.)  That company was best known as the maker of Listerine.  Lambert later founded St. Louis’ airport, which is named after him.

The architect of the complex, Samuel Sherer (1866-1928), had an unusual career as an architect, never soliciting commissions or opening an office, but working for some of the leading citizens of St. Louis, including William H. Danforth, founder of Ralston-Purina (17 Kingsbury Place) and J.D. Streett, founder of the oil company that bears his name (14 Kingsbury Place).  The house he designed for dried-fruit distributor John Warren Teasdale (38 Kingsbury Place) has scrolled gables like this building and included a suite for Teasdale’s daughter, the poet Sara Teasdale.  For Arthur Deacon, Sherer designed the largest house in fashionable Webster Park (406 Hawthorne), including a carriage house so big that it has become a separate house (410 Hawthorne).  Sherer was nationally known as a writer on architecture, and some of his pronouncements still have a contemporary ring; for example:  “The lack of Civic Pride that has long characterized the citizens of St. Louis has militated against its development as a beautiful city.”  His 1903 series for The Brickbuilder on brick and terra cotta in St. Louis suggests why he was able to specify such beautifully detailed Flemish bond for this building.  In 1920 he became administrator of the St. Louis Art Museum, and in 1922 the director, a position which he held until his death in 1928.

The opening of the Tap Room in the south building in 1991 was a triumph not only for restoration architect Tom Cohen and developer Ann Watka, but also for business partners Tom Schlafly and Dan Kopman, who played David to Anheuser-Busch’s Goliath in opening the area’s first microbrewery.  Their success was crucial to the revitalization of this neglected part of St. Louis.  Cohen worked with them again in 1997 to complete restoration of the north building.

Although its members may often be found at the Tap Room proselytizing for the cause of unaccompanied music, the Chamber Chorus’ first concert performance at the St. Louis Brewery was the April 9, 2000 program, “Good For What Ales You.”