Jefferson Arms Up For Sale

by Michael R. Allen

The old Jefferson Arms Hotel at 415 N. Tucker Boulevard, shown at left in the postcard view above, is again for sale. Citicorp foreclosed on the failed Pyramid Companies, the owner, last year. In 2008 after Pyramid’s collapse, Sherman Associates of Minneapolis announced that it had the Jefferson Arms under contract, but the contract was nullified by foreclosure.

The Jefferson Arms was built in 1904 from plans by Barnett, Haynes & Barnett, the renowned St. Louis firm that would design the city’s Cathedral. The hotel opened in time for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition’s throngs of tourists, but remained successful. The owners expanded the hotel to the west in 1928. Eventually, in the 1980s, the old hotel was converted into studio apartments. This use was again successful; the Jefferson Arms was 80% full in 2006 when Pyramid purchased the building for $19 million. Pyramid evicted all of the tenants and boarded the building up.

The Jefferson Arms was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.