by Michael R. Allen
The Claes and Lehnbeuter Manufacturing Company Building stood at 2128-30 Washington Avenue from construction in 1891 through demolition in March 1997 (just a month after the Miss Hullings Building). Claes and Lehnbeuter manufactured store, office, bank and saloon fixtures. According to E.D. Kargau’s Mercantile, Industrial and Professional St. Louis (1894), the company was founded by Caspar Claes and Joseoph Lehnbeuter in 1861 and the company’s first home was on the south side of Market Street between Second and Third (inside of the present boundaries of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial). After moving to a large home on Seventh Street between Walnut and Clark, the firm built its own “massive building” where over 300 workers were employed.
The site is now a vacant lot.