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Cotton Belt Freight Depot
United States historic place / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Cotton Belt Freight Depot is a former freight depot of the St. Louis Southwestern Railway in the Near North Riverfront neighborhood of St. Louis, Missouri. It was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 2004 and named "Best Old Building" by the Riverfront Times, a weekly newspaper in St. Louis.[2]
Cotton Belt Freight Depot | |
![]() Cotton Belt Freight Depot in May 2018 | |
Location | 1400 N. 1st St., St. Louis, Missouri |
---|---|
Coordinates | 38°38′27″N 90°10′57″W |
Area | less than one acre |
Built | 1913 |
Built by | St. Louis Southwestern Railway; Thompson & Scott |
Architectural style | Railroad freight depot |
NRHP reference No. | 04000344[1] |
Added to NRHP | April 21, 2004 |
Since 2002, the Cotton Belt Freight Depot has been the usual location of Artica, an annual grassroots outdoor and multidisciplinary arts festival.[citation needed]
In 2014, artists completed a large mural on the building's eastern side, visible from the nearby bridge over the Mississippi River.[3][4]
Today, the building has no formal tenants or function. There are occupants camped in the far North and South ends of the building, where they have built makeshift homes out of found materials like pallets and tires. The upper floors of the building are inaccessible other than by rope or ladder through the open elevator shafts. Windows and doors have been destroyed and the building is open to the elements from its sides. Its primary use today is as a site for graffiti and graffiti art. Its interior walls are an ever-changing canvas.