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Photograph of Spivey Building
Photograph by Paparutzi, CC BY-SA 3.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Spivey Building

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

From the record

“The Spivey Building is a 12-story skyscraper located at 417 Missouri Avenue in East St. Built in 1927 by newspaper owner Allen Spivey, the building is the only skyscraper ever constructed in East St.”

Wikipedia article Spivey Building, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 27 National Register listings published here for St. Clair County · listed in 2002 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. 417 Missouri Ave., East St. Louis, 62201
  • When was it listed? January 2002
  • Category. building
  • Township. East St. Louis township
  • National Register reference number. 01001462 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

The ground it stands on

9,003 words

The chapter on East St. Louis Township in Centennial, McKendree College, with St. Clair County History, published 1928 names East St. Louis. This is what it says, exactly as the scans read.

In 1841 Capt. John Trendley, John Cames, Esq., and their neighbors in lUinois Town, now East St. Louis,'started a subscription hst to raise a fund for building a school house and hiring a teacher. $175.00 was subscribed, a carpenter was employed at $1.75 per day to erect a house. The site of this building was on the pubhc square in Illinois Town, afterwards the first ward of East St. Louis. This was a frame building 14 by 16 feet in size. It had room for two short rows of benches, a small desk for the teacher and a place for the water bucket and broom. The first pedagogue who presented himself was hired. No questions were asked as to his preparation or ability as a teacher. He was expected to keep the children out of mischief for six months of the year, including the winter season.

Passage source: Centennial, McKendree College, with St. Clair County History, published 1928.

In 1859 Illinois Town was incorporated. In the spring of 1861 a new charter was granted, increasing the boundaries of the town and an election was held for or against changing the name to East St. Louis. This election resulted in 183 in favor of the change and 89 against.

Passage source: Centennial, McKendree College, with St. Clair County History, published 1928.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on East St. Louis Township - 9,003 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.

Fires near this property

10 since 2009

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 10 fires within 5 miles of Spivey Building between 2009 and 2014, burning about 5 acres in total. None started naturally. 2 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined5
Arson/incendiarism2
Smoking2
Debris and open burning1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
24 March 2014Smoking1.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesCBHALWACHS
21 March 2014Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesBHALWACHS
19 March 2014Arson/incendiarism1.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesHALWACHS
13 March 2009Missing data/not specified/undetermined2.0 acresIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesGREEN
26 February 2009Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesDELMAR
5 December 2009Smokingunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesI64 M9.5
17 December 2011Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources79TH
9 November 2010Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry ResourcesFOREST

Every fire recorded in St. Clair County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 38 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 38 workings within 5 miles of Spivey Building: 33 past producers, 2 plants, 2 producers, 1 prospect. 4 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Copper, Zinc, Refiner, Sulfur, Sulfuric Acid. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
(Facility) Cerro Copper Sauget SmelterCopperPlant
(Facility) Sauget Zinc RefineryZinc, Refiner, Sulfur, Sulfuric AcidPlant
Hypothetical Lead MineLead, Silver, Zinc, Cobalt, Copper, Nickel, CadmiumProspectUnderground
Madison PlantThoriumProducer
Pfizer Inc. Mineral PigmentsIronProducer
Bambrick-Bates Constr. Co Quarry 2Stone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Bambrick-Bates Constr. Co. Quarry 3Stone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Bowdirns QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Carl's QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Carlins QuarryStone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer

Every working recorded in St. Clair County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Photograph PropertyDistance Listed
Majestic Theatreunder 500 feet1985
Union Trust Bank Company Buildingunder 500 feet2014
Downtown East St. Louis Historic Districtunder 500 feet2014
Broadview Hotel0.1 miles2013
United States Post Office and Courthouse0.3 miles2014
Pennsylvania Avenue Historic District0.8 miles1979

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 01001462 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
St. Clair CountyAll 27 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

  • Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
  • Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
  • How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
  • Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
  • Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.