BlockBefore
Photograph of Bell Telephone Building
Photograph by Reading Tom from Reading, UK, CC BY 2.0. Via Wikimedia Commons.

Bell Telephone Building

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.

From the record

“The Bell Telephone Building, located at 920 Olive Street in downtown St. Louis, Missouri, was built in 1889 to house the switchboard and local headquarters of the Bell Telephone Company.”

Wikipedia article Bell Telephone Building (St. Louis, Missouri), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 663 National Register listings published here for St. Louis County · listed in 1999 · category: Building.

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

The listing

  • What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
  • Address. 920 Olive St., St. Louis (Independent City), 63101
  • When was it listed? August 1999
  • Category. building
  • Architectural style. Romanesque Revival architecture
  • Architect. Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge
  • National Register reference number. 99000936 - 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.

Fires near this property

2 since 2006

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2 fires within 5 miles of Bell Telephone Building between 2006 and 2011, burning about 1 acre in total. None started naturally. None was 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/undetermined2

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
17 December 2011Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIllinois Division of Forestry Resources79TH
9 October 2006Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresMissouri State Fire Marshal's Officenot named

Every fire recorded in St. Louis County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 66 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 66 workings within 5 miles of Bell Telephone Building: 62 past producers, 2 producers, 1 plant, 1 prospect. 3 still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken, Clay, Fire Clay (Refractory), Fire Clay (Refractory), Coal. 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) Sauget Zinc RefineryZinc, Refiner, Sulfur, Sulfuric AcidPlant
Bambrick-Bates Constr. Co. Quarry 1Clay, Stone, Crushed/BrokenPast Producer
Hypothetical Lead MineLead, Silver, Zinc, Cobalt, Copper, Nickel, CadmiumProspectUnderground
Madison PlantThoriumProducer
Pfizer Inc. Mineral PigmentsIronProducer
Parker-Russell Fireclay MineFire Clay (Refractory), CoalPast Producer
Tole and Thorp Fireclay MineFire Clay (Refractory), CoalPast Producer
Hydraulic Press Brick Co Mine No 3Fire Clay (Refractory)Past Producer
Hydraulic Press Brick Fireclay No 2Fire Clay (Refractory)Past Producer
Lagarce PitFire Clay (Refractory)Past Producer

Every working recorded in St. Louis 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
Kieselhorst Piano Company Buildingunder 500 feet2008
Balmer & Weber Music House Co. Buildingunder 500 feet2000
Washington Avenue: East of Tucker Districtunder 500 feet1987
Building at 1009 Olive St.under 500 feet2002
Thiebe-Stierlin Music Company Buildingunder 500 feet2004
Lindell Real Estate Company Buidlingunder 500 feet1982

Sources for this property

National Archives recordThe nomination case file for reference 99000936 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia articleCommunity-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
St. Louis CountyAll 663 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.