Railway Exchange Building (St. Louis)

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The Railway Exchange Building in St. Louis, Missouri is a large, ornamented Chicago Style tower, at 22 floors. Built as the Railway Exchange, the building served as the headquarters and the flagship store for Famous-Barr. In 2005 Famous-Barr's parent company May Department Stores was purchased by Federated Department Stores; the store was converted to a Macy's outlet in 2006. The building is connected to the St. Louis Centre mall, which was opened in 1984, and closed in 2006.

On a bronze plaque outside the building (put their when it was Famous-Barr) is:

Gleaming white terra cotta–182,978 pieces of it–covers all 21 stories of the magnificent Railway Exchange Building. Containing more than 1.2 million square feet of office and retail space, the building was the world’s largest office building for many years.

Today Famous-Barr occupies the lower floors of the Railway Exchange as it did when the building opened in 1913. Accessible at street-level from all four sides, the store became known as “The Store Without a Back Door.” The upper floors housed the executive offices of major railroad lines, giving the building its name, “The Railway Exchange Building.”

The building is the headquarters of the May Department Stores Company and its department store divisions nationwide.

Preceded by Union Station (St. Louis)

Tallest Building in St. Louis 1914—1926 277 feet

Succeeded by Southwestern Bell Building

Preceded by Commerce Trust Building

Missouri's Tallest Building 1914—1921 277 feet

Succeeded by Kansas City Federal Reserve