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All the United States Missouri St. Louis Cotton Belt Freight Depot

Cotton Belt Freight Depot

An abandoned factory along the Mississippi coated by a giant mural.

St. Louis, Missouri

Added By
Jason Schwartzman
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Cotton Belt Freight Depot   Tomnagel on Wikipedia
Cotton Belt Freight Depot   jason schwartzman / Atlas Obscura User
Cotton Belt Freight Depot   Paul Sableman on Flickr
  Collector of Experiences / Atlas Obscura User
  Collector of Experiences / Atlas Obscura User
The Cotton Belt Freight Depot   Britt Todd / Atlas Obscura User
The mural in March 2023   apbreuhan / Atlas Obscura User
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About

Centered within a labyrinth of aged factories, the Cotton Belt is a gritty, but beautiful monument to St. Louis' industrial history. 

The Cotton Belt Freight Depot was a key link in a cotton trade route that ran through Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri. Built in 1911, the depot served the then-booming cotton industry for decades, but eventually, the site was shuttered and abandoned. The design of the structure incorporates sculpted terra cotta elements and grand portal designs making it seem a bit grander than a warehouse depot might normally be.  

The now-abandoned building stands five-stories high, but its most striking feature is its length and thinness. At around 750 feet long, the building is more of a wall than a building. Much of its vacant exterior is scrawled with graffiti, but the Eastern side of the exterior is covered with a bright "Migrate" mural that was painted as part of a revitalization project centered on the site.  

Once adjacent to a tent city, the empty site is now in the crosshairs of a proposed stadium, but it does receive limited protection as a part of the National Register of Historic Places. Even in retirement, the Cotton Belt has survived all seasons.  

Related Tags

Abandoned Factories Graffiti Aletrail

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Added By

jason schwartzman

Edited By

hana, Britt Todd, EricGrundhauser, Collector of Experiences...

  • hana
  • Britt Todd
  • EricGrundhauser
  • Collector of Experiences
  • apbreuhan

Published

May 4, 2015

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  • http://dnr.mo.gov/shpo/nps-nr/04000344.pdf
Cotton Belt Freight Depot
1400 North 1st Street
St. Louis, Missouri, 63102
United States
38.639268, -90.18276
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