While St. Louis received the fourth-largest number of votes (behind Chicago, New York and San Francisco) to become a Federal Reserve Bank headquarters city, it wasn't until May 1923 that construction began on a permanent home for the bank. The nearly 4 million cubic-foot main building cost a total of $4.6 million and sits on a site that in the 1850s was occupied by a slave market.

At the time St. Louis was selected to serve the Eighth District, it was the nation's fourth largest city, third largest industrial district, largest primary fur market, second largest hog market and third largest cattle market. Missouri has the distinction of being the only state with two Federal Reserve banks; the other is in Kansas City, at the western end of the state, which serves the Tenth District.

For more on the history of the St. Louis Fed see A Foregone Conclusion: The Founding of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis by James Neal Primm.

And for more on the overall selection of Federal Reserve headquarters cities, see “Locating Federal Reserve Districts and Headquarters Cities” in the September 2001 Region.

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