2646 Cherokee Street

2646 Cherokee Street. Mamroth's Tailor Shop. The original building constructed as a dwelling circa 1883, received several layers of additions as the years progressed. The Bogard family first inhabited the home and lived at this address for over twenty years. Musical instrument manufacture, Charles Menze bought the dwelling in 1905 and remodeled the building four years later to contain a store. Menze operated a musical retail store in the historic building until he sold the property to Abraham Mamroth during the Winter of 1925. Mamroth operated a tailor shop in this building for nearly forty years., The present two story store front was designed by Hubert W. Guth for Abraham Mamroth in 1928. As a teenager, Guth worked as a draftsman for various manufacturing companies and briefly for an architect. His early career consisted of calculating load requirements of structural systems built by the St. Louis-San Francisco Railroad Company. Versed in engineering and technical drawing, Guth began his own practice designing residential and commercial buildings., Glazed terra cotta became a prevalent element for several popular architectural styles during the turn of the twentieth century. The durable material was widely used as an inexpensive approach for building ornamentation. Lacking formal training in architectural design principals, Guth likely selected elements found in popular architecture and incorporated them into his own design. The large amount of modular glazed terra cotta would have been selected by Guth and applied to his simple brick building to give style to the store. Guth did not follow the strict rules of any architectural style. The compilation of various elements resulted in a building exhibiting Guth's own architectural language.