Brewer Ellis Wainwright commissioned the building because he needed offices for the St. Louis Brewers Association. Dankmar Adler and Louis Sullivan designed it, and it was built from 1890 to 1891. It is 10 stories and 135 feet tall.
Architect Frank Lloyd Wright called it "the very first human expression of a tall steel office-building as Architecture." In 2013 it was named one of the "10 Buildings That Changed America" in a PBS series. Sullivan is sometimes called the Father of Skyscrapers.
The building became a National Historic Landmark in 1968. The National Trust for Historic Preservation rescued it from demolition, and Missouri later bought it as part of a state office complex.