The Union Trust Company Building in East St. Louis is another building at the intersection of Collinsville and Old Missouri, the last remaining historically intact intersection in East St. Louis, that really intrigues me. It was designed and built in the early 1920s in the Classical Revival style by Thomas Imbs, architect for August Schlafly, who with his brothers, had a banking empire in Southern Illinois. This style was popular with banks beginning in the 1800s because it represented permanence and trust, and yet it was the first (and only) bank of this style built in the city.

The bank went through several name changes, and eventually moved its headquarters east to Swansea. The building was vacated in the mid-1990s, and it still stands empty today, the only former bank of its style in the city.