Tate Motor Company Building

Olive and Oak

Webster Groves is a quaint historic suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. The one-story brick building at 216 W. Lockwood Avenue was constructed in 1926 for Tate Motor Company, a distributer of Dodge motor cars. Although the building had a few different owners over its history, it retained an automotive/garage use until it was vacated in 2019 and the current owners snapped it up with creative vision to expand their award-winning Olive + Oak restaurant.

The owners assembled an experienced team that included Greenstreet Development, Hammer Out Design, and Rosin Preservation to devise a design and rehabilitation that met the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation and could access historic tax credits. Rosin Preservation worked closely with the designers and contractors to coordinate the more challenging aspects of the project, including window restoration, seismic reinforcement, and placement of the trash room at the front of the building due to the tight property lines on all other walls, which impacted the storefront design.

The rehabilitation emphasized preservation of the character-defining features, including the terrazzo tile floor of the showrooms at the front of the building (new dining rooms), the internal drive that led from the street to the garage behind the showrooms, the large window-lined monitor in the former garage, and restoration of the storefront windows and a multi-light steel windows on the east elevation.

The conversion of this utilitarian auto-related building is now beautifully transformed into a vibrant restaurant with spaces for multiple different functions. The front of the building houses Olive + Oak Restaurant. An event space and a brew pub occupy the rest of the building-the historic garage area. A new mezzanine level provides a dramatic view across the event space, featuring the restored monitor and exposed roof trusses. The restaurant has an outdoor patio where diners can enjoy food and beverage during the Covid-era, and large indoor spaces afford plenty of room to social distance.