On Wednesday, the city conceded that the lack of review was a mistake.

“A manual data entry transfer between two databases was made incorrectly, causing the permit application to appear to be for a structure not entitled to review,” said Don Roe, the city’s director of Planning and Urban Design.

Breakdowns like that worry some preservationists who fear other historic structures in the city could face the wrecking ball before clearing the mandated safeguards, where officials can assess whether a building can be saved.

“I’ve added an additional redundancy to the manual process so that we have an additional set of eyes watching out for potential errors,” Roe said.

The building, located in one of the city’s oldest areas, was built around 1890. It originally housed the Max Risch Saloon and the John Gass Butcher Shop.

“I just think it’s crazy how each one of these buildings in St. Louis is going away,” Wollaeger said. “I thought the (mural) was going to spark something in that neighborhood.”