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Chatillon-DeMenil Mansion

DESCRIPTION: The Chatillon-DeMenil Mansion, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, is one of only a handful of homes remaining that were built in the Greek Revival style in St Louis. The home, built in three sections with the oldest part dating from 1848, was originally built by Henri Chatillon, a native of the Carondelet area of St. Louis and a hunter and guide for the American Fur Company. Chatillon was immortalized in historian Francis Parkman Jr.'s 1849 bestseller "The Oregon Trail" after their adventures together in the New Frontier. The DeMenil family purchased the home in 1856 and made two additions, 1861-3 and 1875 that transformed the farmhouse into the mansion it is today. The mansion is an excellent example of a Victorian home of a wealthy family.

ADDRESS: 3352 DeMenil Place, St. Louis, MO 63118

LOCATION: Five minutes south of Downtown St. Louis, across from Anheuser Busch Breweries.

PHONE NUMBER: 314-771-5828 for the museum; 314-771-5829 for the restaurant

WEB SITE: www.demenil.org

GETTING THERE: From Downtown St. Louis, take Broadway south to Cherokee. Turn right on Cherokee. DeMenil Place is immediately on the right.

HOURS: 10 a.m.- 4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. The last tour of the day starts at 3:00 p.m. (Opened January by appointment only).

ADMISSION: $4, adults; $3, groups over 20 or AAA cardholders; $2 student groups over age 12; $1, children under 12.

HIGHLIGHTS:

• The Ballroom, a double parlor named the Chouteau Room in honor of Mme. Marie Therese Chouteau born and raised in New Orleans, the first white woman in St. Louis, is furnished with a portrait of Madame Chouteau, an original sofa and two matching chairs, and a Louis Merkel rosewood piano built in St. Louis in 1865 all belonging to the DeMenils. Also in the room are two oil portraits painted in 1837 by famed Missouri artist, George Caleb Bingham. There are two mirrors from the Rilley Mansion in St. Louis and chandeliers that were originally gas and formerly hung in another St. Louis home.
• The c.1890 parquet floor in the center hall contains six hard woods including red oak, golden oak, white oak, mahogany, birch and maple inlaid in a distinctive pattern. The one original gas chandelier in the mansion is also in the Front Hall that depicts Venus rising out of a seashell with a torch in her hand.
• The drawing room was used by Alexander DeMenil (second generation) as a library and his bookcases lined the room. The room reflects his mother Émelie Sophie Chouteau DeMenil's taste in that the original stenciled designs on the ceiling were restored in the 1960s. The room's furnishings reflect the style of a French salon suite around 1860.
• The dining room, with grained woodwork typical of the 1850's, has a Sheraton banquet table which dates from around 1830 that has as its centerpiece a sterling epergne (a centerpiece made to hold condiments and sweet meats) made in London in c.1790 by Thomas Pitts, silversmith. The original DeMenil Haviland Limoges china adorns the table with the water and wine glasses that bear the Chouteau family crest.
• Nicolas DeMenil's bedroom is now called the Busch Bedroom thanks to a gift of funds from the August A. Busch family to restore the room. Furnishings include an armoire that was found in the attic at the time the building was restored.
• Madame DeMenil's Bedroom is furnished with furniture she inherited from her Great Uncle, Auguste Chouteau, the first surveyor of the City of St. Louis, including a c.1830 half-canopy mahogany bed, double dresser with medicine chests and a vanity.
• The Library has an alcove that was added in 1863 to hold Émilie's ferns. The alcove now holds an architect's tilt top desk and a reading spool. Decorative painted window shades with a scene of Chouteau's Pond, hang in the windows.
• The Children's Bedroom, decorated with items children played with in the mid to late 1800's, was originally Emilie Sophie Chouteau DeMenil's dressing room. The original fireplace and pocket doors in the room were removed in the 1940s. Several Victorian toys, including Dresden dolls, are displayed there.
• A painting on leather in the Chatillon Front Hall is the Chatillon Family. Henri, his first wife (an Oglala Sioux Indian) Bear Robe and their daughter White Woman are set against the silhouette of a Bison. The painting has several images hidden in it including a wolf, a screech owl and the horse that carried Bear Robe throughout her life because she was unable to walk. Upon her death in 1846, according to Oglala Sioux beliefs, her horse was sacrificed to carry her spirit to the next world.
• The wrought iron bars on the windows and the security doors were part of the 1861-3 addition during the Civil War. They were for protection against the marauding Union Army soldiers stationed at the Arsenal on Arsenal Street two blocks away. The DeMenils were southern sympathizers because of their business interests and their French friends in New Orleans that were being hurt by the war.
• The mansion’s attic houses an extravagant and diverse collection of 1904 World’s Fair memorabilia. More than 1,200 pieces are on view including photographs and souvenirs in excellent condition.

HISTORY: The Chatillon-DeMenil Mansion was originally built in 1848 as a seven-room (four by today's standards as the two stair halls and attic were counted as rooms) brick farmhouse by famed wilderness guide Henri Chatillon and his second wife Odile Delor Lux. Chatillon sold the house to banker Eugene Miltenberger a German, and Dr. Nicholas DeMenil, a Frenchman, and his wife Emilie Sophie Chouteau, great-granddaughter of Madame Marie Therese Bourgeois Chouteau, the first white woman to settle in St. Louis and the common-law wife of St. Louis' founder, Pierre Laclede, in 1856. Dr. DeMenil was a physician who patented at least two medications and was part owner in St. Louis' first successful chain of drug stores.

The men intended to use the home as a summer retreat for their families but after five years Miltenberger sold his interest in the house to DeMenil. Mr. Miltenberger had eighteen children, so the house was too small for his family's needs. The DeMenils made the farmhouse their permanent residence in 1861 and they hired English architect Henry Pitcher to do a complex addition that transformed the "farmhouse" into the stately Greek revival mansion it is today. The Greek Revival style enjoyed its height of popularity in the 1840s. By the 1860s it was considered somewhat passé, but Madame DeMenil wanted her home to look just like her cousin Henry Chouteau's home at Second and Clark in St. Louis, built in 1832.

When Dr. DeMenil died in 1882, his son Alexander and both his first and second wives Lillian Robert (divorced after the tragic death of their youngest son Willie) and Bessie Bacon lived in the house until Alexander died in 1928. His youngest son George by his second wife then moved into the house with his wife Ida. They moved out in 1929 because the air quality was so poor from the use of coal in the homes and factories in the area. They moved further south to Carondelet on Pennsylvania Street. Their home was razed for the construction of the Ozark Expressway.

George DeMenil hired caretakers to care for the house until he sold it to entrepreneur Lee Hess in 1945. Hess turned the cave under the building into a tourist attraction called Cherokee Cave. He also opened the Hess Museum at the mouth of the cave, turned the upstairs into two apartments and used the first floor of the house to store items for the museum. By the late 1950's, the mansion had fallen into terrible disrepair and the Missouri Highway Commission bought the property with the intention of tearing the house down and building a cloverleaf shaped entrance ramp for the Ozark Expressway (Interstate 55) through the site.

But in 1961, with a gift from Union Electric, the St. Louis Landmarks Association persuaded officials to change the design of the cloverleaf entrance ramp for the proposed Interstate, bought the property back from the highway department and saved the house from demolition. Private donors from across the country gave funds to refurbish the house and both the DeMenil and Chouteau families donated furniture, china, crystal and other items to furnish the house. A total of over $200,000 was spent on the restoration ($1.2 million in today's dollars).

The Chatillon-DeMenil House Foundation has owned and operated the home as a public museum since May 15, 1965.

WHERE TO GET LUNCH: Café DeMenil, located in the mansion's original carriage house built in 1875, and is open for lunch from 11:00 am.-1:30 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday. The restaurant and grounds are also available for weddings and private parties. Call 314-771-5829 to make reservations for lunch, or to arrange for a private function.

GIFT SHOP: A gift shop in the basement of the house carries a selection of books on the history of St. Louis and the 1904 World's Fair, and other topics. Post cards, gifts and items with a Victorian theme are available for sale.

WHAT'S NEARBY: Nearby is the Anheuser-Busch Brewery, the Cherokee Street Antique District, the blues music clubs and restaurants of the Soulard neighborhood, Soulard Farmers' Market and the Carondelet Historical Society.

PUBLIC RELATIONS CONTACT: Kevin O’Neill, Executive Director 314-771-5828, demenil@sbcglobal.net

Readers should call 1-800-916-0040 to request a free copy of the Official St. Louis Visitor Guide or point, click and explore St. Louis at www.explorestlouis.com