Since the mid-1800s, St. Louis, Missouri has been a significant city in the United States. Throughout much of its history it was the Gateway to the West, the largest and most important city of the entire western portion of the United States. Because of this culturally rich history, St. Louis has been left with a legacy of great historic sites, including homes, old government buildings, and parks.
St. Louis was the home to many explorers and entrepreneurs who made their lives in the burgeoning West. In St. Louis today, many of the mansions and homes that once belonged to important historical figures are now museums restored to look just as they might have when they were first constructed, a great way to look back at the day-to-day lives of 19th-Century elites.
The Campbell House at 15th and Locust in downtown St. Louis is a mansion built in 1851 for the family of a wealthy fur trader. Today, it is fully restored as a museum accurately reflecting Victorian-era life, including many possessions that actually belonged to the Campbell family. Guided tours are available Wednesday-Saturday, 10-4, or Sunday, 12-4, and admission costs $6.
The Chatillon-DeMenil Mansion is a unique home that was built by two very different families. The first was the family of French fur hunter Henri Chatillon, who built a modest 4-room farmhouse in 1848. Later, the home was purchased by a doctor and drugstore operator named Nicolas DeMenil. DeMenil dramatically expanded the home into a mansion in the Greek Revival style, with imposing pillars adorning the front entry. The museum is found at the corner of Cherokee and DeMenil in Benton Park. In addition to artifacts related to the home, the museum features a large collection of memorabilia from the 1904 World's Fair, which was a huge event held at the peak importance of St. Louis. Guided tours are given Tuesday-Saturday, 10-4, and admission is $5 for adults, $2 for children.
By far the most popular among the historic homesites of St. Louis is Grant's Farm, originally owned by U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant in the mid-1800s. In the late 1800s, the Busch family of the Anheuser-Busch beer company purchased the property for their farmstead. On the site today, visitors will find a log cabin built mostly by Grant himself, a wildlife area full of exotic animals, the historic Bavarian-style home of the Busch family, and a stable full of the famous Clydesdale horses owned by the Anheuser-Busch company. The best part is that admission is completely free- just pay for parking and enjoy the day.
All those wealthy Victorian families had to get their groceries, and Walmart wasn't around back then. St. Louis had a system of public farmer's markets throughout the city. Today, only one of those markets remains in operation. The Soulard Market was created in 1838 when a land developer donated two blocks to the city, saying that St. Louis could keep it if it was used as a market forever. True to its word, St. Louis has kept Soulard a public market for more than 150 years! You can visit Soulard to experience shopping as St. Louis residents of old did, and for lunch have a nice picnic of locally grown vegetables, fruits, breads, meats, and more.
Besides historic home sites, St. Louis has many places where historic events occurred. Chief among these is the Old Courthouse building, situated in the heart of downtown and at the focal point of the famous view from the Gateway Arch. The building dates to 1826. You can visit the courthouse and step foot into the very spaces where Dred Scott fought a legal battle to end slavery, and where Virginia Minor advocated women's suffrage.
Standing in the grand hallways of St. Louis Union Station will certainly connect you to the past. Today, the old Union Station is full of gift shops, restaurants, and several historic information markers. But this building, built at the turn of the 20th Century, was once the busiest rail station in the world. There is always something interesting to find at Union Station. One historical marker has page after page of letters written into a local newspaper when the editor requested memories of traveling through Union Station. From all over the country, people wrote from unique perspectives about what the station was like in bygone eras.
Many soldiers would have passed through the platforms and railyards of Union Station as they made their way to or from wars during the 20th Century. In downtown St. Louis at 14th and Chestnut Streets is the Soldiers Memorial Military Museum. This building was constructed in the 1930s as a memorial to the soldiers from Missouri who died during the first World War. Today, two museums at the Memorial exhibit wartime memorabilia including medals, flags, photographs, and weaponry.
The 1,300-acre Forest Park is a true St. Louis tradition, attracting 12 million visitors per year. The park opened in 1876, and in 1904 it was the site of the World's Fair's Louisiana Purchase Expedition. The park is dotted with historic structures and sites. Additionally, it is home to the St. Louis Zoo, History Museum, Art Museum, and Muny Opera.
At the smaller Faust Park, you will find a treasure from the 1920s in the St. Louis Carousel. This ornate merry-go-round narrowly survived a fire in the 1960s when it was located in Forest Park. Since then, it has been moved to the Faust Park location where it is safely preserved inside a climate-controlled structure. Rides are just $1, so the carousel is a fun and inexpensive way to step back in time.
If you're willing to go just outside of St. Louis City, you'll find a couple more really great historic sites in the metro area. The first, in Defiance, Missouri, is the Daniel Boone Home and Boonesfield Village, which includes the 200-year-old 4-story home of Daniel Boone as well as several other structures designed to replicate a Louisiana Purchase era village. Actors dressed in period clothing will educate visitors about the occupations and lifestyles of the West in the early 1800s.
The second historic site just outside of St. Louis in Collinsville, Illinois, is far older than any of the homes and parks described above. A thousand years ago, an advanced civilization of Native American tribes lived at the city of Cahokia. This mysterious city is believed to have had up to 20,000 residents at one time, and vanished gradually beginning around the year 1200. Today, archaeologists extract artifacts from hundreds of mounds at the site.
So, from pre-European sites to opulent Victorian mansions and parks, St. Louis is full of history. When you step into these sites, you will find it easy to recall the days when St. Louis was the most powerful city for hundreds of miles around, and the last stop for Americans who were headed west to start new lives.