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Chatillon-DeMenil Mansion
The Chatillon-DeMenil Mansion in
St. Louis, Missouri is actually the results of two entirely
different families that lived here and became part of the history of
the great city. Henri Chatillon constructed the first part, a four
room brick farmhouse in 1848, who was a guide and hunter for the
American Fur Company of St. Louis during that decade. After leaving
his traveling life, Henri would marry again, his second wife being
Odile Delor Lux. Henri had been a guide for Francis Parkman, Jr.,
during the 1846 period, and Parkman is the author of the book
called, "The Oregon Trail", a tale about his trip west from the
starting point of St. Louis. Henri would later sell the house in
1856 to Dr. Nicolas N. DeMenil, a prominent physician and part owner
of the first chain of drugstores in the city. Nicolas was a very
rich Frenchman who had come to the city in 1834 and married Emilie
Sophie Chouteau, a descendant of the city's founding family. They
would use the house mainly as a summer retreat, and in 1861, hired
an English architect by the name of Henry Pitcher so that he could
add more rooms and change the charming farmhouse into a Greek
Revival mansion. Once that was finished in 1863, the DeMenils moved
into it full time. Three generations of that family would live in
the house until 1929, and from that year until 1945, the mansion
would be managed by caretakers, until Lee Hess purchased it in 1945
to start a tourist attraction involving the natural cave system that
lies below the neighborhood. They would become known as the
"Cherokee Caves" and would become very popular, although the house
itself would deteriorate and by the early1960s, an interstate was
planned which necessitated tearing down the historic mansion. Before
that could happen, the Landmarks Association purchased the estate
from the highway department, since it was one of the few styles of
Greek Revival architecture still in the city. Using a $40,000
donation from GE, they bought the house and started refurbishing the
house in the summer of 1964. The formal dedication was done in May
of 1965, and the Chatillon-DeMenil Foundation took over management
of the estate. The house remains as structurally sound as it did in
1929, with all the marble fireplaces, front hall parquet floor,
ceiling medallions and front hall chandelier the originals. The vast
majority of the furniture is dated between 1830 and 1880, with many
original DeMenil relics remaining. The carpets, curtains and
wallpapers have been reproduced from the first designs. The
interior of the mansion is elegant and richly decorated, with the
Chouteau room running off the hall and had been a double parlor that
was transformed into a marvelous 19th century ballroom. The room
showcases the French influence with elaborate furnishings and
paintings of the mansion, with matching marble mantels still in
place that had been owned by the former doctor. The parlor was named
after Madame Therese Bourgeio Chouteau, referred to as the "mother
of St. Louis" and also the great grandmother of Mrs. DeMenil. The
Madame's portrait is still sitting on an easel in one corner of the
room. The square rosewood piano was built by Louis Merkel Company of
St. Louis, and is one of the original pieces owned by DeMenil. There
are two oil portraits painted by famous artist George Caleb Bingham,
painted in 1837, and they are of Priestly Haggin McBride who had
been the Secretary of State during 1829 to 1830, and a judge of the
Supreme Court of Missouri from 1845 to 1849 and his wife, Mary
Snell. There are two pairs of John Henry Belter type rosewood
chairs, three small black chairs and a table of papier-mâché, a
settee of Belter-type rosewood frame of New York cabinet maker,
Alexander Roux from 1855, showcasing the Rococo Revival style. There
is a pair of Dresden candelabra, that were gas, and formerly hung in
another St. Louis house, a mirror that came here from the Filley
Mansion in St. Louis and French needlepoint is inset in the
broadloom carpet that sits in the room.
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