St. Louis, Missouri — Chatillon-DeMenil Mansion

Tuesday: Let me tell you, the Chatillon-DeMenil Mansion has a lot of cool stuff.

You really can’t get a good picture of the front, however, since a few brain geniuses at the Missouri DOT decided to build a highway on-ramp in the front yard.

Anyway, our docent–also the director of the museum–was great. He talked at approximately four million words per minute. We ate it up.

If he had said that he was Neil Young’s brother, I would have believed it.

Maybe it was the sideburns, I don’t know.

This particular artifact was a reading machine, where one would pin together newspaper serials in order to read stories in their entirety.

The Chatillon-DeMenil Mansion is actually two houses. The first was built by Henri Chatillon in 1848.

Chatillon was famous for being the tour guide for Francis Parkman, author of the bestselling book The Oregon Trail that captivated the imagination of 19th century America. Chatillon himself left St. Louis at age 15 and walked to Laramie, Wyoming before returning home many years later.

The second house, built more or less on top of the first, was built by Nicolas DeMenil, a wealthy doctor and pharmaceutical dude. Together, the house affords a unique cross-section of St. Louis history. Susie and I agreed–it’s super-awesome.

For example, we saw all sorts of chamber pots.

This one doubled as a child’s stepping stool. The decorations on the bed are for Christmas: each child would have a dedicated color of string and receive the presents attached to that string.

We also saw, um, a Murphy Bathtub.

I don’t know if that’s the real name, but oh my goodness, what I wouldn’t give for a bathtub that folded up into the wall.

And the telephone wasn’t even an artifact, but man it was awesome.

In sum, this may have been our favorite museum on the trip. We’ll wait until we’re done for the final verdict.

It’s almost a shame too–the director stressed that they were in serious financial trouble. He didn’t know if they’d be open next year. Go see it if you have the chance.

Topics Discussed — Hot Air Balloon Collisions, Brewery Caves, How Weird Is the World’s Fair, Slop Pails