|
10 Douglass Lane
549 East Argonne- Kirkwood History House
440 East Argonne
419 East Argonne
Eliot Unitarian Chapel (Formerly Grace Episcopal Church) - 106 South Taylor
From the railroad station, which is described in Tour No. 4, walk two blocks north on Kirkwood Road to Adams and turn right, passing the Presbyterian Church and the Dr. Dionysius house at 125 East Adams.
217 East Adams:
Henry Hough built this residence in 1859, using the American Gothic Revival style. A later owner covered the walls and the ornate brick chimneys with stucco during the 1920's, but a great deal of its original character is still visible in the ornamental iron work and the scalloped wood trim on the porch.
The early appearance of the home was described by a young woman, Ella Bodley, who attended the housewarming party held by the Houghs. She thought it was the "prettiest house in all the country round...a story book house. . . so comfortable. . . and so well arranged. The parlor is a charming room and the bow window is beyond praise."
Notions of community responsibility were deeply ingrained, and Hough's civic activities became notable for their diversity and for the number of years they spanned. He was among the founders of Grace Church in 1859, an appointee to a committee which in 1877 attempted to have Kirkwood named as the county seat, postmaster between 1884 and 1896, and a member of the Kirkwood school board from 1879 to 1911. As a token of appreciation for his work on behalf of the educational system, he was given a silver pitcher filled with thirty-two asters, one for each year of service, and four years later a new school was named in his honor. He declined an invitation to attend a reception held there in 1915, noting that he was soon to celebrate his eighty-seventh birthday.
The grounds contain a linden tree which merits special attention in a city that takes pride in its trees.
308 East Adams:
Mrs. Carrie Hawes operated a private school here during the latter part of the nineteenth century, numbering among her pupils Ethel Franklin, later the mother of Josephine Johnson, a recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for literature. The instruction offered took on a special character as a result of the teacher's commitment to a social cause. . . prohibition. She was a devout advocate, serving as a vice president of the local branch of the Women's Christian Temperance Union in 1887, and her views were strongly reflected in the subject matter taught in her classes.
Bear left into Douglass Lane.
10 Douglass Lane:
By reason of the people who have lived here since it was built in 1870, 10 Douglass Lane has come to be called the "school teachers' house." All four of the daughters of the first owners, Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Murtfeldt, were teachers. One of them, Mary, developed a reputation as an entymologist, assembling a collection of mounted insects which she donated to the United States Department of Agriculture when it became too large to be kept in the house. The fact that the lot then covered three acres may have made it possible for her to add new specimens without leaving the family's property.
The amount of land which surrounded the house was certainly important to her father. He was an associate editor of an agricultural periodical, Colman's Rural World, and Corresponding Secretary of the Missouri Board of Agriculture. His garden, which was located to the east of the house, has been said to have served a dual function in providing a basis for his experiments with plants and as a setting for many of the town's most notable social events. Murtfeldt did his best to protect the character of Kirkwood from what he regarded as evil influence At a public meeting, held on October 24, 1890, he spoke out on one of the major issues of the day, arguing that people "did not want saloons in the town or men who conducted them. . . men who received benefits from saloons or men who patronized them were not good citizens. . . and the residents of the town did not want such men to come among them to reside." Those views were shared by many other people, including the head of a military academy who in 1896 listed among the advantages of the place the fact that "a saloon is not allowed in the town, this feature alone being of grave importance."
Continue around Douglass Lane until it rejoins Adams and then go east to Dickson, passing the Kirkwood Baptist Church on the site of the former Woodlawn Hotel; take Dickson south to Argonne and then turn right.
549 East Argonne:
Known as "Kirkwood History House" since 1972, this is the headquarters of the Kirkwood Historical Society. It is open to the public on Saturday and Sunday from 1:00 p.m. until 4:00 p.m September through May. Rooms reflecting the tastes of the 1850's, Civil War Period, 1870's, World's Fair and the "Roaring 20's' are part of the permanent exhibits.
Traditionally called The Black House, a reminder of Charles Black, a Scottish immigrant who arrived in 1844 and who purchased the house in 1879, the building is depicted on a map published in 1878. It was later purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Ethan Alien Taussig, both of whom had been part of the San Carlo Opera Company before moving to Kirkwood. They were responsible in 1906 for a two-story addition to the northeast corner and for a no longer evident bit of landscaping Mr. Taussig is reported to have favored duck eggs for breakfast and his wife caused a small pond to be dug in the pasture where such fowl were kept. Her own likings were expressed in the bay window of the living room which was filled with begonia and Boston fern through each winter.
The Taussigs sold the property to Philip Rau, a dry goods merchant who attained national renown as an amateur entymologist as a result of the publication of his Wasps Afield and Jungle Bees and Wasps.. Some idea of the nature of the property when he lived here can be gained from the fact that following an ice storm on December 18, 1924, Mrs. Rau gathered fourteen cords of wood from trees broken by the weight of the ice. Her daughter provided further insight into the lifestyle enjoyed by the family when she recalled in 1972 that "at the far end of the plot, along Jefferson, was mother's project of an orchard and blackberry patch. Between that and the house was damp, shady woods of large old trees, and the ground was covered with huge wild violets. The east side of the woods was swampy and every spring we enjoyed choruses of Spring Peepers and an occasional grumpy old bullfrog."
History House is similar in many respects to the residence which stands at 615 East Monroe, but it has retained, unlike its architectural sister, the original tower. Both buildings express the popularity of the Italianate style during the second half of the nineteenth century, and the means used then to create an impression of stone construction in a house which is actually of wood.
Continue west on Argonne, passing the King Ambler house at 525 East Argonne and the new Grace Episcopal Church, dedicated in 1960 to replace the original structure on North Taylor at East Argonne. The arched stained glass windows on the east are by Tiffany of New York and were removed from the original structure. At 443 East Argonne is the George R. Robinson house, after whom the Robinson School on Couch Avenue was named.
440 East Argonne:
Virginia Fishback, a woman about whom very little information seems to have been recorded, is said to have been the owner of this property when the Greek revival residence was erected in about 1860. It retains a great deal of its original exterior appearance.
419 East Argonne:
The arched window heads, along with the ornamentation on the eaves, suggest strongly that this house was the product of the work of an architect or at least a master builder. All that is known of its early history, however, is that it was erected in 1858 for a Mr. Halsey. Ownership passed to Mr. and Mrs. George Gill in 1861. He was active in civic affairs, serving as a town trustee from 1881 to 1888. During that period, he attempted to make it possible for the local government to cope with chronic financial problems by providing interest-free loans from his personal funds.
It requires the exercise of at least a bit of imagination to envision the extent of the property which the Gills acquired in 1861. Its northern boundary, abutting the land surrounding the home of the Harry I. Bodleys (Mrs. Gill's brother and sister-in-law), lay at the line of present Gill Avenue almost a third of a mile from Argonne.
The garden which the Gills created included rare species, such as white raspberries, and fine grapes. Dr. Robert Forsyth, who purchased the place in 1918, took an equal interest in the cultivation of those plants, and is said to have spent about six thousand dollars in restoring and renovating the house before moving to it. While the work done at that time was extensive, the original Victorian character of the building is still very much in evidence.
345 East Argonne:
Dating from the latter part of the 1870's, this residence displays the characteristics of a modified form of the Italianate style. Its wood siding has been made to resemble stone but it lacks the simulated quoins at the corners. The finial atop the tower is an original feature, and the chimney pots must date from only shortly after the construction of the building.
The land on which the house stands was part of a subdivision laid out in 1852 by Spencer Smith, and its history therefore stretches back to the earliest planning for the development of Kirkwood. After passing through the hands of a series of owners, the lot and the house were acquired by Josephine Burr, the wife of George C. Burr. He was a town trustee between 1893 and 1895, serving on a committee which was given the responsibility of negotiating a contract with the Suburban Electric Company which brought Kirkwood a step closer to modernity. Under its provisions, the company supplied one hundred electric lights along the community's streets. They were left on only until 1:00 a.m. during the first six months of operation, but the time was thereafter extended to fifteen minutes before sunrise. The new system was ready for use on September 26, 1896, a date that could be seen as a dividing line between the old and the modern. The house itself, nonetheless, is probably as little changed as any in Kirkwood, and clearly reflects the qualities that marked the community in its early days.
Continue west on Argonne, passing the Henry P. Farrington house at 231 East Argonne.
Eliot Unitarian Chapel (Formerly Grace Episcopal Church) - 106 South Taylor:
The dates at which religious organizations come into being provide a kind of sequential evidence of a community's early development. In the case of Kirkwood, four denominations date from a very early period: St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church, formed in 1833; the Olive Chapel of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and the First Presbyterian Church, both created in 1853; and the Grace Episcopal Church, organized in 1859.
Episcopal services in Kirkwood began to be held in Harry I. Bodley's home in 1854, and the members of the denomination accepted an invitation from the Presbyterians to make use of their new church at Christmastime, 1858. The decision to erect this structure was reached in the following spring, the time at which articles of association were signed. Henry W. Hough, one of the first Vestrymen, provided an account of the early activities of the congregation which displays something of the then-current attitudes about the ability of people to achieve a goal once it had been identified. The cornerstone of the church was laid on August 7, 1858. . . a little more than three months after the creation of the parish. . . and the first services within the new building were held in the following May. While by today's standards that may seem to reflect a speedy completion of the project, Hough gruffly commented that "after many delays and difficulties the Church was finished and consecrated to the service of Almighty God on Whitsunday 1860." Whether delayed or not, the completion of the structure was of sufficient moment to cause the scheduling of a special train which left St. Louis at 9:00 a.m. and returned at 6:30 in the evening. That widespread interest in such an event is indeed characteristic of the time and the place.
It is easy to agree with a contemporary assessment of the appearance of the church, it having been termed "a perfect little gem." Gothic Revival in form, it is constructed of native stone and has a spire that reaches eighty-three feet above the ground. The cross originally placed at the pinnacle of the spire has since been removed, giving it an unfinished appearance.
More significant changes, dating from 1962, are reflected in the brick addition to the south which was erected by the Unitarian congregation which acquired the property after Grace Episcopal Church moved to its new building at 525 East Argonne in 1960.
Robert S. Mitchell, the architect of the original structure in 1859, had become quite famous by reason of his association with the construction of the Old Courthouse in St. Louis.
|