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The Campbell House Museum
is an 1851 three-story townhouse once owned by Robert Campbell, one of St.
Louis’ most prominent residents. John Hall, a St. Louis wholesale grocer,
built the Campbell House in 1851. The Campbell House was the first house to
be built in what was then called Lucas Place. Lucas Place was west of the
developed portion of the city, making it St. Louis' first
"suburban" neighborhood and the first clearly defined wealthy
neighborhood in St. Louis. The estate is the only home left in the
once-elegant neighborhood of aristocratic homes. Robert Campbell became the
third owner when he bought the house in 1854.
Robert Campbell
immigrated to the United States in 1823 from Scotland. In 1825 Campbell
joined a trapping expedition for the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, the firm
that would revolutionize the fur trade with a business innovation – the
Rendezvous. In 1930 Campbell and William Sublette started Campbell &
Sublette, a competitor to the American Fur Company, which was owned by the
Chouteaus, one of the founding families of St. Louis. When he retired from
the mountains in 1835, Campbell settled in St. Louis and began investing in
interests in the western United States including real estate, dry goods,
railroads, steamships, and a gold mine in New Mexico. His mercantile which
outfitted settlers heading west stood where the Arch is today. When Campbell
died in 1879, he was considered the wealthiest man in Missouri.
Two of Campbell's sons,
Hugh and Hazlett, continued to live in the house after Robert's death. After
Hazlett's death in 1938 the house was willed to Yale University and it was
put it up for sale. The furnishings were sent to the Selkirk Gallery to be
auctioned. Stix, Baer and Fuller, a local department store, bought the home
in 1941 as part of its 50th anniversary celebration and gave it to the
Campbell House Foundation, a group that was formed to turn the home into a
museum. The Foundation raised enough funds to go to Selkirk Gallery to buy
back 90 per cent of the Campbell furnishings. The house was opened as a
museum in 1943 showcasing Victorian furnishings and decorative arts.
In 1973 an important
album of 60 photographs was donated to the Museum. The 8 by 10 inch photos,
dating from about 1885, show not only the house interior, room by room, but
also the exterior and surrounding neighborhood. The discovery of the
Campbell House photo album allowed for accurate restoration of the interior
rooms and after the completion of a restoration project in 2005, the house
looks as it did in the 1880s. Two third-floor rooms are being turned into
exhibition halls for programs and displays, which will detail life as it was
for a wealthy family and its servants during the 19th century.
As
part of the cream of the crop of St. Louis society, the Campbells lived a
life of affluence and evidence of that can still be seen in the home today.
Their home had running water when they bought it, an unusual situation for
the 1850s. The Campbells had a staff of 7 to 10 servants, mainly Irish or
German immigrants, to run the house.
Visiting the
Campbell House
Visiting Hours
Wednesday -
Saturday: 10 am - 4 pm
Sunday: 12 pm - 4 pm
Admission is $6 for adults, which includes a guided
tour; children 12 and under are free.
Location: The Campbell House is in downtown St. Louis.
 Learn more about the
St. Louis area.
Campbell
House - Official site of the Campbell
House.
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