Thursday, January 20, 2022

Historic House And More

What do you do when the temperature outside is about 10 degrees but you still feel the need to get out of the house? You go to a specialty museum that's been on your local bucket list for a while. Today Hubby Tony and found ourselves at the Field House Museum, on the edge of the downtown area just south of Busch Stadium where the baseball Cardinals play.

When we arrived there were only a couple of cars in the parking lot. Inside, the only people I saw were workers. A friendly docent greeted us at the front desk, asked us to sign a guest book for contact tracking purposes, then offered us a tour. That tour was very informative. I knew that the house was the boyhood home of Eugene Field, who wrote poems like Wynken, Blynken, and Nod, Little Boy Blue, and The Duel (The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat), but I learned that Eugene's father, Roswell Field, was one of the main attorneys in the Dred and Harriet Scott case.

I found out that the tall, skinny building was once one of 12 row houses. All the other ones were torn down in the 1930s, but because of Eugene's popularity at the time this one was saved. Because of the connection to the Scott case, in 2007 the house was designated as a National Historic Landmark. In 2016 an addition was added on the north side of the house to serve as a museum space.

Eugene Field lived in the house until his mother died when he was six years old. At that time Eugene and his brother were sent to Massachusetts to live with their aunt. He attended several colleges (including the University of Missouri in Columbia), but he was a poor student and never graduated. After spending some time in Europe, Eugene worked at newspapers in St. Louis, St. Joseph, Kansas City, and Denver before he moved to Chicago and lived there until he died.

The house had many objects that had been owned by the Field family, and others that were period-appropriate for the building. The third floor of the building had information on the history of the house over the years. In the new section there were several temporary exhibits-one about Missouri becoming a state, and another on different neighborhoods in St. Louis City. Before we left we spent some time in the library, which had a nice collection of Field's works.

23 comments:

  1. "What do you do when the temperature outside is about 10 degrees but you still feel the need to get out of the house?" Was this a trick question? 😁
    Anyway, I must have been by this place a thousand times and didn't know it was there.
    And I was getting confused with Campbell House. http://www.campbellhousemuseum.org/ Years ago, my brother-in-law used to be the caretaker at Campbell House. He lived on the third floor. I don't know if they even have an in-house person anymore. Is this one on your list too? Or has it been crossed off already?

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    1. I haven't been to the Campbell House (yet).

      Last year Tony took an online class through the community college and learned there are dozens of museums in the metropolitan area.

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  2. Now I need to look up Wynken, Blynken and Nod.

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    1. It wouldn't surprise me if you had heard it before. I think it was pretty popular when I was a child.

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  3. When I went to the museum last time they had a dinosaur skeleton. The curator told me it was two million years old and three months and twelve days. I told him, that's very precise dating!

    He replied it was two million years old when he started working at the museum.

    God bless.

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    1. For some reason, your comment reminds me of how long ago Jesus lived...2,000 years ago for my entire life :-)

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  4. I had to look up the Dred Scott Decision. Gosh, it was a badly regarded decision, wasn't it?

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  5. It will be nice to dell in history.

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  6. It has been years since I visited that museum. I really enjoyed it and imagine it has improved with more diplays.

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    1. I really enjoyed the exhibits in the new building, which I think are all temporary.

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  7. Interesting and better that there were no crowds

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    1. I was thrilled not to have to worry about people getting too close to me.

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  8. This was a great choice for a cold day. I'm thinking of going snowshoeing!

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    1. I've always wanted to try to snowshoe! Have fun.

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  9. What a wonderful idea when it is freezing outside! Thanks for the inspiration Kathy!!!

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    1. Since there's always a week or two of dangerously cold weather we try to keep a list of activities handy.

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  10. Since it's now warm here, I must look around.

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  11. It's great to check another one off of your bucket list, and this Field House museum sounds like a great place to spend a cold day.
    I like hearing that Eugene wrote successfully despite not being a good student.

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    1. I hadn't made that connection. Thanks for pointing it out.

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  12. I generally always find history fascinating.

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  13. Hi Kathy, thanks for volunteering to read my manuscript. No real deadline, so whenever you can. If you send me your email address I'll get the link to you.
    liz dot hinds at btinternet dot com

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