hi everyone my name is ken welcome to this house today we are exploring the magic chef
mansion built in 1908 this house boasts over 12 000 square feet and has a rich history
with one of america's largest appliance makers stick around we're about to see the
inside
all right so now we're in the anta hall which is where you actually enter the house
as we move through here we get out to the main hall
and we can see that there is a grand staircase here in front of us
so as we start to look around this mansion i'll tell you guys a little bit about its history it
was designed by famed architect ernst c janssen and was constructed in 1908 this house boasts
over 12 000 square feet the original owner charles stockstrom also owned the quick meal stove company
which later became magic chef magic chef was the largest stove maker in the world at the time
so getting back to the house we can see that all of this woodwork in here is original
and the stenciling on the ceiling has been restored to its former glory
so off of the main hall most of the rooms are organized and you can actually see that
in the floor plan down below here so let's start on this side of the house
and now we're walking into the library and just take a minute to really absorb all of this
beautiful woodwork that's in here and all of this furniture we can even see from these old photos
here that a lot of this is original including the glass panels over on this side of the room
the fireplace and hearth and even some of the tax attorney and as we turn our heads up i want you
all to notice that there are these details in the stenciling and the paint that have been lovingly
restored and uncovered and restored to their former glory so this room is a great example of
period accuracy that has been updated but updated in a way that only brings it to a preservation
status so moving on we come into the dining room this space is laid out in an oval we can
look all around and see the magnificent details once again more stenciling work on the ceiling
and this table can actually sit 16 when all of the leaves are put in place so you
can imagine this room fully decked out on the holidays or for dinner parties
heading out of the dining room we're going to come over here to the breakfast room and this room is
really special and just notice how different all these doors are as we travel throughout the house
this one has a glass pane with a single handle on it we can come on through here
and this is a bit more of a cozy room it has a lot of really large furniture as well as
stenciling on the ceiling which has been added at a later date so that's not original to the house
but it really ties in the colors very well in here and as we turn around um you know there's
a fireplace in every room of this house so we can see the cast iron work and the tile there
as we continue in a straight line first i want to point out that this door here this is the
first crystal doorknob that we're seeing in the house and this is actually original
moving out of this room we come to the conservatory and this room would have
originally been for basically winterizing your garden so you would have brought in plants
and stacked them along the benches over here they would have gotten sunlight in the winter time so
as we leave the conservatory we're going to pass back through the breakfast room and we're going to
turn the corner there's a giant butler's pantry so just really take a moment to soak all of this in
so looking straight ahead the large cabinet on the left-hand side is actually what stores the
dining room leaves that we mentioned earlier and we can see that these cabinets were all lovingly
restored in the 90s and these are solid pine by the way there are also some just like really old
trinkets and artifacts that are stored in here okay so passing through the butler's pantry we
come to the kitchen and this kitchen is about as period correct as you could possibly find so
as we look around we'll see all of this beautiful glazed brick on the walls and you might have been
thinking this looks like subway tile well it's not it's actually original with the house and
then the sink has the original backsplash to it and originally would not have been stainless steel
it would have been porcelain as we look up at the ceiling this is a tin ceiling from 1909 with
ceiling fans from 1913 and their little trinkets and memorabilia from magic chef kind of scattered
around this kitchen on display as we move forward through the space we can see an old ice box and
other old appliances around us this is the magic chef stove right here and the owner of this house
still uses it and from what we hear it cooks meals perfectly and there's even an old intercom system
so off the kitchen is the service hall so this is pretty much a straight shot back to the rest
of the house this goes upstairs and we're going to get that in just a moment but for now let's
continue on this way so there's also another entrance to the basement here but something
really cool let's take a look at this there's an old telephone booth and we can see that it has
a plaque that reads southwestern bell telephone company with an old rotary phone to the side of it
passing the telephone booth we come back out here to the main hall and we've got the breakfast room
on that side and the dining room over here but as we turn the corner there's a whole nother wing of
the house left to explore so let's go on this way and we're going to be going right through here
first now we're walking into the reception room as we look around the receiving room
let's just take a moment to really absorb this space notice how the bay window lets
in a lot of natural light to really illuminate all of the wood trim and the ornate plaster work
and we're seeing little bits of gold here too that is gold leafing that has been placed over the
plaster and the furnishings in this room are just exquisite we can see how well they complement all
of the decor and this gorgeous mural that soars above us on the ceiling these chairs and this
bench were actually part of this house and they were brought back in here after the owner moved in
so as we keep walking we come into the music room and the music room is one of the smaller rooms
on the first floor but you can just imagine that the acoustics in here and the sound would just be
phenomenal and this space is separated by glass doors from the receiving room and let's take a
second to look at this trim that's between the rooms because it is just absolutely gorgeous
and this is an original light fixture to the house notice that there are no shades and we can
show you in a picture that this is how it's always been so back when this house was built electricity
was somewhat rare so it was really nice to show off that you had electricity it was definitely a
status symbol all right so walking out of the music room we come straight into the parlor
and this room has been completely restored you can see from these old photos here that there
was a lot of water damage up on the ceiling but just look at this this is fantastic
the fireplace has its original mosaic work which really helps to tie all the colors together and
as we look at the fireplace those gas logs are actually original to the house and all of the
poplar woodwork in here was originally meant to be painted there are also these paintings of the five
senses by franz von stuck an artist um and these have actually been redone in more recent years
because of the water damage that was in this room so as we pan around the room we can start to see
these murals displayed on the different walls there's also a grand piano in this room and we can
see more of the plaster work that kind of hangs and drapes over these paintings on these walls
as well as the original light fixture that was in this room
as we leave the parlor we walked back into the main hall and this is where we entered the house
so we'll be going up the stairs here and i'm going to stand up here just for scale i am six foot one
so just look at how massive the noodle post is here with the lamp as well now we're walking
upstairs and notice how expansive the space is it really starts to open up here from the 27
foot wide main hall below us and we can see the quarter-sawn oak paneling and wood details that
surround us in this space and soar from floor to ceiling as we go up these rounded windows
as well as chairs that we're taking out of a masonic temple in downtown st
louis and reinstalled here as we keep going up from the landing we arrive at another hall and
there are display cases here with the families photos from their trips to egypt and we can kind
of see just a little glimpse into their life and their travels here and here is the second floor
floor plan i'll leave this up on the screen just for a moment so we can kind of get our bearings
off of this landing area are all of the chambers or bedrooms and we'll be getting to the owner's
suite in just a moment but let's check out some of these other chambers in the meantime this bedroom
is very elegant the color balance in here is great we have a lot of purples a lot of blues
teals pinks magentas that all line the ceilings with stenciling above and then they're all brought
back together by the various decorations in the room itself and the wood in this room would have
originally been painted white so it's actually period accurate to have the wood tones in this
room to be painted off of this bedroom is a sleeping porch so the sleeping porch has been
closed up with windows but back when this house was built these would have been wide open to the
air or they would have had screens that's because in the hot summer months it might have gotten too
warm to sleep inside so the residents of this home could have slept out here to catch a cool summer
breeze so let's go back on through this bedroom and we'll start exploring the rest of these rooms
turning the corner we come to the first bathroom on this floor and the floor here has actually
been recreated from old photographs of this house it was heavily damaged before the current owner
took possession of the property and it has just these beautiful porcelain tubs and sinks
so moving from the bathroom into the next space we come into this room and we see that
it is all decorated with period furniture and the woodwork in here is actually really special it is
made from bird's eye maple and we can even see that on the fireplace and the doors as a veneer
passing back to this main hallway we're now going to go
into the owner's suite this room is also known as chamber one on the floor plan
and it is the largest of the chambers in this house it contains two walk-in closets
and even has call boxes that go down to the old intercom system that's in the kitchen
so for as big as this room is it's easy to lose the little details because there's so
much to look at but if we look at the fireplace we can see that it has the original tile work
as well as these little blue medallions that match the original quick meal ovens coming out of the
owner's suite we enter into a sitting room which has just some of the best lighting in this house
we can see that the wall rounds out here there's a tv and couches so this area has a bit more of
a modern feel for more modern living it has a built-in sink um because not all of these
bedrooms up here have bathrooms but there's still a nice place that you can wash your hands
put yourself a glass of water whatever have you and off of the seating room is another bedroom
so this is definitely one of the more cozier of the bedrooms it's very quaintly decorated it has
fun art around the walls little trinkets to look at pretty much wherever you want to land your eyes
and the fireplace here there's actually a fun story about this when the owner received this
house these top tiles here were white so someone along the way had replaced them
maybe it was for decoration's sake maybe there was an accident with the fireplace
whatever the story was it was missing the tile so she was actually able to locate
these very similar tiles and put them back in here to restore this to its former glory
all right so now we're down in the basement and this place is an absolute wonderland so there
is a full length bowling alley here with pins set up and even a ball return so you can bowl
in this basement so walking off the side of the bowling alley we come to a game room the game
room has a versaille pattern laid out in linoleum flooring as well as just these amazing game tables
and everything in here is vintage even an old automatron that's up on the wall here and let's
take a closer look at that because that's just a lot of fun as we pan around we'll notice that
there's an old jukebox there's stained glass that even has the family's crust in it there's also
more games over here and we can take a closer look at these old scoreboards because this is
just something that we can just really geek out over and there's even these old pinball machines
how cool is that and up on the ceiling we can see that these pharaohs are built into this
upside down pyramid on the chandelier and that's kind of a callback to the family's trips to egypt
okay and as we walk down this way now from the bowling alley we come to a really unique room so
back in the prohibition days of course alcohol was not legal that did not stop the original owners of
this house from having fun though so they have a seller over here for storing alcoholic beverages
and today this is set up as kind of a dentist office we can see these old vintage doctor signs
and a old vintage chair as well and we can look around and just see all these little
dental treats coming through these doors we get to the workshop this has a fully functioning lathe
and just how cool is this to think that this is actually in somebody's home and that they
live here and they have all of these machines that still work as we leave the workshop and
head across the bowling alley lane watch her step there it's a tripping hazard
we're actually going to get to a saloon so as i mentioned back in prohibition days
you know alcohol wasn't legal so you come through these saloon doors and suddenly we're in a bar
and there's a fun story about this bar this bar was actually repurposed from the st
louis library whenever it was being renovated and there's also a player piano in this
room
shelley thank you so much for opening up your doors to us and allowing us to film here
it has been an absolute treasure to see this house in person can i ask what inspired you to buy this
house well i used to live kind of nearby behind it on longfellow i drive by it all the time and
i just always it was kind of overgrown and in bad condition but the architecture is what inspired me
it just looked like it needed someone to love it so love was the inspiration i guess
very good and we saw all of your appliances in the kitchen and you actually cook on all
of these yeah well not the refrigerator you know i cook on the stove oh just in case
yeah they'll work so yeah the refrigerators from they're all from the 30s so they do work that's
amazing so there's a special connection with your appliances to the original family who owned this
house can you tell us a little bit about that sure well this place is called the magic chef mansion
is a nickname charles stockstrom was the one that had it built in 1908 and he was the founder of
well back then it was the american stove company and uh magic chef came out probably in the late
20s before magic chef they had quick meal lined stoves so the family here would have had a quick
meal but it was their stove was gone so the one i have is from 1935 that i found at a yard sale so
that's amazing everyone at home i hope that you have learned something today and that you can
take away a lesson in preservation just to see all of these things that are original details to
this house well over 100 years old still in use let us know in the comments which room was your
favorite make sure to like comment share and subscribe i'll see you next time on this house