hi everyone my name is ken welcome to this house today we are touring the historic
campbell house located in st louis missouri if you would like to take a tour of this house you
can find the hours and information at the bottom of the screen and in the description
built in 1851 was part of a multi-block development called the lucas place neighborhood
this was the first home built as the model home
and we are the only remaining home left from this neighborhood
pretty much everything this room is original to the campbell family
using those three photos of this room you can quite literally start to match items
up so this would be that you're looking at now to match up the gasolier term chandelier
you can see in this one here the ceiling work has been redone above you in the same manner
you can follow the you know the sitting chairs the couches all the familial artwork is original
to the family into the house as well this is a life-size portrait of virginia the shawl that's
upstairs on display it's the same one that her hands are draped the shawl's kind of rolling over
over the chair it's an 1855 schumacher piano they acquired that in philadelphia she paid 475 cash
for that piano the large painting is called Linda di Chamounix it's a famous swiss
kind of opera scene quickly depicting a man trying to get back his lover so these are the
same colors that robert and virginia would have picked out and if we slide down the hall this way
you'll see that this portion of the wall was stripped and shaped all the way down
so you can see all the different blocks that were there and so the pattern starts here and
just flows all the way through exactly how robert virginia would have picked it out
and this is a portrait of robert he was born in 1804 in northern ireland
immigrated to saint louis in 1823 between the mid early 1820s to the mid-1830s he was heavily
involved in the fur trade starting out as a clerk eventually owning his own fur company
post fur trade days he became an entrepreneur him steve boats railways
real estate and emergent dry good business with fellow st louis and william sublette
and like i mentioned with the personal success of robert a bit of familial tragedy robert and
virginia were married in 1841 they had 13 kids only three of those boys survived past the age of
eight those three boys never married so no kids no wives or no heirs came from those three kids the
last campbell's son died here in 1938 that said to a series of events that led us to become a museum
in 1943. so we've been giving tours like so to the public of saint louis for just over 76 years
and this was the pet of hazlett her name was beauty first to the left on the mantle here
and we only know that is underneath that dome is this plaque so it highlights february 22nd 1892
to september 6 1902 so presumably those were her death and birth dates
she was a 10 year old bird she's technically the longest tenured campbell so she's been in this
house since 1902. victorians at that time too were also you know think obsessed with nature
post-origin species by charles darwin people kind of went nuts for nature they don't necessarily
want to get outside you know roll around and play in the mud and go hiking per se so that's where
you see taxidermy making these nice little nature scenes with you know sticks and twigs and leaves
kind of creating a diorama you know of a faux environment so to speak for an animal
but 95 of the home content is original to the campbell family there were 60 photos taken in
1885. a good example is right one right here we believe the family took these for insurance
purposes and it's like a matching game obviously that the table's closed up there but when it's
fully extended the photo all the way on the door to the far left kind of highlights that as well
between 1999 and 2003 a major restoration work of the home was done to mimic the look of those
1885 photographs so that's kind of i think the really unique part is not only are we the last
remaining home left from this neighborhood but the fact that pretty much 95 of what you see
as original to the family is pretty pretty unique for sure so and it's you know it's been restored
in that same manner just over two years ago the wallpaper in the ceiling was redone to mimic the
close representation as of robert virginia we're still here so here's the butler's pantry this
houses all the family's original china glass and silverware so to your left will be the
collection of silver most notably the silver cub that's pretty much right at your eye level that
belonged to ulysses grant visited his home about four to five times contemporary with with robert
of course big fan of whiskey so we led to believe that those were impediment tulips out of those and
the families limoges china is all behind you this represents half of the campbell's original set
it was all made in limoges france each one has different fruit vegetable or nut painted onto
them and then the family's cut glass is right behind me the door right behind you to the right
just simply as a pass through over to the kitchen and here's their kitchen so two notable items the
ice box and stove behind you are both original to the campbell family late 19th early 1920s model
quick meal later became magic chef of course the magic chef mansion still opened today over
russell boulevard that was owned by the stock strong family the bells behind are to my right
are also original to the family kind of a modern day intercom system each bell corresponds to the
different room thus each fell having different tone or pitch to them the sink to the far left
did have internal running water added in 1855 keep in mind that water was pumped directly from the
mississippi river so you're kind of at the mercy of you know the overall cleanliness of that but
definitely much you know a huge upgrade or amenity so to speak and these are the servant staircase
it's also original to the family if you look down to your front right here of course they did not
make that hike behind you to your bottom left you can see two steps in a landing so the house
originally ended right in this doorway here in the early 1970s the museum would have added this
doorway and then the december of 2020 we completed a capital campaign to add in a new meeting room
space here below us is our new gift shop and ada entrance for wheelchair you know all that sort
of stuff and then we also have a new elevator so that's a huge huge perk and upgrade for us
so here's the back of the campbell's house
and then we're kind of stepping in to the head of cooks better
so this is the cook's bedroom so the head cook and the head housekeeper which we'll
see that room next of course had a much larger private space we think the additional female
servants would have been sharing kind of a mutual space kind of like this on the bed here imagine
single beds staggered about so not a tremendous amount of privacy so certainly being the perk of
the head cook and head housekeeper separate much larger space and here's the housekeeper's bedroom
very comparable setup that's actually one of the housekeepers there Mary Boerste her other photos
on the bed right to your left at eye level upstairs we do have a new exhibit where all
of the fabrics and textiles and clothes were owned and used by the candles and then we're stepping
into lucy kyle's bedroom so this was virginia's mother's room or robert's mother-in-law she moved
in in 1856 and died in this home in 1883 in a bit of irony she outlived both robert and virginia
but she had a lovely setup this is originally two servants rooms combined into one room
she's got practically floor to ceiling windows shutters on both sides kind of deflect the heat
keep some of the coolness on the inside in theory so now we're walking up to the master bedrooms so
we think robert and virginia would have shared the side that i'm standing on and then toward the end
of her married life we think robert took over this side on my left and then virginia still took up
residence here on the right-hand side definitely one of our more glamorous rooms for sure carpets
wallpaper the ceiling medallions even though she's got the adventure rendition but the woodwork in
this room is is exceptional this bird's a bird of paradise and then another bird of paradise is on
the far left we think those were already acquired deceased and stuffed and the taxidermic process
already complete this is also the widest point of the house so it's a classic shotgun style home
very very narrow but as we just it runs you know literally almost the whole depth of the lot
so this would be the family's library or an informal living room space
built-in bookshelves would definitely indicate being called the library
but if you look behind you up a half level of stairs there's two kids room and that open door
is a nanny's room those are now converted to our offices but those used to be the children's space
which is partially why i say a little bit of a family parlor because i would envision mom and dad
and the kids being able to hang out here versus always going to the very formal parlor
the photos that you're panning through and the grandfather clock to the left and right
are copies of their travel album those are from egypt and istanbul from the early 1880s
the grandfather clock comes from the skull and bone society of course you know that
east coast secret fraternal group so james campbell he was born in 1860 and died in
1890 at the age of 30 in paris from the flu he was by far the campbell's most educated
son and went to both yale and then harvard law school during his time at yale he was a member
of the skull and bone society he's the first to the right of the grandfather clock there it's
been long time rumored that when you graduate that group and move on your senior year in
post-graduation you're given a grandfather clock we would definitely believe in that that rumor
because we have the photos of his apartment at yale and you can vividly see the same clock
thank you all for watching i would like to give a huge shout out to michael for narrating this
tour and for allowing us to film here if you would like to visit this house please visit
the link in the description make sure to like comment and subscribe remember to let us know
which room was your favorite down in the comment section i'll see you next time on this house