Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. I'm Veronica Theodoro. And this is the House
Speaker 1: of Loo podcast. Today, we're exploring a topic that has
Speaker 1: a lot of relevance to me and to a lot
Speaker 1: of Saint Louis homeowners, we're talking about old houses and
Speaker 1: how to research them.
Speaker 1: This episode of House of Blue is sponsored by car,
Speaker 1: big kitchen and bath in the past 18 years or so.
Speaker 1: I've lived in two old houses in Saint Louis, both
Speaker 1: built right around the turn of the 20th century. My
Speaker 1: first house was in the central west end and we
Speaker 1: lived there for about 10 years. We bought our second
Speaker 1: home just one block away in the Skink or of
Speaker 1: Oliver neighborhood. Though a lot of us think of this
Speaker 1: part of town as the central west end too.
Speaker 1: I'm drawn to old houses for a lot of reasons.
Speaker 1: The architecture is at the top of that list followed
Speaker 1: closely by the attention to detail and craftsmanship that's often
Speaker 1: still found in many of them.
Speaker 1: There's also this sense that a lot of us share
Speaker 1: that were caretakers for the next generation of owners. To me.
Speaker 1: At least I like knowing that the work and time
Speaker 1: that I invest in the house will outlast my time
Speaker 1: living there, maintaining the beauty and artistry of a home,
Speaker 1: feels really good to me.
Speaker 1: So if you live in a historic house or maybe
Speaker 1: you just love historic architecture, I think you're gonna really
Speaker 1: like hearing from today's guest, Dennis Northcott is an archivist
Speaker 1: at the Missouri Historical Society Library and research center specializing
Speaker 1: in genealogy and house history. He studies all kinds of
Speaker 1: sources in his quest to help researchers learn about the
Speaker 1: history of a house as well as its former residents.
Speaker 1: At the end of this episode, I'll be sharing details
Speaker 1: about three upcoming home related events that I think you'll
Speaker 1: find super interesting. But before all that, I wanna share
Speaker 1: a little bit about what's been up with me at
Speaker 1: home and around town.
Speaker 1: I'm constantly delighted by the sheer number of talented and
Speaker 1: accomplished people who were born and raised in Saint Louis.
Speaker 1: I recently attended a lecture by Andrew Rams, a Saint
Speaker 1: Louis based architect, writer and historian about the early career
Speaker 1: and life of Charles Eames. Now
Speaker 1: when I think about Eames and maybe you do this too.
Speaker 1: The first images that come to my mind are of
Speaker 1: his iconic furniture designs, pieces like the Eames lounge chair
Speaker 1: and ottoman or the molded plastic armchairs, even the tandem
Speaker 1: sling seating that you can still find in airports across
Speaker 1: the country.
Speaker 1: What I don't typically do is think much about his
Speaker 1: early life in Saint Louis where he was born in 1907.
Speaker 1: I'm not exactly sure why, but I bet it has
Speaker 1: a lot to do with the fact that we don't
Speaker 1: often hear much about his early life. A lot of
Speaker 1: us associate themes with really cool furniture that he created
Speaker 1: with his wife, Ray after he left Saint Louis. I
Speaker 1: love that. Andrew
Speaker 1: focused on his early life. His lecture was held at
Speaker 1: the Pilgrim congregational Church on Union just north of Delmar
Speaker 1: Eames was a member of the congregation from 1929 to 1938.
Speaker 1: And he married his first wife, Catherine Warman there and
Speaker 1: made various contributions to its architecture
Speaker 1: that's visible to this day. Things such as the Narthex
Speaker 1: stores and transoms a chandelier in the chancel, the redesigned
Speaker 1: tower roof, and a lighted sign that you can catch
Speaker 1: a glimpse of when you're passing by. Now.
Speaker 1: I've driven by this church probably hundreds of times. It's
Speaker 1: literally right up the street from my house, but I
Speaker 1: never knew that there was that connection to Eames. I
Speaker 1: love it. When I discover treasures hidden in plain sight,
Speaker 1: I'll be sure to include information about Andrew as well
Speaker 1: as the address of the church. In case you're interested
Speaker 1: in visiting it in person, we'll be right back
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Speaker 1: schedule a free design consultation today by visiting carb.com/project dash consultation.
Speaker 1: So, welcome back everyone and now on to my interview
Speaker 1: with Dennis.
Speaker 1: So about Dennis, I saw Dennis in action for the
Speaker 1: first time last September when I attended one of his
Speaker 1: very popular house history workshops. Dennis teaches workshops twice a
Speaker 1: year and they tend to sell out pretty quickly. So
Speaker 1: keep that in mind if you're interested in going. But
Speaker 1: on the day of the workshop, I learned so much
Speaker 1: about my house.
Speaker 1: I mean, like a lot of people, I know the
Speaker 1: name of the architect who designed my house and the
Speaker 1: year it was built. But once I got my hands
Speaker 1: on a copy of the census report from 1910 and
Speaker 1: other documents, it was incredible the amount of information that
Speaker 1: I found out. So Lewis Kupfer was the first resident
Speaker 1: of my house which was built in 1908.
Speaker 1: He was also an owner of the Missouri Brass Foundry
Speaker 1: and he lived in my house with his wife Emma
Speaker 1: and their two sons, Lewis and Oliver, as well as
Speaker 1: a girl of German descent named AA. Her relationship to
Speaker 1: the head of household is listed in the census as servant.
Speaker 1: There were a lot more interesting tidbits about the house,
Speaker 1: but I really want you to hear directly from Dennis.
Speaker 1: So without further ado, welcome to the podcast, Dennis. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Good to be here. It's great to see you.
Speaker 1: What is an
Speaker 2: archivist? Ok. So everybody knows what a librarian is, I'm sure.
Speaker 2: And an archivist is effectively the same. But a librarian
Speaker 2: deals with published material, books, maps, newspapers, historical journals, things
Speaker 2: like that. Whereas an archivist deals with original documents, letters, diaries,
Speaker 2: court records,
Speaker 2: business records, records of institutions, minute books, unpublished material, oftentimes
Speaker 2: handwrit which causes younger people problems these days. How
Speaker 1: did you become interested in the
Speaker 2: field? Well, I certainly didn't grow up dreaming about being
Speaker 2: an archivist. I'm sure I didn't know what an archivist
Speaker 2: was maybe till I was in college or maybe afterwards.
Speaker 2: Um But I was a history major at FSU and
Speaker 2: when I graduated, everybody said, and maybe they say this
Speaker 2: now too. Are you going to law school or are
Speaker 2: you going to be a teacher? Seemed like those were
Speaker 2: the two only options available? Neither which particularly sounded like
Speaker 2: something I wanted to do. So I went to my
Speaker 2: advisor and told him my dilemma and he had a
Speaker 2: colleague who worked at the Missouri Historical Society and edited
Speaker 2: the historical journal which was then called Gateway Heritage. Now
Speaker 2: it's Gateway.
Speaker 2: So I began working as not working volunteering there um
Speaker 2: for several months helping out with the magazine. And then
Speaker 2: one day somebody of the staff came down the hall
Speaker 2: to where my desk was and said we have a
Speaker 2: job open in the library and another job open in
Speaker 2: the photos department. Do you want one of these? I
Speaker 2: said sure as far as I can recollect, there was
Speaker 2: no resume, no interview. It was just, oh, you know,
Speaker 2: that kid is when coming
Speaker 2: the last three months, he seems confident enough. Why do
Speaker 2: we give him the job? So, um I worked in
Speaker 2: the library for about five years or so and then
Speaker 2: I switched over to position in the archives and I've
Speaker 2: been there ever since. You've
Speaker 1: been there ever since. OK. So are you from ST
Speaker 1: Louis originally? Yes,
Speaker 2: born and lived here all my life. And
Speaker 1: so in your day to day work, you help people
Speaker 1: search for information about their aunt,
Speaker 1: ancestors and their homes. Um What are some of the
Speaker 1: similarities that you find between those two subject areas?
Speaker 2: So they're very similar in the sense that you're both
Speaker 2: researching people. When you're doing your family history, you're researching
Speaker 2: your ancestors. And when you're doing the history of your house,
Speaker 2: just like you talked about with your home, you're researching
Speaker 2: the people who used to live in their home.
Speaker 2: Um And this can lead to all kinds of exciting
Speaker 2: and strange and interesting stories. So you have to be aware,
Speaker 2: it's not always good things you're going to find out
Speaker 2: whether it's your ancestors or somebody who lived in your home.
Speaker 2: In fact, many years ago. I was helping this woman
Speaker 2: research her home and we found through city directories and
Speaker 2: newspapers and census records and such. Um these various people
Speaker 2: who lived in their home.
Speaker 2: And I said, if you like, we can go to
Speaker 2: this death certificates database, the Missouri State archives is indexed
Speaker 2: and digitized the death certificates for all of Missouri from
Speaker 2: 1910 to 73. There's a 50 year privacy rule before
Speaker 2: they release them. So 1974 will come out next year.
Speaker 2: So we knew the name of this particular guy who
Speaker 2: lived in her home. And I said, do you wanna
Speaker 2: go see if we can find his death? Cert and
Speaker 2: she said, sure, that sounds fine.
Speaker 2: So I'm standing at the computer and she's right behind
Speaker 2: me over my shoulder and I key in his name
Speaker 2: and I find the death certificate and I click view image.
Speaker 2: I use his death certificates all the time. So my
Speaker 2: eyes immediately went to the cause of that section of
Speaker 2: the document. And the first thing I see is jumped
Speaker 2: out of second story window, fractured skull, suicide. And I thought,
Speaker 2: oh boy, is she gonna be prepared for this? So
Speaker 2: I'm standing at the computer looking at it thinking
Speaker 2: one Mississippi, two Mississippi. And then I hear this blurred
Speaker 2: out behind me. Oh my God. Did that guy jump
Speaker 2: out of the window of my house? And I had
Speaker 2: the sheepishly say, yeah. Yeah, I guess it looks that way. Now,
Speaker 2: fortunately it was 100 years ago and she, she got
Speaker 2: over it. She was fine with it, but I'm a
Speaker 2: little reluctant to show people death certificates. Now.
Speaker 1: It's incredible to me the amount of information that you've
Speaker 1: been able to digitize.
Speaker 2: Right. Yeah. And there's so much in recent years, it's
Speaker 2: getting so much better because, um, newspapers have been digitized. Massively,
Speaker 2: the post dispatch is digitized from 1874 to the present,
Speaker 2: the old globe Democrat from 1853 to 1963 something like that. And,
Speaker 2: and a lot of the old German language papers from
Speaker 2: Saint Louis, there were German language papers from the mid
Speaker 2: 19th century, well into the 20th century
Speaker 2: and once they're digitized, they're rendered full text, keyword, searchable.
Speaker 2: So you can search for your address. Now today, if
Speaker 2: we'd show up in the paper, they wouldn't print our address.
Speaker 2: But back then in the 19th century and into the
Speaker 2: 20th century, if you ever made news, for some reason,
Speaker 2: they'd put your address in the newspaper. So it's great
Speaker 2: for house history researchers.
Speaker 1: And I understand employee magazines from years ago are a
Speaker 1: treasure trove of information for you as
Speaker 2: well. Yes. And they're one of my pet favorite sources.
Speaker 2: So my dad and grandfather worked for Union Electric. My
Speaker 2: grandpa began there in the 19 twenties. My um dad
Speaker 2: was a really good athlete and he used to say
Speaker 2: that grandpa wasn't interested in sports because he grew up
Speaker 2: during the depression. And he thought if you had free
Speaker 2: time in your hands, you shouldn't be playing sports, you
Speaker 2: should be getting an extra job to make ends meet.
Speaker 2: So that was the view I had of my grandpa.
Speaker 2: So one day I'm back in the stacks and I
Speaker 2: see we have this run of Union Electric employee magazines
Speaker 2: going back to 1913. So I grab one off the
Speaker 2: shelf from the 19 thirties or so. And I start
Speaker 2: flipping through on the off chance I might find something
Speaker 2: about my grandfather and here I find this photo of
Speaker 2: him jumping the hurdles. He won the 100 yard hurdle
Speaker 2: in the annual Field Day competition that they put on
Speaker 2: every year. And then subsequently, I had one of my
Speaker 2: volunteers read through all these issues of the magazine 1913
Speaker 2: to 69 and key in all the names and in
Speaker 2: some cases, it gave their addresses as well into this database.
Speaker 2: It ended up with about 50,000 entries.
Speaker 2: And afterwards I searched for my name and there were
Speaker 2: 47 pictures and stories and announcements about my dad and
Speaker 2: grandfather and various people in the family. So it's great
Speaker 2: for genealogy, but also in the 19 thirties, Union Electric
Speaker 2: had a savings alone that would help finance homes for employees.
Speaker 2: It was kind of a benefit. So in the magazine,
Speaker 2: they'd published a spread of photos of employees homes that
Speaker 2: have been financed by the savings and loan with the
Speaker 2: name of the employee and the address. So we keyed in,
Speaker 2: I should say we, my dutiful volunteer keyed in these
Speaker 2: names and addresses into our online genealogy and local history index,
Speaker 2: which people can search when they're researching their ancestry or
Speaker 2: the history of their home. And years ago, I was
Speaker 2: giving a talk in Brentwood
Speaker 2: and I met this woman and she told me some
Speaker 2: story may be getting a little jumbled as years ago,
Speaker 2: but she had a side door or a back door
Speaker 2: that she believed used to have a few stairs that
Speaker 2: led to it, but they weren't there anymore. And she
Speaker 2: figured they must have been there. But she wanted to
Speaker 2: prove it. Our photos department might have a historic photo
Speaker 2: of your home. But I said, also look in our
Speaker 2: genealogy and local history index where we've indexed images of
Speaker 2: homes from various public sources. She searched her address and
Speaker 2: it turned out her first owner had worked for Unit Electric.
Speaker 2: There's a picture of her home in the magazine in
Speaker 2: the 19 thirties showing the stairs just like she dreamed
Speaker 2: they would be. So that doesn't happen every day by
Speaker 2: the way. But it was very fun. Why do you
Speaker 1: think people are so interested in learning about their homes? Um,
Speaker 2: I guess it's just something about place, you know, it's
Speaker 2: where we spend all our time. Um It's just natural
Speaker 2: to want to know, who lived there, I suppose. And
Speaker 2: in the last 15 years or so, with more and
Speaker 2: more resources being digitized and indexed and
Speaker 2: things of that nature, it's become easier and easier. So
Speaker 2: 30 years ago, it might have been quite a bit
Speaker 2: more challenging. So maybe that's part of the reason as well.
Speaker 1: And so who does the digitizing is that
Speaker 2: team? Yeah. So there's various people, our photograph staff or
Speaker 2: digitizing photographs in their collection. Uh The archive staff periodically
Speaker 2: is digitizing stuff from our collections and libraries and archives
Speaker 2: around the country and around the world are doing things similarly.
Speaker 2: So Google books was this initiative maybe it started 20
Speaker 2: years ago or so where Google partnered with these huge
Speaker 2: academic libraries, Harvard University of Michigan, University of Illinois and such.
Speaker 2: And they were going to try to audaciously digitize all
Speaker 2: their published material,
Speaker 2: but when they digitize it, they not only take a
Speaker 2: picture of it but they use this software called optical
Speaker 2: character recognition, which is what makes it full text keyword, searchable,
Speaker 2: which is just revolutionized genealogy research house history, research, historical
Speaker 2: research in general. Um It just makes vast amounts of
Speaker 2: material and data available that wasn't available previously. What are
Speaker 1: people
Speaker 1: looking for? Would you say most of the time when
Speaker 1: they see information or a photo perhaps like what gives
Speaker 1: them the most satisfaction? So
Speaker 2: people wanna know how old their home was, they wanna
Speaker 2: know who lived in the home and find out more
Speaker 2: about their lives. Um They wanna find a historic photo
Speaker 2: of their home, sometimes they wanna find architectural plans.
Speaker 2: Um Occasionally they've experienced a ghost in their home and
Speaker 2: they want to try to document that. It's not that
Speaker 2: uncommon that that happened. So with the photographs, for example,
Speaker 2: I tell people, our photographs department has hundreds and hundreds,
Speaker 2: maybe thousands of photos, historic photos of Saint Louis homes.
Speaker 2: But by no means, do we have a historic photo
Speaker 2: of every home in fact, far from it.
Speaker 2: But sometimes you could find historic phone, uh photos of
Speaker 2: phones in employee magazines like I mentioned or digitized newspapers.
Speaker 2: Or there was a story recently where somebody um emailed
Speaker 2: me and they had a brick that was stamped with
Speaker 2: the Lale Christie Fire Clay Products Company. And they had
Speaker 2: some very detailed question about this brick. I don't know
Speaker 2: anything about bricks, but I said, let me get your email,
Speaker 2: I'll look into it and I'll see what I can find.
Speaker 2: So I happened to find that we had a few
Speaker 2: catalogs of this brick company from the early 19 hundreds.
Speaker 2: And I looked in there and lo and behold in
Speaker 2: one of the catalogs, there were images of a bunch
Speaker 2: of bricks with the stamps on them. And I sent
Speaker 2: him a scan of this and he was thrilled. So
Speaker 2: that was great. But as I was looking through this catalog,
Speaker 2: we had one from 1911
Speaker 2: that had a dozen or so photos of Saint Louis homes.
Speaker 2: And you know, this is great stuff. People are always
Speaker 2: looking for historic photos of their homes, but they didn't
Speaker 2: say the address. They say this is the home of
Speaker 2: Julius Walsh. He lived in Saint Louis County.
Speaker 2: So I was trying to identify through various means, the
Speaker 2: exact addresses of these homes. So we could upload that
Speaker 2: address into our genealogy and local history index and then
Speaker 2: somebody could find it very quickly. So one of these
Speaker 2: homes was identified as the home of Edward Cross in
Speaker 2: Maplewood in 1911. So fortunately I knew that the Saint
Speaker 2: Louis Mercantile library had a digitized Maplewood City directory from 1912.
Speaker 2: So just a year off. So I thought easy, I'll
Speaker 2: look up Edward Cross. It'll give me his address, no problem.
Speaker 2: So I look up Edward Cross and there's no entry
Speaker 2: for him. And I thought, oh, what a, what a
Speaker 2: shame he must have moved, you know, just at that
Speaker 2: around that time. So I looked in census records and
Speaker 2: Saint Louis County directories and newspapers couldn't find any reference
Speaker 2: to a guy named Edward Cross who lived in Maplewood.
Speaker 2: It was a quest. Now, I had to find this
Speaker 2: address of this home. So I printed out a map
Speaker 2: of Maplewood and I went out for a drive and
Speaker 2: snake through all of Maplewood. And eventually I found the
Speaker 2: house
Speaker 2: and I thought, well, why didn't it show up in
Speaker 2: this um city directory? So now when I found the
Speaker 2: house by driving, I had the address, I went back
Speaker 2: to this digitized directory keyed in the address and found
Speaker 2: an entry for not for Edward Cross Cr Os s
Speaker 2: but for Edward Closs cl Os s. So it was
Speaker 2: just a simple typo that led me on this crazy
Speaker 2: adventure or miss
Speaker 2: Adventure. Who are
Speaker 1: the people who you see coming into the library most
Speaker 1: often to do the research? I mean, is it a
Speaker 1: range of people or, I mean, I would imagine you
Speaker 1: have to have some connection to an older
Speaker 2: home, right? Generally, um, you know, it's not often that
Speaker 2: somebody's researching a home, say from the seventies and Oakville
Speaker 2: or something like that.
Speaker 2: You know, when somebody says, oh, what would you qualify
Speaker 2: as an older home? And it's totally subjective, I'd say, oh,
Speaker 2: maybe thirties and earlier. But I think of it as older.
Speaker 2: But usually when people sign up, they're researching a home,
Speaker 2: I would say that goes at least back to the
Speaker 2: 19 forties. You know, there's occasional exceptions, but usually,
Speaker 2: um they're at least in the 19 forties.
Speaker 1: How has the internet changed the way you do your work?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's revolutionized everything. Just like I was talking before.
Speaker 2: So many sources are now digitized and rendered keyword, searchable.
Speaker 2: Like the newspapers I mentioned.
Speaker 1: Can anyone come into the library
Speaker 1: and do this research with your help. I mean, do
Speaker 1: you have to make an appointment? How does that
Speaker 2: work? So, our library and research center on skin care
Speaker 2: is free and open to the public. You don't need
Speaker 2: to be a member of the Missouri Historical Society to
Speaker 2: use the library. You're welcome to come in.
Speaker 2: Um You don't need to make an appointment to use
Speaker 2: our library and archives material, which is what most people
Speaker 2: come into to use the books and newspapers and documents.
Speaker 2: You only need an appointment if you want to use
Speaker 2: our photograph collection, our objects collection, which is dresses and
Speaker 2: furniture and paintings and such or our
Speaker 2: and visual materials like audio recordings and such. But most
Speaker 2: people who come in are there to use the documents
Speaker 2: in the books. In which case, you don't need an appointment.
Speaker 2: And there's I and various staff members who are there.
Speaker 2: If you come in and say I'm researching our house,
Speaker 2: we'll show you how to use city directories and digitize
Speaker 2: newspapers and the various sources.
Speaker 2: And then you could sign up for one of the
Speaker 2: house history workshops, which is really intensive about that topic.
Speaker 2: But you can also just come in whenever you like.
Speaker 2: Do
Speaker 1: you have some historical tidbits about a particular house in
Speaker 1: Saint Louis that you know, has been the most surprising
Speaker 1: to you to learn
Speaker 2: or? Well, one thing that's surprising when I'm helping researchers
Speaker 2: and we get to the census from 1930 or 40
Speaker 2: or 1920 or such 100 years old or so,
Speaker 2: is sometimes people are absolutely shocked when they find their
Speaker 2: address in the census and there's eight or 10 people
Speaker 2: living in their house and, and, you know, maybe it's
Speaker 2: a couple with a single child and they feel like
Speaker 2: we feel cramped. How in the world do they have
Speaker 2: 10 people in there? Um, but there was another case
Speaker 2: recently where somebody asked me to do, you know, um
Speaker 2: Hacienda restaurant shot in Manchester.
Speaker 2: So, um somebody asked me to do a little research
Speaker 2: on that. And the story was, it was built by
Speaker 2: a steamboat captain in the mid 18 hundreds. I think
Speaker 2: it was 1861. And when I first heard that I thought,
Speaker 2: is that really an old residence? You know, but I
Speaker 2: think when I'd gone out there, the trees are in front.
Speaker 2: I didn't, you know, I couldn't get a good view
Speaker 2: of it.
Speaker 2: So it turns out I did some research and the
Speaker 2: home that was built presumably in the mid 19th century
Speaker 2: had burned down around 1900. And in 1902, they built
Speaker 2: a new building on the same spot. So it actually
Speaker 2: doesn't go back to the steamboat cap. It goes back
Speaker 2: to 1901, which is still pretty historic. And there's an
Speaker 2: article in 1902 with the whole story about it and
Speaker 2: a beautiful sketch of the, the restaurant. What's now the
Speaker 2: restaurant
Speaker 1: there's so much history all around us. Right.
Speaker 1: Who would you say are the most enthusiastic house
Speaker 2: researchers?
Speaker 2: Well, generally, almost all of them are quite enthusiastic, which
Speaker 2: is great. But if I had to guess, maybe the
Speaker 2: young homeowners, the people who bought their first home. In fact,
Speaker 2: just earlier this week, this woman came in and she
Speaker 2: was researching, her 25 year old son had just bought
Speaker 2: his first home in Maplewood and she was, she was
Speaker 2: quite excited. I don't know if the 25 year old was,
Speaker 2: he probably was, but she was doing research on his home.
Speaker 2: But maybe the, the young homeowners who had their first
Speaker 2: home were the ones who are most excited.
Speaker 1: I would imagine that that would be a really fun
Speaker 1: and interesting way to, to start your, your journey and
Speaker 1: home ownership.
Speaker 2: And also when the holidays come around Christmas time, I've
Speaker 2: noticed in recent years we tend to get a few
Speaker 2: people who contact us and they want to do this
Speaker 2: for their spouse or for a family member. They want
Speaker 2: to research somebody's home and give it to them as
Speaker 2: a personal Christmas
Speaker 1: gift. I am just
Speaker 1: on a mission to find an old photo of my
Speaker 1: house with the original awning above the front door. I
Speaker 1: just can't find
Speaker 2: back and forth by email about
Speaker 1: that because I want to recreate it and I'll bring
Speaker 1: it back because I think the house needs it. But, um,
Speaker 1: I was hoping to, you know, have something made that
Speaker 1: was like the original but,
Speaker 2: and you never know too. Our collections certainly aren't static.
Speaker 2: You know, we're constantly getting new donations. We're constantly indexing
Speaker 2: and creating finding aids and digitizing stuff.
Speaker 2: This is an example. Our photos department got this donation
Speaker 2: in recent years of the Seavers, um, photograph studio from
Speaker 2: maybe the twenties to the seventies. And for the last
Speaker 2: handful of years they've gotten a grant to do, um,
Speaker 2: decade by decade catalog and digitize those photographs. I think
Speaker 2: they're in the fifties now, what they're working on. So
Speaker 2: there's more stuff, whether it's our side or others, there's
Speaker 2: more stuff coming on online all the time.
Speaker 1: All right, Dennis. Well, now we're at the part of
Speaker 1: our interview where we do the rapid fire question.
Speaker 2: I'm prepared.
Speaker 1: The first thing you do when you get to work
Speaker 1: in the morning.
Speaker 2: Regrettably, I will check my email. So I had these
Speaker 2: grand plans of what I'm going to do for the day.
Speaker 2: And then I opened my email and the grand plans
Speaker 2: go out the window, the
Speaker 1: Saint Louis house that most piques your
Speaker 2: interest. Maybe the Magic Chef Mansion. You know that one
Speaker 2: on Russell, just east of Grand.
Speaker 2: Um Also I had an architect years ago who um
Speaker 2: she and her husband who were also an architect, they
Speaker 2: bought an old um telephone company exchange building and they
Speaker 2: were renovating it into their house. It was quite a
Speaker 2: massive building and she had an interesting story. She had
Speaker 2: an interior, um, door that had a woman's name on it.
Speaker 2: A staff member.
Speaker 2: And we had indexed these Southwester Bell employee magazines which
Speaker 2: led her to find a photo of this woman. Your
Speaker 1: favorite style of architecture.
Speaker 2: Oh, I guess I don't have a favorite style. I mean,
Speaker 2: the gingerbread houses in South City are fun. The big
Speaker 2: homes in Webster Groves with the wraparound porches are nice. Um,
Speaker 2: lots of cool homes in the central west end. All
Speaker 2: kinds of possibilities. Your
Speaker 1: favorite research
Speaker 2: tool to use? Oh, if I had to pick one
Speaker 2: these days, probably digitized newspapers.
Speaker 1: And this is a fill in the blank being a
Speaker 1: researcher is like
Speaker 1: detective work. What qualities make a good researcher?
Speaker 2: Just simply passion and determination. There's nothing inherently difficult about
Speaker 2: all the stuff we do. I, if you want to
Speaker 2: find the answer, just ask questions and start digging and we'll,
Speaker 2: we'll help you
Speaker 1: out. How do you maintain your enthusiasm for your job?
Speaker 2: Well, that's very easy because we're sitting on this treasure
Speaker 2: trove of fascinating documents about local history. And I get
Speaker 2: to spend my time while whether it's helping researchers or
Speaker 2: cataloging a collection. I, I'm always discovering fascinating documents so
Speaker 2: it's no
Speaker 2: challenge to be enthusiastic about it.
Speaker 1: What can homeowners do to ensure that important historical facts
Speaker 1: are documented for posterity?
Speaker 2: So we had a researcher a few years ago. Who's
Speaker 2: researching her home in Sar, she was coming in weeks
Speaker 2: and weeks on end to our library and research center.
Speaker 2: But she can
Speaker 2: piled this huge binder with all the information she found
Speaker 2: out about the previous residents of the, of her home
Speaker 2: and who owned the property before the home was built.
Speaker 2: And I think her intent is to give that to
Speaker 2: the next homeowner whenever she moves. So just record the
Speaker 2: information that you find, I guess would be the best answer.
Speaker 1: What is your favorite book about houses?
Speaker 2: Maybe the Julius Hunter book about Westmoreland and Portland Place.
Speaker 2: There's great images in there. That's a good one. He
Speaker 2: wrote one
Speaker 1: about King's Bay Place also. Oh,
Speaker 2: right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's the first one
Speaker 2: that pops to mind. All right,
Speaker 1: Dennis. Well, thank you so much for joining
Speaker 2: us. Oh, well, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1: And now on to these views, I want to share
Speaker 1: details about three specific events in ST Louis because I
Speaker 1: know that there are a lot of you out there
Speaker 1: who love history and architecture. Naturally. The first event I
Speaker 1: want to mention is dennis' House History Workshop on May 11th.
Speaker 1: The class will be held at the Missouri History Museum
Speaker 1: Library and Research Center on Skink. Dennis will walk you
Speaker 1: through all of the resources that we've talked about today
Speaker 1: so that you can become familiar with them as you
Speaker 1: do your own work if you're interested in Dennis's genealogy workshop.
Speaker 1: The next one is scheduled for Saturday, April 13th. If
Speaker 1: you're a fan of Frank Lloyd Wright, be sure to
Speaker 1: reserve May 18th on your calendar.
Speaker 1: Thats when architecture Professor Ken Tadashi Oshima from the University
Speaker 1: of Washington will be in town to discuss Wright's design
Speaker 1: of the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, Japan.
Speaker 1: The hotel opened in 1923 and it's considered one of
Speaker 1: Wright's most ambitious commissions that talk will take place at
Speaker 1: the ST Louis Art Museum and it's being sponsored by
Speaker 1: the Frank Lloyd Wright House in Ebbs
Speaker 1: Park. I fell down a rabbit hole preparing for this
Speaker 1: episode and was thrilled to find out that the Landmarks
Speaker 1: Association of ST Louis is launching a lecture series beginning
Speaker 1: in April and ending in June. There are 13 lectures
Speaker 1: planned topics include the architectural history of the Lent Brewery
Speaker 1: and how to work with the city's cultural resource office.
Speaker 1: Space is limited and reservations are a must. So be
Speaker 1: sure to sign up if you're interested, I'll add all
Speaker 1: of this information to our show notes.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to the House of Lou podcast. Our
Speaker 1: episodes drop on the first Wednesday of every month. Be
Speaker 1: sure to follow us and share the episodes with your friends.
Speaker 1: Be in touch. Subscribe to our design and home newsletter
Speaker 1: at STL mag.com/newsletters and follow along on Instagram
Speaker 1: at Saint Louis Mag. You can follow me at VT
Speaker 1: Look book. If you love what you heard. Show us
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Speaker 1: Spotify and wherever you choose to listen, we'll see you
Speaker 1: next time and just remember there's so much to see
Speaker 1: in Saint Louis if you know where to look.