3673 W Pine Blvd
St. Louis, MO 63103
314-977-6631
Free admittance and either street or garage parking
museumsandgalleries@slu.edu
Opened in 1975
The Cupples house was built by Samuel Cupples in 1888-1890 and included separate stables. It has 42 rooms, 22 fireplaces, a full-length attic, and a full basement. The family lived there until 1919 and then it was sold and became the national headquarters for an organization. In 1946, St. Louis University purchased it and used it for various functions until rehabbing it in 1975 and opening it as a house museum.
The house is in the Romanesque Revival Style (like St. Louis's Union Station). It is furnished with a mixture of original-to-the-house pieces and donated furniture and art.
When visiting the first room one enters is the Main Floor Foyer. You are greeted by a fascinating bench, carved in Florence, Italy, for a cousin of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain).
The foyer also has a leaded chunk-glass
window featuring a pineapple, the Colonial American symbol
of hospitality.
The house includes a number of Celtic motifs including this one that greats you on the floor of the foyer. The intertwining circles in the Italian mosaic floor are a symbol of fertility.
In the Grand Hallway on the main floor one immediately notices the beautiful woodwork! This gorgeous mirror is among the pieces in the hallway.
In the reception room you see the first of 22 fireplaces.This fireplace includes rose marble and fine iron work. The warming ovens in the top of the firebox were used to warm biscuits or gloves for guests
when they arrived.
There are carved wood screens on either side of the entrance to the reception room. The carvings reproduce the design of the Ara Pacis or “Altar of Peace” in
Rome.
In the Main Floor Library Mr. Cupples’ unfinished portrait hangs above the west bookcase to the left of another fireplace. Note this fireplace has fine ironwork.
In the library alcove is an 1870 black slate Florentine table with a hard-stoned inlay on the table top.
This image of the classically styled vases are an inlay of various stones including ebony, garnet, and Lapis lazuli.
This Music Room on the Main Floor displays the original Persian rug that belonged to the Cupples. The room was used by the ladies after dinner when the men would go to the billiard room. The fireplace is adorned with a White Persian Snow Onyx
section, and framed in molded brass.This onyx
is usually only found in the Middle East near Iran.
In the room is a large early 19th century commode. It is an exact replica of a piece for King Louis XIV's palace at Versailles. You can see Hercules, Mars, and other figures on the sides and front.
This beautiful glass piece adorns one of the tables in the Music Room.
The formal Dining Room has changed over the years and no longer has mural wallpaper but does again have a gilded ceiling.
Over the dining table hangs this 1870 chandelier. It came from a Pershing Place Mansion in St. Louis. It is French gilded bronze with Baccarat crystal.
This fireplace contains the image of a salamander, or dragon. Between the fireplace and the doorway is a vitrine. It has a petticoat mirror at the bottom allowing ladies
to check that their petticoats are not showing.
Off of the Dining Room is the Butler's Pantry where the linens, silver, and dishes were kept.
Final food prep would have been completed here in the pantry before entering the dining room to serve the meal.
The Flemish Room is also on the Main Floor. Originally it was the men's billiard room, It now contains this 16th century hand-carved oak Spanish
bench which was once in the presidential suite of the Coronado Hotel. Beer was rubbed into into the grain to achieve the dark coloring in
the wood.
Also in the Flemish Room is Scenes
from the Crucifixion by Jan Van Rillaert. This painting was commissioned by a Dutch family in the 15th
century.
This hand carved walnut with green inlay marble is part of a large 17th century Flemish breakfront originally used in a dining room for the storage
of linen and silver but now is in the Flemish Room. It includes carved relief of
scenes from Virgil’s The Aeneid.
Originally the house had an unenclosed back porch on the Main Floor. In 1904 the porch was enlarged and enclosed and is known now as the Conservatory. The ceiling has been restored to what they believe it looked like.
Outside the Conservatory at the end of the Main Floor Grand Hallway is the staircase and minstrel balcony. This balcony was an ideal location for chamber concerts.
In this area is a Steinway Duo-Musica Grand
Piano, one of only 400 known to have been
manufactured. The piano is still playable today.
In this area is also a fireplace and several pieces of furniture. Note the Roman
Numerals symbolizing the year the house was built: 1888. The fireplace screen is original to the house.
Behind the piano is this ornate wooden bench.
Next to the fireplace is an original parcel-gilt settee. The house architect Thomas Annan, designed it in 16th
century English Renaissance style. The curved top traps the heat for the benefit of those seated there.
This is another piece in the grand hallway.
The stair railings are embellished throughout the stairwell.
Near the bottom of the stairs is a fascinating grape cluster chandelier. It was handcrafted on the island of Murano in Venice where fine glassworks have been produced for over 6 centuries. The chandelier is circa 1915-1925.
The four Zodiac windows on the first landing depict the
Roman gods Apollo, Mars and Saturn as well the goddess Venus, all of whom are
surrounded by the astrological signs of the zodiac. They were manufactured in St. Louis.
Cupples' love of his Irish heritage can be seen in the floor on this balcony. It has an inlay basket weave pattern that extends outward in a sunburst
shape.
There are portraits of members of the Clemens family on the 2nd and 3rd floor balconies. This first balcony has a portrait of James
Clemens Jr., a second cousin of Mark Twain.
Samuel Cupples had the house built with numerous bedrooms in order to have numerous house guests. Several bedrooms go off this second floor main hallway.
These beautiful pieces are in the hallway.
The
Bishops’ Throne is also in the Second Floor Man Hallway. It belonged to the Cupples
family and is a perfect example of an American Gilded Age purchase. It has parts dating back to the
Renaissance, but the majority was carved in the 19th century.
The huge four-poster canopy “tester” bed in the Master Bedroom was manufactured to be very tall.
At the foot of the bed this plate sits in a glass case on a trunk.
Around the Master Bedroom fireplace is a padded seat, original to the house, and used for sitting by the fire and enjoying its warmth.
In this bedroom is one of two safes built into the house and used to secure the Cupples' valuables.
This beautiful Italian painting was done about 1500 and is called The Nativity. It is one of many religious paintings in the house.
This fireplace is in the Second Floor Reception Room. The fire screen is a Louis XVI textile and coordinates with the Aubusson upholstery on the sofa and
side chairs in that room.
This is part of the front of an Egyptian-made 19th-century commode in the style of Louis XVI. It is made of ornate Kingwood with
fruitwood inlay, gilt bronze, 30 porcelain plaques, and ormolu; the top is marble.
This is the Second Floor Southwest Study. The rug is original to the house with a design called the “Tree of Life.”
The subject matter relates to the Genesis story of creation and the original sin.
This table is called a birdcage table and is located in the tower in the study. It features a lazy Susan top. When using this table the hostess could stand and serve guests without moving. A Steuben bowl sits in the center. When not in use, the top folds down and it can be stored flat against the wall.
This cylinder desk is inlaid with
fruitwood and satinwood marquetry. It is also called a Dutch bombe.
This is the top of a large maple and inlay chest made by a German furniture manufacture in the 1840's who later went on to become very influential.
This matching chestnut bedroom set is found in the Second Floor Central Bedroom. They are original to the house and were designed by the architect to be coordinated with the chestnut woodwork.
The beds have a acanthus leaf motif which was extremely popular in the 19th century. It can be seen repeated in the interior woodwork and exterior stone details of the house.
In the Passage to Northwest Bedroom one sees Angel on the Mountain. It is a romantic Belle Epoch
porcelain, produced in Berlin at
the turn of the twentieth century.
The Second Floor Northwest Bedroom is furnished with American Renaissance furniture made from 1875-1900.
The
furniture is made out of burled maple.
This room has the only coal-burning fireplace out of the 22 fireplaces in the house.
This large armorial textile hangs on the landing to the third floor. It was made for the Earl of Effingham for his only son in
1885 and depicts the royal crest of the family.
Also on the landing are these leaded glass windows designed in a formal rectangular pattern with plenty of clear
glass to let light pass through.
From the third floor one can look down the open stairwell to the piano on the first floor.
Because Cupples' Methodist faith did not allow for dancing, his house did not follow the tradition of the day of having a third floor ballroom. Instead it had more guest bedrooms. Today the rooms and hallway house The Eleanor Turshin Glass Collection.
Steuben Glass Company lamps
From the Glassworks in Amberg, Germany
Steuben Glass Company
Mount Washington Glass Company
Middle bottle is Austrian glass.
Imperial Glass Company, Bellair. Ohio
This lamp was produced by Mount
Washington Glass Company. The glass is known as Burmese glass, an opaque glass that starts rose pink at the top
and fades into light yellow at the bottom.
This gas chandelier is in its original kerosene burning format. Notice the glass bowl at the top which was designed to catch the black soot that comes from burning kerosene.
This American-made piece has silver plated fittings.
This is part of a display of cup plates which were used over 100 years ago to hold the cup after tea was poured into the saucers to cool.
Green jade glass from the early twentieth century.
Glass items in different shades of blue.
Console bowl from the 1920's. It would sit on a table and hold flowers or fruit.
Console set.
Blue aurene from the Steuben Glassworks.
Two vases and a bowl.
Two more interesting fireplaces found in the house.
An interesting clock!
And lamp.
Just a few blocks away we went for lunch to Retreat Gastropub, a Central West End restaurant that opened in October 2015 and focuses on cocktails and craft beer but also has excellent food and a relaxing atmosphere.
We enjoyed the House Salad with Salmon
the Classic Burger and Fries
the Portobello Sandwich
and Mac N Cheese 4 cheese blend.
Comments: The Cupples House is the largest house museum in St. Louis with 42 rooms. Many things about it are absolutely beautiful - the woodwork, the furniture and artwork, the 22 fireplaces, the staircases, the chandeliers and lamps, and the extensive glass collection displayed on the third floor. We really enjoyed viewing it.
The website has a downloadable 57-page extensive tour guide which is also available in print at the house. I found it very helpful to read about the family and history of the house before our visit. Once there we read out loud about the different items on view and found it interesting and helpful as we walked through the house. With larger groups one may arrange in advance for a tour guide but otherwise you are on your own so the printed guide is very useful. If one were to read the entire guide it would probably take two hours or more to complete the tour. The only way to learn about the furniture and the rooms, etc. is to use the guide so I do highly recommend that.
The website also includes driving and parking directions that are helpful. The house is literally on the St. Louis University campus. We parked in a university garage about one block from the house which allowed us to stay beyond the two-hour limit on the street-parking meters.
Retreat Gastropub had great recommendations online and it did not disappoint. They do not have a parking lot and the street parking was crowded but we were able to find spots to park. Check them out online: http://www.retreatgastropub.com/
