Frenchtown Heritage Museum and Research Center

1121 N. Second Street

St. Charles, MO 63301

(636) 724-2106

Admission and parking are free. 

http://frenchtownmuseum.com/

Opened in 2003. 

The museum is housed in the 1880 building that housed the Fourth Ward Hook & Ladder Company in the old Frenchtown area of St. Charles. The museum opened in 2003 and two years later the building's facade was reconstructed to its original look. 

The Main Exhibit Hall is in the front part of the old fire station. 

Thus it is no surprise that the main exhibit in this hall is a rehabbed Hook & Ladder Wagon from 1850. 

And a display about early firefighters. 

There is also a model of an old-fashioned firehouse. 

This 911 Memorial to Firemen is built with materials from Ground Zero in NYC.  They were obtained by a St. Charles gentleman and include a piece of a fire truck. 

Below are teaching materials used in St. Charles schools in 1945 and 1946. 

A display honoring a canonized saint from St. Charles. St. Phillipine Duchesne was canonized in 1888. 

A Catholic Sick Call box from the late 1800's. 

Behind the main exhibit hall is the Garden room which houses several large artifacts including this antique wine press and crusher de-stemmer. 

This hand-powered separator separated the cream from the milk and was used shortly after milking. 

This model railroad display has some Frenchtown streets and historic buildings and is one of the larger displays. 

These flip charts have displays on the American Car Foundry, various schools, etc. 

There are many photos on the walls as part of a Frenchtown architectural display. 

This item is fun - advertising yardsticks from the area hung to make a yardstick quilt! 

The museum is getting ready for a Witches and Warlocks Night Out and thus they have a large display about the ghosts of Frenchtown. 

When you enter the museum you enter through the Research Room where patrons can come and research the area or research family history. The walls of this room have many framed historic pictures. 

Also framed is this and another award that the museum has won. 

Comments:  This museum houses the collection of the late Richard Vinson who dedicated his life to preserving the history of the Frenchtown area.  Several other family collections have also been donated to this museum.  Interested local business owners Jerry and Dorothy Boshears began the museum after Vinson's death and also rehabbed the firehouse.  Jerry was present when we visited the museum.  He gave us a tour.  One gets the impression that he is very dedicated and most always there! 

There are a variety of artifacts and pictures in the museum which makes it interesting.  The museum owns many more items than what is on display currently as they do not have a great deal of space. So yes, this is a rotating-display museum though I got the impression that they are not on a strict schedule as they survive on volunteers doing all this work.  Their income is from fund-raisers and donations. The museum is open three days a week. 

Behind the museum is a restored Santa Fe Railroad Caboose that is available to rent for parties. It also serves as  a learning center for children. 

The museum is in the Frenchtown Historic District,  It was settled by French Canadians. In 1991 the district was placed on the National Register of Historic Places largely due to having the largest concentration of French Colonial style architecture in the Midwest, built 1820-1850.  

Heritage Museum of St. Charles County

1630 Heritage Landing

St. Charles  63303

636-255-6000


Admission and parking are free. 


https://www.sccmo.org/658/Heritage-Museum   

Opened  in 2010. 

The museum is housed in an historic house built in 1857 and is in the two-acre Heritage Park. 

The museum is part of the St. Charles County Parks system. When they began construction of the museum in 2006, this large barn-like exhibit area was added to the back of the house. The museum has 6000 square feet of floor space. 

All of the exhibits are rotating exhibits thus displays can be different if you were to visit a year later. When we visited there were three areas of sport exhibits in the original house. A St. Charles County Amateur Sports Hall of Fame exhibit features amateur sports in the county. 

This includes baseball.  

Darts  

Horseshoes

Football

and bowling. 

These are wooden Duck Pins and the Ball used in 1917 at the Lutheran Lanes in St. Charles. 

A perfect game gets recognition in this display! 

Turn of the Century wooden cocked hat pin and ball from the Corner Bar. You can still play that game there. 

There is also a two-room display about High School athletics in St. Charles County. 

This floor to ceiling photograph is of a winning high school team. 

There are large displays about each high school.  Academy of the Sacred Heart was the first free school west of the Mississippi River when founded in 1818. 

The final display room in the house is dedicated to major league baseball. 

St. Charles County players who have player cards! 

There are some fun baseball facts on the walls

and on the floor! 

The barn exhibit area is currently  "Our Sporting Heritage," which celebrates recreation by showcasing the history of hunting and fishing in St. Charles County and Missouri.

It starts with prehistoric times. 

And early pioneer times. 

Animal pelts - coyote and bobcat. 

Hunting in St. Charles in the 1800's. 

A punt gun is a type of extremely large shotgun used in the 19th and early 20th centuries for shooting large numbers of waterfowl for commercial harvesting operations.

Turkey hunting is big in Missouri! 

Museum visitors can try using these turkey calls. 

There is a turkey flying overhead

and one on display with a bobcat. 

There are also a few fishing displays starting with early fishing in Missouri.  This is a Native American fish trap. 

Many supplies used for fishing are on display! 

A hoop net used for commercial fishing. 

On the walls are a number of historical pictures of fishing and hunting parties in the St. Charles area. 

According to the museum brochure - and we agree - "the highlight of the exhibit is the Marksman Training Simulator, an interactive digital hunting simulator that has the largest video shooting surface in the world and is one of only three of its kind in the U.S." There are eight in the world. 

We had fun shooting at various targets ranging from balloons to cans to animals.  

There is a social area for watching others using the simulator. There is no charge to use the simulator when visiting the museum but if you would like to rent the room for a party for up to 25 people there is a charge. When we visited on a Thursday morning there were no other visitors and we were able to each use and enjoy it. 

Like all good museums there is a gift shop.  This one sells books. 

The lobby also has a display in honor of local veterans. 

After visiting the museum we drove about 12 minutes to  Lewis and Clark's American Restaurant and Public House on the main street of Historic Old St. Charles. The building was built in 1884. 

Their drink special was an apple slice and a lemon slice topping off a Sour Apple Lemonade with Vodka. 

 Half Sandwich and Salad - Eggplant Stack (with eggplant instead of bread) and Caesar Salad

Soup and Salad - House Salad and Baked Potato Soup with Bacon

 White Chili - a Lewis & Clark House specialty

 Tuna Melt

Comments: This museum is another hidden gem! All of the displays are fun and interesting and professionally laid out. 

We did really enjoy the simulator!  It is something new and different. 

When the museum opened in 2010, the barn had a large exhibit on early German settlers of the area, quite different from the current exhibit. By 2015 the museum was filled with a transportation exhibit.  Now all the displays are related to sports and sporting.  This is really a museum that one can visit every other year or so and see completely different displays and artifacts.   

The two-acre park on which the museum sits also includes the trail-head for Great Rivers Greenway's 2.9 mile Centennial Trail which connects to the Katy Trail. 

The museum is about ten minutes from historical St. Charles and its many restaurants. We chose Lewis and Clark and had a great meal.  They have indoor and outdoor seating. On a Thursday it was very busy partially due to a bus of tourists that stopped there.