Thornhill Estate

Faust Park
15185 Olive Blvd.
Chesterfield 63017
(314) 615-8328

Admission fee is dependent on the event. Our event was $5.00.   Small lot with free parking.

https://stlouiscountymo.gov/st-louis-county-departments/parks/places/faust-park/ 

Opened in the 1990's.

Thornhill is the oldest existing governor's residence in Missouri. In 1807 young Frederick Bates was appointed territorial secretary, recorder of land titles, and a member of the Board of Land Commissioners in the Louisiana Territory, thus he moved to St. Louis purchasing 1000 acres on the Missouri River. 

He built this house in 1819 and was elected Missouri's second governor in 1824. His family owned the house and the outbuildings for many decades.  After several owners it was sold to St. Louis County who worked through the 1980's and 1990's to restore it to how it looked in 1819. 

In the house there are six fireplaces  that were used for heating the rooms.  This one is in the living room.  The china on the table is the same china pattern that the Bates family used as evidenced through archeological digs. 

We visited the house during a Christmas open house where the holiday decorations were mostly made of items that could have been grown on the property. 

This hung on the fireplace mantle. 

A period table in the room. 

And furniture for sitting. 

A bedroom with a quilt-covered bed as Bates would have had. 

Walnuts from the grounds decorate this period light fixture. 

Another fireplace. 

Children's toys in the bedroom. 

Bates's probate records showed that he owned 21 green Windsor chairs thus green Windsor chairs were purchased for the dining room. 

The two dropleaf tables that are pushed together are Bate's actual tables listed in his inventory and later donated by the family who had inherited them. The house also holds some of Bates's books. 

The library room had at one time been removed from the structure but an archeological dig in the 1970's showed that it had once existed thus it was rebuilt in the restoration process. 

A view out the library window towards the family cemetery. 

Archeological digs also brought up evidence of a summer kitchen behind the house which was then also rebuilt. 

It is furnished with many interesting period kitchen items. 

A grinder

A candlemaker

These pots were used in one of the two Dutch ovens. 

A jug

A toaster! 

One of the barns is original to 1820 but the other one was added by his son in 1860. 

A distillery, a smokehouse, an icehouse, a granary, and the blacksmith's shop (seen below) were also added by his son. 

The ice house and smoke house remain today. 

Governor Bates, his wife, two children and three family friends are buried there at Thornhill in the family cemetery. 

Governor Bates was only governor of Missouri for 4.5 months due to his death caused by pleurisy. He died at age forty-eight leaving behind a pregnant twenty-three old widow and three children. 

Comments: This house has an interesting history as it went through several owners and uses before the Faust family donated the house to St. Louis County with the pledge that they would restore it.  As it had seen many changes it took a great deal of research and work to get it to where it is today.  The house has its own curator.

Unfortunately the house is not open to the public very often, possibly only 3-4 times a year. It is used for events occasionally including dinners that are open to the public.  Faust Park, almost 200 acres, includes an historical village.  Groups of ten or more can arrange a guided tour of the village, but the website is not clear as to whether this tour also includes Thornhill, which is not part of the village. 

In recent years the house has been open the first Saturday in December for a Christmas open house and that is what we attended. The tour was done by the curator and two docents. The kitchen docent was excellent. The history of the house was interesting and it was well restored. 

In addition to the Thornhill estate and the historic village, Faust Park has the St. Louis Carousel, the Butterfly House, a playground, and a 1.3-mile hiking trail that begins behind Thornhill house.