Inside the Mansion that ALMOST Changed History | This House Tours

When we talk about history, we generally talk about the things that happened, people, places, events. Frankly, we talk about facts, but what we don't talk about are the things that did not happen. Hi everyone, Ken here. Welcome to This House. Today we are exploring the mansion of a man who almost changed the course of history. Before we go inside, make sure to hit that subscribe button so you never miss an exciting episode of This House. James Eads was one of America's leading engineers. Having created one of the first superstructures in the United States, the Eads Bridge, which connected Missouri to Illinois over the Mississippi River. Shortly after its completion, the national discussion turned toward shipping goods from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. Both the East and the West Coast were developing at a rapid rate, but shipping items between them required boats to travel around South America, which made for long shipping times. To address this issue, a proposal was made to create the Panama Canal, but James Eads had another idea. Eads presented the Eads Ship Railway as a more budget-friendly alternative to keep ports closer to the United States. He designed a system to lift ships from the water and secure them on a platform. The ship, sitting on the platform, would then be hauled over land by multiple trains running parallel to each other until the ship reached the body of water on the other side of the to Huantapec Isthmus in Mexico in 1877. To help him achieve his goals, Eads brought Alexander Gilmore Cochran to St. Louis to be his personal business attorney. Cochran was sent back and forth from St. Louis, Missouri to Washington, D.C., lobbying on behalf of Eads. After ten years of lobbying, the plan was gaining momentum. The Eads Ship Railway seemed to be the most practical answer to the problem, but just before plans could go forward, James Eads suddenly died. Without the cunning engineer to oversee its construction, the plans were abandoned and construction went forward on the Panama Canal. Cochran, now out of a job, became the general solicitor and vice president of the Missouri Pacific Railway Company. He had amassed a fortune and with that fortune built this house in 1890. The house was designed in the Richardsonian Romanesque style and constructed from Indiana limestone blocks. Ornate relief work was carved into the limestone in floral patterns. More relief work can be found in the form of drama masks set in the offsets of the stone arches. Let's go inside. Walking into the front door, we now arrive in the vestibule, so let's take a moment to look out over this space. Composed of Indiana limestone blocks, the vestibule was originally open air, with the windows having been added at a later date. Originally, a visitor would approach the front door, seen here, to enter the home. Walking inside the home, we arrive in the ante hall. So let's take a moment to look out from this spot, across the entrance hall. Now making our way into the space, we arrive in what might be considered the reception room. There is a large fireplace. We can also notice the dentile molding capping out the wall panels, and there are some really interesting details to point out in this space. We can see how the molding rolls down, and while we look up, we can also see the coffered ceiling with plasterwork that has been painted to match the wood tones. Speaking of the wood tones, let's not forget to look down at the floors, and these floors are believed to have been original to the house. Sometimes this room could be referred to as an ingle nook, which is a small nook for a fireplace next to an entry. Before we get to the stair hall, we are going to cut into the living room. So come on through here, and this space really opens up. Following the diagonal grain of the parquet wood floors, we come towards a niche, which is the tower that we saw on the outside of the house. Now down below me here is one of the steam vents, so let's take a closer look at this. And while our eyes are down here, let's also notice the inlaid wood border that surrounds the space. If we look directly behind me, there is a large fireplace. It has two columns on its lower mantle, and in the center of the hearth's mantle, there is a wood relief. Over on this side of the room, and as recently as 50 years ago, the Shafley family added on these French doors that go out onto a small terrace, and we can take a quick look at that from the outside. The brick terrace brings you down to a cobblestone patio with a fountain. Sitting high above the French doors is a bronze frieze set inside the dormer window. As we continue to look around the backyard, we can imagine a wedding that took place here in 1904, while the World's Fair was in full swing across the street. 800 wedding invitations were sent out, and a temporary pavilion was constructed in the yard, which was decorated with white roses, celebrating the marriage of the Cochrane's daughter. Let's head back inside and see the rest of the home. Coming back inside, we are going to pass by the opening to the kitchen. We will see that in just a moment, but first, we are going to make our way back out into the stair hall, and cut across to see the dining room. So follow me on in here, and let's begin to take a look around. The coffered ceiling is decorated in ornate plasterwork, boasting the likeness of fruits bundled together and overflowing from their geometric composition, set above an ornate frieze, featuring a cartouche being repeated around the entirety of the room. The rounded windows to either side of the fireplace allow natural light to flood in, reflecting off the painted three-dimensional wood-walled panels. The original wood floors are patterned with a border and help to reflect light upwards, lending an ethereal feel to the space. The fireplace sits in stark contrast, boasting relief work along its mantle. Now that we've seen the dining room, let's go ahead and make our way into the butler's pantry. And this space is pretty much all original to the house. Let's take a moment to really see these cabinets, the glass panels, the hardware, and even the under-cabinets. Now there's something really special over here. While the owner was renovating this house, he found some of the original tile work. So let's open up this cabinet and take a quick peek at that. Passing out of the butler's pantry, we now arrive in the maid's hall. If we look down, we can see a newer floor. This is a Versailles pattern done in travertine, and there's also a beautiful mosaic down here below me. So let's take a moment to look at this. Before we see the rest of the maid's hall, we are going to cut into the kitchen. So follow me on here. And this is a fairly newer space, so we will just take a moment to look around, and I'll tell you a little bit about how this might have originally been configured. Originally, the kitchen would have been divided with a wall at the end of where the island is currently located, creating spaces for the servants, including a servant's kitchen. As we look around, we can see special attention has been paid to the finishes of the kitchen by borrowing the same dark wood tones from the fireplaces to finish out the cabinets. The hardware was matched to the hardware found in the butler's pantry to create a more cohesive aesthetic experience. Coming out of the kitchen, we are going to walk back through the maid's hall, and there are some things to see along the way here. We can see the original bead board surrounding the space. Also, if we take a moment to look at the stairs, this is not so common for a maid's hall. There are really decorative spindles and a large decorative knoll post as well to cap it all off. So we'll just take a quick look up there, and while we are looking up there, I can go ahead and show you these advertisements that the original family had looking for staff in the house. In this picture, we can see the family looking for a cook. In this one, the family was looking for a governess for their daughter. And this family did not actually have that many staff for a house of this size, so it's kind of interesting how few people it really took to run this house. Anyways, continuing forward, we are now going to arrive at the stair hall, and I know you've all been dying to see this staircase, so let's take a moment to start seeing some of these details. First, we will notice how these stairs come down and sweep around the master knoll post, and come take a closer look at some of the details on this knoll post. The relief carvings are done in a floral pattern and are brought up to a tip, which once again ties back into that gothic theme that we've been seeing played out subtly throughout the house. Let's also take a moment to see the craftsmanship of the spindles, how they are symmetrical from top to bottom, bulging out in the center, and while our eyes are following the spindles down the stairs, let's continue our gaze down a few more steps to the next landing. There is a rounded radiator, and I've got to tell you, I've never seen anything like this in my entire life. This is just one of the most interesting pieces. Now that we've seen everything on the first floor, let's go on up and check out the rest of the house. Rounding the stair landing, we arrive at two mirrored secondary knoll posts, which are linked by this really interesting banister that is almost oxbowed. Now bringing our focus up, there are stained glass windows behind me, and these are actually not original to the house. They were added sometime in the 80s. So let's take a moment to see some of these details before continuing on to the second floor. Arriving at the top of the stairs, we come into the second floor stair hall. So let's start looking around. Once again, we have wainscoting that is topped off by dentile molding, and above that, connecting the door frames, is a picture rail. Above all of these doors, you'll see transom windows, and some of these are still functioning. The first room we are going to see off the stair hall is the primary bedroom, so come on in here and begin taking a look around. This puts us directly above the living room that we saw on the first floor, where the piano was, so we can see that same cutout for a sitting area. Now over here is a bump out in the wall, and if we look closely at the floor, we can see where the wood floor was repaired and patched, indicating that at one time, there would have been a fireplace right here. Let's go ahead and just take a quick glance around this room before I show you the bathroom and the closet. Off of the bedroom is the primary bathroom, and of course, all of this is much newer than what we've been seeing in the rest of the house. We'll just take a quick glance around and then continue forward. Continuing forward, we now arrive in the primary closet. At one time, this would have been set up as a sitting room. We can see the fireplace with glazed brick surround, and also come look at some of these details, such as this metal framing that surrounds it. There are large built-in closets on this side of the room, and to match these larger closets, there is a window surround with shelves below it. Now something that might be original to the home is the window bench on this side, so you can imagine sitting here and just enjoying the light flooding in. Making our way out of the primary bedroom, we are going to come to an office. There are large built-in bookshelves directly behind me, and on the other side of the wall, there is another fireplace, which matches the same decorative motif as we just saw in the primary closet. Let's just take a quick look around this room before moving on. Opening this pocket door, we are going to step back into the second floor stair hall, and there are a few more spaces that I would like to show you organized off of here. So go ahead and go in the bathroom, and let's start taking a look around. The floor tile you're seeing was installed in the 1940s. The marble wall tile that you see here, along with its trim, are original to the house. However, the current owners did something really fascinating. They found scraps of the same marble down in the basement and used it to create a more modern shower surround. So let's take a look at this, and then we're going to continue on. As we leave the bathroom, off to this side is a bedroom, and we'll just take a quick look in here. Now cutting diagonally across the stair hall, we will see another bedroom, and this sits directly above the dining room. Once again, let's pay attention to the curved windows that round out on either side of the fireplace with its glazed brick. Now, off to one side of the fireplace below one of the windows is a curved radiator, and we have only seen this one time before while exploring houses, and I'll go ahead and throw a link up on the screen in case you'd like to see that example as well. Now that we've seen the entirety of the second floor, let's make our way to the maid's hall and continue up the stairs to the third floor. Arriving at the third floor, if we continue straight forward, we will arrive in the ballroom, but first we'll just take a moment to see a playroom. Off to this side is a large closet, so let's go ahead and peek our heads in here and see this. Continuing on down the hall, we are heading towards the ballroom, but first we're going to see a large built-in over here, and I'd actually like your thoughts on this. Do you think this piece is original to the house, or do you think that maybe it was added in at a later period? So if we look down at the wood floors, we can see that it is cut out around this piece. However, the beadboard here just looks a little newer to me than what we've been seeing throughout, and you'll see a better example of that once we do enter the ballroom. Walking into this space, the ceilings start to vault above us. There is a billiards table off to this side. Now if we continue over here, there is an octagonal turret area with low windows, so you can imagine this space being perfect for a card table or something to that likeness. Now let me tell you a little story about something that happened here. This space was once used as a grand ballroom, as we can see described in this newspaper clipping. While the attic was being restored, fragments of gilded plaster were found behind the wall panels. Seeing these pieces, we can only imagine how the once lavish ballroom might have appeared. Perhaps my favorite part of this attic space is behind this door. Let's open this and take a look out here. Now coming into this space, this is just phenomenal. So it rounds out with these large limestone blocks, and you can really get a good idea of the construction quality of this house by seeing just how thick these blocks actually are. And of course, there are these wrought iron grates that prevent us from being totally open air here. However, you can still catch a beautiful breeze even on a 100 degree Missouri summer day like today is. Thank you all for joining me on this tour. I really hope that you enjoyed it. Which part of this house was your favorite? Let me know down below in the comments. I'd also like to take a moment to say thank you to our This House supporters, whose names you can see on screen right now. If you would like to see your name on the screen, please consider joining our membership program today. I'll see you next time on This House.