Poet Eugene Field Was Born 160 Years Ago, At Start Of Dred Scott Case
Eugene Field’s father filed the lawsuit to win freedom for slave Dred Scott. Soon after (1850) his wife gave birth to a son, Eugene. He was born at the family home at 634 South Broadway, now the Eugene Field House & Toy Museum. Eugene Field went on to write children’s poetry in his short 45-year life.
The house has a lush green garden to the north and south (above) surrounded by a brick wall. Roswell Martin Field was an attorney so it is fitting they would live well. But looking at the house today gives you a false picture of South Broadway in 1850. But before I go back let’s start with the present conditions.
Of course the highways and ramps didn’t exist, nor did the acres of surface parking. But neither did the lush walled garden you see today!
I don’t know the exact conditions in 1908 but I’d guess not much different. City records indicate the house was built in 1845 – five years before Eugene Field was born. Very likely the area was all new at the time. By the time the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map was created in 1908 the house was 63 years old — equal to a house built in 1947 relative to today.
By 1958 all the other houses in the area had been replaced by industry and I-55 was built to the east.
By 1971 the industrial buildings were gone and highway 40 was now in place.
So much has changed in St. Louis over the decades it is important to peel back the layers to see how the city has evolved — devolved
– Steve Patterson
And Julia Dent's (Grant) house was a couple blocks away, now a muffler shop. I think the Field museum has done a nice job with the house over the years. Somewhere there is a photo of Mark Twain standing outside of this house.
There's a wonderful photograph at the museum that shows the original row of houses; there were ten or more that looked just like the Field House. Maybe some day that density could return to that block.
The Sanborn map shows 11 flats in a row.
Wow, that Google image of the house standing alone in the middle of all of those mostly-unused parking lots is rather depressing.
Isn't (wasn't?) the Field House planning on expanding the museum by rebuilding that row of houses?
I vaguely recall hearing something like that
I recently borrowed “Below the Surface: Excavation of the Walsh’s Row Site, St. Louis, Missouri (2007)” from the UM library (http://www.modot.mo.gov/ehp/sites/Walsh.htm). It gives a pretty good history of the site and has some good photos of the original row, including the Mark Twain photo that A Torch mentioned and the Sanborn maps. Sadly, most of the row had been demolished by the 1930's if I remember correctly. I would “give anything” to see this row reconstructed, but unfortunately the presence of the highway precludes any use as residential. I hadn't heard anything about the Eugene Field House Museum rebuilding the row, but I'd be surprised if they have that kind of money.
People live that close to interstates (or the El tracks in Chicago) in other American cities; they have to have amenities, an exciting neighborhood and walkable neighborhoods for people to tolerate the noise.