Eugene Field House (St. Louis)
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The Eugene Field House is a historic house museum in
St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...
. Built in 1845, it was the home of
Roswell Field Roswell Martin Field (February 2, 1807 – July 12, 1869), was an American lawyer and politician. He served on the Vermont House of Representatives. Field was one of the attorneys for the enslaved Dred and Harriet Scott and their daughters in 1 ...
, an attorney for Dred Scott in the landmark '' Dred Scott v. Sandford'' court case. Field's son, Eugene Field, was raised there and became a noted writer of children's stories. A National Historic Landmark, it is now a museum known as the Field House Museum. (Previously known as The Eugene Field House & St. Louis Toy Museum.)


Description

The Field House is located just south of Downtown St. Louis, at the northeast corner of South Broadway and Cerre Street. It is largely surrounded by parking lots, with Interstate 64 a short way to the north. It is a three-story brick building, three bays wide, with a side gable roof whose end wall sections are raised. The entrance is in the leftmost bay, in a panelled recess. The windows have stone sills and lintels.


History

The house was built in 1845, and was once part of a row of similar buildings called Walsh's Row. Most of these were torn down in the 20th century. Threatened with demolition, the house was transferred to the St. Louis Board of Education in 1936. Restored with funding from local preservationists, it opened as a museum to Eugene Field later that year. It was turned over to the Landmarks Association of St. Louis in 1968, and to the Eugene Field House Foundation in 1981. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2007, for its association with attorney Roswell Field, who was Eugene Field's father, and a lead attorney for Dred Scott. Field's legal work set the stage for Scott's final appeal to the United States Supreme Court, which was rejected in the 1857 '' Dred Scott v. Sandford'' decision, in which Chief Justice Roger B. Taney issued a decision denying African Americans United States citizenship. A plaque on the home was dedicated in 1902 with the help of author
Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...
, who announced it as the birthplace of Eugene Field. Field's brother Roswell, however, noted that he was born elsewhere. Twain brushed the fact aside, telling him, "Officially and for the purposes of the future, your brother was born here." The inaccurate plaque remains. The plaque reads: "Here was born Eugene Field, the Poet, 1850–1895".Sorby, Angela. ''Schoolroom Poets: Childhood, Performance, and the Place of American Poetry, 1865–1917''. Durham, NH: University of New Hampshire Press, 2005: 126.


See also

* List of National Historic Landmarks in Missouri *
National Register of Historic Places listings in Downtown and Downtown West St. Louis This is a list of properties and historic districts within the Downtown St. Louis and Downtown West, St. Louis areas of the city of St. Louis, Missouri that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The downtown area is defined by Co ...


References


Additional reading


Marguerite Martyn, "Memories of Eugene Field by His Son: 'Pinny' Field, in St. Louis, Says the Poet Was a Child When With Children," ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch,'' September 21, 1936, image 32


External links


Eugene Field House & St. Louis Toy Museum
* {{authority control National Historic Landmarks in Missouri Houses in St. Louis Houses completed in 1829 Landmarks of St. Louis Museums in St. Louis Toy museums in the United States Historic house museums in Missouri History museums in Missouri Historic American Buildings Survey in Missouri Field, Eugene House National Register of Historic Places in St. Louis Downtown St. Louis 1829 establishments in Missouri Tourist attractions in St. Louis Buildings and structures in St. Louis