Campbell House Museum
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Campbell House Museum
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| Location | 1508 Locust St., St. Louis, Missouri |
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| Coordinates | 38°37′52″N 90°12′5″W / 38.63111°N 90.20139°WCoordinates: 38°37′52″N 90°12′5″W / 38.63111°N 90.20139°W |
| Built | 1851 |
| Architectural style | Early Victorian, Greek Revival |
| NRHP Reference # | 77001560 |
| Added to NRHP | April 21, 1977 |
The Campbell House Museum opened on February 6, 1943, and is in the Greater St. Louis area, in the U.S. state of Missouri. The museum was documented as part of the Historic American Buildings Survey between 1936 and 1941, designated a City of St. Louis Landmark in 1946, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977, and became a National Trust for Historic Preservation Save America's Treasures project in 2000. The museum is owned and operated by the Campbell House Foundation, Inc. a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
The Campbell House Museum commemorates the home and Victorian lifestyle of Robert Campbell and his wife Virginia Kyle Campbell. The house was first built in 1851 by John Hall. Hall sold it to Cornelia Hempsted Wilson in 1853 and she lived in the house for only one year. Robert Campbell purchased the house in 1854, and he and his family lived there until the death of his last surviving child in 1938. The building was located at 20 Lucas Place. Lucas Place was a new residential street created around 1850 by siblings James Lucas and Ann Lucas hunt.
Robert Campbell purchased the house for around $18,000 and soon after moving in, enlarged the back of the house adding a larger kitchen, dining room, and more servant bedrooms. In 1867 the Campbell family continued renovations including: combining the two front parlors into one larger space; adding a three-story bay window on the east side, and adding three extra rooms on the third floor. In 1885 an exterior porch was enclosed and the morning room created. In 1900 Lucas Place became known as Locust Street and the house was renumbered to 1508 Locust Street, its current address.
The last surviving child of Robert Campbell was Hazlett Campbell who died at home in 1938. The death of the Campbell brothers and the complexity of the family trusts and wills prompted a lengthy string of litigation between the trustees for the estate, banks, and descendants and people claiming to be descendants. As the Campbells' estates were settled the fate of the house and its contents became unclear. In preparing an inventory and evaluation of the estate, leading experts in history, architecture and art were called. All were amazed after visiting the house, pronouncing, "probably nowhere in America, possible nowhere else, is such an intact and integral display of elaborate and ornate furnishings of the middle Victorian period to be found, as in the Campbell mansion." It was clear that the house needed to be saved and the unique and important story of the Campbells preserved.
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