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Description
Missouri Botanical Gardens ~ St. Louis , MO

The Tower Grove House

Garden Founder Henry Shaw's country home

Tower Grove House, built 1849
Architect: George I. Barnett;
Contractor: Charles H. Peck
4344 Shaw
St. Louis, Missouri 63166

Curiously, the house on our tour in the most bucolic setting was built for one of the most "citified" owners. Henry Shaw was not only born in England; he was also educated at one of its best public (private) schools, the Mill Hill School not far from London. Before he left school at age 17 to join his father in business, Henry Shaw had studied French, German, Latin, Greek, and -- particularly -- mathematics.

At age 19 Shaw arrived in St. Louis and established himself as a seller of English hardware (including the metalware for which his native city of Sheffield was known). Shaw appears not to have shared the frontier fever of Chatillon or even Parkman. Although he too was an enthusiastic traveler, his chosen destinations were in England and Europe.

It was in the gardens and books of the Old World rather than the trading posts of the New that he found the inspiration for the park (the nucleus of today's "Missouri Botanical Garden") he opened in 1857 near the Italianate country home he had commissioned from the English-born architect George I. Barnett in 1849.

Shaw's parks - today's Botanical Garden and Tower Grove Park -- consumed the last thirty years of his life. Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that five years before his death Shaw again commissioned a work from Barnett -- the mausoleum that stands in a leafy glade some fifty yards from the front door of the country house into which Shaw had moved in 1851!

Photo courtesy ~ Jack Jennings

Description
Missouri Botanical Gardens ~ St. Louis , MO

The Tower Grove House

Garden Founder Henry Shaw's country home

Tower Grove House, built 1849
Architect: George I. Barnett;
Contractor: Charles H. Peck
4344 Shaw
St. Louis, Missouri 63166

Curiously, the house on our tour in the most bucolic setting was built for one of the most "citified" owners. Henry Shaw was not only born in England; he was also educated at one of its best public (private) schools, the Mill Hill School not far from London. Before he left school at age 17 to join his father in business, Henry Shaw had studied French, German, Latin, Greek, and -- particularly -- mathematics.

At age 19 Shaw arrived in St. Louis and established himself as a seller of English hardware (including the metalware for which his native city of Sheffield was known). Shaw appears not to have shared the frontier fever of Chatillon or even Parkman. Although he too was an enthusiastic traveler, his chosen destinations were in England and Europe.

It was in the gardens and books of the Old World rather than the trading posts of the New that he found the inspiration for the park (the nucleus of today's "Missouri Botanical Garden") he opened in 1857 near the Italianate country home he had commissioned from the English-born architect George I. Barnett in 1849.

Shaw's parks - today's Botanical Garden and Tower Grove Park -- consumed the last thirty years of his life. Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that five years before his death Shaw again commissioned a work from Barnett -- the mausoleum that stands in a leafy glade some fifty yards from the front door of the country house into which Shaw had moved in 1851!

Photo courtesy ~ Jack Jennings