Living With History — Sophisticated St. Louis

For the past 105 years, the family and its descendants have spent their summers on this riverfront property. The time had come to resuscitate the house.

Written by Christy Marshall / Photography by Alise O’Brien

In 1918 when the Spanish Influenza struck St. Louis, this Central West End family hightailed it out of town to their property outside of Kimmswick.

“They would spend entire summers here,” says Chelsea Smith, founder of Chelsea Design Company and the designer assigned to whiplash the existing aging farmhouse into a 21st century stunner. “There's a train track at the bottom of the hill and the dad would actually take it into town.”

In the 1940s, the family built a new house at the top of the property’s hill and over the years, added on … and on. “There was a rambling original farmhouse that had several bastardized editions put on it,” says Randy Renner Jr., founder and co-owner of Period Restoration, the contractor on the project.

Smith adds, “Each [addition] had different ceiling heights, and different floor heights. But it actually created a really unique layout because of the renovations.”

The primary architect, Chris Henson, then with Tim Hollerbach Design and now with Dial Architects, says, “At first [the clients] just wanted to do an addition but we pushed them to the edge. And then we pushed them further … over the edge.”

Urged on by the designer and crew, the homeowners, now in their 80s, wanted to revamp and restore the house without sacrificing its original charm.

The historic Kimmswick home before restoration,

“When we remodeled, the goal was to refurbish the home and to organize all of the family's history, their heirlooms and memories into a time capsule that could be cherished for the next hundred years,” Smith says. “They technically created this for their family so they could experience the same memories, learn about their history, and make [the house] not a pain or a maintenance headache — like it has been. Everything that we did, we wanted to make sure it was a stunning, durable farmhouse that reflected the family heritage.”

The second floor was rebuilt, the roof and exterior cladding replaced, a new front door was added and the old 1940s farmhouse (insert above) became extremely elegant.

To start, Smith and her assistants packed up every stick of furniture and each belonging. They assessed each piece, photographed it, categorized it, and put it into eight storage units. If needed (and it was often needed), items were repaired, refinished, restored.

“They had a lot of incredible pieces that had family history and a family story or that somebody in the family had made,” Smith says. “I actually worked with about 10 different trades in order to refurbish everything.” That renew ran the gamut from lighting fixtures to the furniture, an antique hooked stair runner (now framed) created by the current owner’s mother, to every area rug. The range of items included handwritten logs of the river traffic, books, paintings of long-gone favorite dogs, portraits of family members.

In 1954, the current owner’s mother hooked a rug for the stairs. The risers depicted farm scenes and the stair treads were parquet pieces. Smith’s team had it cleaned, cut into stripes and then woven together. It was sewn on a piece of black canvas, attached to a wood and then created a display cabinet for it in the entry.

“It was kind of like searching through, thrifting through their stuff,” Smith explains. “I have gone through all of their things, so I know all the things that they have kept. Every book has notes. They kept receipts and documents because everything to them is history and everything to them is important.”

But then again, with such a treasure trove, there was the trick of finding where those pieces should be placed. “The goal was to find locations in the new floor plan for as much of the furniture as possible,” Smith says. “There are some things that were obviously purchased or made, but you can't tell what's new and what’s old unless you know the story behind it.”

The current groundskeeper is a descendant of the house’s original stone mason and his family resides in the property’s original house at the bottom of the hill. So, one of the stated goals of the architect, designer and contractor was to incorporate stone into the architectural design and to match it seamlessly to what already existed.

The house’s roof and exterior cladding were removed and replaced, the second story was ripped off and rebuilt, an elevator was taken out and a balcony put in its place outside a bedroom on the second floor, an addition was added. The first floor was taken down to the studs. The dining room became the primary bedroom; the powder room was transformed into one of the two primary suite bathrooms. Every bedroom, every bathroom, every room, every inch was redone. In total, the house has seven bedrooms, seven baths.

Smith explained that they curved the shape of the island so people there could chat with those at the neighboring dining room table. The homeowner suggested the open glass cabinets in front of the windows.

The homeowner came up with themes for the bedrooms. The front bedroom became the Victorian bedroom, because of a set of furniture dating back to the World’s Fair that her mother had gifted her. “The second bedroom was dubbed the Portuguese bedroom because her mother-in-law loved going to Portugal and had just a couple of things from Portugal that didn't fit with the house,” Smith says. Another bedroom was dubbed the Gold Oriental bedroom and decorated accordingly Although the couple has yet to have great grandchildren, a bunkroom with four brass beds awaits their arrival.

Smith and her team created the 12-foot long window seat—the perfect spot to river watch or read a great book.

“This was designed for the future great grandchildren,” Smith said. “We had four antique brass beds that we cleaned up.” Mattresses had to be specially ordered for all the beds in the house.

The update went down to the tiniest details. The Chelsea design team restocked the house, picked out every piece of bedding and every towel (three sets of each). Then Smith had her upholsterer add tags specifying where each piece was to go. For example, every sheet, pillowcase, and towel in the primary bedroom has a small tag embroidered with “master bedroom.” In the bunkroom, each bed has a brass tag with a number that matches a brass tag on a dresser drawer, a laundry bin, and a closet.

When they redid the second floor, they removed an elevator and added a balcony outside this Victorian bedroom.

Chelsea Smith designed the stained-glass window. Created by the Cosby Art Glass Co., the flowers and birds are all indigenous to the property. The stone fireplace is original to the house.

Today the elegant farmhouse glimmers in the afternoon sun. The homeowners no longer live in St. Louis but make their way back frequently to their old/new home on the Mississippi.

“Their favorite part is that they still see things that they remember being here—and that are still here,” Smith says. “I just feel like this was a beautiful showcase of what not throwing things away, of what paying attention to your family history, can be … I feel like they've taught me so much about how important your family heritage is and how important your family history is to your family.”