Clemens Mansion

Clemens Mansion 1859-1885

In the mid-1850s James H. Clemens had become a popular merchant around St. Louis. He began his career in the mercantile business with James Clemens Sr. In 1816, he moved from Sparta, Tennessee to St. Louis, Missouri and became a successful storekeeper as well as became active in the banking industry.

Clemens Jr. married the Elizabeth (Eliza) Mullanphy in 1833. Eliza came from a well-off philanthropist family. Together they had nine confirmed children over the span of 20 years. Life for them was going great as they continued to build and establish their lives in St. Louis, that was until Eliza Clemens’s unexpected death in 1853. This sent James Clemens Jr. into a fit of depression where he struggled to get over her passing. He had to continue on to support his children and thus he wanted to build them a house big enough for the whole family.

James Clemens Jr. reached out to architect Patrick Walsh to design the house. Back then it would have been on the outskirts of the city area of St. Louis and would have allowed plenty of room for the children to roam and play. The two-and-a-half-story home was built in a Greek revival style with all the finest bells and whistles of the era.

Because of his grief over his late wife, he incorporated many different memorials in the design to her throughout the house. He had her likeness recreated in cast iron window lintels and carved into the marble fireplaces. The house’s plasterwork was done mostly by Irish sculptor Porter White. It displayed much more cast iron than the normal house back in that day and became a national gem for the ferrous metal. Some of the floors are inlaid with stripes and stars, floral ceiling molding.

If the stature of the home doesn’t speak for itself, its historic connections will. James Clemons Jr. was the uncle of Samuel Clemens, more commonly known as Mark Twain, a famed author. Mark Twain often made his temporary home at the Clemens Mansion when he would visit St. Louis. His son Bryan Mullanphy Clemens, a politician, delivered speeches often from the porch of the home.

The antebellum mansion continued serving as the family home and was where James H. Clemens passed in 1878. The house then went to his heirs who sold it in 1885 due to it not being needed any longer.

St. Joseph Convent Our Lady of Good Counsel 1885-1949

Purchased from the Clemens heirs by the Sisters of St. Joseph for $25,000, they aimed to turn it into a school for the deaf and blind. The facility would be called St. Joseph Convent Our Lady of Good Counsel. It aimed to serve the disabled and give back to the community.

Almost immediately they got to work on building a large addition to the back of the house which can be seen in the picture above. This alone made the house unbelievably bigger than it already was. And the renovations didn’t stop there, a brand new massive chapel was built next door and connected to the residential area in 1896. It would have gorgeous and large stained glass windows that would be memorials totaling 14 windows.

By 1907 the Deaf and Mute Institute had become so prosperous that the Sisters had to take down their sign, so as to not advertise it anymore. They announced that a new location would be sought out to erect a building big enough for the school.

NUN PREVENTS BURGLARY – ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH April 5, 1912

A burglar who was trying to enter the Sisters of St. Joseph Convent at 1am Friday was frightened away when one of the nuns saw him and screamed. He had climbed the fire escape to the fourth floor and was trying to open the window of the room in which the sister was sleeping. Her cries brought the other sisters to her room, but the man had disappeared.

Vincentian Foreign Mission Society 1949-1976

For the first time in 64 years, the old Clemens Mansion was to be sold by the Sisters of St. Joseph. The new owners, the Society of the Congregation of the Mission of St. Louis also known as Vincentian Foreign Mission Society, were to take up occupying the buildings on April 1, 1949.

It was during this time period that the building was also used as a temporary quarters for scholastics studying at nearby universities and as a residence for missionaries returning from China. The organization had been working on a mission in China since 1935.

Cass House Shelter 1977-1987

Again the building sold in 1977 to a Catholic organization and would become known as the Cass House. The home took in abused women and children, and the homeless. It gave them a free meal and rooms to stay in.

A woman who had undergone abuse moved herself and her four children to the historic mansion. “I have no family, and few friends here in St. Louis. If I hadn’t been able to come here I wouldn’t have been able to leave my husband.”

At any given time roughly 60 people were housed in the Cass House and at 5:30 an additional 50-100 Catholic volunteers would come in to have an evening meal with them. Being called the Catholic Socialists, they tried to do the works of mercy, giving drink to the thirsty, food to the hungry, shelter to the homeless and comfort to the suffering. In a way that can foster spirituality.

The volunteers spent their time answering the phone and doorbell awaiting donations of food, money, clothing or furniture to help care for the people. They began working with St. Louis’ Landmarks Association in 1984 to try and raise the funds to repair and renovate the complex.

Berean House 1987-

It was sold again in 1987, this time to the Berean Missionary Baptist Association. Known as the Berean House it served the same mission as it did when the Catholics owned it. It averaged 62 men, women and children each night with a capacity of 72. They operated a soup kitchen daily from 5:30-6:30 pm with the help of about forty volunteers.

Juan Davis, owner of a karate gym, approached the kids at Berean House in 1993 and asked if they wanted to learn some skills. To which they exclaimed yes! He went about training and teaching them the ways of karate for several months.

Demise of Clemens Mansion

Unfortunately, the organization closed and the building was vacated and boarded up. Rumors started to circulate that the house would be slated for demolition. As a way to raise awareness of the possible tragedy that could come from the wrecking ball, the house was listed on Missouri Preservation’s Most Endangered List from 2000 to 2004.

The property was purchased by what was at the time called Blairmont Associates, a company under Developer Paul McKee. At that time he had already owned over 100 acres in properties throughout the city. He had even proposed to the city a special tax credit, just for him. But the house continued to deteriorate causing the City to sue to stop it. Despite this the following year the roof and wall of the house collapsed and nature continued to take over.

The home, was made a City Landmark in 1971 and was on the National Register of Historic Places was still very much in danger and was again placed on Missouri Preservation’s Most Endangered List from 2013 to 2016.

As happens so often in the world of preservation we see what we dub as “Tax Writeoff Developers.” These are developers that purchase historic properties across cities, states and the nation and let them fall into disrepair and not paying city fines for it. Some mysteriously catch on fire such as the Majestic Hotel in Arkansas and this one, others sit for so long until they fall in on themselves making it easier to clear the land and sell it for top dollar in developing areas.

This home seems to have experienced both, unfortunate circumstances. Owned by Developer Paul McKee who has spearheaded the Northside Regeneration Project, which claims to be revitalizing the North Side on a large scale. It is unclear why exactly this house sat abandoned for so many years under his ownership if his mission was to help the community.

July 12, 2017, the day the Clemens Mansion went up in flames with the whole structure becoming engulfed. The building was deemed a total loss with whole walls collapsing from the pressure of the water and everything being lost to the flames. Mysteriously the cause of the fire was ruled as undetermined and was not investigated further. The decision to demolish the building came in May 2018 leaving developer McKee with a prime piece of land.

During the demolition, a time capsule from 1896 was found. Inside were newspapers from the day the capsule was buried, religious medals, a miniature statue of St. Joseph, documents about the history of the Sisters of St. Joseph Carondelet and a coin commemorating then-St. Louis Bishop Peter Richard Kenrick.

Gallery Below of Clemens Mansion

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