The Historic House Receives Funding:

The Missouri Humanities Council (MHC) has awarded a grant of $7,894.00 to the Webster Groves Historical Society in support of the project, “Reconstruction and Industrialization Exhibit Installation”. The MHC is the only state-wide agency in Missouri devoted exclusively to humanities education for citizens of all ages. It has served as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for Humanities since 1971.

This grant will support the building and development of a new exhibit for the Historic Hawken House Museum discussing Reconstruction and Industrialization in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. The purpose of this exhibit is to support the existing narrative and to pave the way for new exhibits in the future.

The Historic House Architecture

The Historic Hawken House Museum was built as the home for Christopher and Mary Ann Hawken (Hawkins). Graciously furnished to reflect a post-Civil War home of a gentleman farmer, the Hawken House Museum preserves the artifacts and the stories of the Hawken family’s era.

Hawken Family History

Christopher Hawken’s great grandfather, Niclaus Hachen, came to America from Switzerland about 1750, settling in York County, Pennsylvania. His father, Jacob, came to St. Louis in 1807, where he began crafting the famous Hawken Rifle in a shop on the Mississippi Riverfront.

Historians call the coveted Hawken Rifle the “gun that settled the west,” since it was prized by so many famous westward explorers and trappers, including Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Kit Carson, John Fremont, Jim Bridger, and Robert Campbell, the famous St. Louis fur trader. To find out more about the Hawken Rifle, visit The Hawken Shop.

Mary Ann Kinkead Eads was the eldest of three daughters of Granville O. Eads and Lucinda Sappington. Lucinda was the only child of Thomas Sappington (of Sappington House) and his first wife Mary Ann Kinkead.

The Hawken family burial plot is located at Oak Hill Cemetery in Kirkwood, along Big Bend Road to the west, just beyond I-44. Oak Hill is also the burial site of several members of the Sappington and Eads families, in addition to many other early Webster Groves residents.

For more information about Christopher and Mary Ann, and the life of a Gentleman Farmer in Saint Louis County in a post-war Missouri. . . come visit us and take a tour of the Historic Hawken House Museum!

Tours

Arrange an individual or group tour by appointment with [email protected]

The Museum is currently open: For Tours by Appointment

The Historic Hawken House Museum does not currently meet the ADA (American Disability Act) standards and is not handicapped accessible.

[email protected]

We would be happy to arrange a tour for your group.

The Hawken House Museum is an active member of Historic Saint Louis, an organization comprised of historic homes and sites throughout the Greater St. Louis area. Historic Saint Louis provides a forum for communication among historic sites for the purposes of networking and education, along with opportunities to promote the wealth of historic preservation in our area.

Please visit www.historicsaintlouis.org to learn about participating sites, upcoming events, and themed itineraries to suit your interests – eg. Civil War, French Heritage, African American, Victorian, etc.