PHOTOGRAPHY BY WILLIAM SWEKOSKY, COURTESY OF THE MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM
W.D.W. Barnard Residence. 3300 Meramec Street. Built 1858. Photograph by William Swekosky, ca. 1940s
Framed by bare black trees, with snow drifted into the honeycombs and quatrefoils of its exterior millwork, this house, with its four chimneys, was undoubtedly snug. One can imagine the interior scene: flames leaping in fireplaces, its mantel crowded with French porcelain clocks, bell jars, and gold candlesticks in the shape of Hermes; a silk quilt draped on a rocking chair; a table spread with a linen cloth, set for tea. Built in 1858 by banker W.D.W. Barnard, it stood on Meramec Street; after being demolished in the 1920s, it was replaced by a drugstore. Barnard is asterisked in history books for his connection to Ulysses S. Grant—through his first wife, he was brother-in-law of the future president’s wife’s brother—though specifically he’s noted for a letter he sent to Grant warning the president that he was surrounded by corrupt officials. That led to the unraveling of the Whiskey Ring, a scandal that marred Grant’s second term and contributed to the end of Reconstruction. Newspaper stories on the Whiskey Ring reported Barnard as a resident of Kirkwood. So perhaps he gave up his rather new house and moved to the country to get out of the coal-smoky air. Perhaps Kirkwood’s commuter trains allowed him to easily travel to and from the city and avoid its noise and chaos. Or perhaps, like many domestic spaces, it was too thick with a feeling of the world before, the world after: memories of a blessedly dull cup of tea in a winter parlor set in hard relief against the smell of gunpowder, the sanitary fairs and riverboat hospitals, brothers vowing never to sit down at the same dinner table again.
