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Thanks to the Lemp Brewery Business Park for the amazing space, Perennial for teaching us some great book crafts, Lynn Josse for putting this whole thing together and of course all of our great volunteers and book donors. It was a great sale. See you next year!
It takes a small colonial village of people to move the tens of thousands of books we’ve accumulated over the last year.
After 3 hours of hard work, Mary Jane is ready for more, Daron is thinking about it, and Debbie is still moving boxes in the background.
Huge thanks to them, Brendan, Marilyn, Rita, Kennett, Kevin, Kevin’s wheelbarrow (which made several trips back and forth across Cherokee Street), a nice stranger who was walking down the street and loaded a car for us, and to our book sale neighbor Mr. Koines. And to everyone else who’s helped us get this far. It’s going to be a great sale.
We’ve already collected truckloads of books for our Annual Used Book Sale and we need your help to keep things going!
Book donations can be dropped off at the House Weds – Sat between 11 am and 2 pm. We are also looking for paper bags and folding tables.
Volunteers can help on:
May 12 at 10am - moving books to the sale location
May 15 from 4-8pm – sorting books and setting up the sale
May 19 & 20 – selling books!
Check out all of our special event volunteer opportunities here.
Grounds work underway
Due to the hard work and perseverance of our wonderful team of garden volunteers the grounds are shaping up for our spring events. Thanks for everything you do: Kina Shapleigh, Mary Jane Day, Ted Atwood, Mimi Baer, Jill Dowd, Diane Kerkhoff, Stephanie Prade, & Johnathan Baer. If you are interested in becoming a DeMenil Garden Volunteer or finding out more about our volunteer programs contact us on our Volunteer Page.
Upcoming Events at the Mansion
Children’s History Day: Who Wore What? April 29: 11am to 2pm – Bring the kids and learn about fashions of the Civil War Era through exhibits in the museum rooms, art activities and even a dress up area.
DeMenil Craft Guild Craft Night May 9: 6pm to 9pm – Open craft night and a class on the art of cutting silhouettes!
Used Book Sale May 19 & 20 – Thousands of books are priced from fifty cents to one dollar in the historic house’s largest benefit sale yet.
Benton Park Neighborhood Events
The Chatillon-DeMenil House is proud to be a sponsor of the Benton Park Neighborhood’s upcoming season of events! Join us at our own neighborhood’s monthly concerts, races, and festivals from May through October. See the full schedule here.
Get a deal on your tour
Wednesdays and Thursdays in April: get a free tour of the Mansion with your lunch at Cafe DeMenil!
We are looking for volunteers to help decorate the Mansion for the Holidays on November 5th at 9am. Please email us at demenilvolunteers@gmail.com to sign up!
The Mourning event turned out to be a success even with all the competition just down the street from Soulard’s Oktoberfest. We couldn’t have done it without a great group of people!
Thanks to all of our mourning volunteers: John Avery, Edna Dieterle, Phillip McGourty, Cyndie Ahrens, Tim Klinder, Tessa Hacke, John Mefford, Julie VanCleave, Pat Galanos, Diann Daniels, Jennifer Perkins, Meghann Smith, Alex Parson, Mary Swengross, Mary Jane Day, Sandy Hartke, Shirley Williams-Trotter, Judy Nelson, Elaine Marschik, Rita Long, Meghan Heeter, Dianne Benz, Kevin O’Neill, Lynn Josse, Ted Atwood, Ward Buckner and Dolores Blehm.
Thanks to our awesome tarot card reading volunteers John Hollingsworth, Teresa Powers and Karolyn Cronin.
And thanks to Amy & Donnie Armbruster and the rest of their team from Just Curious Paranormal and Michael Kupsch and the Heartland Paranormal Investigative team.
Keep checking back here for updates on next year’s event.
Imagine Nicholas and Emilie DeMenil sitting out on the east balcony almost 150 years ago, enjoying their expansive view of the Mississippi River. Are you imagining it?
A lot of things are different today – the on-ramp view is certainly less compelling than the river – but Nicholas and Emilie’s monumental Ionic portico is still there. It’s still a wonderful place to sit and enjoy a summer beverage or some quiet conversation.
But 45 years after the house was initially restored, some of its parts have seen better days. Although structurally stable, the east portico is in need of repair. Deterioration over the years, the product of moisture and vibration and the fundamentally ephemeral nature of wood, has caused the columns to compress. At the north end of portico, the column has compressed enough to change the slope of the gutter. Water drains to the front of the portico instead of the downspout, and the cycle of moisture and damage is self-perpetuating.
It’s time to put a stop to this. With well-researched plans by architect Ralph Wafer, we have gotten together most of the funding to shore up the interior posts and re-plane deteriorated sections of the columns’ outer shells. Unfortunately (and this will sound familiar to all you rehabbers out there), it’s far more expensive than we’d anticipated because we didn’t realize how much damage there was until we started pulling things apart. To get the restoration started before winter, we need to raise the last chunk of funding. This is where you come in. We’re not asking for your financial contribution (not right now, anyway) - just a bit of your time.
We are in the running for one of three Grow St. Louis awards which are given out based on online voting. To support our proposal, visit the Grow St. Louis web site and vote for our project. It’s pretty simple. If you’re an extreme supporter, they will let you do this a hundred times a day every day for the next two weeks. When voting closes on October 16, the most popular projects will receive $15,000, $10,000 and $5,000.
Even if we don’t win, getting a lot of votes will bring the project more visibility, which of course makes the rest of our fundraising simpler. Can you help? Sharing this message with your friends, family, and network could result in hundreds of votes and help us spread the word.
Happy voting, and thanks!
Warmer weather is upon us which means there is work to do at the Mansion! We have many great volunteer opportunities coming up over the next few months. It’s a great time to get started, so what are you waiting for?
Tour Guide Training Classes are being held on March 12th & March 26th!
Garden Clean-Up and plantings are being organized for April 9th & April 23rd!
Please contact us for more information about these events and other upcoming volunteer opportunities.
