Mansion Updates

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!

Our Amazing Interns part 1

We are very proud and just a little bit jealous of our former intern Abby Unferverth!   Abby is one of only seven students chosen to participate in the highly competetive Summer Fellowship Program at Historic Deerfield, MA.  Fellows are given intensive training in material culture research and interpretation, learning in the eleven museum buildings at Deerfield as well as in field trips throughout New England and the mid-Atlantic.  After her fellowship, Abby has been offered a teaching position in the Orleans-Tours district of central France during the next academic year.  Abby spent last summer as the office go-to for proper French grammar and vocabulary, so she can correct this if it’s wrong:  Bons Voyages!  Bonne Chance!

DeMenil Craft Guild

We have been having a great time here at the Mansion learning and teaching about Victorian Era Crafts. If you are interested in particpating, information on all of our scheduled classes and activities is available on our Craft Guild Page.

I’d also like to add a big Thank-You to Patty Clay, our crochet instructor at tonight’s Craft Night.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

New Tutorials Page

Have you missed one of our Craft Night Sessions or maybe you are just curious about all of the weird and wonderful fancy work techniques of the Nineteenth Century? We’ve added a new Craft Guild Tutorials Page so you can follow along at your own pace or have a reference for practice.  The first PDF tutorial is a beginners’ guide on making hair-work leaves. We are planning on adding more of the crafts we’ve covered so far and a few we haven’t been brave enough to try! Check back often for updates.

Upcoming Craft Night Wednesday May 9, 2012 – Featured Craft: Silhouettes

Silhouette cutting served as both a parlor entertainment and a sentimental art often created by ladies as a token of friendship or love. They were framed, kept in albums or given as gifts. Even after daguerreotypes and other forms of early photography became available, silhouettes were still popular because they were more economical and also displayed the talent and sentimentality of the artist. Space is limited. Please register on our Craft Guild Page

Show and Tell

Do you have an antique hand crafted item or perhaps a contemporary piece made using a Nineteenth Century technique? Come show it off at one of our monthly Craft Nights and stay for a free craft class!

Donate your used books

It’s time for spring cleaning and if you have a few books you need to let go of we would be more than happy to take them off you hands for our Annual Used Book Sale Fundraiser! We are accepting donations at the Mansion every Wednesday through Saturday 11am-2pm.

Volunteers are needed for sorting the books, helping us set up, working the sale and cleaning up afterwards. If you are interested in helping out you can find all of our contact information here.

On May 19 & 20 thousands of books will be available,  priced from 50 cents to one dollar in the historic house’s largest benefit sale yet.  Stop in at the Chatillon-DeMenil House (3352 DeMenil Place) or check back here in May to find out the exact location of the sale.  The event is free except for the Saturday morning preview.

Children’s History Day: Who Wore What?

Sunday April 29th 11am-2pm

Our Children’s History Days are a series of events for parents and kids meant to highlight an aspect of life in St. Louis in the 1860′s.

The first event on April 29, will focus on fashions of the Civil War Era through exhibits in the museum rooms, art activities and even a dress up area.

Story times will be held at 12:00pm and 1:00pm.

This is a free event for kids and parents only. Children must be supervised by an adult.

 

April Craft Night

Upcoming Craft Night: April 11th, 2012 – Featured Project: Crochet Sachet

Crochet work, so called from the hook, French croche orcroc, with which it is done, is not only one of the easiest but in comparison with the cost and labour, one of the most effective kinds of fancy-work. It is also one of the most useful, as it can be applied to the domestic requirements of every-day life, to wearing apparel, house-linen and upholstery; and we are sure that the patterns contained in this chapter, which have in addition to their other merits that of novelty, will meet with a favorable reception. 

 -From The Encyclopedia of Needlework 1884

Our featured project will help those new to the art of crochet master the basic techniques. Crafters will receive a pattern and guidance in making their own scented sachet to freshen linen drawers and cupboards.

What you’ll need: Supplies needed for this craft include at least one ounce of yarn (please keep in mind that lighter colors are easier to work with when beginning), a crochet hook (size G, H or I will do), one yard of narrow ribbon in a color that compliments your yarn choice, a tapestry needle and a pair of scissors. Yarn and other supplies will be available the night of the class for a nominal donation. Space is limited. Click here to register.

March Craft Night

 

As the hair is the only part of our beloved friends which can be kept in memoriam, it is natural that we should desire to preserve the treasure in some way that will testify our appreciation

of its value, and when this can be done in a manner that is both pleasing to the taste and that will insure its prolonged or lasting preservation, it becomes a work which all may desire to be able

to successfully practice…

-from a hair-work instruction manual 1876

Upcoming Craft Night: March 14th, 2012 - Featured Project: Hair Flower Brooch

Doors open at 6:00pm for open crafting. The featured craft class starts at 7:00pm and lasts about an hour. After that the house will be open until 9:00pm for more crafting time.

Learn about the significance of the use of human hair in handcrafting and the different forms that it took throughout the Nineteeth Century using period examples of the craft.

Our featured project will start our crafters off with a very simple technique used to make hair-work flowers. Hair flowers were normally worked into a larger wreath made of many different family members’ hair and displayed in a shadow box. In this case we will be fashioning them into a brooch.

What you’ll need: Crafters will need to bring any type of embroidery floss or thread of the same weight, scissors, fine gauge jewelry wire, and one knitting needle (any size from 5-9). Floss will be available for a nominal donation and pin-backs for your brooch will be provided. Admission is free but space is limited. Click here to register.

Our First Craft Night!

Thanks to all of the ladies who graced us with their presence during our first ever DeMenil Craft Guild Night!

Next month’s Craft Night will be held on Wednesday March 14th. The Mansion’s doors will open at 6:00 pm for open crafting. At 7:00pm we will start our class on our featured craft: a Hair-Work Flower Brooch.

The house will be open for crafting and walk-through tours until 9pm!

You can register for our March 14th Session here.

Support us in Style!

On Friday, February 24, please join us for a Cocktail Soiree to support the restoration and preservation of the Chatillon-DeMenil House.  Hosted by Robert Morrissey, the benefit will take place at Clark Graves Antiques and feature catering by Bistro 517.  We’ll have fine food and drinks, excellent conversation, and photos and plans for the restoration projects you’re supporting.  The ticket price of $50 is partially deductible.

Reservations are limited.  For more information, please contact the Chatillon-DeMenil House at (314) 771-5828 or demenil@sbcglobal.net.

Bob the gnome

One day when I was arriving at the house to give tours I found this gnome hiding in our garden. We thought it would be funny to leave him for the folks at the Campbell House to find too, but now the little scamp is runnning loose all over Saint Louis!

See where Bob is now!