“… people who are passionate about travel tend to have open minds and really good stories,” says Meghan McEwen on her blog Design Tripper. Travel writer McEwen looks for “quirky family-owned inns and neighborhood-oriented hotels” that are different from the Holiday Inn to feature on DT.   She started it 4 years ago to give such places some buzz.  It’s a fun, informative blog.

But I notice that Missouri isn’t in her queue.  Yet.  Last summer Ruth & I stayed in a hotel in St. Louis that I believe Meghan would love, Moonrise. Built in 2009, Moonrise at 6177 Delmar is next to the popular live-show Pageant Theater.  When there’s something on at the Pageant, parking around Moonrise can be difficult, and the human and automotive traffic becomes, well, let’s call it lively.  In other words, the entire area probably won’t get settled and quiet until after midnight.  For some, like us, this adds to the fun.  For others, those who seek out private resorts with designer golf courses, this might not be your kind of place.

Joe Edwards is the brains and money behind Moonrise.  You’re likely to see him at some point during your stay.  He has worked hard to rejuvenate the Loop District that now claims Moonrise and some historic St. Louis landmarks like the Tivoli Theater, Blueberry Hill made famous by Chuck Berry, Vintage Vinyl, etc.  Make no mistake, though.   Moonrise is near urban blocks that cry out for renewal, and the Loop is the-opposite-of-lively during the day.  However, new living quarters for Washington University students are rising in the next block and Moonrise is near some excellent St. Louis attractions–SLAM, the Zoo made famous by Marlon Perkins, the Chase-Park Plaza, etc.   There are good restaurants in nearby Clayton and close to the hotel.  Moonrise has its own dining spots, including Eclipse. We enjoyed it because it experiments and shows potential.

As you’ve probably already figured out, this boutique hotel’s theme is the moon.  When we were in St. Louis again this year, we returned, asked for, and stayed in the same room, Moonstruck.   The first time we checked in and saw it, I wrote in my diary, “It’s an A.”  Here is an example of its art to illustrate.

One website calls Moonrise “the anti-chain”.   That’s accurate.   It welcomes and gifts pets.  Each room sports technology docking stations. The open, rooftop Terrace Bar affords fine views of St. Louis.  The staff is unusually welcoming and friendly.  The Moonrise is, indeed, a place for passionate travel people with open minds.   It’s almost guaranteed you’ll leave with some new travel stories, Meghan McEwan.

Hank

St. Charles is the oldest city on the Missouri River.  Established in 1769 only 5 years after St. Louis was founded on the Mississippi, St. Charles’ most important date in American history was May 21, 1804.  On that day Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and almost 40 men left from here on an 8,000 mile, 2 year, 4 month, and ten-day expedition to the Pacific Ocean and back.

William Clark joined the Corps of Discovery in St. Charles on May 16 while final preparations were being made.  An important member of the expedition joined in St. Charles–Pierre Cruzatte, whose mother was a member of the Omaha tribe.  Pierre knew the river well and played the fiddle. When the Corps encountered the dangerous Teton Sioux, Pierre was able to both act as interpreter and prevent bloodshed.  His worst day occurred on their way back to Missouri when he accidentally shot Meriwether Lewis in the ass.  Pierre had poor eyesight and, while hunting, mistook Lewis for an elk.

I learned this in the Lewis & Clark Boathouse and Nature Center in St. Charles, Missouri.  Established in 1985, this riverside attraction’s glory days were during the bicentennial celebration of the Expedition from 2003 to 2006.  Under a museum dedicated mostly to Lewis and Clark, the boathouse contains full-scale replicas of the keelboat, red and white pirogues, and 2 canoes used during the reenactment of the expedition.  The larger boats made it all the way to Great Falls, Montana.  Unfortunately, I had to stare at them through a locked gate.

Today, the Boathouse struggles a bit to keep the memory of both the expedition and the bicentennial alive.  Like the Perot in Dallas, it relies a lot on school field trips for patronage.  Unlike the Perot, this museum primarily has only one subject–Lewis and Clark.  On the day we were there, Ruth and I shared the exhibits with a group of enthusiastic students from Emanuel Lutheran School.   The museum is really set up for them with artifacts like the bullboat pictured above at their eye-level, lots of taxidermied animals and birds, a great diorama of the expedition, etc. along with traditional arrowheads, examples of pioneer architecture, medicines common on the frontier. etc.

At one point Ruth came over to borrow my book to take notes about Sacagawea.  Like Pierre Cruzatte, she was critical to the success and safety of the Expedition.  She helped them get horses from the Shoshoni and gathered plants and herbs for food and medicine.   But more importantly, she was a peace symbol.  When tetchy tribes saw her toting a baby, they knew that this was not a war party they were encountering.

If, like Lewis and Clark, your travels take you to St. Charles on the now tamed Missouri River, you’ll benefit from a visit to the Boathouse like the Emanuel Lutheran students did.

Hank

Chicago fund manager Richard H. Driehaus has reportedly given away about $100 million.   Part of it has gone to restore the Samuel M. Nickerson mansion at 40 East Erie Street in the Streeterville neighborhood about 5 blocks from Chicago’s landmark Water Tower.  Driehaus bought it to showcase his decorative arts collection that contains a significant number of Tiffany treasures.

Driehaus first discovered the Nickerson House in 1994.  It’s a miracle that it and the Ransom Cable mansion diagonally across the street, which now serves as offices for Driehaus’ financial firm, survived the march of the high-rises.  In 1994 the Nickerson home was occupied by the R.H. Love Galleries. Driehaus went there with a friend, interior designer Reuben Harper, to see a marble bust he was thinking of buying.  Harper wisely advised him, “Richard, don’t buy the bust.  Buy the building.”

In 2003 Driehaus did just that and kicked off a 5 year restoration project. Because the American College of Surgeons occupied it from about 1919 until 1965, it was rather well-preserved and opened as the Driehaus Museum on a limited basis in 2008.  It didn’t become a major, 5 Compass Chicago tourist attraction until 2011.

Nickerson made his fortune selling alcohol to the Union Army during the Civil War, and after it he became a banker.  Construction of his Chicago house began in 1879, 8 years after the Great Fire.  When completed in 1883 at a cost of $450,000, it was this city’s largest private residence.  In 1900 Lucius Fisher bought it for $75,000 (not a misprint) and hired a Prairie School architect to extensively redesign it.  When Fisher died 16 years later, prominent Chicagoans with names like McCormick and Wrigley bought it. Three years later it was deeded to the American College of Surgeons.  Every time it sold, the Nickerson changed hands totally furnished, preserving much of it Gilded Age splendor.  The term Gilded Age, by the way, was coined by Mark Twain in a co-written satirical novel.

Ruth & I have been through a lot of historic homes.  The Nickerson, now the Driehaus Museum, is among the very best.  It must be seen to be believed with rooms, halls, and staircases so opulent that they elicit appreciative gasps.  The English Renaissance library sports ebonized cherrywood bookcases, visitors look up to see art glass domes and digitally reproduced ceilings, the  white oak dining table is original to the house, etc.

After touring its 2 exquisite floors, I asked one of the enthusiastic hosts stationed throughout to answer questions where the servants lived.  As she led me to their quarters, which aren’t necessarily on the house tour, she told me that there were 11 live-ins.  Their rooms and halls were so reminiscent of Downton Abbey that I had an idea that I passed along to the staff.  In Season 3 of Downton the Countess of Grantham’s mother swans in to do battle with the Dowager Countess played by Maggie Smith.  If a series was to be built around Shirley MacLaine’s outspoken American character, Martha Levinson, the Driehaus would be the ideal place to film it.

Hank