It’s hard to pass the stately homes in the Central West End without wondering what life inside would be like. Massive foyers, formal parlors, decorative crown molding and ceilings that never end fascinate us as they provide a glimpse of genteel life during a simpler, slower time in history. The public is invited inside to take a peek during the annual CWE Home & Garden Tour, this year featuring the mansions of Fullerton’s Westminster Place, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary. Set for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. June 10 and 11, the Central West End Association event spotlights 10 historic homes open for self-guided tours. The elegant area got its name from General Joseph Scott Fullerton, a Union Army veteran and attorney who purchased the tract in 1882. Tickets are available at all Straub’s locations or thecwe.org for $20 per person through June 3, $25 at the event. A preview party June 9 includes music, food and additional homes not on the daytime tour (tickets $100 through June 8).
4470 westminster place
owners: doug & shari coplen
The home (pictured at top) was commissioned by Catherine O’Neil, widow of Joseph O’Neil, known as ‘holy Joe’ thanks to the number of local churches he constructed. Her granddaughter, Barbara O’Neil, was an actress and played Ms. Ellen (Scarlett O’Hara’s mother) in Gone With the Wind. Pictures of her are on the second-floor landing; the home remained in the O’Neil family until 1961. The first floor has a jib window to the porch, a window that doubles as a door, likely installed because homes were taxed on doors but not windows!
4411 westminster place
owners: richard lohman & peter tarby
The first home constructed on the street, in 1892, it is an example of the Romanesque Revival style. It was home to the Edward Semple family, which commissioned a first-floor music room addition in 1899 with a rathskeller underneath as a cool getaway from the summer heat. In the 1960s and ’70s, it was used as a boarding house, and later converted to a two-family home. Now fully restored, it contains notable appointments, including a dining room chandelier from the Saks Fifth Avenue store on Maryland Avenue and a bar that is a deconsecrated altar from a church on Taylor Avenue. The quiet garden is modeled after a New Orleans courtyard.
4376 westminster place
owner: gerry fisher
Built in 1892 in the Colonial Revival style, this was one of the first seven houses of Fullerton’s Westminster Place. It was designed by W. Albert Swasey, who also designed the street’s layout, entrance gates and 13 of its 57 homes. The current owner has painstakingly focused on returning it to its original late-Victorian look, including its furnishings and wallcoverings. Highlights include original woodwork, antique lighting fixtures and a hanging Zardozi jewel carpet with 643 semi-precious stones.
4484 westminster place
owners: clif laplante & chris stratmann
The Spanish Colonial was the last home on the street to be built, in 1909. Designed by architect George Hellmuth, it was for Gen. Fullerton’s daughter, Mary, and her new husband, Paul Bakewell Jr., a descendant of Missouri’s first governor, Alexander McNair. Mary oversaw the completion of Westminster Place after her father’s death during a train derailment in 1897. The 6,000-square-foot home faces Taylor Avenue, across from the onetime site of The Wednesday Club for women. Renovations to the kitchen and second floor in 2007 earned a Homer Award.
4474 westminster place
owners: doug ong & david petersen
Constructed of two shades of ‘orange’ brick, this home was designed for Mrs. Joel T. Wood in 1898 in the Italian Renaissance Palazzo style. The exterior is noteworthy for its decorative elements, including arched sidelights, elaborate brick quoining and cornices, and dentil molding. The home has been lovingly restored in its entirety by the current owners, one of whom is an interior
designer.
4451 westminster place
owners: larry & jane frederick
Built in 1902 by the prestigious Barnett, Haynes & Barnett for Mrs. Alice Shaw, this home is in the Romanesque Revival style. It has a massive limestone exterior, original woodwork, pocket doors, five fireplaces and stained glass windows. An ornate, columned sleeping porch is accessed by a Jefferson window (which can be used as a door), and the home includes the original carriage house with a converted hay loft. The home is one of three on Westminster Place distinguished as a structure ‘of national significance.’
4446 westminster place 
owners: guy & janet stevenson
This is the CWE home where T.S. Eliot and his prominent family lived. It was built in 1905 for Henry Eliot, whose father, pastor William Greenleaf Eliot, founded Washington University and Mary Institute. T.S. was the seventh and last child of Henry and Charlotte Eliot and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948. Henry helmed St. Louis Hydraulic Press Brick Company, and he used extra-thick bricks in building his Federalist-style home. The first floor contains separate men’s and women’s parlors. The home has original pocket doors and millwork, as well as nine fireplaces that originally burned coal. It is also one of the few homes on the street never used as a rooming house.
4315 westminster place
owners: the royal vagabonds
Now owned by The Royal Vagabonds, an African American philanthropic organization, it was originally commissioned by Pierre Chouteau Maffitt, a descendant of St. Louis founder Pierre Laclede. He hired Barnett, Haynes & Barnett (the architects of Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis) to design the mansion for $40,000, today’s equivalent of $2.9 million. Inside, the Greek Revival has 12,400 square feet of space that include padded tapestry walls, hand-painted canvas panels, a wood-paneled library and many other regal amenities.
4441 westminster place
owners: chris elliott & tom saggio
Designed in 1897 by architect Edmund Manny as a ‘spec home,’ the stunning Neo-Georgian mansion displays beautiful, decorative brickwork. Inside, it has an L-shaped front hall with quarter-sawn wainscoting and a cove with fireplace under the stairway. In the living room area is an Inglenook fireplace with seating areas on either side of the mantel. The original dining and living rooms have been combined for one large, open space.
4386 westminster place
owners: vince & louise manganella
Designed by George W. Hellmuth, this Italian Renaissance Revival mansion was built in 1899 for Dr. W.A. Shoemaker, an ophthalmologist and faculty member at Washington University. Hellmuth, the architect of three Westminster Place houses and several on Hortense, Flora and Lenox places, went on to found the esteemed Hellmuth, Obata and Kassabaum (the global firm now known as HOK). This home survived a major fire and conversion to a boarding house (a fate that befell many of the street’s homes), but has been restored and retains many of its original mantels, fireplaces, millwork and light fixtures.
