Samuel A. Coale House
Built: 1880
Demolished: 1950
Style: Italian Renaissance
Architect: George I. Barnett
Neighborhood: Grand Center
City block: 2289
On 1875 Compton and Dry Map: no
On 1883 Hopkins Atlas: yes
Historical significance: This mansion was built in 1880 for Samuel A. Coale. Coale was a prominent collector of fine arts, and had been an early resident of Vandeventer Place. He decided to move from his original mansion into this house in 1880, which cost $20,000 to build. He decided to have his address moved from his original mansion to this one as well, and the original house was renumbered to 15. Coale died in 1892, and his family sold the mansion to Thomas E. Tutt in 1896. Tutt was a director of the Mississippi Valley Trust Company, and had previously lived on Lucas Place. Tutt had a steamboat named after him that went up and down the Mississippi River during the Civil War, but in 1864, it was captured and destroyed by Confederate troops. Tutt died in 1898, and his wife, Sallie died in 1902, so their daughters Helen and Myra were cared for by the agent of the estate, Harry L. Monroe. By the 1910s, they had moved to New York, and the house was then owned by H. Burgoyne Wilson, who owned a contracting company. Despite not being as wealthy or prominent as some of the previous owners, Wilson still had a cook and a butler and other house staff when he lived here in the 1910s and 1920s. The house was demolished in 1950 along with the eastern half of Vandeventer Place to make way for the VA hospital.
Architectural significance: This house was designed by George I. Barnett in the Italian Renaissance style in 1880. It featured a large porch and side entrance with Corinthian columns, a signature element of Barnett’s designs. It features a layout similar to many homes on the private streets of St. Louis, with its low hipped roof, and its two main floors topped by a ballroom floor with smaller windows. Several homes designed by Barnett, Haynes, and Barnett, which included two of George’s sons, built several homes on Portland Place and Washington Terrace featuring the same layout.