The 1845 Historic Elgin / Cottrell House Museum is a private owned home, open for tours on special occasions by reservations only. The owner is Richard Cottrell and the house is located at 209 S. First Street in Clarksville, Mo. The small river town is about 75 miles from St. Louis and 50 miles from Hannibal. The home is across the street from the Mississippi River.
I purchased the old house on a whim in 2006. At that time it was deemed un fit for living. There were no working utilities, side porches were dangerous and the front porches were missing. After 2 years of major electric, brick, porch construction, heating, cooling and much, much more, the house was back among the living.
I did a lot of research on a house of this period. This house was built in two stages. The first part of the house was started in 1845. The addition was added in 1860. At that time the porches were added and the over all appearance of the home became Italianate. The hand brunt bricks were made on the spot, using Missouri clay and made by slaves. The house has a full basement, made of Missouri limestone and brick floors. The original kitchen was in the basement and the fireplace and the ovens are still there.
The builder of the house was Hezekiah Elgin. he came to Missouri from Virginia, with his parents and brother Samuel. His father had fought in the Revolutionary war with George Washington and he had married a cousin of John Adams. He was given a 300 acre land grant from president James Manroe. The land was in the territory of Missouri, this was 1815 and Missouri did not became a state till 1821. The area was in Pike County, Missouri. In 1817, 2 years after he arrived the toen of Clarksville, Mo. was formed.
Mr. Elgin and his two sons built the first road between Clarksville and St. Louis, It took almost 2 years to build. Hezekiah latter had a river boat and took people up and down the river. He made a lot of money raising Missouri mules and sold them to the US army. In 1860 he married his wife, a widow, who had inherited a lot of money. The new Mrs. Elgin had 2 children, Elizabeth and Plato. Mr. Elgin never adopted them, so they maintained there original name of Mount Joy. The Elgin,s had two sons after there marriage. One died in child birth and the other died at the age of 5. So the property went to the step children in 1893 at Mr. Elgin's death.
The second owners of the house were 2 un married sisters. They lived in the house and rented rooms like a boarding house. This was in 1945 till 1965. The third owner was an artist lady when owned the home till 2003. It was empty till 2006 when I purchased it.
I used two restored homes for my bible in the restoration of this house. One was the Confederate White House in Richmond, Virginia. The second is the Campbell House Museum in downtown St. Louis,Mo. Both these houses were built around the time of mine and both have the original furniture in side and were left in tact. Wall cover and fabrics have been reproduced.
I opened the house in fall of 2007 for the first tours. there were a few rooms finished at that time and have been giving tours ever since.
The house was basically finished in 2009 and now it is a matter of up keep.
Tours at this time are giving almost anytime, a reservation is required and needed at least one day in advance. There needs to be at least 2 people and the cost is $5.00 a person. The phone number Is 573 242 9688, email, cottrellprissy@aol.com .
