Shaker’s Staircase

Shaker Village Foot Pack Hunt

This one of my favorite photos. The simplicity of the lines and the lighting from above highlight the skills of the builders. This elegant spiral staircase is one of two in the Trustee’s House (1839) built by the Shakers in Shaker Village of Pleasent Hill. The two staircases stand mirroring each other ascending three stories from the building’s main hallway and are quite striking with patterns and play of light.

Click on the photo for more information. Click here for complete set of photos from my trip to Foot Pack Weekend in Shaker Village of  Pleasent Hill, Kentucky.

Trustee’s Office & Guest House 

Shaker Village Foot Pack Hunt

Trustee’s Office and Guest House in Shaker Village of  Pleasent Hill in Kentucky. Built in 1839-1841 by Micajah Burnett, housed the offices of the legal and financial leaders of the Shaker community at Pleasant Hill, and provided lodging to traveling Shakers.

The front door opens to a wide central hall that is intersected midway through by transverse twin stair halls. These open newel helical stairs rise in opposing directing only to face one another at the third-floor landing, where an elliptical dome in the ceiling is intersected by a barrel vault connecting the arched windows at the front and rear of the ridge dormer. The ineffable light that bathes the staircase is justly renowned. The cherry wood handrail that winds with the stair is carved specially to fit a gripping hand. The underside of the stair, which can been seen in the cellar, reveals substantial interlocking timbers that are fastened with iron bolts.

The largest restored Shaker community, with 3,000 acres of farmland and 34 restored 19th-century buildings. Shaker Village hosts a wide variety of hands-on classes, music performances and special events and has 33 miles of trails for hiking and horseback riding (bring your own horse). Dining is available. Kentucky River excursions aboard the paddle wheeler Dixie Belle are given from April through October. The tranquil setting at this National Historic Landmark makes it an unforgettable choice for meetings or retreats. Meals are served in the Trustee’s Office Dining Room or may be catered in the meeting spaces. Three historic buildings can accommodate meetings and weddings, ranging from 30-200 guests.

This beautiful seetting was used as the background our Footpack Weekend where Basset Hounds and Beagles showed of their tracking skills. For complete photos of the grounds and events click here.

Spiral Staircase in Shaker Village of Pleasent Hill

One of a pair of spiral staircases in the Trustee’s Guest House in Shaker Village of  Pleasent Hill in Kentucky.

The Trustees’ Office and Guest House, built in 1839-1841 by Micajah Burnett, housed the offices of the legal and financial leaders of the Shaker community at Pleasant Hill, and provided lodging to traveling Shakers.

The north-facing brick building measures fifty by fifty-three feet and rests on a high exposed limestone basement. The off-axis kitchen ell measures thirty-four by sixty-five feet. Like all of the brick buildings at Pleasant Hill, Burnett used a combination of noggin framed and solid brick. The facade is divided into three bays with unusually wide triple-light windows. The front door has a shallow sunburst fanlight and four pane sidelights. A graceful brick archivolt frames the doorway. On center with the front door is a single attic-story cupola dormer with graceful arched sash window.

We stayed on the third floor of this building (no elevator) durng the “Foot Pack Weekend” hosted there which featured hunting Basset Hounds and Beagles. Click here to see a complete set of photos.

Inauguration Day

Inauguration day at Missouri’s State Capitol. High above the main floor of the rotunda spectators can watch all of the festivities below.

Dominating the skyline in all directions, Missouri’s state Capitol is a monument to its citizens. The building rests upon a limestone bluff on the south bank of the Missouri River. It is 437 feet long and 300 feet wide at its center. The top of the dome towers 262 feet above the basement floor. The building, which covers 3 acres and has 500,000 square feet of floor space, is literally a museum of public art, remarkable not only for its quality and abundance, but as a faithful reflection of the themes, events and people of Missouri.

Lone Elk Park Resident

A fun place to visit in St. Louis is Lone Elk Park. The park is a wildlife management area, with bison, wild turkey, waterfowl, elk and deer. 

The park acreage was once part of the Tyson Valley Powder Plant used for the testing and storage of ammunition during WWII. After the War, the area served as a County Park, and in 1948 herds of elk and bison were established. The land was re-acquired by the Federal Government during the Korean War, and for safety reasons the wildlife herds were destroyed in 1958. However, one lone bull elk survived.

In 1964 St. Louis County reacquired a portion of the original tract from the General Services Administration and in 1966 the name was changed from Tyson Park to Lone Elk County Park. Six additional elk were obtained from Yellowstone National Park in 1966 through the efforts of the children of the Rockwood School District and West St. Louis County Lions Club.

The park is mostly in a wooded area where you can drive through and see their collection of Elk and Bison. This photo was taken from my car of an Elk on the side of the road.

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Village Church

While exploring the Augusta wine country I drove through the little village of Femme Osage and spotted this church. There is a creek that runs in front of the church so to get there you have to cross an old narrow bridge or cross a low water bridge. The little church was so inviting that my friend that was with me decided we would attend their Sunday service. It was time will spent.

Femme Osage Church, founded in 1833, as the first German Evangelical Church west of the Mississippi River. The church pictured, erected in 1888 is the third structure to house this congregation. The foundation of the current church was constructed using the stones from the previous church. It is situated on the Cappeln-Osage Road in the beautiful Femme Osage Valley, north of Augusta, Missouri.

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Peace Church

The Old Peace Chapel was built in New Melle in the 1800s and originally was a general store and dance hall. At the turn of the century, the building was purchased by a German Evangelical congregation and remodeled into a church. The church was moved to the Daniel Boone site in 1983. Today, it is the centerpiece of the village. Guests not only enjoy the craftsmanship and detail of the church, but also the sound of the pipe organ playing from the overhead balcony.

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Exploring St. Charles County and beyond

Exploring the land of Gottfried Duden and his expoits in St. Charles County. In 1829, he published at his own expense 1500 copies of a small book titled Report on a Journey to the Western States of North America in Elberfeld Germany. In 1909, eighty years after Duden’s Report was published, A.B. Faust described Duden with, “His skillful pen mingled fact and fiction, interwove experience and imagination, pictured the freedom of the forest and of democratic institutions in contrast with the social restrictions and political embarrassments of Europe. Many thousands of Germans pondered over this book and enthused over its sympathetic glow. Innumerable resolutions were made to cross the ocean and build for the present and succeeding generations happy homes on the far-famed Missouri. See more of my photos of rural Missouri: https://greatrivers.smugmug.com/Galleries/Rural-Missouri

Early morning in Marthasville

I spent the weekend tracking down Daniel Boone. Boone came to Missouri at age 65 with his wife and several children. He acquired 850 acres not far from Defiance Missouri but lived mostly with his son at what is now known as the Daniel Boone Home. This photo is a place near Marthasville, Missouri adjacent to Boone’s burial site.

The area boasts of Boone lore, German Heritage and great wineries. Augusta is nearby with a number of wineries, antique shops and interesting general stores. A fun area to visit.

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Pagoda Cricle

Forest Park

Interesting clouds circle the Nathan Frank Bandstand in Forest Park. This lake and bandstand sit in front of the Forest Park’s Municipal (Muni) Opera. This is an amphitheatre located in St. Louis, Missouri with that seats 11,000 people with about 1,500 free seats in the last nine rows that are available on a first come, first served basis. The Muny seasons run every year from mid-June to mid-August.

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