Eugene Field House, St. Louis, Missouri.Photo byEfhmuseum, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The historic name for this building is Field House. It's at 634 South Broadway in St. Louis, Missouri. It's also known as the Eugene Field House. This building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 19, 1975. On March 29, 2007, it was listed as a National Historic Landmark. It's also a St. Louis Landmark.

The Field House was the home of Roswell Field, attorney for slave, Dred Scott. His case of 1857, Scott v. Sandford, was a very controversial U.S. Supreme Court case. It's still significant.

At one time, this historic house was in a stylish neighborhood with a different address, and is now in a commercialized area. Today, it's the only piece left of Walsh's Row, which was a block of row houses built around 1845 as rental homes. Because it was the early childhood home of Eugene Field, the son of Roswell Field, it was spared demolition in 1934.

Eugene Field, Sr. (Sept. 2, 1850 – Nov. 4, 1895) was an American writer known for children's poetry and other essays. He was only 45 when he died. He's been referred to as the children's poet or the poet of childhood.

Eugene Fields, American writer.Photo byunknown author, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Between 1936 and 1968, the house was dedicated as the Eugene Field House. It became a museum and was maintained by the St. Louis Board of Education. In 1968, the Landmarks Association of St. Louis, Inc. took over maintenance.

In 1981, the house was turned over to the Eugene Field House Foundation. According to the Field House Museum website, while the house is closed to the public because of restoration due to a previous pipe burst, the museum's galleries are open.

In 2001, the Eugene Field House Foundation acquired the land where the adjoining row houses to the north used to stand. It did so for future expansion of a building to house temporary exhibits based on the career of Roswell Field and his association with the Dred Scott decision.

Eugene Field's life and his passion for literature and toys are part of the story too. His extensive collection of toys is at the Eugene Field House and Museum.

Backstory

The Field House is important because of its association with Roswell Martin Field and his representation of Dred Scott, a slave who sued for his freedom and spent a decade fighting for that freedom. Field lived in the house from 1850 to 1857.

The U.S. Supreme Court had decided that since Scott was an American slave, he wasn't a U.S. Citizen and therefore, could not sue. The court also said the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which forbade slavery in certain territories was unconstitutional. It was because of Roswell Field the case ultimately became a landmark decision.

Initially, Dred Scott went to the state courts to sue for his freedom. While he won his freedom in a jury trial in the 1852 case of Scott v. Emerson, the Missouri Supreme Court overturned the decision. At the time of this decision, Irene Sanford Emerson, Scott's owner, transferred ownership to her brother, John F.A. Sanford.

Sanford, at the time, was viewed as a New York State resident since he lived there. With that fact, Roswell Field came up with a strategy for Scott to sue Sanford in federal court. That's referred to as diversity of state citizenship where both parties reside in different states. Here, this was the first time an African American ever used diversity jurisdiction to sue another in federal court.

The question posed was whether an African American man with ancestral slaves could be a citizen of a state and a citizen of the United States, and sue in federal court. In the St. Louis trial, U.S. District Judge Robert W. Wells agreed with Field. If Scott was free, then he could sue. However, the jury ultimately found in favor of Sanford and Scott remained a slave.

Even with that decision, Scott could appeal it to the U.S. Supreme Court. The result was Chief Justice Roger B. Taney's opinion in Dred Scott v. Sandford finding in 1857 that living in a free state and territory did not entitle Scott to his freedom because he was enslaved (another person's property), hence, he wasn't a citizen. This decision outraged abolitionists and was a stepping stone to the Civil War.

When the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision, Irene Sanford had married her second husband, Calvin Chaffee. Chaffee was a U.S. congressman and abolitionist. He was upset to learn Irene still owned Scott, so he sold Scott and his family to Taylor Blow, the son of Scott's original owner.

Taylor freed Scott and his family on May 26, 1857. Scott found work as a porter in a St. Louis hotel, but didn’t live long as a free man. At about 59 years of age, Scott died from tuberculosis on September 17, 1858. (Source.)

The house

The land where Walsh's Row was constructed including the Field House, was owned by Pierre Laclede (founder of St. Louis). When Laclede died, his estate sold the property to Auguste Chouteau. In 1820 when Chouteau died, the land was transferred to the City of St. Louis stipulating that any revenue be used for public schools.

In the 1840s, the property was originally developed by Edward Walsh. It contained 12 identical three-story row houses. It was a convenient place to live for merchants and professionals because it was close to the riverfront business district.

As the riverfront section declined, the row fell into disrepair. In 1934, the property was saved from being razed and turned into a parking lot. The public lobbied to preserve the house where Eugene Field was born.

Insurance agents, Jesse P. Henry and Carl P. Daniel, said they would bear the cost of preserving Field's birthplace. Once restored, the house was opened to the public in December 1936.

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