The Patee House Museum is a cornucopia of all things St. Joseph, Missouri (city slogan: “Where the Pony Express began and Jesse James ended.”) Patee House is St. Joseph’s only National Historic Landmark. Built in 1858 as a luxury hotel, the Patee House served as headquarters for the Pony Express from 1860 to 1861. Around the corner from the Museum is the former home of infamous outlaw Jesse James, the place where he was shot and killed by Robert Ford in 1882.
The Patee House stands four stories tall, resembles a red brick warehouse, and occupies a full city block. Only two of the floors are used for exhibits, but the Museum manages to squeeze in lots of great stuff. And some of it is interactive: you can climb aboard a train from the 1860s, and ride the vintage “Wild Thing” carousel.
Other things in the Patee House Museum’s eclectic collection include:
- a stagecoach;
- horse-drawn hearses;
- a case filled with old steam whistles (you can toot them by pushing a button);
- a wall of pistols and shotguns used by people in St. Joseph to murder people;
- a 1,050-pound ball of string;
- an exhibit on Robert Wadlow, then the world’s tallest man, who came to St. Joseph to sue a local doctor for writing an article that was critical of giants;
- a display of antique light bulbs;
- 1960s-vintage cameras and sets from KQTV, the local television station;
- the dental office of the father of broadcaster Walter Cronkite, a native of St. Joseph;
- a wagon-maker’s blacksmith shop;
- the gallows from the Buchanan County jail (never used);
- George Warfel “Westerners on Wood” art collection of 42 life-sized portraits of famous westerners; and
- vintage fire trucks from the 1920s.
One highlight of the Patee House Museum for my five year old son was the steam engine with the mail car attached to it. In order to install the display, the Museum knocked down one of its four-story brick walls, dragged the train on newly-built tracks, and then built the wall back up.
The mail car is a replica of the car built to speed mail from Hannibal, Missouri to St. Joseph and then on to the Pony Express. Unfortunately, the original car was not finished until 1862, almost a year after the Pony Express went broke.
The other highlight was the “Wild Thing” carousel. Renowned carousel animal maker Bruce White created all of the animals on the 1941 vintage merry-go-round and donated it to the Museum when the local mall no longer wanted it. Mr. White is one of the most prolific makers of carousel animals. He supplies Applebee’s Restaurants with their carousel animals, and the first copy of Ms. Applebee runs in a circle on the Wild Thing.
The Patee House Museum was listed by True West magazine as one of America’s Top 10 Western Museums in 2008, and it is one of 1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die. It’s located in the historic museum district in downtown St. Joseph, Missouri.
All photos by Doug Cornelius. You can see more on Flickr: Patee House Museum in St. Joseph, Missouri.
