Mullanphy Emigrant Home welcomed and helped our ancestors
By Sean Thomas
04/10/2007
Twenty-five years before Ellis Island was commissioned as a port of entry for immigrants, the Mullanphy Emigrant Home opened its doors less than a mile from the banks of the Mississippi, providing temporary shelter and supportive services to thousands of immigrants arriving in St. Louis. Today, after 140 years of different uses that have reflected the city's evolution, the Mullanphy Emigrant Home building is on the verge of physical collapse.
Yet it also is possible that the Mullanphy building — perhaps like the city of St. Louis itself — is about to be rescued from its seemingly hopeless fate to become an enduring symbol of the urban core's resilience and rebirth.
If the most widely known symbol of our city, the Gateway Arch, is a monument to those who passed through St. Louis and kept going, the 1867 Mullanphy Emigrant Home building honors those who came to St. Louis from all over the world and put down roots.
With the warmth and hospitality of the Mullanphy Emigrant Home, the city welcomed these "tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free" and benefited greatly from its open-door policy. Many who stayed at or received support from the Mullanphy Emigrant Home joined the city's laboring class that by the end of the 19th century literally had built St. Louis into one of America's most cosmopolitan and populous cities.
In the later 1800s, the Mullanphy building also housed Douglas School during a time of rapid expansion of the public school system, and in the 20th century it was used as a manufacturing facility, reflecting the industrialization of the city's economy.
In the past few decades, the building suffered from years of neglect, abandonment and a run of bad luck — not unlike large areas of the city itself. Last year, the building was hit by tornadic winds that knocked out much of its south wall, and just 11 days ago, powerful wind gusts barreled through that opening and blasted holes in two other walls.
Although some observers thought this signaled the imminent demise of the Mullanphy building, neighborhood leaders in Old North St. Louis and preservationists from around the city are pulling together to save it.
Indeed, the story of the Mullanphy building is as much about the future as it is about the past. Just a few blocks to its north, the rehabilitation of once-crumbling historic buildings has contributed to the revitalization under way in the Old North St. Louis neighborhood. Several blocks to the south, the redevelopment of abandoned warehouses has stimulated a dynamic new atmosphere along Washington Avenue. The same can happen in the area surrounding the Mullanphy building.
In November, the Old North St. Louis Restoration Group acquired the storm-damaged building with the intention of stabilizing it for future redevelopment. The first step, however, was to secure and stabilize the building.
Using some of its own organizational funds, about $10,000 in small contributions from a few dozen individuals and donated services of E.M. Harris Construction Co., ONSLRG began stabilization work in January. It was that initial shoring that held the south end of the building together when the building took its second hit in late March.
Despite the recent setback, support for Mullanphy's preservation has been growing:
— Landmarks Association declared the building one of the "most endangered" historic buildings in St. Louis, and Missouri Preservation added the building to its statewide most-endangered list.
— Individuals and groups from throughout the city have joined the Historic Mullanphy Alliance, a task force established by ONSLRG to spread the word about the building and raise funds for its preservation.
— An article in Preservation Online, a Web-based publication of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, has helped to get the message out to a national audience.
As a result, contributions have started coming in from citizens around town and from across the country, including Virginia, Michigan and California. To finish the job and preserve what has been referred to as the "Ellis Island of the Heartland," ONSLRG needs to raise approximately $350,000.
That's a lot of money — the equivalent of about $1 for each resident of the city — but considering that many of the ancestors of today's St. Louisans passed through the doors of the Mullanphy Emigrant Home, it is a small price to keep the landmark around for future generations.
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