Faust Park

Another weekend, another trip to a St. Louis County Park. This time it was Faust Park in Chesterfield, which is located on a tract of land that once belonged to the second governor of Missouri, Frederick Bates. Bates acquired 1,000 acres on the southern bank of the Missouri River in 1808 and 1809. At that time, Bates was the Secretary for the Upper Louisiana Territory and Recorder of Titles.

Bates became Governor in 1824, succeeding Alexander McNair who had served since Missouri’s admission to the Union in 1821.
Although Bates talked a great deal about farming, he found little time to practice it due to political duties and lack of a labor force. Bates owned 10 slaves, but only two were men, not enough to plant and harvest any large crops. His letters indicate that he cultivated peach trees to make peach brandy as a cash crop, and an orchard of old varieties of peach trees has been planted in the park in memory of Frederick Z. Stith. Governor Bates died in 1825 at the age of 48 and is buried at Thornhill with his wife, who died in 1877. Two of his children were also buried there but later moved to Bellefontaine Cemetery, leaving the stones in the family plot. Two other people whose connection to the estate is unknown are also buried in the family cemetery. The Thornhill complex, including the main house, the two barns, granary, and other outbuildings, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1974. The smokehouse and icehouse have been reconstructed, and one of the log outbuildings was renovated as a distillery in 1988.

In the spring and summer of 1979, archaeological excavations took place on the Thornhill estate. Finds indicates that the bluff on which Thornhill is located was more or less continuously used by the pre-historic populations between 8000 BC and 1000 AD. Animal remains found there include the armadillo, mountain lion, timber wolf, American bison, American elk, and bear, none of which are now found in the wilds of Missouri, with the exception of an occasional black bear in Southern Missouri.

The St. Louis Carousel was created by the Gustav Dentzel Company of Philadelphia about 1920 and opened at the Forest Park, Highlands Amusement Park in 1929. It has 64 hand carved animals and 2 chariots. This carousel was acquired by Howard Ohlendorf and donated to St. Louis County in 1963. Following a complete restoration the Carousel opened at Faust Park on May 9, 1987, an event celebrated by the first St. Louis performance by Circus Flora. The circus continued to perform at the park for several years.

The park is also home to the Sophia M. Sachs Butterfly House and Education Center which opened in 1998. The site includes an indoor and outdoor butterfly garden and two large sculptures by St. Louis sculptor Robert Cassilly.