Grant's White Haven

 This morning I drove from just north of Little Rock, to St Louis.   Hiram Ulysses Grant was stationed in St Louis as a young lieutenant before the Mexican War.   His West Point friend took him to his childhood home where the young US Grant met his friend's sister, Julia Dent.   A long and slow courtship ensued.   The Dent family had about 800 acres.   The house was White Haven.    When Grant acquired the house and some of the land, he had the house painted "Paris Green"    They say it's because it was an expensive color and he wanted to show that he was a man of means!  

The name US Grant is due to a clerical error at West Point, and the name stuck.

The National Park Service administers this house and they are doing a fine job.   It took them many years to restore the house to the way it was when Julia and Ulysses lived there.  NPS moves their people around, I guess.  The staff at White Haven wanted to know if I had seen their friend Ashton at Clinton's boyhood home.   He was my tour guide and had asked me to convey greetings to them!

A feature I really liked was a little video that showed what meal time was like between Julia, Grant, and Julia's father.   The video screen is the mirror over the fireplace!

An interesting feature in the house:  this picture shows the construction of the walls.   Heavy timbers, covered with wooden laths, and then plastered.    I remember that my grandparents' house upstairs had wood lath covered with wall paper.    I guess sheet rock is a recent thing!

Much of the land that was once the Dent farm is now called Grant's Farm, right down the street, and is owned by the Busch family.   The farm was closed today, but I spotted a number of the Clydesdales in the pastures!

I stopped at the Illinois welcome center.   It took me a few minutes to figure out the sign in front of the building.   These are the little figures that are on all the Google Maps!

I got to Springfield in time to take a short bike ride.   I should have driven to the trailhead, as the street I took from the hotel to the trail is not very bike-friendly, but the trail was nice.

Tomorrow I will try to leave the hotel early, as I will visit three places before stopping at Pam and Cy's home in Chicago