“Step inside that beautiful stone structure in Bee Tree Park”

Author: KSDK Staff
Published: 12/10/2015 12:15:50 PM

It is a door that has rarely been opened to the public since about 2000 when the Golden Eagle River Museum moved out.

A beautiful place Esley Hamilton knows better than most.

"This was designed for Eugene Nims, who was the president of the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company, and his wife, who has my favorite name in St. Louis history Lotawana Flateau Nims," Hamilton explains.

It was their weekend home, a house designed by the top St. Louis architectural firm of the period.

"One of the things that so distinctive about Maritz and Young houses is they tended to work with the same team of craftsmen."

So there's interesting ironwork inside and out, a unique staircase and a few different types of flooring, but maybe the coolest part of Nims Mansion is on the porch.

"So on a hot summer day this is where they'd sleep?" I ask.

It is a second story screened in sleeping porch.