Historic Hanley House (Martin Franklin Hanley House)

Martin Franklin Hanley, an ardent Confederate sympathizer during the Civil War, directed the creation of this historic home in 1855. The farmstead was operated by people Hanley enslaved and initially stood on a little more than 100 acres of land. In 1876, Martin and his wife, Cyrene, joined their neighbor, Ralph Clayton, to donate 104 acres of land to help establish Clayton as the County Seat. The Hanley farmstead is the oldest structure in the City of Clayton. The property has been maintained as a museum since 1971, and staff have recently digitized some of the records about the operation of the property in the antebellum period.

The Hanley family consisted of Martin Hanley (who migrated from Virginia to Clayton in 1834 at age twenty), his wife Cyrene, and their eleven children. To operate the large farmstead, they relied on the work of enslaved persons. Like many Clayton residents at the time, the Hanleys actively supported the Confederacy during the Civil War. At one point, early in the War, seventy-five U.S. soldiers occupied the land and home while a group of Confederate soldiers hid in the Hanley's woods. 

After establishing himself as a blacksmith and merchant, Hanley built a two-story farmhouse. In addition to working as a blacksmith and a merchant and managing the plantation, Hanley served as Justice of the Peace and operated a tavern. He made plows and farming implements for many prominent St. Louis families. Martin Hanley died in 1879 at age sixty-five, leaving the house to his wife. Their daughter, Nancy, lived in the historic home until she died in 1938. She continued demonstrating the family's allegiance to the old American South by displaying a Confederate flag on her porch every year to mark the birth of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Nancy Hanley's niece, Miss Barbara Yore, occupied the house after Nancy died and possessed the home until 1968 when she sold it and transferred the one remaining acre of property to the City of Clayton. Restoration efforts commenced once in the city's control, and the house transitioned into a museum that opened to the public in 1971. Today the museum focuses on the story of the Hanley Family and the general idea of a nineteenth-century Missouri farmer. Historic cabins where enslaved persons lived remain on the property.

Bleeke, Laura. "History at Home: A Look at the Local Hanley House." globe. November 11, 2011. https://www.chsglobe.com/12864/features/history-at-home-a-look-at-the-local-hanley-house/.

"Hanley House, Clayton, Missouri." All About Clayton, Missouri. 2023. http://www.all-about-clayton.com/hanley-house-clayton.htm.

Hannah, Shelia M. "Nomination Form: Martin Franklin Hanley House." National Register of Historic Places. mostateparks.com. 1971. https://mostateparks.com/sites/mostateparks/files/Hanley%2C%20Martin%20Franklin%2C%20House.pdf. 

"Historic Hanley House." AboutStLouis.com. Accessed May 20, 2023. https://aboutstlouis.com/local/historic/historic-hanley-house.

"History." City of Clayton. Accessed May 21, 2023. https://www.claytonmo.gov/government/history.

Leonard, Mary Delach. "Take Five: New local book will tell the story of Clayton's first 100 years as a city." NPR: St. Louis Public Radio. August 17, 2012. https://news.stlpublicradio.org/arts/2012-08-17/take-five-new-local-book-will-tell-the-story-of-claytons-first-100-years-as-a-city.

Voigt, Jason. "Historic Hanley House." The Historical Marker Database. February 8, 2020. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=145212.