Director

The Tootle Opera House brought a national touring act, Maggie Mitchell, to the stage on opening night. On December 9th, 1872, gas lighting through the theater was snuffed out as Milton and company watched a play about a feral young woman named Fanchon, whose mom is a witch that lives in a forest. In the end, Fanchon agrees to marry her lover, whom she met by rescuing him, but only if his father asks her. The Morning Herald wrote the following day, Dec 10th, 1872 - “MILTON TOOTLE, ESQ., is one of our wealthiest and worthiest citizens. Possessed of ample means and fully appreciating our necessity for a public hall of increased capacity, he determined, about one year ago, to erect at his own expense an opera house that would be an ornament to the city and for years to come reflect credit upon us.”

The Tootle Theater was designed by architect W. Angelo Powell, at the request of Milton Tootle, Sr., in St. Joseph, Missouri in 1872. Located at the corner of 5th and Francis streets, the entrance faced Francis, and had a room built in on either side for storefronts. The theater featured two balconies, a special box for the Tootle family, seating built for comfort, and a gas-lit chandelier.

Tootle Opera House

Included in this tour are the many significant places and structures built and acquired by the Tootle family

Originally home to the Wyeth's and then the Tootles, the Wyeth-Tootle Mansion has been operated by the St. Joseph Museums, Inc. since 1948.The mansions commanding height, its impressive tower and remarkable view of the Missouri River region and bluffs were inspired by the original owners’ trips to castles along the Rhine River in Germany. William and Eliza Wyeth commissioned architect E.J. Eckel to help them realize their grand vision. In fact, Eckel’s architectural vision and talent left a lasting mark on the St. Joseph community, as his firm designed 75% of St. Joseph’s outstanding historical buildings. The widowed Mrs. Kate M. Tootle purchased the home in the spring of 1887 for $100,000 cash. Katherine's home was always the site of high society. Though she had taken over the businesses that Milton Sr. had started, she also kept up their social standing by throwing balls, costume parties, garden parties, and welcoming guests into the home. She raised her children Frances "Fannie" Sublett, Milton Jr., and John J. in the home. Milton Jr. and his wife Lillian raised their three sons in the home. In addition to housing historical and cultural exhibits, the Wyeth-Tootle Mansion hosts community events throughout the summer and fall, including an annual Easter Egg Hunt, Motors to Marigolds Classic Car Show, Mah Jongg, and Holiday Teas. The venue also serves as a wedding, holiday party, and business meeting space. Visitors often experience a “wow” moment at the mansion’s incredible woodwork, ornate patterned floors, and hand-painted ceilings which include images of cherubs and heavenly clouds.The second floor of the Mansion currently hosts exhibits on Historic Preservation and Architecture. The award-winning “Intersections: Of Time and Buildings,” examines the junctures of history, art, architecture and humanities, along with St. Joseph’s past, present and future. “Edifice: The Architecture of E.J. Eckel” commemorates Eckel’s talent and contribution to St. Joseph’s architectural landscape. On the third floor, visitors can learn about the history and science of flooding in the St. Joseph area through, "Confluence: The Great Flood of 1993." This exhibit addresses flooding's physical, economic, and social impact on the surrounding area. The views from the third floor children’s area are some of the most sweeping and expansive in the city.The site boasts some of the most ornately manicured gardens in the City as well as a community vegetable garden. In the spring, summer, and fall it is a lovely picnic area where guests can enjoy the activity of hosts of butterflies attracted to the pollinator garden.

St. Joseph is known for an extensive collection of beautiful mansions built around the turn of the century, and the Wyeth Tootle Mansion at the corner of Eleventh and Charles Streets is a prime example. With three floors, a tower and more than 40 rooms, it stands today as one of the best examples of St. Joseph’s late 19th-century wealth and opulence, featuring stunning woodwork, hand-painted ceilings and imported stained glass.

Wyeth Tootle Mansion

Tootle-Lemon Bank, Sixth & Francis, N.W. corner, 1899.  Designed in 1899 by Edmond Eckel Architects.  This building was later the Tootle-Lacy Bank, and then the Tootle-Enright Bank, and finally the American National Bank.  It was demolished prior to 2011.

Tootle-Lemon/Lacy Bank

Alfred Thomas Smith was the son of Spotswood and Mary Ann Thompson Smith. He was born in 1839 in Cooper County, MO and came to St. Joseph in the 1860s where he established a boot and shoe wholesale business. He married Corrine Cordell Stevens in 1889 and they had four children. With his shoe business booming, A.T. Smith hired Eckel and Mann to craft a home for him at 802 Hall Street. Unfortunately, his business collapsed in the panic of 1893 and the Smith family was never able to live in the home they had constructed. A.T. Smith joined his brothers in the business of Smith-McCord-Townsend Dry Good Company and worked for them until his death in 1907.John James Tootle was a second generation multi-millionaire. His father, Milton Tootle, came to Missouri in 1842, settling in Andrew County. Milton Tootle began his rise to fortune as a clerk at the store of George Smith in Savannah, MO, alongside his two brothers, Thomas and Joseph, and William Fairleigh. In 1849 these partners moved to St. Joseph, establishing Tootles &amp; Fairleigh.In 1860, Milton’s brother Joseph passed away and Thomas withdrew from the company. Milton and William Fairleigh married the sisters, Katherine and Alice O’Neill. Katherine and Milton had three children; a daughter Frances, and two sons, Milton, Jr. and John J. In 1887, the family purchased the Wyeth Mansion at Eleventh and Charles Streets, but Milton, Sr. passed away before they could move into the home. The teenaged children grew up in the mansion and Milton, Jr. resided there with his family for the remainder of his life.John J. Tootle married divorcee Ella Parker in 1896 and adopted her two daughters as his own. They made their home at 1912 Clay Street with a country home at the corner of Thirty-Sixth and Asylum Road called Cloverly (currently the site of the Bishop LeBlonde High School). They had a daughter of their own, Katherine and in 1919 they moved into the former A.T. Smith home at 802 Hall Street.John J. Tootle founded the Missouri Valley Trust Company in 1899, constructing the historic building at Fourth and Felix. He was president of the company until 1919 when he sold it to Frank Boder. After the death of his uncle, Thomas Tootle, in 1908, John J. took over the Tootle Dry Goods Company until his retirement in 1949, one hundred years after the Tootle family business was founded.The home at 802 Hall Street was not completed according to Ellis’ original design, though elements of his style remained. The main facade is asymmetric, as with many of Ellis’ works. There is a mixture of Chateauesque and Romanesque styles with towers and dormers, chimney stacks and steeply pitched roofs. Ornate finials accentuate its roofline. Similar to the McNeely home, the A.T. Smith home featured curved windows accented by heavy columns, tiled fireplaces with marble fronts, a rich woodwork in the interior.

Constructed in the 1890s, this Chateau-Romanesque home was designed by the firm of Eckel and Mann. Alfred Smith, a local shoe merchant, commissioned the home, but  lost his fortune in the panic of 1893. His family never resided in the home which bears his name, but by 1920 802 Hall Street was the home of John J. Tootle, son of multi-millionaire Milton Tootle. 

A.T. Smith/John J. Tootle House

St. Joseph began to be settled sometime before 1830 when fur trader Joseph Robidoux founded a trading post for the American Fur Company. He eventually bought the company's interest in the post in 1830. The location attracted him and other settlers because it was where Blacksnake Creek and Missouri River met. Robidoux filed a plat for the city in 1843 and the city quickly grew (the Platte Purchase of 1837, which opened up Northern Missouri to white settlement, facilitated this growth). When gold was found in California in 1848, St. Joseph became the starting point for the Oregon Trail.  As St. Joseph grew, the need for a local cemetery became apparent. Sadly, disease was prevalent and many people died even before starting off on their journeys west. Residents buried their loved ones on their own property or in cemeteries in other parts of the county. Finally, a civil engineer and businessman named Simeon Kemper bought land for the cemetery. Its naturalistic setting and design made it a popular burial place. It does not appear that it is open to more burials.Established in 1851 and redesigned by noted architect W. Angelo Powell in 1872, Mount Mora Cemetery spans twenty acres and is a beautiful example of the rural garden cemetery movement in landscape architecture. Mount Mora was the preferred burial place for the city’s elite who could afford to hire architects to design their grave markers. The cemetery possesses a significant collection of funerary art including elaborate headstones, as well as twenty-one mausoleums that house some of St. Joseph’s most influential citizens, lining what is known as “Mausoleum Row.”  Not only a final resting place for the city's elite, within the gates of Mount Mora is a significant cross section of St. Joseph history, including approximately 280 civil war veterans, three Missouri governors, Pony Express riders, writers, inventors, musicians, the first licensed embalmer/funeral director in the U.S., and many more. Though its architectural significance hinges on the monuments to the city’s elite, its history is enhanced by the life stories of all those who are buried there.

Added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2006, Mount Mora Cemetery is the oldest cemetery in St. Joseph, Missouri. It was established in the early 1850s to meet the needs of a growing town. People buried here include three Missouri governors, musicians, Civil War officers from both the Union and the Confederacy, Pony Express riders, and governors. Though it was primarily used by the rich, there is a variety of graves from mausoleums to simple headstones, showing the wide range of people interred in the cemetery. The mausoleums, of which there are 30, are particularly notable. Resembling small buildings, their ornate design reflects Egyptian and Classical architecture and the wealth of the those within them.  

Mount Mora Cemetery

News clipping - 1900 December: “A very pretty event took place Christmas night at Cloverly Farm when Misses Hazel and Gladys Tootle received a large number of friends. The hours were devoted to dancing in the large reception hall with Pryor's orchestra. The house was decorated with holly, mistletoe and evergreens. Among the guests were: Misses Berenice and Maud Wyeth, Sara Kennard, Rachel Landis, Katharine Motter, Lettie Lemon, Louise Van Natta, Lillian Tootle, Monette Shoup, Ada Lyon, Louise McDonald, Messrs. Frank and Dave Kennard, Harry Tootle, Grant Duncan, Louis Hax, Walter Landis, Percy Johnson, W. C. Motter, W. D. B. Motter, Jr., Ernest Sipple, Alan Van Natta, Hal Lemon, Webb Steele, Hartley Garlichs, Will Fairleigh, Louis Smith, Will Wyeth, Charles Berry, Barrow Motter, and Irving McDonald.’John James Tootle was the third child of Milton Tootle I and Katherine O'Neill. His brother, Milton Tootle, Jr., was important in St. Joseph banking. John was mainly involved in Tootle Dry Goods, which was begun by his father in 1849. He was President of the Tootle Estate, retiring from all business in 1949.John Tootle was married to Ella Parker, with whom he had one daughter, Catherine. Catherine had one son, Jack, by her first husband, who died when Jack was very small. She remarried to Stanley Birdsall and they moved to St. Joseph. Jack officially took the surname Tootle.In 1906 John Tootle &amp; Ella divorced and Cloverly Farms was awarded to Ella.Jack Tootle, the grandson, was Vice President of Tootle Dry Goods for 23 years. He died in Florida at age 91, in 2009.

Cloverly sat at the present site of Bishop Leblond High School, and was an enormous country home belonging to John J. Tootle. The home featured six Romanesque two story columns on each end and at the front, for a total of eighteen two story columns, twelve windows on the facade, and a porch that wrapped completely around its rectangular footprint. The mansion-style home was designed by E.J. Eckel, Architect, and built in 1899. The home &amp; property was sold to the Catholic Church c. 1923 and operated as an orphanage until 1959. In the 1960s, the home was demolished and Bishop LeBlond High School was built on the site.

Cloverly Farm 

NAtalie and Milton Tootle III lived at 119 N 19th Street. Milton III is Billy Tootle's older brother

Home of Natalie and Milton Tootle III

Tootle-Wheeler-Motter Dry Goods Company, 219-223 N. Fourth Street, 4th &amp; Jules Streets, 1886. Designed in 1886 by Eckel &amp; Mann, Architects.

Tootle-Campbell Dry Goods, Co., formed in 1908 to replace the Tootle-Wheeler-Motter Dry Goods Co. (Which continued as Wheeler-Motter). In that year, the Tootles incorporated with the Campbell's to create a new wholesale distributorship and build a new 8-story building on the SW corner of 4th &amp; Faraon which included a sewing factory where they manufactured overalls, shirts, duck coats, and pants.

Tootle Family History Tour

Tootle Opera House

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources