When the Missouri History Museum was creating its new exhibit A Walk in 1875 St. Louis, not surprisingly it turned to the National Building Arts Center to enhance the display with building artifacts. The exhibit presents a look at St. Louis in the year that Compton & Dry published their famous bird’s-eye perspective, Pictorial St. Louis. Curator Andrew Wanko worked with the Center to include remnants of a flounder-style house once located in LaSalle Park known as “Hlas House.” The house likely dated to the 1850s.

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The flounder-style house once standing at 1611 South 11th Street became the home of the Bohemian Publishing Society — the first Czech Catholic national publishing house in America — from 1908-1954. At this address, the Society published Hlas (“Voice”), an influential Czech-language newspaper. When the house was wrecked, Center founder Larry Giles recovered the entrance and a window complete with enframement, sash and shutters. These fully-restored items greet visitors to A Walk in 1875 St. Louis, setting the historic scene.

The installation can be seen as part of the exhibit through February 16, 2016.