White Haven: Ulysses S Grant National Historic Site
U.S. NPS
SITE
7400 Grant Rd,
St. Louis, MO 63123
Daily 9am - 5pm
Parking - has its own parking lot adjacent to the Visitor Center. Parking is free, but visitors who leave to visit Grant's Farm across the street or to use Grant's Trail must remove their vehicles from the park.
Orientation Film - 22min
Park Museum - 20-30min
Tours
- offered daily,
- top of each hour btw 10am-4pm,
- 1st come 1st basis
- 20min
HISTORY
The White Haven estate was built between 1812 and 1816 and was the childhood home of Julia Dent Grant. Julia recalled fond memories of family bonding at White Haven. She later boasted that "our home was then really the showplace of the county, having very fine orchards of peaches, apples, apricots, nectarines, plums, cherries, grapes, and all of the then rare small fruits."
Frederick Fayette Dent was the father of Julia Dent Grant, father-in-law of Ulysses S. Grant, and the owner of the White Haven estate in St. Louis, Missouri for more than forty years. After meeting his wife Ellen and starting a family, the Dents moved to St. Louis by 1819. Frederick Dent became a successful merchant and land speculator. The Dents originally rented a city home but soon accumulated enough money to purchase a second home twelve miles away in the St. Louis countryside the following year. Frederick Dent called this country home "White Haven," after one of his family's plantations in Maryland. As his wealth grew, Dent added land and purchased enslaved laborers to work the property. By 1830 White Haven was 850 acres and worked by eighteen enslaved African Americans (this number would increase to thirty by 1850). Signifying his desired status as a Southern gentleman, Dent referred to himself as "Colonel," although he never held this rank during the War of 1812.
Upon graduating from the U.S. Military academy at West Point in 1843, a young officer named Ulysses S. Grant was stationed with the U.S. Army at Jefferson Barracks, a military post five miles south of White Haven. Ulysses met Julia at White Haven and they fell in love, later marrying in 1848. After serving for eleven years in the U.S. Army, Grant resigned his commission and decided to try his hand at farming at White Haven. From 1854 to 1859, the Grant and Dent families, along with enslaved African American laborers, lived and worked at White Haven. As Ulysses S. Grant rose to prominence as the victorious general of the American Civil War and the country's 18th president, his connections to White Haven continued. Grant purchased the property after the Civil War and hired a caretaker to live at the main house and manage the farm. During his presidency, Grant invested money to make the farm a horse breeding operation. He also helped design a large stable for his horses that was completed in 1871. The Grants considered retiring to White Haven at some point in time, and President Grant recalled in a speech that St. Louis was one of the only places he had ever felt a connection to. Plans changed, however, and the Grants eventually retired to New York City after the completion of their world tour in 1879. Ulysses and Julia nevertheless continued to visit White Haven on a periodic basis after the Civil War. Their last visit to the home together was in 1883, and they owned the property until a few months before Ulysses died in July 1885.
