History of the Main Street Inn Bed & Breakfast
Ste. Genevieve MO

It began as a tragedy. In 1880, an explosion rocked the steam-powered Cone (flour) Mill critically injuring the owner Martin Meyer. Two years later, Martin's widow, Mary, opened the Meyer Hotel just 400 or so feet from the site of her husband's death using his insurance money for construction.

The new hotel was a grand edifice, built in the 2nd Empire French style: three stories high made of locally cast brick set on a massive limestone foundation, two double wide parlors with central hall on the first floor, four guest rooms on the second, and six rooms for servants on the third – all connected by a grand walnut staircase. A scrap of dark green velvet trimmed with gold braid, a few pieces of ornate furniture, some pressed glass decanters, and an ironstone pitcher and bowl are all of the interior accessories that remain from this early period. Insurance maps show several outbuildings: a drummers' hall where salesmen displayed their wares to local merchants (only foundation stones remain), a small brick building used over the years as both a smokehouse and a chicken coop, and a brick summer kitchen (still standing). Foundation bricks from the privies have also been located.

In 1884 Mary Meyer married again, this time to entrepreneur William Baumstark. Mr. Baumstark installed electric lights in the hotel sometime before 1907, added a two story wing dramatically increasing the size of the dining room and creating three additional guest rooms. He also built a connecting tavern on the south side of the main structure at about the same time. The hotel became a popular eating and drinking establishment for travelers passing through Ste. Genevieve by train or riverboat. The hotel gardens were legendary (referred to in one contemporary source as "magnificent"). The adjoining property, a stone house originally built by Eloy LeCompte in 1820, the original home of Martin & Mary Meyer, became the Meyer Hotel Annex.

By the late 1920s Mary & William had passed on. Their heirs sold the hotel to a Dr. & Mrs. Sample, but because the Samples were teetotalers and not interested in the tavern, the bar was sold to a separate party. Over the years the tavern changed hands many times until it was purchased by the current owners in the late 1990s and converted into a luxurious spa room on the west end and a small antique shop on the east end.

The Great Depression and Prohibition took their toll on Ste. Genevieve's business district and the hotel. By the 1940s, the grand old building had lost its luster and became a rooming house. The downstairs parlors were converted to multiple bed rooms. Indoor bathrooms were added, ceilings were dropped, and fireplaces plastered over. The formerly luxurious lighting fixtures were reduced to bare hanging bulbs, velvet draperies were replaced by venetian blinds. Only a few pieces of the beautiful old furniture escaped being burned for fuel in the newly installed steam boiler. (A practice which may have led to the unfortunate fire in 1939 which forced the closing of several rooms.)

Finally, in 1975, following the death of Mrs. Sample, daughter Betty, simply closed the doors and stopped taking guests. She was living in the building as a virtual recluse when the current owners purchased the property from her in 1991. Two years later, after extensive renovation, the Meyer Hotel re-emerged in the spring of 1993 as the Main Street Inn Bed & Breakfast.

Once again the grand old building is proud to offer overnight guests comfortable, quietly elegant surroundings — accommodations that would probably bring a smile to William & Mary Baumstark.