#13 – Why did Henry Shaw name the house Tower Grove?

Stop at Sassafras grove / photo original look of TGH

The land that is known today as the Missouri Botanical Garden was discovered by Shaw as he explored the territory surrounding the city of St. Louis. It was a wide and seemingly endless expanse of tall-grass prairie, with few trees, except for a small grove of sassafras growing on a low hill. Shaw purchased the land and determined to establish a country home on the property.

Shaw retired at the young age of 39. Years later prior to his last trip abroad he hired prominent local architect George I. Barnett to design his country home, a two-story Italian-style villa of painted brick. Completed in 1851, the house featured an asymmetrical design, with two high-ceilinged stories on Shaw’s western half, three low-ceilinged stories on the servants’ eastern half, and a tall tower in the center. Approaching from afar, the home’s tall tower and the sassafras grove were the first objects visible. For this reason Shaw gave the name, Tower Grove, to his country estate.