Moving up into the hills of St. Joseph, we encounter the Patee House Hotel (pronounced “Pay-tea,” no accent on the first e), which played a critical role as the offices for the Pony Express and is now an eclectic and fun museum.
Heavily influenced by an early Italianate style, the most stylish hotel in St. Joseph before the Civil War shows the clear markings of an architect looking at Italian Renaissance palazzo design, as I talked about a little while back.
The double brackets make for a nice cornice, while bricks are used exclusively for quoining and pilasters.
I suspect the hotel might be the product of several building campaigns.
The lintels may be cast irons but I could not examine them closely enough.
It’s a great example of high style making it out to the frontier; there just wasn’t much European settlement to the west of here at the time.
Union officers stayed at the hotel during the Civil War.
There is a small Chinoiserie building in the back parking lot.
Down the hill is another private museum where the stables were located for the horses. It is worth seeing, as well.
