Henry Chouteau was the son of Auguste Chouteau, co-founder of St. Louis and patriarch of the city's most prominent early family. The family's land holdings in this area originated when Auguste purchased Pierre de Laclède's estate in 1778-79, acquiring the gristmill, a dam, and the lake that became known as Chouteau's Pond — roughly 100 acres stretching westward toward what is now Union Station and northward to Market Street. Henry Chouteau's mansion stood on a peninsula of this property, jutting into the pond on the block later occupied by the Four Courts Building. Henry (b. 1805) was killed at age 50 in the Gasconade Bridge train disaster of November 1, 1855, one of the deadliest rail disasters in Missouri history — 31 to 43 prominent St. Louis citizens died when the newly completed Pacific Railroad bridge over the Gasconade River collapsed as the inaugural excursion train crossed it. After Henry's death and the filling of Chouteau's Pond (drained formally 1851-52, finished being filled during the Civil War era), the land was assembled by the city and the Four Courts Building was erected on the block in 1869-70. The mansion's clearance thus marks the end of Chouteau family presence on one of the most historically layered blocks in downtown St. Louis.
