Eliza Haycraft's Final Home Site
The last home of a woman who rose from sex work to become a wealthy St. Louis property owner.
Eliza Haycraft became one of antebellum St. Louis's most unusual fortunes, acquiring property before her death in 1871.
The Story
Eliza Haycraft arrived in St. Louis as a young woman and became associated with prostitution, but her larger historical significance lies in the property and wealth she accumulated in a period when women's economic independence was sharply constrained.
By the time of her death in 1871, Haycraft had become a notable property owner and a figure whose life complicates simple accounts of women, sex work, and power in nineteenth-century St. Louis.
Her final home stood on St. Charles Street between Fifth and Sixth streets. The old streetscape is gone; the site is now part of modern downtown.
What Remains Today
Visiting Information
Location
Historic St. Charles Street between 5th and 6th Streets, St. Louis, Missouri — now the Stifel Bank area
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