Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site, in St. Louis, Missouri, is a memorial to the life, military career, and presidency of Ulysses S. Grant. The site consists of a farm called White Haven, where Grant once lived and worked. Grant commanded victorious Union forces during the American Civil War (1861-1865) and served as the 18th president of the United States.
After graduating from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1843, Grant was assigned to an infantry regiment stationed near St. Louis. While there, Grant often visited the home of Frederick Dent, his friend and classmate, at White Haven farm. There, Grant met and fell in love with Frederick’s sister, Julia Dent. Julia married Grant in 1848, after Grant returned from fighting in the Mexican War. Julia’s father, also named Frederick, gave the couple a plot of farmland near White Haven. In 1854, Grant built a two-story log cabin there and named it Hardscrabble. After Julia’s mother died in 1855, Grant and his wife moved to White Haven. Grant worked both farms, growing wheat, potatoes, vegetables, and a variety of other crops. The Grants left White Haven in 1859 and lived elsewhere, but they owned the property until 1885 and managed it through a caretaker.
The Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site preserves five of the original buildings of White Haven: the house, the summer kitchen, the barn, the chicken house, and the ice house. A visitors’ center inside the barn displays exhibits that deal with Grant’s life and career. The wooded grounds are home to a number of species of wildlife. Many kinds of birds, and such animals as raccoons, woodchucks, rabbits, squirrels, and red foxes, roam the property.
White Haven was established as a national historic site in 1990. The National Park Service operates and maintains the restored property.
