Patee House – St. Joseph Mo

Connected with the James House in St. Joseph is an erstwhile luxury hotel called the Patee House after its founder, John Patee, built as part of the development of the Hannibal-St. Joseph Railroad and the eastern terminus of the Pony Express. One large room on the ground floor was the dispatch center. where for five dollars per half ounce one could post a letter to California. A rider, carefully recruited from among young, equestrian (preferably) orphan men, literally rode into the dispatch office, accepted his pouch, and set out for the setting sun at full gallop.

Remnants of the luxury hotel remain at the front end of the building, including ladies’ and gentlemen’s parlors, the grand ballroom, pianos, pump organs, and sample hotel rooms, but the back 3/4 of the building is devoted to a museum of the west, with strange and wonderful varieties of exhibits and artifacts, including telephones and telephone switching equipment, radio receivers, movie posters, fire engines, a steam locomotive and tender, train memorabilia, store mock-ups, spittoons, racing cars, and a tribute to Aunt Jemima and Quaker Oats, both having their start in St. Joseph.