Patee House Museum

Hotel Patee House was the center of the nation's Westward expansion from the start of the Pony Express to the death of Jesse James. It was opened by John Patee as a luxurious hotel in 1858 to serve travelers as the railroad pushed west to St. Joseph.

The hotel cost $180,000 and had 140 guest rooms. It featured winding stairs to the fourth floor covered with red Brussels carpets.

It is a National Historical Landmark for its role as headquarters for the Pony Express where Russell, Majors and Waddell had their office starting April 3, 1860.

One of St. Joseph's finest museums!

The two things St. Joseph is known for, the start of the Pony Express, and the end of Jesse James both dealt directly with Patee House. Our primary objective is to put across the message that Patee House Museum served as the Pony Express Headquarters from 1860 to 1861. That is the most important role in history the building has played. Patee House is also the only original Pony Express building still in existence in St. Joseph.

Patee House was built as a luxury hotel in 1858, and many prominent people during that time stayed in the hotel, and attended social events in the building. Among those were Hanging Judge Isaac Parker, George Ellis Raker (Sec. to Secretary of State, William Seward), and Jesse James' wife, mother and children.

St. Joseph was the last stop for supplies for many pioneers headed West before they crossed the Missouri River into Indian territory. Many of these prominent pioneers stayed in Patee House while gathering provisions they would need for the long journey which awaited them.

Patee House Museum is involved in many Pony Express activities. The annual rerun of the Pony Express is held in June each year, and either starts at Patee House or ends at Patee House. Every year riders of the National Pony Express Association participate in carrying the mail across the Pony Express trail, just as it was done in 1860, and the mail is carried to Sacramento, California. These same National Pony Express Association riders carried the Olympic torch across the Pony Express trail in 1996, from Julesburg, Colorado, to Patee House Museum, where it was turned over to a runner. This is the only time the Olympic torch was ever carried by the Pony Express. The last Olympic torch which was used to carry the flame to Patee House is permanently on display here at the museum.

Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad

The Hannibal-St Joseph Railroad
At Patee House Museum

Inside Patee House Museum at 12th & Penn St. in St. Joseph, Mo., is the last Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad steam locomotive and railway mail car. This static exhibit sits beside the 1878 railroad depot in an authentic setting.

The Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad stretched from Hannibal, Mo., on the Mississippi River to St. Joseph on the Missouri River, a distance of 196 miles across northern Missouri. When the line was completed February 14, 1859, it made St. Joseph the western terminus of railroads in the U.S. until after the Civil War.

The railroad is the reason the Pony Express began from St. Joseph April 3, 1860, since letters from the east coast could be rushed to St. Joseph by train. The next 1,966 miles letters were carried to California by horseback.

The Patee House is a block square, four-story brick building housing a museum of transportation and communication. It is now a National Historical Landmark for its role with the Pony Express, and is owned by the non-profit Pony Express Historical Association.

The 1860-style locomotive was donated by Burlington-Northern Railroad. It is an 1880 Baldwin 4-4-0 that was back-dated by Burlington in the 1920’s as a show train resembling the locomotive "Missouri" that brought the first mail for the Pony Express.

Other rolling stock includes the tender for the wood-burning locomotive, and one of the first railway mail cars, invented by a St. Joseph postmaster to speed the mail on the Pony Express. The museum also displays a track maintenance motor car.

The Museum’s depot came from Union Star, Mo., and was built in 1878. Other exhibits inside the Patee House include antique cars, trucks, fire trucks, buggies, wagons, a "Streets of Old St. Jo" town, antique furniture and dishes, and a western art exhibit in the Blue Room.

* Patee House Museum Hours *

* Monday - Saturday 10-5 *

* Sundays 1-5 *

* April-October *

* Adults $5.00 * Seniors $4.00 *

* Students $3.00 (ages 6-17) *

* Preschoolers (5 and under)

Free with a paid family member! *

*Open weekends November-March weather permitting*

Patee House Musuem
Email: patee@ponyexpress.net