My husband and I will be attending a family wedding in St. Louis in mid-October. Can anyone recommend a romantic, historic, well located Bed & Breakfast or Hotel in St. Louis? We hate chains.

I was just in St. Louis for two nights last weekend (Labor Day) for a friend's wedding and can recommend a lovely, historic, newly-refurbished hotel in the West End neighborhood. It is called the Chase Park and it is located on Kingshighway Blvd on the corner of Lindell. It may be larger than what you had in mind, but it is in a great location, across the street from the park (with the zoo, the science center, and miles of trails), and in the lovely West End neighborhood so you can walk to tons of little restaurants, galleries and shops around the corner down Euclid Street. There is an old movie theatre next door showing a good selection of first-run movies. The hotel is very pretty and almost all the rooms are suites with fully-equipped kitchens and a separate living area, walk-in closets, and all the rooms have just been redone (in fact, we were only the second guests to have stayed in our room since the remodeling -- and you could tell, as everything looked brand spanking new and shiny). Our room was a suite with a very comfy king bed and we paid $119, which was supposed to be the rate for a studio, but the studio wasn't ready so they gave us a complimentary upgrade (this may have been a special rate though, as we were part of a large group attending a wedding which had reserved a block of rooms). There is a beautiful pool with lovely chaise lounges where you can relax. I wish we had had an extra day to stay there, and would definitely recommend it. Even though we had no real need for the full kitchen, it was nice to have, because there is a gourmet food store next door (Straubs) where they have a great selection of wine and beer and deli items (we picked up some cheese and crackers, kalamata olives, pistachios, locally-brewed Schlafly pale ale, wine, etc. and had a great little cocktail hour in our room, and it was nice to have real glasses and a corkscrew and plates, knives, etc., and be able to store everything in the refrigerator for the next day). The hotel is also very quiet and we never heard any noise at all. In the interest of full disclosure, it seems they may still be working out a few kinks. The rooms are supposed to have washer-dryers, irons and ironing boards, and hair dryers, but ours did not as of yet, and when I requested an iron and ironing board (to iron our wrinkled formalwear) it took several requests before we finally got them two hours later. That was not a big deal, but was a minor service problem. Also, they have valet parking that seemed overpriced to us, but we dealt with this by parking at a meter across the street and had no problem.
I don't know if you're familiar with St. Louis, but be aware that it's pretty spread-out, so if the wedding you're going to is in another neighborhood that's far away, it could be a little drive. For example, the church where the wedding we went to was held was in Ladue, which was about 20 minutes or so away by car. The hotel is also about 20-25 minutes drive from the airport, east on 70 to the Kingshwy Blvd. exit and then 3.5 miles south on Kingshighway. It worked out well for us because the wedding reception was at the Racquet Club which was a short walk a few blocks down the street. Good luck.

Hi! I live in St. Louis, and I can tell you of a neat Bed and Breakfast. It is the Lemp Mansion B&B and it has a story behind it! It is a bed and breakfast and it also has a restaurant in it. It is ficticiously haunted and would be fun to stay in. The rooms are big with fireplaces (some). The history of this house is very neat. I can tell you about others if you are interested, email me.

Another great hotel is in the heart
of Clayton, mid town.
Seven Gabels Inn. kindof a hotel/
B&B combined. The Inn is surrounded
by great shops, eats and atmosphere.
(314) 863-8400

If the wedding is in west county you might want to look at the great
B & Bs in Augusta. Augusta is a great
town about fifteen minutes from west
County (chesterfield) or thirty minutes
from mid town. To get to Augusta you
take Highway 94 off Highway 40/61.
Highway 94 is a beautiful winding road
that leads to about six different wineries. Would be absolutely beautiful
in October with the fall foilage. Lots
of people travel to area in October and
most of the wineries have bands and special events during October. Katy bike trail also parallels highway 94 so there
are lots of bikers heading to the wineries.
There is an awesome B&B in Augusta called the H.S. Clay house. (636) 482-4004. I stopped once just to peak inside because it was so beautiful outside. (I live in St. Louis and was visiting Augusta). The B&B is gorgeous and the owners were wonderful. the B&B even had a heated outdoor pool surrounded by twinkling lights. I wish it was farther from home so I could have an excuse to stay there.
Midwest Living featured this B&B and
Augusta some time back.
If you are thinking about Augusta
in October you should make reservations now. Have fun!!!

Thank you for your help. As you will notice the wedding was last October, but I will use these recommendations for future family events in St. Louis. We ended up at the Seven Gables Inn in Clayton. We thought it was great and had a wonderful time exploring the neighborhood.