Give Us A Lift Capital Campaign

The Give us a Lift Cam­paign will improve acces­si­bil­i­ty so we can wel­come all vis­i­tors to all parts of the muse­um while pro­vid­ing new oppor­tu­ni­ties for kids and adults to inter­act with his­to­ry through addi­tion­al space and new edu­ca­tion pro­grams. In addi­tion, as part of this cam­paign, Camp­bell House will secure funds to restore and main­tain the build­ing and fur­nish­ings that bring the 19th cen­tu­ry to life.

The Give Us A Lift Campaign: $2,500,000 Goal

Accessibility $1,000,000

Our goal is to make this shared his­to­ry acces­si­ble to every­one. $1,000,000 will allow Camp­bell House to:

  • Con­struct a new street-lev­el acces­si­ble entrance and lobby
  • Con­struct an ele­va­tor and new stair tow­er to make the Muse­um accessible
  • Cre­ate a new larg­er Muse­um Store to increase sales rev­enue that will direct­ly sup­port the oper­a­tions of the Museum.

Ren­der­ing of the pro­posed 2‑story Muse­um expan­sion show­ing the acces­si­ble entrance (dou­ble doors).

Education $700,000

Edu­ca­tors through­out the St. Louis area and beyond have expressed inter­est in more pro­gram­ming. As a Vic­to­ri­an home built in 1851, Camp­bell House pro­vides unlim­it­ed oppor­tu­ni­ties for explor­ing his­to­ry. An invest­ment of $700,000 will allow Camp­bell House to do the following:

  • Build two pub­lic edu­ca­tion spaces
  • Pro­mote edu­ca­tion pro­grams to schools and teachers
  • Fab­ri­cate new inter­pre­tive sig­nage and arti­fact cas­es for the Museum’s peri­od interiors

Cur­rent­ly there are no educ­tion spaces at the muse­um, so pro­grams take place in small inte­ri­or spaces like the car­riage house or in the garden.

Restoration & Conservation $300,000

The Museum’s build­ings are more than 165 years old. We take great pride that the last restora­tion is wide­ly rec­og­nized as a mod­el project, and the build­ing now stands as one of the finest restora­tions in Amer­i­ca. $300,000 will allow Camp­bell house to do the following:

  • Restore the his­toric streetscape around the Museum
  • Recre­ate his­toric win­dow treat­ments and wall cov­er­ings for the din­ing room
  • Repair and con­serve the Museum’s col­lec­tion of orig­i­nal light fix­tures and its col­lec­tion of rare books

Endowment $500,000

A strong endow­ment will pro­vide for main­te­nance costs of exist­ing and new spaces. The cur­rent endow­ment is $3,300,000 and addi­tion­al funds raised through this cam­paign will increase it to $3,600,000—generating about $175,000 annu­al­ly to:

  • Sus­tain a finan­cial­ly strong Camp­bell House
  • Main­tain the new spaces built dur­ing this campaign
  • Ensure the Camp­bell House expe­ri­ence with the high­est qual­i­ty inter­pre­ta­tion by adding one part-time staff person

Why Now?

With the Give Us a Lift Cam­paign, we will com­plete select inte­ri­or and exte­ri­or projects that were not includ­ed in the first cam­paign, we will make Camp­bell House acces­si­ble for all vis­i­tors and vol­un­teers and increase our capac­i­ty to wel­come school groups through­out the year, reach­ing more peo­ple young and old and giv­ing them what is already theirs – their history.

Pho­to ren­der­ing of the back of Camp­bell House show­ing the expan­sion to the museum—the tall stair addi­tion (at left) and acces­si­ble lob­by and class­room (cen­ter).