Although there appeared to have been a house on the property when Mr. Matthews purchased it in 1869, he turned the property into a show place. Known as the “Home Place,” it was bounded by Osage Orange hedges on the south, east and west. The plans had been prepared by a landscape gardener and contained a large assortment of all kinds of ornamental trees, shrubbery, fruit trees and vines. “Home Place” indeed was a home. All in all it contained 19 rooms. The front was made of concrete and the rear of frame, but as was the custom in the period, the frame construction was mortised to appear as stone. Many of these frame buildings still exist in Kirkwood. The barn was 75 feet by 30 feet with a cow shed attached. Perhaps the outstanding feature of the barn was that it contained a bowling alley.

In 1880 Matthews’ family had moved to what was then west St. Louis to 1000 Grand Avenue. “Home Place” was rented for a period, but it had stood vacant after September of 1884. The family visited the place from time to time, sometimes for a week or more. It appears to be a period when a successful capitalist such as Leonard Matthews, who among other things, had been a partner with General A. G. Edwards and in 1870 founded Edwards & Matthews (which is now A. G. Edwards & Sons) could retire to his 19 room house in Kirkwood for a few frames of bowling or to pick some berries when the spirit moved him.

On the afternoon of August 9, 1887, the Frisco was moving a train through Kirkwood. It is not known whether this train was a freight or passenger, but it was known to the railroad as the “Hoodlum.” Samuel K. Harding, the brakeman on the rear of the train, said he saw some grass on fire about 6 or 8 feet from the ends of the ties as it passed “Home Place.” Harding said the engine on the “Hoodlum” gave out a great many sparks. The fire, carried by southwest wind set fire to the barn, then to the house and out buildings and in the words of the Supreme Court of Missouri, “ran pretty much over the whole place, destroying the buildings, and much of the larger part of the trees, plants, shrubbery, vines, etc.”

A St. Louis Republican reporter interviewed Mr. Matthews at his Grand Avenue home the evening of August 9, 1887. Mr. Matthews told the reporter, “My place has literally been swept and garnished. My orchard, containing some of the choicest pear and other fruit, vineyard, elegant shrubbery, barn and house, are all gone up in smoke. The house was worth $15,000, on which I had insurance of $10,000; $5,000 in the Detroit, $2,500 in the Commercial Union Assurance company and $2,500 in the Imperial Fire Insurance company, both of London. The barn I valued at $2,000, but had no insurance on it. Some ploughs and other agricultural implements were lost with the barn. The house contained no furniture of consequence, except some bedding, which my boys and their friends had used on occasional visits to the place. The loss which I cannot estimate is my beautiful shrubbery, hedges, and orchard, the labor and supervision of years, destroyed in an hour. If I could only restore these as readily as the artificial structures of brick and mortar I should feel my losses comparatively light. The place is my old homestead, built in 1869, and the birthplace of my children. I had a man employed there quite lately, putting things in order for my occupation of the place; indeed I could have moved there in the early summer if I had not had this large house on my hands, and I disliked to have it stand vacant here in the city. My hedges were trimmed so as to appear like a great green log, and among my shrubbery were some Irish junipers and savins, (Editor’s note: Savins are Eurasian Junipers or Juniperus Savina) which I prized very highly. One variety of savins, I know, could be found nowhere else in this city except in Shaw’s Garden. A more convenient spot for a country residence could scarcely be found within twenty five miles of St. Louis. There were twenty-six trains a day stopping at the depots of the Missouri Pacific and Frisco roads, about a block from house. I could reach the business portion of the city about as quickly as the citizens of the West End. But I shall have to content myself with my present place of abode. Do I mean to attempt any action against the company? Well, this is a hard question to answer. It is very hard to lose the fruits of years of labor, whether by accident or otherwise, but this question involves some legal knowledge which I cannot readily command at present.”