H. S. Clay House Bed & Breakfast and Guest Cottage

H. S. Clay House Bed and Breakfast and Guest Cottage. . September 8, 1881, the "St. Charles "Democrat" reported that Dr. Hampson Strother Clay intended to become a physician in Augusta. Before locating in Augusta, Dr. Clay, an 1873 graduate of the Missouri Medical College, had lived in Darst Bottom where he practiced medicine for about eight years. He became known as "one of the leading physicians" of that part of Missouri., Dr. Clay built this house in 1885 for his second wife, Marie Koch Clay. They then began raising their family of four sons and five daughters. Soon after the birth of their ninth child Dr Clay passed away from congenital heart disease leaving Marie to raise their family. All of the sons eventually became doctors, as well as their sons. One of the daughters (Mabel) became a nurse and two of the daughters became teachers., [Unreadable], The home was eventually sold out of the Clay family in 1956 for $5,500.00 and was subdivided into two pieces of property. The next owners added the "first" bathroom and central heating in the house. In 1986 restoration was begun to restore the home to it's former grandeur by a general contractor. The current owners purchased the home in 1991 and began the final phases of restoration and gardens. Alan Buehre, a graduate of Washington University and the University of Denver, along with his wife Leigh, has extensive culinary and hospitality experience., After raising their blended family of five children they opened their home to guests and started the H. S. Clay House in October of 1998. The Guest Cottage was added in April of 2002., The two of them together have made the H. S. Clay House Bed and Breakfast and Guest Cottage Augusta's "most elegant country Victorian Bed and Breakfast".