hTO ' ' I A GUBDE TO STE. GENEVIEVE WITH NOTE? OKI IT? A JLC tl I T E C T I) U. SECOND EDITION OO COPIES, FEBRUARY , I94O United states Departmentof the interior national park Service jefferson national expansion memorial CONTENTS 1 . FOREWORD 2. HISTORICAL BACKGRO t ]NTj 3. NOTES ON THE FRENCH HOUSES U. COOT ARI SON OF THE FRENCH CANADIAN AND MISSOURI HOUSE 5. FRENCH WROUGHT IRON DOOR LATCHES 6. CONTRACT FOR THE BOISLEDUC HOUSE 7. MAP OF A PART OF STE. GENEVIEVE 3. POINTS OF INTEREST IN STE. GENEVIEVE TODAY 9. LIST OF PUBLICATIONS CONCERNING STE. GENEVIEVE This study is presented "by authority of the Historic Sites and Buildings Act of Congress, approved August 21, 1935- FOREWORD In an investigation cf the old Creole village of St. Louis, which once outlined the site of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial, the architectural research staff of the National Park Service has made an extensive search in the source materials which remain, '"hile docu- mentary evidence is rich (there are 2^03 documents in the St. Louis Recorded Archives, many of which contain architectural information), it has teen necessary to recreate a dead vocabulary to understand it. This process involved a correlating study of Eighteenth Century docu- ments and existing buildings. The last of the French buildings of St. Louis disappeared two generations ago. Only in Ste. Genevieve can the comparison be made todav. Unfortunately for the architectural investieator the official record of titles to Ste. Genevieve land has not been extended bevond the confirmation of ownership in 1S03 (tine of the Louisiana Purchase). Presumably all or nearly all of the necessary data lies in the Ste. Genevieve Archives held tv the Missouri historical Society "^y the courtesv of the latter or^ni^ation over o^e hundred select- ed documents from the collection hive be^n transcribed and examined, but t^ev are a mere begin">in^. Obsolete words, neculiir spellings, obscure handwriting, mi~sinne time or another some forty Creole missionary, fur trading, farming, mining and. military establishments. Of these none has retained more of its ancient appear- ance than the present town of Ste. Genevieve. The oldest settlement of the group on the Mississippi River — Cahokia, Illinois, founded in l6°8-- has suffered heavily from the floods and the neglect of the English and Virginia governments. Kaskaskia (founded 1703)'" was entirely "-ashed ^way after nearly two centuries of existence by a change of the river's cours? What was left of colonial St. Louis disappeared during- the fire of IgUq and the riverfront development of the Steamboat Era. ]\ T ext to Hew Orleans, probably more relics of the French period, can now be found in Ste. Genevieve than any other town or city of the Mississippi Valley. 1. The "Illinois Country" — named after the Illinois Indians — includ- ed parts of what are now the States of Illinois and Missouri. 2. Palm, Sister Mary Borgias, The Jesuit Missio ns of the Illinois C ountry , 1673 -1763 (1933), p. Hi. 1. THE OLD TOW (Poste do Spirit Joachim, etc.) The beginnings of Ste. Genevieve are still obscure; no contenroo- rarv account of its founding has yet cone to li?ht. It has bean quite generally agreed that the settlement ws started about the year 1735 on the river bottom some three niles below the present village. Some writers would like to pl-ce th« date earlier to coincide more nearly with the beginnings of lead mining in the back country, but it is not shown on th 1 map of do Tery f ils (1733). which portrays many details of the vicinity, as does that of "Broutin (173*0 • Had Ste. Genevieve been in existence at those dates its location would undoubtedly have been indicated on both. Ste. Genevieve is thus the eighth known white establishment in Missouri i having been -preceded bv the Des Peres River settlement of the Jesuit missionaries (1700), the Cabana^e a Renaudiare (c. 17°0) , the Mine La Motte (c. 1723), the Mines of the Meraraec (1723), the Fort d'Orleans (1?23), the Kino a Renault (c. 172U-ti) end Vielles Mines (c. 1726). In the earliest vears the village was probably no more than a suburb of Kaskaskia, the little metropolis of the Illinois Count r^. The development of the salt springs on Saline Creek and the lead mines in the Ozark hills were undoubtedly important factors in the spreading of the settlement on the West "Bank of the Mississippi. Probably a careful examination of the Kaskaskia Manuscripts, which go back to the first quarter of the Eighteenth Century, will provide the missing information.-' One Baptiste LaEose was the first sett] ?r according to sworn testimony recorded many years later. The oldest grants for the west side bottomlands of which the title papers have benn discovered are for 1, 7 . Service Hydro graph inue Bib. U0U0 C.19 (Far is) Archives Nat. ol 1 n l?b n< ? U7 D. (Paris) This amazing collection of several thousand documents is pre- served in the Randolph County Courthouse at Chester, Illinois. The National Park Service began the microfilming of this material in February, 19^-0 to make it more; generally accessible. Prints may be secured through the office of Region Two at Omaha. 1752, and were executed by Macarty, the commandant at Kaskaskia. In the same year Macarty reported that t v ere were 27 inhabitants of Ste. Genevieve holdinc ?3 aroents (nearly three miles) of frontage on the river. 2 In 1759 the place is referred to as the "Poste de Saint Joachim", in the first records of the parish. "5 Notarial records besrin in 17^b under Spanish rule. Prior to that time the French Fort de Chartres had been the local seat of government; the separation -probably resulted immediately from its occupation by the English in 176^. One of the chief concerns of Ste. Genevieve seems to have been the shinning of lead, which was brought down from the hills after smelting. Schoolcraft said long ago: "From the earliest time . . . the French in- habitants of S_t. Genevieve had all been more or less engaged in the storage, purchase and traffic of lead. Every dwelling house thus became a storehouse for lead . . . "^ Like the neighborinr settlements i+ also furnished foodstuffs for New Orleans grown on the rich bottomlands. As late as 1782 St. Louis was also dependent on Ste. Genevieve for food. ' French Canadians, largely of Norman derivation, who had settled first on the East Bank of the river, formed the greater part of the population. Captain Philip Pittman of the English Army, who was in the Illinois Country in 1766 , stated that the village was then "about one mile in length" and contained seventy families. The unusual length of the settle- ment — considering its size — suggests that it was strung out along a main road like many of the old villages along the St. Lawrence Piver in French Canada. The Spanish census of 1772 gave Ste. Genevieve a -nonulation of UoU whites and 287 slaves, a total of 691 persons. 7 in 1782 the place was described as being too scattered to make its defense practicable.'* Back of the town lay the long narrow fields of the inhabitants, at right angles to the river, Canadian fashion, and reaching to the hills. This pattern of ownership can be recognized even today. 1. Guibourd Papers, Missouri Historical Sociotv. 2. Found by Miss Natalia "^eltins in the Kaskaskia Manuscripts . 3- Yealy, Francis J., S.J.-, Sa inte Genevieve : The Story of Mi ssour i 's Oldest Settlement (St. Louis, 1°35) , p. 2^. Schoolcraft, Henry P., A View of the Lead H ines of Missour i (New York, 1819), p. 121 . 5- Minutes of a council of war held at St. Lo^is, July Q, 1782. Original in the Bancroft Library, Berkley, California. 6. Pittman, Capt . Phrlir, P resent State of Eur one an Settlements on the Mississippi (London, 1770: reprinted, Cleveland, 1°06), p. 50. Houck, Louis, The Spanis h Regime in Missouri (Chicago, 190°,) , 1:235- THE NEJ7 TOW N ( Fetitos Cotes, etc.) After repeated damage from floods, especially that of the snring of 1785, the town moved to its present site on high ground where the three branches of Gabouri Creek cone down from the hills. This moving did not take plo.ee all at once *nd the notary's register^ (ices not in- dicate a sudden rush of real estate transactions. Threats by the river had begun earlier. As early as 1773 a Ste. Genevieve house owned by Joseph Couture had been described as "about to be destroyed by the river". 3 In 1737 thirteen inhabitants of the new village petitioned to have their fields in LeGrand Champs divided from the others** and "Petites Cotes" (Little Eills)5 appears as its name. As late as 179^ Collot found at the old village "still a few huts remaining, inhabited by the traders". The location of the church was not changed before 179^« By that time the town had increased considerably in size, largely because of the lawless conditions on the East Bank of the river which drove a l^rge part of the inhabitants to the Snanish side. The French ooTmlation had already been augmented by a number of Spaniards, Anglo- Americans and Germans, who had con° for trading, mining and land specu- lation. As the lands began to fill up for the first, time, hunting: be- came difficult and the Indian trad.;- dropped off. Many of the French moved back to the mining country or to advanced -posts like St. Charles. After the moving of the village the Grand Champs continued to be used for farming. In the following years othor smaller outlying tracts were also cultivator 1 , such as the Point a Piehet Fields on the river north of Maxwell's Kill, petitioned for in 1793 by six inhabitants and the "Grand Park Common Fields" on high ground west of the new village. •'••Letter, Miro to Q*».lvez, quoted in Houck, Spanish Re grime, I;23~. 2. Ste. Genevieve Archives (hereafter referred to as 3TSGA) , Misc. Bound. MSS No. 1. St. Louis Recorded Archives (hereafter referred to as STLRA) , 11:1: 166 k. STEGA, Misc. Petitions No. 22. 5. See also STEGA, Misc., Churches Fo. 3 1 -'-. St. Charles, Missouri was also called "Petites Cote?.", and its location on the Missouri Hiver w^s often specified, apparently to avoid confusion. Ste. Genevieve was - | lso nicknamed "Mi sere" or "Misery" by the early French, who had similar sobriquets for neighboring villages. 6, Collot, victor, "A Journey in North America", reprinted from the English edition of 1826 in Tra ns net io ns of the Illinois State Hi storical Society for the Year l"Qg (Springfield, 1Q0°) , p. 29U. U. There seems to have been no "Commons" ( Commune ) established as was customary in neighboring villages. Outlying settlements were the French Royalist colony of Nouvelle Bourbon and the Pooria Indian village, both of which were nearby to the south. When Upper Louisiana became an Amer- ican possession in 180H, Ste. Genevieve, according to Amos Stoddard, contained one hundred and eighty houses.! It was inevitable that the town should change. Of his visit six years later Brackenridge says: " . . . As I approached the rocky stream which winds round one side of the village and the comnon field of vast extent between it and the river, it was pleasing to find that the place had not undergone an entire change, although the apn.iarance of a different style of building intermingled. with th^ old abodes, showed that Am^ric^ns had already set their feet in it. There w.as enough left to answer to the landscape preserved by memory, and which I had dwelt on so often, that it was as familiar as 'household words.' T he large dwelling of the commandant, Monsieur v alle, w\s still there; the inclosuros of pickets, the intermingled orchards and gardens , still gave a character distinct from the Ameri- can villages; while cattle, horned .and without horns, were the chief occupants of the streets and highways . • ."' The end of the slave economy, which supported the leading families, •and the influx of a l-rgo number of Germans in the middle Nineteenth Century have been important factors in the change and growth of the village. Accessibility by the new highway will only accelerate the process. The Creole language is fast dying out -nd many of the old houses have disappeared in recent years. Nearly all of the French furniture has been sold to out-of-town antique dealers and even its style has been lost to memory. Parts of the town do, however, retain a unique flavor even to this day -'nd if precautions are taken to retain it there is a fair chance that the place will become better known and much enjoyed by travelling Americans . 1. Stoddard, !'ajor Amos, Ske t che s , "istorical and Pescrj-ot ive of Louisiana (Philadelphia , 1812) , n. 21^. 2. Brackenridge , H. K. , Recollections of Persons and Places in The w GS t (Philadelphia, 18^8), n. 1QQ. , NOTES ON THE FRENCH HOUSES With the exception of a small wooden fort described by General Collot, a wooden church -^nd possibly a jail, there were no public buildings in this new town. Two watermills, a horsemill and a pottery kiln are the only structures of industrial character recorded. At some distance from the town cattle ranches or dairies ( vacheri es) , sugar camps ( sucreries ) , saltmaking plants "nd lead mines were established. Many of the inhabitants or their slaves worked in the mines in the win- ter when the farms could be left for a few months. With the coming of the Americans, projects for rope-walks, distilleries, shoe factories, etc. were announced, but how many were actually realized is not known. Houses and their dependencies made up the town. Of the Latter the barn, the stable ( Stable , e'eurie ) , the shed ( hangard ) , the hen house ( poulailler ) , the corn house ( cab.anne a mahis ) , the oven ( four ) and the well ( pui t s ) seem to have been the most common. The outside kitchen, the slave quarters ( cab.ann e N a negres ) and the bakehouse are also en- countered in the records. In colonial days the outbuildings outnumbered the houses of the town, but they have all disappeared, presumably because they were not kept in repair. Three examples of the well-heads of stone with windlasses and peculiar wooden tops like pup tents remain in the t own . The houses themselves are very interesting, though in every case there have been .alterations made and most of the examples have little enough left to indicate their original appearance. In most cases the attics and basements are more likely to reveal the origin" 1 ! design of the house th~n any other parts. The French house of Ste. Genevieve is closely related in general form to that of Canada and Normandy. The greatest innovations are the porch that has been wrapned around it and the wood shingles which cover it. The porch (locally galerie ) soems to have come un from lower Louisiana and the Test Indies, where it was an adaptation to hot weather and a protection to plastered -vails. The shingle ( bardeau ) was largely n North American innovation to the French. In France slate, tile and thatch were most commonly used for roofing because of the scarcity of wood. Many of the earlier houses built by the French on the Mississippi — particularly on the East side — -.'ere thatched, but the drv Middle Western climate probably made straw roofs a great fire hazard and with the massing of years they are mentioned less and less frequently* Various :.3 in the Kaskaskia Manuscripts, Private Papers. 2. The roof of the St. (Jemme-Araoureaux house still carries a f,?w of the thatching strips similar to t>iose used or Woman houses. There were four types of house construction used hy the local French of that tine. The Eighteenth Century terms in local usage were; (1) The maison de poteaux en terre (literally, "-Hosts in earth") is a "palisadoed" house built of timbers set upright in the ground, fastened together only at the top. Above grade the timbers or posts were squared and when built of rot-resisting cedar thev made a sound and permanent structure. This type, once the most common of all, is represented by three examples still standing in Ste. Genevieve. It is very old, having lieen used in the earliest days of "Biloxi (founded 1699) and ^ew Orleans (171S) and was probably a method taken over from the earlv Spanish settlements on the Gulf Coast. 1 The tyne is unknown. in France and Canada. The mis on de -oieux en terre was also found here. This was built of ■costs entirely in the round, a cruder method first mentioned for Missouri at the Fort d 'Orleans in 17?U.' At Ste. Genevieve it was used mostly for outbuildings . (2) ^he mai son de -pote-ux sur solle (literally "-posts on sill"), is a frame house, though a verv massive one because of the large ^i/e of the timbers and their c^se spacing. The sill was swr.-norted on a stone foundation, or occasionally, as farther south, on wood blocks, keeping the frame awav from the dampness of the ground. This tvue of structure requires more skill to build but is ir general more durable. In the types .just described the walls were filled between the -oosts with clay and grass (i.e. bouzillees ) or with stone and mortar (i.e. pierrottees) . The former method of filling is common in Louisiana., where Spanish moss was used, the latter in Formandy. In nearlv ever/ house these walls slope inward on all four sides to a marked degree. This characteristic, noted to be common also in Canada, has not been explained . (3) The mai son de pi erre or stone house was brought from France and Canada to the Upper Mississippi settlements at an early date. However, the type does not seem to have "caught on" in Ste. Genevieve. The old stone house (date unknown) near Mill Creel- on what is now the St. Mary's Road may have been built in the colonial period but its character has ^een changed by alterations. 1. Falisadoed houses were used in certain English colonies on our Atlantic coc?_st in the 17th Centurv, but there seems to be no inter-re- lationship. 2. Paris, Archives Coloniales, C13 C,U; 117-12S-I. 3. "de_ noteau sur solle" was apparently svnonomous with "en col omb ^^e" and "de_ belle charter. t e " frequently seen in contemporary nhrasi". 0- . (H) The maison de pieces sur pieces (literally "timbers on timbers") or horizontal log house is not mentioned in the Ste. Genevieve records, though it ha.s been commonly used in Canada since early times. 1 Only a few small outbuildings seemed to have been built in that way. The Creole apparently did not like the type. Towards the end of the colonial period there is ever increasing mention of the maison en boulins . This was apparently the Anglo-American cabin of round, or unhewn, logs. As to floor plan: there seem to be at least two different types — the very old arrangement of a single row of rooms end on end, and a more com- pact scheme two rooms deep. In certain examples like the Polduc house the building is divided into sections which do not communicate by interior doors. Small sleeping rooms or cabinets were once used here but they v <- > r e disappeared. The leant o (apnentis) is frequently mentioned in the ear" 1 - records, but none have survived, unless the stone kitchen of the Polduc house may be considered an exa-mle. Porches were found on one, two, three or four sides of these buildings. The Polduc and J. p. Valle houses retain the best evidence of the porch completely surrounding the building. These porches varied in width from four feet to twice as much. Most of then were floored, though some were not. Above the walls rose the roof frame — a massive hewn affair corn-nosed of Norman trusses arranged to support a hip roof. Originally these -"^ra made verv steep to shed water from the thatching. In this rep-ion the trusses -"ere continued for s^me time as a matter of habit after thatching was discarded. In l"te transitional examples like the Janis-Ziecler house the economv of the American roofing system has pained the uo^er hand and the picturesque trusses of Old France have been omitted. Fxcent for a few interior doors practically all French interior 'wood- work, if there was ever any of note, has disappeared. Some crude panell- ing found lying in the attic of the Polduc house is practically all that has been noted. Examples of fine French p*»nellin*r are known in Canada and since skilled joiners were present in ISth Century Missouri it is not impossible that some of the more Pretentious buildings were so decorated at one time. Some of the earlv Ste. Genevieve houses otherwise French in character show Anglo-American raantlepieces and trim such as can be found in 18th Century Virginia buildings. The present town was put up after the first Americans had arrived in the place and their influence can h e seen in m-?ny of the oldest houses. 1. The oldest wooden houses of Canada are made of carefully hewn or sawed timbers of heavy dimensions laid horizontally and mortised into upright timbers at the corners. Another type is dovetailed at the cor- ners (en queue d' aronde ) "Saddle notching" and "sq\iare cut" notching have not bjen observed bv the writer in Duebec Province. Glass wp.s probably expensive in Ste. Genevieve during the colonial period, since it had to be imported from Europe. Most of the humbler houses probably used p°per at the windows as in Canada* or lin n n as in Lower Louisiana. Collot's engraving, "Tjmical Habitation of the Illi- nois Country", probably sketched bv War in during his visit of 17°'' shows a small house without window sash. However, some glass was used at F!as~ kaskia before the founding of Ste. Genevieve' and mention is made of window glass in St. Louis in 17^7- The oldest record for Ste. Genevig-ve is in a contract for a house for Si^on Huberdeaux in 1~[ °.~' Probably the better houses of the village always had glass windows. The Guibourd house still hps two pair of casement windows similar to those of Canada and Louisiana. Shutters ( contr events) '"ere often mentioned in the records and seven** 1 ] examoles of the interesting dove-tailed (en Queue d'aronde) type known in France can be seen in Sta. Genevieve todav. The original exterior door'-, of Ste. Genevieve were probably solid wood "sheathed", as well ^s single doors with nine . Coll.: Mrs. Obermuellor. R. Section of No. U. (Latchbar and keener missing) J© ^~ A \y rO c 3) •H CONTRACT FOR BUILDING THE BOISLEDUC HOUSE. The following record^ relating to a -proposed house at Ste. Genevieve in 1770 will give the reader a fen tp.1 idea of such apTenjnonts. The in- volved nature of this contract hetwoen Boisleduc the farner r^nfi foulot the carpenter reveals a characteristic French love for h^.r^aini^e. Neither party could write and the argument was simnlv brought indoors where it was set down by Robinet the clerk nore or less "s he heard it: "Before Monsieur Valle', Judge and Notary at Ste. Genevievi and his Clerk, the undersifened, was "present Sieur Louis Boisleduc who has agreed to the following; "Sieur Louis 3oulet contracts to build, for the said Boisleduc a frame house [ m-'iso n sur soiled 21 Vx 2^' roofed with shingles and with floors and ceilings of dressed Cottonwood boerds, the ceiling boards on the porch to be whiter/ashed on one side. The remainder to be tongue-and-groove 1" thick, the floors with square joints lg" thick. "To be included are tongue-and-groove 7/ooden shutters U^' high and 3'S"' wide, the material to bo of seasoned wal- nut furnished to the said contractor. There will be three windows and two doors 6' high, likewise of walnut (or other wood) the boards tongue-and-groove, like one which the said Boisleduc will furnish the contractor [as a sample} . Bois- leduc will also furnish the necossary ironwork, the nails and proper tools for the construction of the said hou^c. "In addition, the contractor will be -provided with two black or white workers to assist him, their board included, along with the bo-^rd and laundry of the contractor during the -period of construction . "The said Boisleduc agrees to have savm and delivered the shingles necessary to roof the said house. "The house shall heve a galerie U-i-' wide, without floor, all around it. 1. STEGA, Agreements-Contracts f 5 , translation by the writer. The wording has been slightly shortened in translation, and divisions into punctuated sentences and -paragraphs have been introduced. J] "The sills of the said house as conrnV-ted are to he supported on hlocks thre- feat high unless the said "Bois- leduc decides to have a masonry foundation, which the contractor is not obliged to "build. The said Boisleduc will deliver all the -proper and necessary timber for the said house and {[for this purpose^ will use only ono of the men above mentioned contractor's helpers while tho wood is being hauled. "The said house is to be completed according to the conditions herein stipulated and open to the inspection of experts without argument on the part of either partv. i.s soon as the undertaking is corn-pie ted the said Boisleduc binds himself to pay to the said Sieur Boulet the sum of 350 livres in hard dollars [" piastres gourdes '] valued at 5 livres each, or in beaver pelts or deerskins "t the current rate. The seid house is to bo ready for delivery September 30, 1771. "The said "Boisleduc will be sntifod to the sendees of these two hired men without interruption for th? work of the f^rm, that is, during the planting T.d harvesting time of French gr^in and corn, and. ^lso for putting up hay. This has beer agreed to, in the customary form, promising & contracting & waiving &. "Done and delivered in the office, Juno IT, 1J10, in the nresence of the un.d ersis-n^d witnesses, aftor a reading, at the said Ste. G-er.-vieve . Tho s~id Boulet and "oi-leduc have stated that they know not how to si m. "Accepted, examined and countersigned. Doguire Valle fils witness Robinet, Clerk to the Judge." Voile" 12. ICSY TO MAP 1. Bjciuette-Ribault House 2. St. Genme-Amoureaux House 3. Miaplait House U. Janis-Ziee-ler House 5. Francois Valle II. House 6. Bolduc House 7. Meilleur House ?,. Wilder House 9. Jean Baptiste Vallef House 10. St. Ger.no Baauv.-'is House 11. Phillipson- , "r!lle House 12. "Mammy Shaw" House 13. "Tndinr Trading Post" lU. Rozier Bank 15- Senator Linn House 16. Parfait Duf-vur House 17* Museum 18. Price Brick Building 19. Ste. Genevieve Church 20. Pratte Warehouses 21. Gregoire House 22. Guihourd House 23. Old Burying Ground 2^. Old Academy POINTS OF INTEREST IN STE. GENEVIEVE 1. Bequet-Ribault House. This small structure is of special interest "because of its peculiar wall construction of cedar posts planted vertically in the ground (Mown locally in the 18th Century as poteaux en terre ) which have survived until today. They can he seen hy looking over the fence and under the south end of the front porch. The house originally had plastered wpIIs and porc v es on all four sides, an arrangement tyoical of the colonial house of this region. In spite of chanp-es, the house has preserved many interesting details, such as the en queue d' aronde shutters nege-ed with wooden ni^s. The bouse was recorded in detail for the Historic American "Buildings Survey in 1° 7 ". 2 . St. Gemme-Amoureaux House . Before the gables of this house were add.ed the structure had a steen French Canadian hip roof. (in this case a 72° slope on the ends and ^2° on the sides.) Roofing strips remaining in the attic seem to indicate that the structure was originally without porches and was thatched. Thatched houses were familiar in this region in the first half of the 18th Century. The original stone chimney top has "been changed to brick in recent years. Across the road from this house lie the ""Big Common Fields" where the land is still farmed in narrow strips running from the ^luf^s to the river. It was formerly enclosed by a common fence maintained by the com- munity. 3 • Misplait House - This interesting little house, which seems to have come to Basil Misplait from his parents in 180U, shows features characteristic of the early French buildings. Like manv of the others the roof -as binned. Note the batter of the exterior walls, a familiar condition, the Tmrnose of which has not been explained. In the rear of this house is a stone well (-Q uits ) with a tent- shaped wooden top and windlass. The form seems to be neculiarlv French. ^-. Janis-Ziegler House . This attractive old house with its Beach-colored walls and boxwood is a transitional structure and does not have the Norman roof trusses to be seen in some of the older houses. It is said to have be ; >n built in 13- 1800 and later used as the "Green Tree Tavern". The 9 ign^oard nay he seen in the Ste. Genevieve Museum. The boxwood growing here indicates about the northern limits of its range in Missouri. 5. Francois Valle' House . Facing South Gabouri Creek this unpretentious wooden building is all that is left of the house of Francois Valle II., Civil and Military Commandant of Ste. Genevieve until his death early in IEOH. In ]f?ll the improvements on the lot were: ". . -a large one storv dwelling house a Kitchen & Stable . . ." (STEGA, Deeds #337). The Valle (original spelling Vallee) family came from Canada. Their old. stone house at Bcauport on the north side of the St. Lawrence below Quebec is still standing, though many changes have been mads in later years. Francois II. was born in the Illinois Country in 17^- His father, Francois I. (1716-1781), was for som^ years commandant in the old village. 6. The Bol duc Hous e This large structure is one of the least changed of the old French houses of Ste. Genevieve. It w->s the home of Touis Bolduc I. until his death in 1S15« Bolduc , a nrominent merchant and slave owner, was born in the Parish of St. Joachim, Canada, December ?'', 17"^. Miss Zoo Bolduc of the same family lives in the north end of the house today > Tradition asserts that the frame of the house was moved up from the old town. If that is the case it may be one of the oldest houses in the Mississippi Valley. The body of the house is built in two sections of identical size (26 , x27 l ), which are not connected by interior doors. The stone kitchen on the rear is a picturesque feature. The attic (reached by stairway from the northeast room) is remarkable. The solid losr ceiling of the south half of the building should be noted, as well as the fine large Norman trusses supporting the roof. This house has been measured in detail by the National Park Service. It appe-rs in a diorama of Ste. Genevieve nnd r const miction for the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial. lU. 7. The Meil le ur Hous e ( Old Convent ) (built about 1815) Reno Meilleur, son-in-law of Louis Bolduc, built this two story frame structure for a -private dwelling. In 1837 (?) it was bought by the Sisters of Loretto for use as a convent. Its walls are "no^ed" with brick. The Flemish *ond brick building immediately to the north- now doing duty as a blacksmith shop — is sai<3 to have been Meilleur' s store . 8. The Wilder H^use . The north portion of this hou.se (about ?hi x ^l») is n French frs ■■ • structu.re with An^lo-American work evident in the window trim and the mantelpiece. The house was bought in 18^0 by the Wilder family. o. The J. B. Valle House . This was the house of Jean Baptiste Valid (1760-18^-9) , last comman- dant of the district of St 8. Genevieve. The building is a frame struc- ture on a stone foundation (" -poteaux stir solla " , like the Bolduc House). It was considerably modified in the l Q th Century — particularly the roof and chimneys. The depth of the house suggests that it had a low West Indies type of hip roof like that of the Pierre Menard '-"case (c. 1800) across the river. The heavy tapered beams supporting the second floor are of great length. The grounds of the house are attractively planted — the formal garden north of the house follows an old pattern. 1 . The St. G-omme Bea uva is House This house seems to have been definitely identified as the boyhood home for several years of Henry Marie Brack -nrioge , we]"! known early western writer, who described it thus: "The house of V. Beauvais was a lontr, low building, with a porch or shed in front, and another in the rear; the chiranev occupied the centre, dividing tVl ^ house into two prrts, with e?>ch a fireplace. One of these served for a dining-room, parlor and principal bedroom; the other was the kitchen, and each had a small room taken off at the end for private chambers or cabinets, ""here was no 1. Maintained as an historic house museum by the State of Illinois — well worth a visit 1?. loft or garret, a -pair of stairs being a rare thing in the village. The furniture, excepting the "beds and the looking-glass, was of the most common kind, consisting of an nrraoire, a rough table or two, and some co'-rse chairs. The yard ws inclosed with ce- dar tickets, eisrht or ten inches in diameter, """^ seven feet hiah, placed upright, sharpened at the top, in the manner of a stockade fort. In front the yard was narrow, but in the r^ar ajiite spacious, n n d containing the barn and staples, the nctro quarters, and all the necessary offices of a farm-y^.rd.. ^yond this there was p. spacious garden, inclosed with pickets in the same manner with the yard. It -fas indeed a garden, in which the greatest variety and the finest vegetables were cultivated, intermingled with fleers and shrubs; on one side of it there "'as a small orchard containing a variety of the choicest fruits. The sub- stantial and permanent ch"ractor of these inc]o-,ures is in singular contrast with the slight and temporary fences and palings of the Americans. The house was a ponderous wooden frame, which, instead of beinr "o~th r- , boarded, was filled in with clay, and then whitewashed ..." The house originally extended farther to the north. The construc- tion of the old part is of poteaux en terre with a losr ceiling. The rear wing is modem and the roof has been changed. 11. Phillipson-Valle / House . This pretty little stone house seems to h^ve been built between 1818 and 182H, when the property was owned by Jacob Fhili it-son. In the latter year it was sold to J. B. Valle / . It was measured in 193^ ^y the Historic American Buildings Survey. The lines of this structure, with its raodillion and dentil cornice are probably as attractive as can be f^und in any smal] imerican house. The general effect sue^ests Maryland or Virgini". The stoop which orce gave access to the front door was removed some years ago and r-pl^ced by the present recessed doorway. 12 . " Mammy Shaw Rous---. " . This house is of uncertain ori-in, but se^nir.;8) , n. 21. 16. The large double interior doors are said to have come from a steamboat wrecked on the Mississippi River. The name given this house is that of the widow of Dr. Shaw. It is used as a painter's studio at the present tine. 13 . " Indian Trading Post " . This little stone building is often referred to as -a "Indian trad- ing post", although no authority is known for the idea. It was Pleasured for the Historic American Buildings Survey in 19?'*« lU. Rozier Bank In the winter of 1810-11 John Janes Audubon, the famous naturalist- artist, came to Ste. Genevieve with Ferdinand Rozier from Henderson, Kentucky. They had known each other as midshipmen in the French navy and had been in partnership for nine years in America. Audubon did not like Ste. Genevieve and returned to Kentuckv soon afterwards. Rozier staved to found a fortune. This stone building has been the seat of a nrivate bank for many years . 15. Senator Linn House . . Home of Dr. Lewis F. Linn, a KenUickv -physician, ".-ho ca^e to Ste. Genevieve in I8I5. He served as Touted States Senator from 1833 until his death in I8U3 . 16. Dufour H^use . This house stands on ground confirmed to "Parfait" "Hufour after the change from the Snanish to the Jjnericnn Govomnert. Ir 1789 Du- four owned a 10'xl5' house of p oteaux en t^rre differ in-' from this structure both in size and type of construction. 17- Museum • This institution was opened in 1935 ^ n connection with the bicen- tennial of Ste. Genevieve's fnu^dinr. It contains a collection of in- teresting objects — mostly oost-colonial — and a library. Certain publi- cations, including postcrds, arc available here. Admission ten cents. "STEGA, Estates #97, 17. 18. Price Brick Buildin g. 1 John Price, a Kentuckisn, was one of the first enterprising Ameri- cans in Ste. Genevieve. With his brother Andre™.' hs was engaged in trade with Louisville and Frankfort in 179?. In the sane vear he was granted a license to run the Ste. Genevieve-Kaskaskia fer-y for six years. -5 Price owned and probably built this brick structure, which he lost at a Sheriff's sale in 1306. It is earlv architectural evidence of th Anglo-American migration to Missouri. Brick were not used in the early French towns north of New Madrid for stone -'as easily available and .answered the same needs. Farther down the river where stone was scarce, as in Louisiana, brick had been np.de from the earliest days. The fat handmade brick of this building are laid up in Flemish bond as in buildings of the Atlantic Seaboard and Kentucky. The presence of smaller brick in common bond at the gables may indicate that the structure once had a hipped roof. The enrrice is simil-r to that of the Fhillipson-Valle / house. 19. The Church of Ste. Genevievt The first church in the old village se- s to h^ve been built about 17^)2. Two grants of land made in that vear require the grantees to fell timbers for its construction. Nothing is known of its an^ear- ance. -\s early as 177? a - ev! church was under consideration and in the 1733 inventory of Francois Valla's est^^e is mentioned a lot set aside fir its construction. But the old church continued in use until 17 ' 1 . Tradition says that the structure was nnved bodily to the new site at that time. Zenon Trudeau, "Captain of the Louisiana Regiment and Commanding Officer of the Wester-. Part of the Illinois Country" and Father St. Pierre had held r> meeting of the citizors 1* So-otember 7, 1.7 C7 . to con- sider the location and construction of a church in the - v» toi as - > ] as a chapel at Few Bourbon. The Messrs. Lachance, Pratte and Eolduc 1. "fils de Monsieur jean price et de Dame Sara Bowin sor Et>ouse Demeurant a fayette Coatee En Kintucke province Des Eta+s T T nis". STEGA, Marriages #113, 17 oc >. 2. STEGA, Litigations #205 . ' "STEGA, Miscellaneous No. 2, #112. a. STEGA, Miscellaneous, Churches f33 • 15. were selected as the executive committee by majority vote. Apparently there was dissention regarding the arrangement since it became necessary for Trudeau in the following year to officially settle the choice of the site and warn any objectors that they would be immediately sent down to Hew Orleans at their own expense if they did not contribute their as«e."3ed share of the expenses of construction cost.- 1 T he new building was built in the new town. The means of construction is described in two affidavits filed in connection with a lawsuit now in the Archives. Jean Baptiste ?enuet furnished for Augustin Bertau his share consisting of 20Ci shingles, 2" laths, 2 -clanks 6'?" Ions - , ditto R' long, four days of labor (corve) and on? load of sto^e. Also mentioned is that he put v on?j] la/re between nosts and set the planks listed. One Gravel" 1 e stated that he had furn- ished three nosts, 108 shingles, a 10' plank, a R 1 olank, a 10' board, a half load of stone and three days of labor.' If the old structure w=»s actually moved to the rew site it must have been extensively renaired or enlarged . In time the woodon churc , i w.^s renlaced by one of stone, begun in 1831 and consecrated in lo 7 7- ' This in turn gave way to the attractive Victorian G-othic brick structure begun in 1"7^ and dedicated in 1"K0. This, the present church, is the fourth to serve the oarish of Ste. Genevieve . 20. Pratte Warehoiis ?s . These old stone warehouses now standing on the grounds of the Sisters of St. Joseph are said to have belonged to Josenh Pratte, a merchant of Ste. Genevieve, who owned this property at an earlv date- 21 . Gr egoire House . This large brick house — the second occupied, by the Gregoire family — shows Greek Revival influence. The Price-Viller-Gregoire house built about 1799 stood immediately to the north. It was demolished s^me forty years ago . 1. ST^GA, Miscellaneous, Churches -4"^ L . ?. STEGA, Litigations, *2R. 3- Yealv, n. 11" . U. Ibid., o. 1-. lQ. 22 . Guibourd House . Jacques Guibourd, a slave holder of Santo Dominp-o, came to Ste. Genevieve at the snd of the Eighteenth Century. Tn 17°^ ha w^s granted the land on which the present house stands. The concession makes no mention of a house on the uroperty at the tine. The house has "been put in excellent condition by the -present oto er. Among the most interesting features of this house are the framing nf the attic and the two oairs of original French casement windows en the first floor. A brick kitchen of later date mav be seen in the rear. 23 . Old Burying Gr^u^d • Many of the prominent early settlers of Ste. Genevieve are buried here. Mgr. Charles Louis Van Tourenhout lists the following: "Comman- dant Jean Baptiste Valle', Felix and Odile Fratte i r al"i d', Jacques Guibourd, Senator Louis Linn, Ferdinand Rozier, Henry Janis, "ital Bauvais or Beau- vais, Auguste St. Gemme, Famille la Grave, Neree Valle' and Aglace' Chou- teau, Hilaire Le Compte, John Bogg, J. B. 3. Pratte, Charles Hypolitte Gregoire, Marie La Porte, Colonel Francois Valle - ', Marie Villars and Walter Fenwick." The work of preserving this old cemetery was undertaken about 1931 by the American Legion Memorial Park Association in preparation for the Ste. Genevieve 3i-Centennial celebration. Popular subscription began the work, which is now carried on by a special tax. Mr. Henry L. Rozier is President of the Association. 2U . T he Ste. Genevieve Academy . In 1807 a secondary school was organised by a bo~rd of citizens and in the following year it received a charter from the Territory of Louis- iana. The existing stnne building, in Anglo-American style, was built for it on a hill back of the town about 1810. \ft~r a checkered career the Academy ceased t" exist as -0. school during: the War between the States. 1 1. Yealy, pn. 12U-2= 20. S01E PUBLICATIONS CONCERNING OLD STE. GENEVIEVE .AND ITS HOUSES Dorrance , Ward A., "The Survival of French in the Old District of Sainte Genevieve" in The University of Mi ssou ri Studies (Colum- bia, April 1, 1935), Vol. X, No. 2. Houck, Louis A., A H istory of Missouri (Chicago, 190S), vol. I. Peterson, Charles E., "French Houses of the Illinois Country" in Mis sour iana (St. Louis, September 1938) , Vol. X, No. 10, pp. 9-12. Petroquin, Harry J., Stories of Old Ste . Gen evieve (Sto. Genevieve, 1935?) Rothensteiher, Rev. John, History of the A rchdio - cese of St. Louis (St. Louis, 1928) , Vol. I. Schaaf, Ida '. , "The Founding of Ste. Genevieve" in "id-America, Vol. XV, No. 1, July 19^2; reprinted in The Missouri Historical ^vi sw (Columbia, January 193"*), Vol. XXVII, v. iHR. Yealy, Francis J., S . J . , Sainte Genevieve (St. Louis, 1935). 21. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOI8-URBANA 3 0112 050757910