719 South Main Street – The “French House”

Have you ever wondered what the oldest building in St. Charles, Missouri, is? Maybe you have not, but the debate has raged on several posts on Facebook. One such candidate routinely mentioned is 719 South Main Street. It is billed as a French colonial duplex that dates from about 1790. Karen Lewis and Larry and Laura Henderson, former owners, claimed in 2006 that a wood sample taken from a main support beam was dated 1783.[1] So, the building must date from 1783, right? Is this building really this old? Do all supporting historical documents point us in that direction?

The original owner of this block (City Block 25) appears to be Louis Blanchet, the founder of St. Charles, the subject of my first article on this website. The block appears to have passed to Blanchet’s son-in-law, Etienne Pepin after Blanchet’s death in 1793. A year later, Pepin transferred this block to Toussaint Cere.  The deed, which is part of the St. Charles Archive at the Missouri Historical Society in St. Louis, mentions the property bordering on a road which separates the property from Pierre Troge and fronts on the first Main Street.  There is a house on the property at the time, but did the building survive?[2]

In 1802, Block 25 was sold by Toussaint Cere to F. X. Prieur.[3]  Four years later, Noel Antoine Prieur and his wife, Louise Monique LeJeune, deeded all of Block 25 to Manuel Andre Roque for $500.  On the property were four buildings, including a house, a chicken coop, and a mill.  The property bordered on streets that separated it from the lands of Pierre Troge, Jean Coons, and Joseph Tayon and included a creek.[4]  The chain of title up to this point is bolstered by testimony of Mackay Wherry, who claimed that Cere occupied this property on 20 December 1803 and prior to that date and that Cere sold it to “Prior” and “Prior” to Manuel A. Roque.  Theodore Hunt, U.S. Recorder of Land Titles, confirmed Block 25, bounded north by Perry Street, east by Main Street, south by Water Street, and west by Second Street, to the legal representatives of Toussaint Cere on 15 November 1825.[5]  This is shown on the original plat of St. Charles.

In 1817, Uriah J. Devore and David McNair purchased this block from Roque.  They also acquired the property from Pierre Blanchette (along with other property near Marais Temps Clair) for $200 at the same time.  At that time, the cross streets did not have names.[6]  McNair moved to Upper Mississippi Land Mines, Illinois, where he was residing when he sold his interest in the property (and in Kental’s Lime Kiln or quarry) to Stephen Hempstead in 1828 for $160.[7]  Hempstead agreed to pay $500 to Thomas Howell in 1829 but did not pay on time.  Howell successfully sued and Hempstead’s property was seized by William N. Fulkerson, sheriff of St. Charles County.  Hempstead’s property in Block 25 was purchased by William Eckert in 1830.[8]

The buildings on the property described in 1806 were apparently torn down by Devore and McNair.  Why do I say this?  In 1818, the former Roque property is described in three separate deeds (all dealing with 625 S. Main Street, which is across Perry Street from Block 25) as “vacant.”[9]  It is described as vacant in 1831.[10]  In 1834, the former Roque property was described in a lawsuit over 625 S. Main Street as “a vacant lot.”[11]  So, from at least 1818 to 1834, there were no buildings in Block 25 (the Roque property), which includes the site of today’s 719 South Main Street. It is not described as vacant in 1836.[12]

McNair and Devore appear to have been the first to subdivide Block 25.  McNair sold his half interest in the south half of Block 25 to Stephen Hempstead in 1828 (see above for reference) and Eckert purchased from the sheriff’s sale of Hempstead’s property a lot 120 feet by 300 feet in 1830 (see above for reference).  In 1840, Eckert sold a portion of the property fronting 80 feet on Main Street by 300 feet to Henry Kemper in exchange for five promissory notes to be paid by Kemper.  The deed notes that this is “the same lot on which the said Kemper has recently built his blacksmith shop.”[13]  The property remained under Henry Kemper’s ownership until his death.  His son, Adolph Kemper, was appointed executor of the estate, and deeded the property from the estate to himself in 1875.[14]  An 1884 deed of trust made by Adolph Kemper states that there were two houses on the property.[15]  Five years later, Adolph Kemper sold the same lot with the two houses for $1,350 to Herman Schemmer.[16]  Herman Schemmer’s will, dated 31 January 1896, divided this parcel into two parts.[17]  The Schemmer family continued to own 719 South Main Street until 1957.[18]

The chain of title for this property gets a bit murky in the 1960s and 1970s, but Archie Scott (1942-2007) purchased 719 South Main Street in 1976 from three owners.[19]  Scott, a Springfield, Illinois, native who moved to St. Charles in 1966 and became well-known as a local historic preservationist and as president of the South Main Preservation Society.  He had just finished the first of three rounds of preservation work on the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas Depot (originally built in January 1893 as the Missouri, Kansas, and Eastern Railroad Depot).[20]  Shortly after purchasing the building and lot of 719 South Main, Scott set to work to restore the building.  Scott discovered what he considered a candidate for the oldest French house in St. Charles.  “What makes working on this house a joy is that there is little conjecture regarding the original construction.  It reveals itself as being a Creole structure called Maison de Poteau en Terre (house with posts in the earth).”[21]  The appearance of the building today reflects the work Archie Scott had done to 719 South Main Street.  Prior to Scott’s ownership of 719, the address had been residential.  Laura (Schemmer) Kleinau lived in the house at least from 1906 to 1916.[22]  Carl Olsen lived here in the 1920s.[23]  Richard P. Norden lived here in the 1940s.[24]  Estel Williams was a resident in 1961.[25]  Ray L. Hunter lived at 719 S. Main Street in 1970.  He was a previous property owner and one of those who sold to Scott in 1976.[26]

Under Archie Scott’s ownership, the building transitioned from residential to commercial use.  Maxwell’s House Antiques was a tenant in 1980.[27]  Archie L. and Betty Scott sold 719 S. Main to Clay E. and Donna L. Hicklin in 1983.[28]  A new tenant moved in by 1984, Nature Loft.  Owned and operated by Kay Stross, Nature Loft sold women’s moccasins.[29]  The “French House” was included on a Main Street walking tour as part of the 1985 celebration of the Lewis and Clark rendezvous in St. Charles.[30]  In 1988, 719 S. Main was home to The Classic Shop.[31]  In 1991, Clay E. and Donna L. Hicklin sold the property to Karen M. Lewis and Larry and Laura Henderson.[32]

Karen Lewis and Laura Henderson opened Karen’s River Cabin at 719 S. Main Street in July 1991.[33]  The new business hosted dollmaker Marty Maschino during the 1992 Festival of the Little Hills.  Maschino signed her Attic Babies dolls during that festival and at 719 S. Main during the 1993 festival.[34]  Lewis and Henderson continued to operate Karen’s River Cabin at 719 S. Main until 2006, when they decided to sell the building and lot.  The sale of the building was advertised in the 8 September 2006 St. Charles edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.[35]  Thomas J. Feldewerth purchased 719 S. Main Street in October 2006.[36]  From 2016 to 2019, 719 S. Main was home to Lady Bugs, which specialized in items for the home and garden.[37]  In 2020, it is home to the Hobby Girls, which carries handmade items, wooden roses, welcome signs, has a photo booth, and does heat press designs on shirts, onesies, and other products.[38]  It is also home to Main Street Wine Cellar.[39]

While 719 South Main Street may not be as old as advertised, it serves as a great example of German fachwerk architecture.  Fachwerk is defined as “The term used by German-speaking immigrants to America in the 18th and 19th centuries for half-timbered construction, i.e., the medieval system of braced timber framing of a house in which the  space between the structural timbers is usually filled with brick or filled with a nogging consisting of clay mixed with chopped straw to act as a binder; then the exterior sides of the walls were coated with plaster (although the timbers were often left exposed).”[40] (Thanks to Dorris Keeven-Franke for pointing out several examples of this architecture on Main Street.)  It may be that Henry Kemper, in building his blacksmith shop at this location, built on an earlier footprint of a building that was no longer extant at the time.  This may explain the dating of the wood sample from the main support beam.  Another hypothesis is that the main support beam was borrowed from an older building at the time of construction.  It is my contention, based on the evidence given in this article, that 719 South Main Street was not built in 1783.  The building in question was apparently constructed between 1834 and 1836 by Henry Kemper for his blacksmith shop.  The late Archie Scott deserves a huge thank you for preserving this building so it can still serve as home to a few of the businesses that call South Main Street home. Before and after pictures of this building can be seen at Preservation Journal.  While not the oldest building in St. Charles, 719 South Main Street still adds to the charm of Main Street in St. Charles, Missouri.

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[1] Valerie Schremp Hahn, “For Sale:  This (Very) Old House on South Main Street, French Colonial Duplex May Date to 1783; it is listed at $269,000,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 9 September 2006, www.newspapers.com, accessed 27 December 2020

[2] Etienne Pepin to Toussaint Cere, 12 April 1794, St. Charles Archive, Document no. 221, Missouri Historical Society Library and Research Center, St. Louis, on microfilm at the Kathryn Linnemann Branch of the St. Charles City-County Library District, which I accessed in 2019. The branch was closed for COVID-19 and remains closed after flood damage revealed ongoing structural damage to the Linnemann Branch building.

[3] Carolyn Whetzel Hanke, “Block 25,” “South Main Research Notes from Title Abstracts,” John Dengler Collection 2006.017, St. Charles County Historical Society, St. Charles, Missouri

[4] St. Charles County Deed Book A, p. 189, 26 April 1806

[5] Theodore Hunt, Hunt’s Minutes III:  73, 15 November 1825, on microfilm at the Headquarters Branch of the St. Louis County Library System in Frontenac, Missouri

[6] St. Charles County Deed Book D, p. 313, 28 April 1817

[7] St. Charles County Deed Book H, p. 345, 4 August 1828

[8] St. Charles County Circuit Court records, Box 43, Folder 12, c54289_B043F012.pdf (mo.gov), accessed 27 December 2020; St. Charles County Deed Book H, p. 520, 8 October 1830

[9] St. Charles County Deed Book E, pp. 74 (23 February 1818), 76 (23 March 1818), and 377 (30 November 1818)

[10] St. Charles County Deed Book I-J, p. 347, 18 October 1831

[11] St. Charles County Circuit Court records, Box 50. Folder 43, c54492_B050F043.pdf (mo.gov), accessed 27 December 2020

[12] St. Charles County Deed Book L, p. 271, 18 June 1836

[13] St. Charles County Deed Book Q, p. 49, 18 April 1840

[14] St. Charles County Deed Book 20, p. 92, 7 October 1875

[15] St. Charles County Deed Book 35, p. 156, 15 January 1884

[16] St. Charles County Deed Book 43, p. 289, 21 February 1889

[17] St. Charles County Will Book 6, p. 58 and St. Charles County Deed Book 72, p. 557

[18] St. Charles County Deed Book 304, p. 502, 21 September 1957

[19] St. Charles County Deed Book 731, p. 516, 22 May 1976

[20] Some of this is from personal conversations with Archie Scott between 2005 and 2007; see Justin Watkins “Monument to Railroad History,” St. Charles County Heritage XXIX:  no. 2 (April 2011), 78-82 (the article is pages 75-84, but Archie Scott’s work is covered on pages 78 to 82)

[21] Esther Fenning, “Bringing Back the Good Old Days and Ways,” St. Charles Journal, 3 March 1977, Newspaper Archive, accessed 28 December 2020

[22] St. Charles city directories 1906, 1910, 1916, all at the St. Charles County Historical Society, some of which can now be accessed online at www.ancestry.com

[23] St. Charles city directories, 1920 and 1929, also at SCCHS

[24] St. Charles city directories, 1941, 1950, also at SCCHS

[25] 1961 St. Charles City Directory, at SCCHS

[26] 1970 St. Charles City Directory, at SCCHS, see earlier for reference to 1976 deed

[27] 1980 St. Charles City Directory at SCCHS

[28] St. Charles County Deed Book 975, p. 1558, 1 December 1983

[29] “Moccasin Search,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 10 January 1984, www.newspapers.com, accessed 28 December 2020

[30] “Walking Tour of Historic Buildings Saturday,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 16 May 1985, www.newspapers.com, accessed 28 December 2020

[31] 1988 St. Charles City Directory at SCCHS

[32] St. Charles County Deed Book 1379, p. 281, 1 June 1991

[33] St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 16 July 1991, www.newspapers.com, accessed 28 December 2020

[34] St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 20 August 1992 and 19 August 1993, www.newspapers.com, accessed 28 December 2020

[35] Valerie Schremp Hahn, “This (Very) Old House,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 8 September 2006, www.newspapers.com, accessed 28 December 2020

[36] St. Charles County Deed Book 4607, p. 1919, recorded 24 October 2006

[37] Lady Bugs, 719 S Main St, St. Charles, MO (2020) (globuya.com), accessed 28 December 2020

[38] The Hobby Girls, 719 S Main St, St. Charles, MO (2020) (globuya.com), accessed 28 December 2020

[39] Main Street Wine Cellar 719 S Main St, Saint Charles, MO 63301 – YP.com (yellowpages.com), accessed 28 December 2020

[40] Fachwerk | Article about fachwerk by The Free Dictionary, accessed 28 December 2020