10/28 Sainte Genevieve, MO

As you might have suspected from my recent posts, I am sticking close to the Mississippi and working my way south along what is called the Great River Road. The map below gives you an idea of the Road and the attractions along the way.  I joined it in St. Louis, drove up to Hannibal, and am now headed south.

 

 

Ste. Genevieve is an unusual small town along the river with two distinctions from most of the river towns:

1. It is older than most, being founded in the early 1700s as a fur trading port.
2. It has a lot of French influence, with a dab of Early American, as you can see from some of the houses below.

These signs tell you a little about the town.  (I have to tell you that I could not stop mentally singing the song with the same name from the musical Camelot!)

 

This home on the corner is currently the offices of the Missouri Natural Resources. It also has a small gift shop and offers tours.  Since this is very much off-season, I paid $4 and got my own personal tour of this house and two others across the street.

This was an elegant home of a prosperous family, as you can tell from this coal-burning fireplace.

Apparently, the lady of the house heard about a steamboat that had crashed on the nearby river, so she sent someone to rescue these original frosted glass panes for the door that divides the living room from the area that had originally been an office and store.

I was impressed with this original door.  It had the original hardware and was at least 40" wide.

This is the kitchen and laundry for the front house with the offices.  It was common to have those functions separate to keep smells and heat away from the main house, especially in the summer.


This is a store/residence across the side street.  The stone is the native limestone that is mined nearby.

The downstairs looked like this.

Upstairs was much more elegant!  It is furnished as it would have been in 1830.

The wash house in the back yard. 

And a view of the back porch.

Just another interesting building in town.

 

And, to end my visit here, my "trusty" GPS that is supposed to guide me only on routes where I can take my large vehicle, instead took me down a road with a 9' clearance railroad underpass, so I had to back up through parked cars for at least 600 feet, and then back through a four-way stop!!  Managed without hitting anything.  I am getting much too good at this long backing up!!  I was VERY glad to get out of town without any scratches or destroying anything.