I was shocked to discover I had never photographed Kimmswick, located on the Mississippi River south of St. Louis. I could have sworn I had at some point. Anyway, the small town is looking good in the summer sunshine.
It reminds me a lot of Ste. Genevieve, which is one of the famous historic French colonial town to the south down the river.
There is a nice mix of different housing styles, though they seem to largely stop in evolution in the Nineteenth Century.
This log cabin seems to be under renovation or something.
This log cabin has a wood frame back, which was common as a family grew more stable and established. It is a traditional center hall plan house.
Then later styles of houses, with planing mill supplied wood ornament, began to appear.
The log cabin on the raised stone foundation is the Barbagallo House which was built circa 1850 on Green Park Road right off of I-55 on land that John Pierre Didier owned. It was moved down to Kimmswick by Lucianna Gladney-Ross. It is not being renovated currently but has been deteriorating under the current owner who has recently put it up for sale.
The Old Log House, which is the one pictured after the Barbagallo house, was originally located in Arnold. It is believed to have been built in the 1770s with the second story added in 1830s.
My favorite house in Kimmswick, which isn’t pictured, is the Hermann-O’Heim house (built circa 1859) on the southern edge of 4th Street. It is one of the few fachwerk houses in Missouri. The owner started restoration on it but had to stop due to medical issues. It’s in terrible shape, but would be a beauty when it’s eventually restored.
Wow, thanks for all the info! How did I miss the Fachwerk house?!
Chris, I never would have pegged it as such, but it’s the barn-looking building that looked more like fachwerk in 2007: https://www.stltoday.com/suburban-journals/kimmswick-one-historic-place/article_c1874e11-791f-5d1d-839b-e3743d14179b.html
Yes, that’s it!