Information Sheet

 

 

R         Sainte Genevieve (Mo.).

165                  Miscellaneous papers, 1885-1967.

                                    Four folders, photocopies.

 

 

 

This collection includes an historical address by Firmin A. Rozier, 1885; a printed di­rectory of the Catholic church, 1904; a souvenir program of Shaun Rue, a play presented in 1907; and two architectural reports by Ernest A. Connally, 1957 and 1967, on historic houses.

 

Firmin A. Rozier’s historical address was delivered in July 1885 during the celebration of the town’s sesquicentennial.  Printed in booklet form, his address contains a sketch of the com­mu­nity’s history to that date.  Also published as a booklet, the 1904 directory of the Catholic church also in­cludes historical material, along with excerpts from parish records and lists of members of the church and its societies.

 

Ernest A. Connally’s reports on the Bolduc and Bolduc-LeMeilleur houses contain a con­sider­able amount of information on old French customs in the Mississippi valley, and how they have been preserved in the buildings at Ste. Genevieve.  His 1957 plans for gardens and land­scap­ing at the Bolduc House, possibly the oldest remaining structure west of the Missis­sippi River, are based on typical Creole practice of the period, and include notes on the varie­ties and arrangement of the flora customarily found at similar dwellings.  The 1967 report set out his rec­ommendations for restoration of the Bolduc-LeMeilleur House, built on the same block just north of the Bolduc House between 1820 and 1824.  Formerly known as the “Old Convent” or Le­Meilleur House, Connally urged use of the name Bolduc-LeMeilleur as more consistent with the ownership of the house as shown by municipal records.  Through painstak­ing examinations of the structure, Con­nally was able to produce a plan of the building as it was originally constructed, and recorded changes made to it over time.  To document fixtures and furnishings no longer ex­tant, Connally re­ferred to architectural pattern books in use during the period, and made com­parisons with simi­lar buildings in St. Louis and Kaskaskia, Illinois.

 

 

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