DELASSUS-KERN HOUSE COULD HAVE TIES TO FRENCH REVOLUTION

STE. GENEVIEVE, Mo. -- No such nobleman before or after has put down stakes in Ste. Genevieve County. A man who had been in the aristocratic social circle (on the periphery, at least) of Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette, Pierre Charles DeHault DeLassus DeLuzierre was far from the typical Upper Louisiana Territory colonist.

Having fled the guillotine of the French Revolution, the chevalier arrived in New Bourbon in 1793 and immediately became commandant of the new community, some two miles south of the new village of Ste. Genevieve. There Commandant DeLassus died in 1806, living long enough to see his son Charles serve as the last Spanish governor of Upper Louisiana.

Some 90 years after DeLassus arrived in New Bourbon, an amazing discovery was made. Vertical log walls were discovered within a century-old farm house just south of Ste. Genevieve, in the early 1980s. Experts were quickly called in to check it out.

Two of those were Drs. Osmund Overby and Susan Flader, both of the University of Missouri-Columbia. Overby confirmed that a large, intact six-room vertical log structure did indeed stand within the late 19th century Kern House. Overby later headed the Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS) project in Ste. Genevieve. Dendrochronology (tree ring dating) determined that the trees in the log section of the house were felled in early 1793.

A 1797 map done for the Spanish government by Nicolas de Finiels, meanwhile, identified that parcel of land as belonging to Commandant DeLassus, who was known to have had a commodious six-room vertical log house constructed prior to his arrival in the fall of 1793.

Thus began the intriguing saga of the mysterious house. Dubbed thereafter the DeLassus-Kern House, it was studied intently. After the 1993 flood ravaged the house, an anonymous donor purchased it and gave it to the state.

"The further we got into it, the more intriguing it was -- and the more puzzled we got," said Overby, who returned to the site June 27 as a guest lecturer at the Southeast Missouri State University Historic Preservation Field School. "What impressed us very much was what a splendid house it was. It was a big house, with a formal plan. The Pierre Menard House is the closest we've seen, as far as plan and arrangement."

Overby, now retired, said the formal design of the log section, with a large public room in the front, was indicative of very discerning taste and social prominence for the late 18th century French.

Controversy has been around from the very beginning, however.

"There were things that bothered us from the beginning," Overby said, "Like why were the floor beams so varied?"

A field of thought almost immediately arose, arguing that the house was not the chevalier's. The same de Finiels work described DeLassus' home as being on a hill, overlooking the town and having a spectacular view. His map listed both the current site and one on a nearby hilltop as belonging to the commandant.

The tide of opinion within the scholarly community turned in 1997, when Southeast conducted its first summer archaeology field school, in conjunction with Murray State (Ky.) University. Dr. Kit Wesler of Murray State led students in an archaeological dig on the site, while Southeast professors Bonnie Stepenoff and Carol Morrow led them in archival research on the property.

No trace of pre-1820 pottery was found at the site. The students, meanwhile unearthed a paper trail that seemed to offer a logical explanation. The property had remained in the family until 1834, when it was bought by Andrew Swank, known to be a local land developer. Swank, a distant relative, paid $200 for the property. Three years later, in 1837, Swank sold the same lot for $1,200, giving credence to the theory that the DeLassus house was moved from the hilltop to its current site.

They also found an 1866 newspaper article, in which the owner, John Kern, seemed to point toward the nearby hill, when speaking of the "Frenchman" who built the house. The owner of the hilltop property, meanwhile, has found pieces of late 18th century pottery there.

Many therefore think the log house was disassembled and moved down the hill. Whether it was reassembled exactly as before, or whether it merely contains components of the chevalier's house, they are uncertain.

Overby, though, has doubts about that theory.

"The detractors say it was moved," he said. "It would have been very, very heavy and hard to move intact. To the extent we could in '85, we looked and it didn't look like it had been dismantled. We didn't see any signs of it -- double sets of nail holes or anything like that. If it was moved, it was moved all at once. Was it rolled down the hill?"

Although studies are ongoing on the flood-damaged farmhouse, definite answers may never be obtained. Evidence seems to point both directions.

"According to de Finiels, it had a spectacular view," Overby said, "but that could still have been here. It would have had a great view from here.

"Nobody in the 18th century appreciated scenery but the upper class. It was a very advanced sensibility to have in the 1790s."

Whatever secrets it holds in its sagging walls, the DeLassus-Kern House is the only surviving remnant of New Bourbon -- which had died out by the 1830s -- and offers a classic example of French Colonial architecture, adapted to the inundation of German vernacular styles of the late 19th century.

"The DeLassus-Kern House has French influence, but also has German influence in its architecture," said Stepenoff, who led this summer's historic preservation field school on the site. "It's a good house for studying American history and different ethnic cultures. It's a perfect place to do this."