HISTORIC STE. GENEVIEVE HOUSE ON ENDANGERED LIST

A sagging roof, broken windows and a tangle of honeysuckle vines engulfing the porch are testament to the years of neglect suffered by a modest house on St. Mary's Road in Ste. Genevieve.

But because of the history behind the home where a respected, hard-working black man raised his family, there is an effort to save this home in this city known for its historic homes. That effort got the home, known as the William Brooks House, named as one of the 10 Most Endangered Missouri Historic Places for 2000 by the Missouri Alliance for Historic Preservation.

"We nominated it in an effort to try to increase interest from the family or a local organization in having the home restored," said Sandra Koller, planning and zoning administrator for Ste. Genevieve.

That's the reason the Alliance decided to produce the endangered list, which is new this year, said Becky Snider, vice president of the Missouri Alliance for Historic Preservation, a statewide not-for-profit preservation organization.

"People sometimes don't recognize the significance of sites in their own backyards. We hope the list generates interest in saving these sites," Snider said.

Compared to some of the other homes being restored in Ste. Genevieve, a city known for its large number of French colonial structures, the Brooks house is rather modest.

Most homes that get historic designations were built by wealthy town leaders. The Brooks home, on the other hand, is a rather plain two-story, clapboard I-form house, owned by Brooks, who worked for several prominent families in Ste. Genevieve, and his school teacher wife, Johanna, who was the first black woman from the town to earn a college degree.

"What sets this house apart is it is part of the last remaining cluster of African American homes of that time," said Koller. She said the Brooks House, a house next door and one across the road are all that remain of a number of homes built in the mid- to late 1800s by blacks.

It's also significant for the history of the Brooks family, which moved into the house in 1924.

William Brooks was an employee of three prominent families in Ste. Genevieve, the St. Gemmes, Roziers and Valles. He fought in France during World War I. His wife, Johanna McNabb Brooks, taught school and was vice president of the Missouri Parent Teachers Association in 1940, well before most Missouri schools were desegregated.

But the Brooks family knew segregation. In order to go to high school, William Brooks' three sons had to catch a Greyhound bus each morning to go to schools in Festus, Crystal City and St. Louis. It wasn't until the youngest son, Jack, was a senior in high school, that desegregation came to Ste. Genevieve schools. He was one of the first blacks to graduate from Ste. Genevieve High School.

But none of the sons live in Ste. Genevieve now, and the house has sat empty since William Brooks died in 1984.

Because of the damage the house sustained in the flood of 1993, the family has requested a demolition permit for the structure.

"We talked them into holding off on demolition because of the house's importance to the African American history in Ste. Genevieve," Koller said.

Koller said there have been several plans talked about for the house, including establishing a museum there detailing the history of African Americans in the region. In fact a committee has secured a $5,000 grant for an African American Interpretive Center.

However, no agreement has been worked out with the Brooks family, which doesn't want to sell the house.

"If someone wants to restore the house, that's fine. But we are not interested in selling," said Helen Brooks, wife of William Brooks' youngest son, Jack, who lives in St. Louis. The other brothers William Jr. and Sidney, live in Detroit and San Diego, respectively.

"My husband is set on keeping it in the family," she said.

But the family hasn't committed the resources to keeping the house maintained. The house's peeling paint, deteriorating asbestos siding, overgrown vines and collapsing fireplace are in sharp contrast to the house next door from the same time period.

That clapboard home is painted a crisp white, lattice panels surround the porch, which is decorated with flower-filled plant boxes.

Restoration, which involves repairing a home in the same style in which it was built, can be expensive, Koller said. She said a number of the French colonial homes, built in Ste. Genevieve in the late 1700s using vertical log construction, are now being restored at costs ranging from $100,000 to $200,000.