MODEL GIVES LIFE TO OLD STE. GENEVIEVE

STE. GENEVIEVE, Mo. -- Lewis Pruneau and Jim Baker didn't know what they were taking on when Baker phoned the professional model-maker to ask if he could create a diorama depicting Ste. Genevieve as it was early in the 19th century.

Baker, the historic site administrator at the Felix Valle House in Ste. Genevieve, provided the research and Pruneau built 176 tiny houses from scratch, capturing in miniature a nearly mile-long section of Ste. Genevieve between the historic Amoureux House and the Green Tree Tavern.

The 22 months Pruneau spent on the project produced a dazzling result.

Baker says, "It's truly a work of art."

The model will be unveiled in a ceremony at 3 p.m. next Sunday at the Amoureux House, 327 St. Mary's Road in Ste. Genevieve.

It was commissioned by Les Amis, a St. Louis-based group interested in preserving French culture and heritage in the region.

The diorama was one of the ideas proposed for an exhibit after the Amoureux House was donated to the Division of State Parks. They wanted to show people how the town looked before the modern buildings crept in.

Baker researched old fire insurance maps, archival material, deeds, mortgagees, rental documents, court papers and old photographs. A panoramic oil painting created in 1850 was heavily relied on.

Pruneau also had the use of a topography map that dates from 1890.

The Ste. Genevieve native and resident is a former construction foreman who began making models after attending a modeling convention in 1981.

"I couldn't get over how far model-building had come," he said.

Eventually, his hobby turned into the vocation of making military dioramas. His work is purchased by a St. Charles, Mo., museum called Miniature World.

The Ste. Genevieve diorama is his first non-military commission. At 9-by-11-feet, it is the largest diorama Pruneau has built but its scale -- 1:225 -- is the smallest.

After seeing his work, people often ask how to acquire a kit. There are none. Pruneau made the houses from scratch out of sheet Styrene plastic and resin. He did not make the figures on the streets but painted each one.

The trees are made from a spongy material produced by a Missouri company. Streams South Gabouri Creek and North Gabouri Creek are shaped from another epoxy material, painted and then coated to make them glisten.

Making the Ste. Genevieve diorama required two gallons of resin, a huge amount, "and cases of Super Glue," Pruneau said.

The diorama illustrates Ste. Genevieve at a time that includes both French colonial houses from the town's founding along with significant American architecture that came in after the Louisiana Purchase. Some of the houses in the diorama still exist, some don't.

The date 1832 was chosen because they discovered the cornerstone for the early stone Church of Ste. Genevieve was laid in 1831.

"We thought it would be interesting to portray that church under construction," Baker said.

The stone church's foundation remains underneath the brick church that replaced it.

Baker noted the detail Pruneau has put into the diorama by adding people, animals and even trash. "It has the ability to put in parts of human nature that make the community come alive," Baker said.

The Amoureux House will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and from noon to 5 Sundays through mid-August.