Ste. Genevieve County: A great place to put down roots

Sam Conlon was on her way from San Francisco to New Orleans when she made a stop in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri -- and never left.

"This building reached out and grabbed me and would not let me go," she says, referring to the downtown building that now houses her jewelry shop, Only Child Originals. It needed a lot of work, but it had a "For rent" sign and two walls of gorgeous exposed brick, and it would cost less than half what she was paying for a basement bedroom in California. An hour later, she was writing a check to buy the place.

"I can't let beautiful, historic buildings rot," she says.

Artist Sam Conlon owns Rust and Only Child Originals in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. Conlon has also rehabbed three historic building in Ste. Genevieve.Laura Simon

That was 16 years ago, and Conlon now has three historic fixer-uppers to her name, and she's lived in Ste. Genevieve longer than anywhere else she's ever lived.

"I love the Ste. Genevieve community. I've never lived in a community before, where the whole 'It takes a village thing' really means something," she says.

A young boy tries on one of artist Sam Conlon's candle holders in St. Genevieve, Missouri.Laura Simon

Artist Sam Conlon owns Rust and Only Child Originals in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. Conlon has also rehabbed three historic building in Ste. Genevieve.Laura Simon

Conlon says she made her first pair of earrings at age 4, and she's been hooked on beads ever since. Jewelry is primarily what she sells at Only Child Originals, while at her other store, Rust, she's known for her luminaries and lights made of old corrugated tin. This venture, she says, came from noticing the surplus of corrugated tin in Missouri and trying to make lighting out of it for her jewelry shop. When customers kept wanting to buy the fixtures, she decided to make them into a shop of their own, and Rust was born.

"The materials are always what inspire me. Everything is fair game," she says.

Artist Sam Conlon owns Rust and Only Child Originals in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. Conlon has also rehabbed three historic building in Ste. Genevieve.Laura Simon

Conlon also sells the work of several other local artists at Rust. Upstairs is an apartment that she spent 13 months rehabbing and now rents by the night. Nearby, in the city's old water department -- another fixer-upper -- Conlon has a studio for her welding and metalwork projects.

"To take a building that is totally falling apart -- one that people thought was done, it could never be saved or they didn't even know it was there -- to take it back to its original glory is extraordinarily satisfying to me," Conlon says. "When people notice it, that's also very satisfying. And even more, when people appreciate it, I want to do more."

Artist Sam Conlon owns Rust and Only Child Originals in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri. Conlon has also rehabbed three historic building in Ste. Genevieve.Laura Simon

While renovating old buildings is hard work, she says the satisfaction of meeting her goals and seeing the end result has been more than worth it.

"You realize how many lives each building has had, and it's like you uncovered buried treasure," she says.