"Jean Baptiste Bequet House. Local name: Bequet-Ribault House 351 St.
Mary's Road. Contributing. HABS No.: MO- 1114. c. 1808 (dendrochronology
investigation)[1778]. Property type: French vertical log house. The Bequet House is
one of three extant post-in-ground (poteaux en terre) houses in Ste. Genevieve.
The one and one-half story house measures 22 feet by 37 feet 6 inches in plan.
Originally the house was a one-room cabin with a large stone fireplace on its
north wall. Its original King post truss roof and longitudinal wind bracing have
been little changed.
The first floor structure consists of log beams spaced at four feet on
center. The vertical logs are squared cedar posts. Barkless willows are used to
plug the gaps between the cedar uprights on three sides of the house. The gaps
between the logs were originally filled with mud.43 The attic structure consists
of 4 inch by 8 inch hewn beams spaced unevenly at approximately 2 feet 6 inches
transversely. These beams are anchored through the vertical logs. Hewn squared
mortise and tenon roof trusses are anchored with pegs to the upper plate
perimeter.
The plate of the house is composed of six separate timbers. The plates on the
narrow ends of the house are single, squared timbers about 21 feet 3 inches
long, while the plate on each of the longer sides is two squared timbers,
approximately 37 feet 3 inches long, spliced together with three pegs.
The existing central chimney is not original. Its original chimney was on the
north end. The addition of the mantle and the lowering of windows were done in
an effort to Anglicize the house. In recent years, the earth footing has been
recently stabilized with a concrete retaining wall all around the earth
basement. Additional stabilizing was provided by installation of a concrete
collar beam 1 foot in height on both sides of the exposed base of the vertical
posts. This beam has been in place for several decades.
The house has a raised gallery on all four sides. Square wood posts that
extend from the ground to the roof framing support this gallery. The east facade
has a central doorway flanked by window openings. There are two pairs of
exterior doors: one pair facing east into the cabin from the east gallery and
the second pair facing west, opening onto the west gallery. There were six
walnut-cased window openings. Five of these openings had only wood exterior
shutters for closures, while the sixth opening, facing west, was fitted with a
pair of casement sash.
A major remodeling early in the nineteenth century added a central chimney
with a large fireplace, a pine mantel and a willow palisade partition plastered
with mud and fitted with a connecting door. This wall divided the cabin into two
smaller rooms, a salle with a cabinet north of the chimney and a chambre to the
south. As part of this remodeling, nine-over-six, double hung, windows were
installed. The original window openings were lowered so that the sills would
match the new pine chair rail in the chambre. A boxed stair was added in the
salle, replacing the original ladder and trap door. Changes to the exterior
included reconfiguration of the roofline by removal of both end galleries, roof
hips and finials, and replacement with the then fashionable gable roof. Wood
siding was added to the north and south elevations since the roof no longer
provided protection for the logs.
The 1930s appearance of the house is shown in photographs in the HABS
collection. At that time, the house had a double-pitch, gable roof with front
and rear galleries. A large central chimney rose from the center of the roof
ridge, and a smaller, brick stove chimney adjoined the north wall of the house.
Jean Baptiste Bequet (1751-1813), for whom the house was built, was born in
Kaskaskia and later moved to Cahokia. He married Louise LaSource, and they had
three children. On January 28, 1809, he transferred the house and lot to Jean
Baptiste Bequet, Jr. The house and lot were sold at a sheriffs sale on May 19,
1840 to Antoine Ricoli. Two days later, it was sold by Ricoli to Clarice Ribault,
a free woman of color. The Ribault family were descendants of Jean Ribault who
came from France via New Orleans to Ste. Genevieve, where he died in 1849.45 In
1837, Clarise, a free woman of color brought to Ste. Genevieve from Virginia by
John Ribault, purchased the house and raised her children there. The house is
unusual as one of only a small number of remaining houses owned by an African
American woman in a slave state prior to the Civil War. The house remained in
Ribault family ownership until 1981. The house was documented in 1985 by a HABS
team under the supervision of Professor Osmund Overby of the University of
Missouri. In the 1980s, the building was restored under the guidance of Jack R.
Luer for Royce and Marge Wilhauk. In 1991, the Wilhauks sold the property to the
Historic Preservation Revolving Fund of the Missouri Department of Natural
Resources. In 1996, the property was sold to William and Donna Charron." ~
Historic District National Register Nomination Form