Green Tree Tavern - Ste. Genevieve, Missouri
Posted by: BruceS
N 37° 58.611 W 090° 02.536
15S E 759790 N 4207374
Historic French Colonial house in the Ste. Genevieve Historic District in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri.
Waymark Code: WM5F6W
Location: Missouri, United States
Date Posted: 12/30/2008
Views: 11
"The GREEN TREE TAVERN (private}, 244 Old St. Mary s Road, another
maison de poteaux sur sole , with the proportions of the interior woodwork and
the reeded panels suggesting American influence, was built as a residence by
François Janis in 1791. It became a tavern when the number of travelers pouring
into the new territory made the entertainment of all strangers in private homes
no longer possible. The sign bearing the words "Green Tree Tavern" preserved in
the local museum, may have been the same that attracted the English writer,
Thomas Ashe, in 1806. He found his host to be a "lively Frenchman," whose wife
made coffee that equaled any that Ashe had tasted in Paris. Four years later,
Brackenridge reports that the innkeeper, mistaking him and his companion for
footmen in their travel-worn clothes, quartered them in an outhouse. During the
night, the friend s trousers were eaten by rats." - Missouri: A Guide to the "Show Me" State,
1941, pg 280.
The Green Tree Tavern also known as Nicolas Janis
House was inundated with floodwaters during the flood of 1993. The house
is slowly being restored. The house is a contributing building in the Ste.
Genevieve Historic District which is listed as a National Historic Landmark.