Starck's Wine Castle - Hermann, MO - Victorian Style Architecture on Waymarking.com

Coun ty of house: Gasconade County
Location of house: Washington St., between Stark Blvd. & W 10th St., Hermann
Architectural Style: French Second Empire

This magnificent home is the image and final word on what French Second Empire is all about.

I was gathering waymarking things (VFW, funeral home, city park) and traveling up Washington St., and this jumped out and grabbed my eye.

I cannot find anything on the web about it. It done not help when Google and the national real estate folks screw up the address. ( One has it as 1002, and one has it as 1012 - both wrong).

But cannot be denied it is 2nd Empire.

UPDATE OCTOBER 15, 2020

"Built in 1885 for George Starck, then co-owner of the Stone Hill Wine Company on whose grounds the house then stood surrounded by vineyards and facing the main road into town from the west. For additional history see survey report.

"General Description: Two and one half story irregular shaped brick home resting on a bordered stone rock faced ashlar foundation with full cellar.

"Setting: The house sets back from the road approximately 30 feet on a large lot The perimeter of the lot is partly fenced with a cast iron rail and part brick wall" ~ DNR Historic Survey, PDF page 926 [link below]

"The zest with which the Hermanners embraced their history and culture in the l880s ·~id not lessen the appearance of cracks in the facade. Perhaps most illustrative of the conflict is the change found in the architecture of the period. During the same decade as the two German festivals the first residences were built departing from traditional appearance and shape. Both were the residences of the enormously wealthy owners of the Stone Hill Wine Company, George Starck and William Herzog. Herzog's mansion is a pastiche of architectural elements and form dominated by the theme of the German Renaissance revival with its prominent multiple stepped gable parapet (inventory #514). George Starck's Wine Castle" as it was called was built in the popular Second Empire style with an exuberance of detail and visual eclectism (inventory #619). Both mansions must have shocked the sensibilities of most Hermanners. In 1886 the first commercial building to depart from tradition was built on a prominent corner lot in town (inventory #6). Monnig's store is a Mansard roofed Second Empire building which stands in stark contrast to to the staid straightforward facades of its neighbors on First street." ~ Survey Report page 43