County of building: Saint Charles County
Location of structure: N 5th St., 3rd house N of Jefferson St, W side, St. Charles
Built: 1890
Architect: Unknown
Architectural Style: Richardsonian Romanesque
Original Occupant: Pieper, Henry F. and Caroline B.
Map
"49. 125 North Fifth Street; Richardsonian Romanesque; circa 1890; Contributing
This 2½-story, brick Richardsonian Romanesque style house has a high coursed rock-faced limestone foundation that extends up to the first floor sill height. The steep hipped roof is nearly pyramidal and has
a cross-gabled bay on the south half of the façade and on the south elevation, and the north elevation is highlighted by a round 2-story tower with conical roof. The roof is clad with slate shingles and the peaks are capped with metal finials. The front gable end is clipped and the small roof overhang is trimmed with modillions and the gable end returns are decorated with sunburst ornaments. A small eyebrow dormer is on the front slope of the hip roof. The brick walls are in a running bond, except for the rear elevation, which is in a 5-course common bond, and the mortar joints are tinted red. A terra cotta belt course in a sawtooth pattern is between the first and second floors, and between the second floor and attic windows are terra cotta tiles decorated with bullseyes and asterisks, and the tiles are in a checkerboard pattern. On the first floor of the cross-gabled bay is a basket-handle arched opening that contains a tripartite casement window with tripartite stained glass transom. Ornate mullions are between the windows and transoms, and the opening is topped by radiating voussoirs with a molded cap and rusticated stone spring
blocks that have a scroll detail at the outer edge. To the north is a half-light, wood paneled door with a wide half-light, paneled sidelight to the left, and both are topped by a single-light transom. A small 1/1 window with rusticated stone sill is north of the doorway, and both the door and window are topped by rusticated stone lintels. An arcaded gallery with concrete stairway and deck spans the 2 northern bays.
The house’s rusticated stone foundation extends upward and serves as a half-wall railing for the porch and as a base for the porch columns. The end walls of the porch opening are rounded brick and between the 2 arches of the east side of the gallery are paired, rounded brick pilasters topped by a single molded capital. The spring blocks for the radiating voussoirs of the arcade are rusticated stone with scroll detailing. Above the gallery is a balcony recessed under the main hip roof. Short, paired Doric columns are at each end of the balcony and rest upon a low mansard roof that forms a half-wall railing. The entablatures of the paired columns form the base for a wall that has round-arched openings above each pair of columns and a flattened-arched opening between. Two multi-paned doors open onto the balcony.
In the southern bay of the second floor are paired 1/1 windows that have a stone sill and lintel but also a narrow stone band that spans across the front of the upper sash. Above, in the gable end, is a stylized Palladian window consisting of 3 deeply recessed single-light casement windows with a single rusticated stone sill and lintel, and the center window has a round-arched transom topped by radiating voussoirs." ~ NRHP Nomination Form
"Built: 1890 ca.
Style/Design: Richardsonian Romanesque
This was historically the home of Henry F. and Caroline Boschert Pieper. He was one of the late nineteenth century business leaders of St. Charles. He was the son of German immigrants who had become a successful, well-to-do farmer in St. Charles County (near St. Peters).
Born in 1840 at the family farm, Henry moved to St. Charles at 18 and became a carpenter's apprentice. Within 3 years, in 1861, he secured his own employment on the government barracks in St. Louis (Jefferson Barracks presumably), completing that work and then returned to St. Charles to join the home guard (Union) during the Civil War.
After that term was completed, he formed a partnership with H. B. Denker in merchandising (Denker & Pieper) and had several
other partners (at some times a grain and grocery business), until 1868 when John Gruer became his partner in the grocery trade, which became known as Pieper and Company and expanded to be grocers as well as dealers in farming implements. Their successful business became one of the leading grocery houses in St. Charles by the late nineteenth century. Their large stock of farm implements included steam threshers, an important part of their trade. Based upon his reputation as a substantial and reliable businessman, he served as city treasurer from 1868-1872 and then as county treasurer from 1878 to 1884. In 1868 he married Caroline Boschert and by 1885 when the History of St. Charles was published, they had two children, Henry A. and Celia
Pieper. By 1885, Henry A. was enrolled in college at St. Mary's (Kansas) and Celia was ten years old. Caroline's father was also
from Germany and the couple were members of the Catholic Church. His successes as a businessman led to the construction of the imposing Richardsonian Romanesque house at 125 N. Fifth. The current property was originally a much larger estate that extended 242’5” across the front and 300’ deep to Benton Avenue on the west, but the property was subdivided into 9 lots in 1912, and between 1909 and 1917, the first house was created on the north part of the lot along Fifth (127 N. Fifth) and by 1929 the alley had been built and additional lots facing Benton now had houses as did the lot on the south side of the property (121 N. Fifth). County Parcels Database dates this house as 1890, which may be accurate given the stylistic details (which seem to
indicate that this house was not built in 1868 when the couple married but must have been built as their business enterprises became even more successful). Originally this property was addressed as 109 (and alternately 111) N. Fifth. It appears on the first fire insurance map of this area in 1893. It is listed in the 1891-92 city directory as the home of H. F. Pieper, with a separate listing for Henry Pieper, who was an adult by then. For some reason this address is not located in either the 1906 or 1908-09 directory, but is listed in the 1910 directory as the home of Henry A. and Callie A. Pieper. He worked at the American Car and Foundry Company (ACF). The family continued to live in the house through 1950, but beginning with the 1916-17 directory, Callie Pieper is listed as the head of the household, and based upon the cemetery marker he died in 1914. This was one of the
prominent families in St. Charles’ history.
After 1950, the residents of the house changed frequently. This Richardson Romanesque house is remarkably well preserved with few alterations and it is a style that is not commonly found in residential properties in Missouri.
"This late nineteenth century, Richardsonian Romanesque house has a steeply pitched hipped roof with a cross gabled bay on the
south half of the façade and a balcony with a flattened arch opening recessed under the hipped roof on the north half of the
façade. Above there is a small eyebrow dormer. The balcony is framed by paired Doric columns which support partial
entablatures that form the base of smooth walls that have small round arched openings above the columns and a flattened arch
opening spanning the center of the balcony. There is another column on the outer corner against the brick wall at the back of the
balcony and there are two multipaned doors opening into the balcony. Above the balcony there are a series of modillions
supporting the eaves of the hipped roof and below the balcony is a small slight mansard roof over the first floor paired round
arched openings of the entry porch. The brick arches have a projecting crown molding terra cotta lintel framing the openings and rusticated limestone bases to the arch (which have a scroll detail at the outer edge). Below the center arch are paired, rounded
brick pilasters and the outer edges of the openings are also rounded brick. There is another round arched opening to the porch on
the north elevation. There is a half light, wood paneled door and a wide half light, wood paneled side light, both spanned by a
single light transom. To the north side of the door is a single light casement. Across the façade, there is a coursed, rusticated
stone foundation that extends up to the first floor sill height and serves as the base of the porch columns and as a half wall railing.
Rusticated stone also is used as broad lintels on windows and doorways and slender sills.
"Between the first and second floor, there is a sawtooth terra cotta course that links the two bays across the façade. On the first
floor of the south cross gabled bay is a basket-handle arched window (with similar detailing as the porch arched lintels) that
contains a tripartite casement window with tripartite stained glass transom. There are turned mullions between the casements. On
the second floor there are paired 1/1 sashed windows that not only have a stone sill and lintel but also a stone band that spans
across the upper sash (in front of the actual window). Above the paired windows is a frieze of ornamental red terra cotta tiles laid
in a checkerboard pattern. This extends to the stone sill of the attic level openings—three deeply recessed single light casement
windows that are also connected by a massive stone lintel with a round arched transom with a brick lintel detail above the stone of
the center window, which creates a stylized Palladian window. At the base of the gable end returns there is a small quarter
sunburst pattern. There is a small roof overhang with modillions at the peak of this gable end with a finial above.
"On the north side, behind the porch there are three round arched windows apparently leading up the stairwell inside with a round
two story bay with a conical roof behind it. There is a hipped dormer facing north. On the south side of the house is a two story,
canted bay with a cross gabled roof that has half timbered stucco in the gable end along with two 1/1 sashed windows. On the
back of the house is a brick two story, hipped roof wing with three segmental arched 1/1 sashed windows on the first floor and two
on the second floor, as well as a gabled roof enclosed entry that enters the basement level of this wing. A side porch on the south
side has been enclosed (originally a 1 story open porch, but two stories by 1900 and enclosed between 1917 and 1929). After
1947, the first floor of the enclosed porch appears to have been extended slightly to the south to enlarge the room inside. The
enclosed porch now has a shed roofed entry facing west. The brick is laid in a running bond pattern on the façade and 5-course
common bond on the rear with the mortar tinted red. Except for the side porch, the house appears to have had few alterations and
retains a high degree of integrity.
"There is a two-car, end gabled, frame garage that faces the alley. It is sided with asbestos shingle siding and has a concrete
foundation. Asbestos shingle siding probably is not the original wall material since the garage was built between 1929 and 1947
and this material did not become popular until after World War II. The man door on the south side is a 3 horizontal light wood
paneled door, likely the original door. The paneled metal overhead door is a replacement. Despite the replacement siding, the
garage still contributes to the historic character of the neighborhood. Contributing." ~ St. Charles Historic Survey Phase I, PDF pages 629-634