County of building: Saint Charles County
Location of structure: N 5th St., 1st house N of Jefferson St, W side, St. Charles
Built: 1921-1925
Architect: Unknown
Architectural Style: Georgian Revival
Original Occupant: Rauch, Francis B. and Kathleen
Map
"46. 121 North Fifth Street; Georgian Revival; circa 1923; Contributing
Built in the Georgian Revival style, this 2-story brick house has 1-story wings on each side elevation. The steeply pitched hip roof has wide overhanging eaves that are enclosed with bead board, and a large
interior brick chimney is on the rear slope of the roof. The wings have low pitched hipped roofs supported by Doric columns. The north wing is a porte cochere while the south wing is a screen enclosed porch. The 3-bay façade has a central 6-panel wood door that opens onto a brick stoop. The frontispiece is composed of paneled pilasters with console brackets supporting a round-arched hood trimmed with a full entablature with denticulated frieze. The hood is clad with copper sheeting, with the underside lined with bead board. Above the door is a blind fanlight, and to each side of the door is an 8/8
wood window topped by a blind fanlight. The second floor has three 8/8 wood windows, and the shutters on the upper level are louvered wood shutters while those on the first floor have 2 panels with a lozenge shaped pattern pierced into the upper panel of each.
a. Garage; Contributing
This lot is a through lot, with frontage on both North Fifth Street and North Benton Avenue. There is a 2-car garage on the opposite side of the alley as the house. Its walls are clad in board-and-batten siding and it has a low gable roof. On the east elevation are double-leaf hinged garage doors of vertical wood boards and a board-and-batten man door. The garage appears to be more than 50 years old." ~ NRHP Nomination Form
"Built: 1921-1925
Style/Design: Georgian Revival
Built between 1921 and 1925 based upon city directory research, this house was initially the home of Francis B. and Kathleen Rauch. He was involved with two businesses: H. G. Rauch Lumber Company and H. G. Rauch Wholesale Grocery Company.
The family was still listed in the 1929-1930 city directory at this address, but the St. Charles Historical Society's compilation of real estate listings show an ad on 10/11/29 and another on 12/21/29 taken out by Frank Rauch to sell the property. Interesting enough, the first ad priced the house at $12,750 while the second ad listed it at $14,000. Both ads described the property the same: "Two story mat brick dwelling containing three rooms and reception hall on first floor, three rooms and sleeping porch on second floor. Also screened-in porch on first floor. Hardwood floors throughout. Marble fire place. Tile bath. Hot water heating system. Basement under entire house and fruit cellar. Lot 60 x 160." Apparently it sold, since the directory in 1931-32 revealed that Helmuth A. Meier and his family moved into the house, remaining at least through 1961, although in 1959 and 1961, the directory listed the head of the household as Mrs. Josephine Meier, probably his widow.
This is a nice example of the Colonial Revival variant known as Georgian Revival, noted for the symmetrical façade, shuttered, multipaned windows, Classical Revival entry details, and the side porches. The one unusual feature on this example is the wide eave overhang, something that is usually only found on Craftsman or Prairie style homes in this time period and the steeply pitched hipped roof is more commonly found on French Eclectic style residences.
"This two-story, dark red, Georgian Revival house has a steeply pitched, hipped roof with wide eaves enclosed with beadboard.
The plan of the house is basically rectangular with wings on either side, but the south half of the rear was always a two-story
frame section, separately roofed with a shed roof, creating an L-shaped hipped roof over the brick portion of the house. Both one-story side wings have shallow pitched hipped roofs supported by Doric columns at the corners. The north wing is a porte cochere
while the south wing is a screened-in porch with paired, 12-light French doors opening into the porch. The façade is divided into
three bays with 8/8 wood sashed windows in each bay, except for the central entry. The first floor windows that flank the entry
have round arched transoms (currently boarded in) reflective of the barrel vault roof that rests on entablature-like beams and
brackets with paneled pilaster strips on either side of the doorway. The entablature continues across the top of the door and there
is a boarded-in round arched transom above the door. The barrel vault is lined with bead board and clad with copper sheeting.
The front entry door is a wood 6 panel door and the Colonial style pendant lantern inside the barrel vault roof may be original.
There is a course of dentil molding at the base of the entablature. The shutters on the upper level façade windows are wood
louvered shutters while those on the first floor are 2-panel shutters with lozenge-shape cutouts. There is a low brick stoop at the
door. On the rear, the lap sided corner wing is original although the rear doors in that wing may be an alteration, as is the two-story wooden deck behind this wing. The hipped roof porch leading into the rear door in the north half of the rear brick wall is
historic although the posts and railings are newer deck material.
"This lot is a through lot, with frontage on both North Fifth Street and North Benton Avenue; however, historically it only had
frontage on Fifth Street. There is a 2-car garage behind the building, on the opposite side of the alley on what was formerly 114
North Benton Avenue. The walls are clad in board-and-batten siding and the structure is crowned by a low gable roof. On the
east elevation are double-leaf, hinged garage doors of vertical wood boards, and a board-and-batten man door. On the south
elevation is one single-light window. The garage does not appear on the 1947 Sanborn map—at least not in its present location.
It is possible that it is the garage that is shown on the 1929 and 1947 maps at 114 N. Benton Avenue and that it was turned
perpendicular to its original position when the property was acquired by the owner of 121 North Fifth Street. Contributing." ~ St. Charles Historic Survey Phase I, PDF pages 616-620