County of building: Saint Charles County
Location of structure: Jefferson St., 3rd house W of 8th St., N side, St. Charles
Built: 1907
Architect: Unknown
Architectural Style: Folk Victorian
Original Occupant: Samuel and Effie Johnson
Map
"275. 810 Jefferson Street; Folk Victorian; 1907; Contributing
Originally built as a duplex but subdivided into 4 apartments in the early 1950s, this 2-story, cross-shaped brick structure has a coursed rock-faced stone foundation and a pyramidal roof with wide
overhanging eaves, and there are hip-roofed wings on each side elevation. Tall brick interior end chimneys are on both the right and left side slopes. On the front slope is a hipped dormer with 2
rectangular ventilators and the bottom corners of the dormer are decorated with brackets. The façade’s walls are in a running bond while the side elevations are in a Flemish stretcher bond with every sixth course having alternating headers and stretchers. The segmental-arched openings throughout the house are topped by radiating voussoirs and have cast stone lug sills. In the center 2 bays of the 4-bay façade are half-glazed wood doors with transoms covered by wooden panels and in the outer bays are wide 1/1 windows framed by wooden louvered blinds. The 1-story, ¾-width gallery has a wooden deck, robust turned and engaged posts supporting a shed roof, a ball-and-rod spindled frieze and a balustrade with turned balusters. Four 1/1 windows with wooden louvered blinds are on the second floor. The south
walls of the projecting wings have a 1/1 window on each floor.
a. Garage/Apartments; circa 1915; Contributing
The 1-story, side-gabled, frame garage was built prior to 1917 and converted into 2 apartments in the early 1950s. At the west end is a 1-car garage, and this end of the building has a higher roofline than the remainder of the building. The façade, which is clad with vinyl siding while the other walls have cement asbestos shingles, features a 2/2 (horizontal lights) wood window, a Craftsman door with 3 lights over 2 tall vertical panels, two 2/2 windows, a door with 2 horizontal lights, a 2/2 window, and a metal 4-section garage door. The 2 man doors are protected by shed hoods supported by knee braces. " ~ NRHP Nomination Form
"Built: 1907
Style/Design: Folk Victorian
The County’s tax parcels database gives the date of construction as 1907, and this may be correct. The structure was built as a duplex with the addresses of 810 and 812 Jefferson Street, and apparently between 1952 and 1955 the building was subdivided into four apartments, as it is now, and the outbuilding was converted into two apartments. From 1908-1910 the unit at 810 was occupied by Samuel and Effie Johnson, and he was a physician. The 1916-17 city directory indicates that the resident was Mrs. Mary Haertel (widow of Franz), but from 1918 through 1950 Bertha Haertel owned and occupied the unit. She was a teacher at the Immanuel Lutheran School. In 1908-09 the residents of 812 were John and Helen Fairweather, and he was the general foreman of St. Charles Lighting Co. John King lived in the unit in 1910, but from 1916 through 1950 the unit was owned and
occupied by Edwin and Hilda Boenker. Edwin was employed by the International Shoe Co. until sometime between 1922 and 1925, when he became co-owner of Boenker Brothers Garage on Clay Street (First Capitol Drive).
"Sometime between 1952 and 1955 the house was subdivided into four apartments and the rear outbuilding was converted into two apartments. In 1955 one of the six units was occupied by an employee of McDonnell Aircraft and one by an employee of the American Car and Foundry Co. (ACF) and in 1957, two residents were employed by McDonnell Aircraft and one by ACF. In 1961, when research ended, only four units were occupied, as follows: James E. Lamb, assistant manager of IGA; Donald Vogt; Henry Herz, a farmer, and his wife Emma; and Bill Chitwood, who was employed by McDonnell Aircraft, and his wife Charlotte.
"Originally built as a duplex but now housing four apartments, this two-story, four-bay wide, cross-shaped, brick structure rests on
a coursed, rock-faced stone foundation and is crowned by a pyramidal roof, and there are hip-roofed wings on each side elevation. The roof has wide overhanging eaves, and there is a tall, brick, interior end chimney on both the right and left side slopes. On the front slope is a hipped dormer with two rectangular ventilators, and the bottom corners of the dormer are decorated with brackets. The brick walls of the main façade are laid in a running bond pattern, while the side elevations are laid in a common bond with every sixth course being Flemish bond. The segmental arched openings throughout the house are topped by radiating voussoirs and have what appear to be cast stone lug sills. The four-bay main façade has entrances in the two center
bays and wide 1/1 windows in the outer bays, and the windows are framed by wooden louvered blinds. The entrances are halfglazed wood doors with modern storm doors, and the transoms have been covered with wood panels. The doors open onto a one-story, 3/4-width gallery that has a wide, central concrete stairway, wooden deck, robust turned and engaged posts supporting a shed roof, a ball-and-rod spindled frieze, and a balustrade with turned balusters. The second floor of the main façade has four 1/1 windows framed by wooden louvered blinds. The two side elevations feature three window openings on each level (two on
each level are in the projecting hip-roofed wings), and the south walls of the projecting wings also have a 1/1 window on each floor. Shutter hardware indicates that the windows on the side elevations did have shutters but they are no longer in place. There s a one-and-one-half story, gabled, brick wing centered on the rear elevation, and on its east and west elevations are one-story, shed-roof porches with brick foundation piers, wood deck, plain wood posts and plain balustrade, and the south end of each has been enclosed with vinyl siding. A straddle ridge chimney is on the roof of the rear wing and on each side slope is a shed dormer.
"A public sidewalk spans the front of this flat lot while an alley is along the rear. A brick sidewalk with a single concrete step leads
from the street to the gallery, where a second sidewalk (concrete) wraps around the west elevation and leads to the rear yard.
Several trees are in the yard, and the front gallery is lined with shrubs. At the rear of the property, along the alley, is a one-story, side-gabled, frame building that appears to be the same one shown on the 1917-1947 Sanborn maps. The city directories indicate that this building was converted into apartments between 1952 and 1955. It houses two apartments, but the western end is a one-car garage that opens onto the alley, and this end of the building has a higher roofline than the remainder of the building.
The front is finished with vinyl siding while the other elevations are clad with cement asbestos shingles. The main façade
features, from left to right, a 2/2 (lights arranged horizontally) wood window, a Craftsman door having three lights over two tall
vertical panels, two 2/2 windows, a door with two horizontal lights, a 2/2 window, and an older metal garage door having four horizontal sections. The two man doors are protected by shed hoods supported by knee braces. The east elevation has two 2/2 windows and a door while the west elevation has two window openings. This building is contributing." ~ St. Charles Historic Survey Phase II, PDF pages 85-90