This chapter examines the role played by woodcutters, carpenters, cabinetmakers, and stonemasons in St. Louis during its earliest years, 1766–1770. Charles E. Peterson, one of the founding fathers of preservation architecture in the United States, wrote three seminal pieces about colonial architecture in the middle Mississippi Valley. Since Peterson, however, there has been no comprehensive study on Illinois Country architecture. Drawing largely on extant manuscripts in the archives of the Missouri History Museum, this chapter compares St. Louis's early buildings with those in other Illinois Country communities (Kaskaskia and Ste. Genevieve), those on the Gulf Coast, and those in French Canada. It also looks at a number of prominent woodworkers in early St. Louis, including Jacques Denis and Pierre Lupien dit Baron. Finally, it considers some of the features of Illinois Country houses and the materials used in their construction, primarily timber.
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