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[Block 37B] In 1804 Philip Fine, the first Anglo-American to live in St. Louis, owned this small (22 x 30 feet) French house on the southeast corner of this block. It was built in 1775 by Jacques Noise and was of poteaux en terre (logs in the earth) construction. The house had two chimneys, one at each end, rather than a central chimney stack. In 1805 the house was purchased by merchants named John Campbell and White Matlack. Gen. James Wilkinson used this house in 1805 when he was the territorial governor. Campbell and Matlack built a stable and a warehouse measuring 18 x 60 feet on the property in 1807. From March until August 1808, Meriwether Lewis rented this house during his tenure as the territorial governor. The rent was $250 per year, and he wished to share the house with William Clark and Clark's new bride, Julia Hancock. In a letter to Clark of May 29, 1808, Lewis wrote: "I know not whether you are acquainted with the interior of this house and will therefore endeavour to give you some idea of it. The cellar is dry, equal in its temperature and sufficiently capacious for our purposes; there are four good rooms on the first floor with a convenient store room or closet and small office, a Piazza on the East front the whole length of the building, it continues also on the south end and is terminated by the office. On the same floor there is a half-passage leading from the center or principal room to the back yard garden and kitchen; the door of a flight of stairs, leading to the garret opens in this passage, as does also that of another flight of steps which communicate with the cellar. the garret is in one common room but it has a tolerable floor and will be convenient for the servants to lodge. The kitchen has two fireplaces with a good bake oven opening into one of them; a large stable, a good well, a small though well picketed garden and a small indifferent out house formerly used for smoking meat constitute the other appendages of this dwelling. should we find on experiment that we have not sufficient room in the house, I can obtain an Office elsewhere in the neighborhood and still consider myself your messmate; the garden has been attended to; and I have also enclosed a large garden near this lot, which will furnish us with potatoes, cabbage, &c." The original of this letter is in the archives of the Missouri Historical Society. Other evidence suggests that by 1807 the house had wooden mantelpieces (shipped from Philadelphia) and wallpaper on the walls. William and Julia Clark arrived in St. Louis in July 1808, and the house suddenly became very small indeed. Now there was not a bachelor living there but also a married couple with their slaves. In addition, Julia was expecting a child. Lewis moved his office out of the house and to another building, then shortly after, probably in August, moved out altogether. The large warehouse building on the property was finished on the inside and probably used for the business of the territorial government by both Lewis and Clark. Clark and his family lived in this house until they moved to a house in Block 9 in 1811. Clark built a home in Block 12 in 1818. After August 1808 Meriwether Lewis rented a room somewhere in St. Louis until his departure for Washington, D.C. on September 4, 1809, a trip from which he never returned.
This modern view of the Arch's
south reflecting pond and the Old Cathedral beyond was |
The
low marker in the foreground is close to the site of the Fine/McNair
house. This modern view is taken looking southeastward toward the
Mississippi River.
taken
from about the site of the Fine/McNair House looking northwest.