The Renovation of The Vital Ste. Gemme Beauvais House
In the Spring of 1999 Bill and Yvonne Lemire were frequent weekend visitors to the town of Sainte Genevieve.
The couple stayed at a B&B and spent the evenings walking around the historic square admiring the architecture.
A member of the Center for French Colonial Studies, Bill posessed a love of the town and it's traditions steeped in history,
and was equally fascinated by his own French heritage.
The 1993 flood found Bill sandbagging at the Mississippi in Sainte Genevieve shoulder to shoulder with the locals.
In September of 1999, the couple stopped in front of the Sainte Gemme Beauvais house for the third time. Bill had long before fallen in love with the idea of owning a piece of history and said, “If I buy this home, will you renovate it?”
Yvonne, a lover of all things historical and proud restorer of multiple homes, took one look at the the dilapidated house, with it's shutters falling off and the hole in the front porch preventing anyone from actually entering through the front door and thought, “No way.” Instead she smiled and agreed.
After being vacant and unattended for 13 years the couple purchased the Vital Sainte Gemme Beauvais Home in September of 1999.
The Cellar
Little did Bill know that his sandbagging efforts would protect his own future property;
the house was left untouched by the 1993 flood.
Unfortunately however, a water pipe had broken in the cellar at some point and went unnoticed by a previous owner for two months, resulting in a flooded cellar. The owner chose to rectify this situation by filling the entire cellar cavity with dirt.
The entire basement had to be hand dug and and the dirt removed – first by bucketful and then wheel-barrowed up a ramp
and out to the backyard. In an ironical twist, the dirt was contributed to the Ste. Genevieve levee project.
Two and a half months of back-breaking labor later,
the extent of the damage was exposed.
Four of the stone pilings supporting the floor system had been completely washed out and the east inside corner of the house had sunk by about 9 inches.
In the clearing out of the basement, the Lemires chose to dig down an additional two feet to accommodate anyone who might be taller than your average five-foot historical Frenchman.
The concrete retaining half-walls were constructed around the perimeter of the newly excavated basement, and a solid wall containing a viewing window was built 8 feet in from the front of the house, leaving the original crawl space and exposing the original stone pilings and floor system for viewing.
The Exterior
The front and back porches were rotten and falling down, windows broken, some siding rotten and much paint peeling. The removal of the porches and roof started the renovation to tighten up the house before winter.
In removing the asbestos roof shingles from the 1940's or 50's, the original cedar shingles were found still attached. Unfortunately, the shingles were disintegrating and none of the original roof could be saved. The entire roof was replaced with cedar shingles to match the look of the original roof.
With the foundation and exterior in place, it was time to start the renovation of the interior.
The Interior
The first task was to jack up the floor system on the east wall in order to replace the washed out pilings and level the main floor. Some floorboards needed replacing and were stained by mixing three different colors to meticulously match the original patina.
The windows were removed one at time (now that it was winter) and were stripped, re-glazed and historical glass
was replaced as needed. Yvonne scavenged the surrounding areas, from architectural salvage stores to people's basements
in order to match the original glass perfectly.
The main floor was somewhat intact, though in the kitchen, brickwork was found collapsing into the basement which seemed to have been some sort of chimney or wood stove - though it didn't appear to penetrate the roof.
The mystery remains unsolved.
After removing layers of white wash Yvonne was able to expose two timber walls, one in the lower bath and the other in the kitchen, which was the original exterior wall of the back of the house. She then cleaned each timber with a brass brush to bring out the lustre of the cedar timbers, and mimicked white-wash to cover the pierrotage leaving a few of the stones exposed.
At some point in the 1940's or 50's, a wall was built dividing the living and dinning rooms. This wall was removed in an effort to keep the main floor as close to the 1792 floor plan as possible.
As a point of interest, Yvonne exposed the construction of the exterior wall through another viewing window in the living room. This shows the vertical cedar timber, pierrotage and willow branches on a diagonal for lath which holds more mud and animal hair which is then white-washed, or as in the case of the renovation, plastered.
Since the kitchen was added on between 1893-1901 - the same time period Frank Lloyd Wright built his own home in Chicago, Il – Yvonne went to visit his home and then beautifully replicated his kitchen with wood countertops, a carved drain board next to the sink, and a work table in the center of the room which cleverly conceals the dishwasher.
Not wanting to change the original construction of the three kitchen windows, Yvonne had removable countertops built in front to them, exposing additional light and adding shelf space.
The stove is a 1911 Tappan Skelgas; one of the only working things found in the house. Match lit and very efficient - though Lemire does not use the oven for baking as it is challenging for a chef to bake in an oven with temperature markings such as “slow” and “quick.” There is an Amana conventional and convection oven installed.
All the materials removed were replaced with identical material of historical accuracy. In fact, the 200 years worth of mostly lead and other substance paint was hand scraped from the beadboard walls, doors, and woodwork. The floors were stripped, sanded and refinished.
Two furnaces needed to be installed in order to hide the duct work in the floors and up walls where studwork is now available. Added electricity and plumbing have been concealed as much as possible to retain historic originality. Lights in the kitchen, both bathrooms and lower and upper porches have dimmer switches for ambiance.
Upper Level
On the second floor, all the plaster from the walls was on the floor. The ceilings had fallen, exposing the roof rafters (and perhaps 200 or more wasps nests.)
The South wall revealed a two story nest for the resident squirrels, nuts included!
The dormers were in great need of support; the one in the north bedroom had no support whatsoever and was essentially just hanging there. The few closets were lined in newspaper and oilcloth tablecloths to fill in the air leaks, typical in old houses.
Removal of the utilities in the second floor bathroom revealed rotten flooring and timbers which were replaced, but with this came the discovery that all of the timbers from the south to the north end of the house had been numbered with Roman numerals – presumably when the house was moved from its original location in Kaskaskia to it's present site in Sainte Genevieve.
The owners kept as close as possible to the original upstairs floor plan but added three feet to the bathroom and closets added on the east wall were finished with beadboard doors. A window seat was added under the newly restored dormer in the middle bedroom which opens up into a double bed. A stone hearth and gas replication cast iron wood stove were also added to the middle bedroom.
The plaster was replaced and all the walls were painted by hand with a brush (as would have been the case in the 1700's) with colors chosen from milk-paint charts. New flooring replaced the bathroom and sitting room floorboards, and the original baseboards, windows and woodwork were stripped by hand and refinished. All the weights and ropes in the windows were replaced to restore the full functionality of the windows.
Then began the process of finding the bathroom utilities.
Yvonne found herself at the salvage yard climbing over refuged tubs, toilets, and sinks as she followed a disreputable character on a hunt for the last six foot long claw-foot tub in Missouri. This tub was apparently promised to a designer in Kentucky but the gentleman at the dump took a liking to Yvonne and let her have it instead.
Re-glazed white and shiny, it now sits proudly in the upstairs bathroom.
The marble sink cabinet in the upstairs bathroom was handmade and designed to replicate an historical 1800's sink
including vintage hardware.
Vintage hardware also outfits the kitchen and downstairs bath, which contains a resurfaced five foot claw-foot tub and pedestal sink from 1800's Czechoslovakia. The mirrored medicine cabinet in the downstairs bath is original to the house.
All the storm windows and doors were hand crafted out of cypress with removable screens and glass for the four doors.
The original well was restored in 2003, all matching stone was replaced and a new cover built, (the French covered their wells) using the same material that would have been used in 1792.
The couple received a grant which funded the restoration of the well.
They were also granted federal and state tax credits which required them to follow strict historical guidelines.
Due to the extraordinary lengths the Lemires went through to restore the house back to is original and historical standards,
the Vital Sainte Gemme Beauvais House has received multiple awards including the prestigious
Preserve Missouri Award for Outstanding Work in Residential Rehabilitation by the Missouri Preservation Society,
the Missouri House of Representatives Resolution Award from the Missouri Alliance for Historic Preservation,
and Ste. Genevieve Landmarks Award for Historical Preservation.
