Don't Call Me Ishmael: South of St. Louis (National Park edition)

Green Tree Tavern, St. Genevieve

Ulysses S. Grant Home, St. Louis

As I reached the Great River Road that traces the Mississippi River through southern Illinois, I enjoyed the quiet nature of the country surrounding me. I could have turned south and crossed the river to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, but opt to follow the River Road north to Chester, which has the only bridge crossing between CG and St. Louis.

In the misty morning and driving rain, I got little feel for character of any town I crossed. I just wanted to reach Chester.

Chester’s small downtown had several stately buildings, but I really just wanted to find the bridge. Chester served as a filming location in the film In the Heat of the Night, which takes place in Mississippi. Nothing from the movie stood out in the rainstorm, unfortunately. A few missed turns later and I spotted the river crossing.

But first, I spotted an unexpected statue.

More than 1,000 miles upstream from the Gulf of Mexico, a bronze depiction of Popeye the Sailor overlooked the Mississippi. The spinach-loving sailor man was created by Chester native Elzie Segar, who based several characters in Popeye’s tales on people who knew from Chester.

A little visitor center leans heavily on Popeye and I was the only one there that rainy morning. I didn’t expect much from Chester, but the Popeye connection made it a town worth remembering.

Saint Genevieve National Historic Park
Crossing only bridge between St. Louis and Cape Girardeau, one could be forgiven for not believing the oldest White settlement east of the Mississippi hid nearby. The rain revealed little of this farm country.

Little did I know the broad farming fields south of St. Genevieve followed the same sites of French colonists from more than 270- years ago. The 7,000-acre Le Grande Champ possessed nutrient-rich soils and even hid the remains of mounds built by earlier Native cultures.

The town served as a capital of French Louisiana then Spanish Louisiana, and broader settlement opened up after completion of the Louisiana Purchase (I’ll stop saying Louisiana now). The original townsite was critically damaged in 1785 floods, and the residents gradually moved the town to higher ground along the Mississippi. The town is rich with several French colonial architectural styles, mostly due to the use of posts to put the main floors of the homes high above ground level.

Despite its oldest settlement title, St. Genevieve is among the newest NPS sites, its creation formalized in 2020, plus a visitor center to highlight the town’s history. The park service only protects a handful of historic buildings. Many of the homes are privately owned and open for tours from non-NPS sources.

The oldest structure is the Green Tree Tavern, which dates to 1790 and also served as an inn and the home of the family that operated it. It also is noted as the first Masonic Lodge west of the Mississippi. It was easy to imagine its importance to the river community as a communal spot and one where travelers could take a break from the river.

Jean Baptiste Valle House was an early leader, who oversaw the transition from French to American rule after the Louisiana Purchase. His home was a nexus of local political activity, and the house look as it did during his time. Rose gardens and a grape arbour remain on the grounds, while slave quarters, a summer kitchen, and other out-buildings are long gone.

The Bauvais-Amourneaux House was also built by wealthy residents. It is notable for its “post-in-ground” architecture, one of three surviving St. Genevieve houses built in that style.

The rain sapped what energy I had for tours. The only person I spoke to was an elderly Black man walking down the street, limping slightly. We greeted each other and went on in the rain.

As I sought the route out of St. Genevieve, I realized the historic park was just a drop in the bucket. The town boasts some phenomenal architecture and brick streets. After experiencing a small historic sites, I didn’t realize such a historic town surrounded the handful of buildings administered by the Park Service. This one deserved a lot more time, although the outskirts of St. Louis beckoned me to one more NPS stop.

Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site
Ten miles south of downtown St. Louis lies a lesser-known site in the life of the Civil War’s victorious commanding general and the country’s 18th president. Deep in suburban St. Louis, there lies a vibrant green Victorian home surrounded by a number of vintage farm structures. It was painted white for decades, but the park service restored its vintage colors for period accuracy.

Ulysses S. Grant left the U.S. Army in the 1850s after serving in the Mexican-American War and his posting at remote Fort Humboldt in far north California, where he was driven to drink and eventually resign his commission. Having no other means of income, tried his hand at farming on his father-in-law’s plantation. Grant’s farming venture did not go well, as numerous environmental and economic factors dampened the farm’s output.

After multiple attempts at careers around St. Louis, Grant moved the family to Galena, Illinois, in 1860, joining his father’s leather goods business. His career trajectory was changed forever by the Civil War’s outbreak a year later.

The site shows the conflict for Grant, who grew up across several Ohio river towns east of Cincinnati, and his father was a staunch abolitionist. Grant had to face a different reality after leaving the Army.

Then there were the slaves. The farm had anywhere from 18 to 30 slaves, although the only one Grant acquired, William Jones, came from his father-in-law in his days at White Haven. Grant freed Jones in 1859. As with other slave states bordering Union states, many White Haven slaves simply walked off the plantation after the work broke out.

The Grants only sporadically visited the house after the war, as Grant became president in 1869 and Col. Dent died in 1873. Grant gave up the house to satisfy a debt in 1881 and it spent the next century in private ownership.

Grant Home interior

The White Haven property was chopped up for development, cut down from 850 acres to the 10 acres protected by the park service since 1989. White Haven escaped redevelopment several times but remained a private residence until threat of its demolition led to its purchase by park service.

Across Gravois Creek, lies the massive and unrelated Grant’s Farm, an event space with a Versailles-style estate owned by the Busch family of Anheuser-Busch fame. The famous Clydesdales The estate also includes Hardscrabble , the cabin that Grant built before they moved into White Haven at Col. Dent’s request.

Winter kitchen

The rain pulled back. I arrived in time for a 2 p.m. tour, just the ranger and I. It was the only way to access the house. We had a good conversation about Grant, and he pointed out all the out-buildings that were original to White Haven. The house had both summer and winter kitchens (the former outside, the latter in a basement accessed by a 4-foot-tall door).

Ties to a famous American made the house historically interesting, enough for it to end up preserved. The site might have been a small part of Grant’s life, but it illustrates that not everything is so clearcut with historic figures.