Casa Alvarez

This historic house was built around 1790 in the French Colonial architectural style and is believed to be the oldest extant home in Florissant, Missouri, and possibly in all of St. Louis County. The home was constructed using a frame style of construction which is called "Maison de poteuax de sur sole" or "sur une solage" a phrase that means that the vertical supports were placed on sills instead of directly in the ground like most residential pioneer buildings were constructed. This style of construction prevents rot and decay, which helps to explain why the home has existed for so long. The house serves as a reminder of the history of Spanish occupation in the Upper Louisiana Territory and was built for Spanish soldier Eugenio Alvarez.

The first owner of this house, and one of the most prominent owners, was Eugenio Alvarez. Alvarez was a Spanish solider who was born in Madrid, Spain in 1736. He came to St. Louis in 1770 with Captain Pedro Piernas. Piernas was the first Spanish governor of the Upper Louisiana Territory. Under Piernas, Alvarez served as the military storekeeper for the King of Spain. In 1782, Alvarez married Marie Josette Josepha Crepean and they had three children together: Manual, Augustus, and Eugenie. Alvarez died at 80 years in June 1816. The house went to Augustus Alvarez and remained in the Alvarez family until Humphrey Moynihan purchased it in 1905. Moynihan was elected as the mayor of Florissant in 1894. He owned the house for five years before it was purchased by Auguste Archambault Jr. in 1910. Archambault's father was a famous French mountain man whose house (the Archambault House) is also located in Florissant.

In 1914, Casa Alvarez was sold to Dr. Hermann von Schrenk. Schrenk was born March 12th, 1873 in College Point, New York. He was married to Mary Jane Kimball on February 22nd, 1909. Schrenk was a botanist and timber engineer who is remembered for beinging the process of creosoting railroad ties to America. He was interested in investigating diseases of fruit and forest trees as well as timber preservation. He wrote two books on these subjects: Decay of Timber and Methods for Preventing It and Seasoning of Timber. In the 1903's, he had architect Harry Helmuth expand Casa Alvarez to the size it is today. These architectural developments included a water tower that was meant to serve Schrenk's extensive gardens he added to the landscape which became famous for its lilies and delphinium. The garden was featured in the Corpus Christi procession.

National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form, MO State Parks. Accessed November 12th, 2022. https://mostateparks.com/sites/mostateparks/files/Casa%20Alvarez.pdf.

Gonzalez, Daniel. Mapping out the oldest houses in St. Louis County, St. Louis Magazine. March 29th, 2018. Accessed November 12th, 2022. https://www.stlmag.com/history/architecture/mapping-the-oldest-houses-in-st-louis-county/.

Historic Florissant, City of Florissant, Missouri. Accessed November 12th, 2022. https://www.florissantmo.com/egov/documents/e1b19c16_bb59_0946_a39b_426d8335ab46.pdf.