Archambault House

In 1848, after the Mexican-American War, Auguste Archambault was invited by an acquaintance, Antoine Tesson to come to his hometown of Florissant, Missouri.^[5][2] Archambault had served under Frémont in the California Battalion.^[5] While in Florissant was introduced to Amanda Peira, a descendant of an early settler of the town, whom he married later that year.^[5] Archambault subsequently left to help guide Howard Stansbury's expedition to the Great Salt Lake in Utah.^[5] Upon his arrival back from this expedition he met his firstborn son, Auguste Jr., and began construction of a new house on what was then the Florissant Commons, land held by the village for farming with each village property owner owning individual tracts.^[5] The Archambault family never lived in the house for very long periods of time especially due to Auguste's transient career as a fur trader and guide.

In 1858 the land the house was on was transferred to Joseph and Virginia Brand the in-laws of Auguste Archambault Jr.^[6][7] For many years after the house was used a residence before the Archdiocese of St. Louis came into possession of the house.^[7] They in turn sold it a year later to the city of Florissant under whose ownership in the 1970s a time when it was threatened with demolition.^[7] It was purchased by the city of Florissant with a $20,000 grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development which was matched by Historic Florissant Inc.^[5] As a result of this agreement, in 1981 after the restoration was complete Historic Florissant refunded the grant to the federal government and gained ownership of the house, which is currently a private residence.^[5]

This two-story Federal style house was built of brick on a limestone foundation. The house itself is a transitional one architecturally featuring Greek Revival and early Victorian features such as the boxed cornice with brackets.^[7] The main portion of the house dates from the 1850s while the one-story brick kitchen wing of the house dates from the 1880s.^[7] It has a stone cellar underneath the rear kitchen wing of the house with a dirt floor.^[6] The most notable feature of the property is that it has five intact outbuildings: a wood-frame summer kitchen, well house, two sheds, and a brick privy.^[7] Of these the most significant are the well house and brick privy. Both have French Provincial roofs and the privy has three seats and is plastered on the interior.^[7]

The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.^[1] It was also included as a contributing building in the 1979 listing of the St. Ferdinand Central Historic District.^[8]