A historic home in Ste. Genevieve will be restored over the next year after a local congregation succeeded in raising over $200,000 toward that goal.

The house was originally constructed by French Canadian silversmith Antoine Oneille around 1820, according to Chairman of the Oneille Task Committee for Restoration Becky Millinger.

It is an Anglo-American style home, which is different than some of the historic houses in Ste. Genevieve because it was moving away from the French style to a more American style, Millinger said.

She said Oneille is recognized as one of the top silversmiths of the early 1800s, with many of his pieces remaining today.

He was a silversmith who came down through the French corridor from Quebec to Detroit, then into Vincennes (Indiana) then here in Ste. Genevieve, she said. He died here and his buried in the Ste. Genevieve Memorial Cemetery.

After Oneilles death, the house was lived in by many others down through the years. The house weathered two floods and one fire in 1982, which resulted in the top floor being removed and replaced, giving the home the appearance of a more French Creole style.

The owner of the home sold it to Ste. Genevieve First Presbyterian Church in 2006. Millinger said the church has had plans since that time to renovate the building for church use, and were approached by an organization called the Jeffris Family Foundation about working together to restore the building.

Its an organization in Wisconsion that contacted us in 2013 and said, Can we help you restore that building? said Millinger. I dont know how they found out about us.

The foundation supports restoration projects across the Midwest, often with Capital Campaign Challenge Grants as was offered for the Oneille House.

They paid for half of the structures report, and then invited us to write a grant for the capital campaign, which we started June 30, 2014 Millinger said. It went until June 30 of this year, so we just finished. We were tasked with raising $200,000 to receive $100,000. We accomplished that, and its all been verified by the foundation. Now we are able to proceedright now were in the process of collecting bids from contractors for the restoration of the house.

Millinger said the past three years have seen many fundraising projects and initiatives, with support from local and national organizations.

We began with asking for contributions from people in the Presbyterian congregation, Millinger said. But weve also done fundraisers.

One of the sources of funds for the project is a book written by Millinger, compiling photos of all the known silverwork of Oneille. A local silversmith named Jill Kenik also designed and produced jewelry inspired by Oneilles work, which was sold for the benefit of the project.

We also had a sign a shingle campaign, where people could sign one of the cedar shake shingles that will be installed on the house during the restoration, Millinger said. So their names will be there for however long that lastsmaybe thirty or forty years.

The project has also been supported by contributions from the Foundation for Restoration of Ste. Genevieve, the French Heritage Society, as well as other organizational and private contributions.

Millinger hopes the restoration work will begin in September, with the project taking around a year if everything goes smoothly. Two major original portions of the house will remain after the restoration: the exterior chimney and some beaded beam joists.

The work on the buildings exterior will be overseen by the Heritage Commission of Ste. Genevieve. Millinger said the house is unique because it is the only historic structure in Ste. Genevieve constructed by an artist.

When the home is restored it will only be open to the public during certain event days throughout the year, though a gala will be held when the work is first completed.

For more information, or to keep up with the restoration projects progress, visit The Silversmith's House Restoration Project on Facebook.

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Effort underway to restore historic home - Daily Journal Online

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August 1, 2017 at 12:44 am by Mr HomeBuilder
Category: Home Restoration