| In
1762 Pierre Laclède and Antoine Maxent had
received exclusive right to trade with the
Indians of the Upper Mississippi and Missouri
Rivers and by 1764 Laclede had founded and named
the settlement of St. Louis. About five years
later, Maxent dissolved the partnership and
Laclede then took for his partners Auguste
Chouteau and Sylvestre Labbadie. Falling deep in
debt, he traveled to New Orleans in hopes of
straightening out his financial affairs, but
became ill on the return trip to St. Louis and
died on 27 May 1788. The Chouteau Mansion, which it
became to be known as, was sold to Auguste
Chouteau in 1789 to pay off some of the debt.
Initially built as a single story, the home and
its servant quarters occupied the entire square
within Market, Main, Walnut, and Second Streets.
A second story was added for Chouteau's private
use as well as a 14 foot wide gallery on three
sides, and was surrounded with a solid stone wall
with holes placed every ten feet, through which
weapons could be fired for their defense. Within
the enclosure were outbuildings and slave
quarters; and inside, elegant furnishings and
imported French silverware, crystal, furniture
and mirrors graced the home. Its floors were of
solid black walnut and said to have been polished
by hand until they shone “like
mirrors.”
Auguste Chouteau,
who married Marie Thérèse Cerré, made his home
here until his death in 1829. His widow continued
to make her home there until about 1836, when at
the suggestion of her children, she built for
herself a residence on the hill and covered the
block with thirty-two three story brick business
houses which she divided amongst her children and
grandchildren.
It should be noted
that Colonel Chouteau's younger brother Major
Pierre Chouteau had a similar home which stood at
the upper extremity of Main street and also
occupied a whole square, bounded east by Main,
south by what became known as Vine, west by
Second, and north by what became known as
Washington avenue.
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