419 5th St

Summary

St. Germain dit Gauthier House
419 Fifth Street, Prairie du Chien, Crawford County
Dates of Construction: ca. 1837, 1916

The St. Germain dit Gauthier House is located on St. Feriole Island, which is set near the east bank of the Mississippi River, and separated from the mainland by a narrow back channel of the river. St. Feriole Island is the site of the original Euro-American settlement at Prairie du Chien, and remains a part of the city of Prairie du Chien, although no one has lived on the island since flood reduction efforts relocated everyone beginning in the late 1970s. The St. Germain dit Gauthier House is a side-gabled log house built ca. 1837 and moved to its current location in 1894. A small addition was built onto the rear of the cabin in 1916.

The St. Germain dit Gauthier House is significant as one of a handful of examples of the pièce sur pièce à queue d’aronde method of construction in Wisconsin. This building technique, translated as “timber upon timber with dovetailing,” was erected by French-Canadian settlers in Quebec province, and disseminated with the fur trade through the Great Lakes, and into the Mississippi River Valley. The St. Germain dit Gauthier House incorporates features characteristic of this method, including the length of the house, which is a multiple of 13; the width of the hewn logs, which averages five inches; and the Roman numerals scratched into most of the logs, which French-Canadian builders used to assemble the house. The pitch and height of the roof, and its lack of a bell-cast eave, are not French-Canadian, but rather an influence of the Federal style, brought by Yankees settling in Prairie du Chien beginning in the late 1820s. The blend of two cultures, predominantly French-Canadian, overlaid with a Yankee aesthetic, enhances the significance of the St. Germain dit Gauthier House, because it makes the house a unique representative of the transition of the fur trade in Prairie du Chien, and of the community itself, from French-Canadian to American domination in the early-nineteenth century.

From its construction until its acquisition by the city of Prairie du Chien in 1978, the house was owned and occupied by families of French-Canadian ancestry. The Guillaume and Madeline (Brunet) St. Germain dit Gauthier family lived in the house for three generations, until 1890. In 1894, Charles Gremore moved the house to its current site. From 1903 until 1978, the George Coorough family was in residence. The Prairie du Chien Historical Society plans to restore the house and open it as a museum.

The Fuldner Heritage Fund paid for the preparation of this nomination. The endowed fund, created through a generous donation by the Jeffris Family Foundation and administered by the Wisconsin Historical Society, supports the nomination of historically and architecturally significant rural and small town properties.

This property is private. Please respect the rights and privacy of the owners.

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