Musee de Venoge

Musee de Venoge. . This house is one of the few remaining examples of the French colonial architecture that once characterized the first settlement of Switzerland County. The style was common throughout the Mississippi Valley. The house was built in 1828 and is a excellent example of the French colonial architecture. , Possibly some of these house builders met Switzerland County founder Swiss native, John James Dufour, during his 1797 sojourn to the middle Mississippi valley to seek help in establishing his new settlement on the banks of the Ohio. In 1802, Dufour petitioned Congress to enter lands in Indiana on credit with the view of introducing grape culture to the Unites [sic] States. In 1805, another French-speaking Swiss, Louis Gex Oboussier bought this land, a portion of which we call Musee de Venoge. Dufour called Indian Creek “Venoge” after a river in his Swiss homeland. , The first people who lived in this house were farmers who came to the area in 1813. Jacob Weaver was of German descent. He met and married Charlotte Golay in 1803 in Ulster County, New York. The Golay family were from the Canton of Vaud in Switzerland. Jacob and Charlotte traveled to New Switzerland to live near her father who had already joined Dufour's wine-making venture in New Switzerland. , The Weavers eventually moved to this cottage. we now call Venoge. Jacob writes in a letter dated April of 1828: “… I am preparing to leave the place where I now live and go on a small place 1 had wrote you before that I had bought of Mr. Gex- Oboussier, about one and a half miles from where I now live containing forty one acres of land.” , The structure is posts-on-sill, timber frame, mortise-joined and wood-pegged throughout. Brick nogging insulation supports the first floor plaster with hand-split accordion lath throughout. , Photo captions (clockwise from left) , . The Louis Gex Oboussier homestead, built in 1805 on the high terrace south of Vevay (burned in 1906). Note the exterior stair to the attic, typical in some French colonial vernacular architecture. The house also has chamfered columns. , . House in Old Mines, Missouri, typical of those found in the middle Mississippi Valley. The broken pitch roof line is common. , . The Vevay Ferry House, built 1811 (destroyed by the 1937 flood). Another example of French colonial architecture in Switzerland County. Note: exterior stair to second floor. , Venoge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places