Jarrot Mansion State Historic Site

124 East First Street, Cahokia, IL
618-332-1782

Free admission and free parking

jarrotmansion.org  

Opened in 1980

The Jarrot Mansion was one of five historic houses that we visited on a Christmas Open house tour held December 1 in the St. Louis area.  This mansion was built in 1810 of brick with a limestone foundation. 

Having been completed in 1810, it was the oldest house which we visited during the tour.  It is also the oldest brick house in Illinois. 

Nicholas Jarrot was born in France and to escape the French revolution came to Baltimore in 179. In 1793 he left there for New Orleans and then went up the Mississippi River to Cahokia.  The National Historic Landmark application says this about Jarrot: "Local records document that Nicholas Jarrot amassed a variety of entrepreneurial businesses as well as official appointments. As a shrewd businessman, Jarrot attained the bulk of his wealth through frontier land speculation. Beginning initially with a series of small village stores and grain mills, Jarrot expanded his wealth and influence by purchasing large tracts of open land. Jarrot soon became the sole owner of over 25,000 acres within and surrounding the village. A portion of his land served as winter campgrounds for the 1803-04 Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery. Preparatory to the launch of the western exploration, the land near what is now the community of Hartford and known as Camp du Bois, was used as the winter campsite and training grounds for the men of the Corps. Jarrot also served as both host and interpreter to Meriwether Lewis during his negotiations with the local Spanish officials of St. Louis to establish passage through the land west of the 25 Mississippi River. In addition to an appointment as a judge of the Quarter Sessions and of the Common Pleas Court for St. Clair County, Jarrot was commissioned by Governor William Henry Harrison as a major of the territorial militia forces in 1801, a position he held through the War of 1812."

His wife Julia was from Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, and remained in the house for another 30 years following his death. She had 52 great grandchildren.  

Having lived in Baltimore, Jarrot brought with him to the Old Northwest Territory an interest in the Federal style of architecture as opposed to the French Colonial style common to that area. The mansion, therefore, represents an early and rare example of the Federal style in the Upper Mississippi River valley.  

The mansion has three floors.  The cellar which is not open to visitors included the kitchen.  The first floor had sleeping rooms and Jarrot's office. The second floor had public rooms and at one time more sleeping rooms. In 1980 the mansion was donated to the state of Illinois and restoration began.  The roof was restored as well as the original porch front.  Interior restoration has begun but is not completed.  These pocket doors below show on the right the early steps in restoration that showed that Jarrot used a faux wood grain painting technique.  On the left is one of the many doors and woodwork that has been restored to this look. 

 The house was built with seven fireplaces.

Unlike the one above, the two below have been restored. 

This photograph shows the second floor stairwell before restoration. 

 It has now been restored. 

This wall area above a doorway was scraped to see what historically had been there on that wall.  In addition to the blue paint there are three kinds of wallpaper. 

This period wallpaper has been ordered for the Jarrod's bedroom but not yet hung. 

This picture shows what they hope to have the upstairs drawing room to look like eventually. The picture in the upper left corner is the view out of the side window.  

The floors are original. Yellow short leaf pine tongue & groove boards were installed in a uniform staggered joint pattern through the first floor.  The pine is not native to this area so thus was imported by Jarrot.  The floors were left natural and unfinished by Jarrot. 

White pine boards, laid in a similar pattern, were used on the second floor.  While the majority of the floor areas were not extensively worn or abused, the white pine floorboards of the ballroom were so worn from dancing and general circulation that the knots now appear as raised nodules above the floor plane. 

The second floor plan consists of a ballroom, an additional pair of small, unheated sleeping rooms and the drawing room.  The ballroom, which dominates the second level floor plan, spans thirty-three feet across the majority of the front of the mansion. 

Period lighting hangs in the ballroom.  It is mirrored to reflect the light.  

Four unusual items found during restoration were four horse skulls. These two are still in the ceiling of the foyer where they were found; an opening allows visitors to view them. 

The house has very little furniture in it as the emphasis has been on restoring the building itself. This armoire found in the foyer is the only piece in the house that belonged to the Jarrot family. 

 This example of nineteenth century furniture is found in one room. 

The estate once included a collection of various storage and cooking outbuildings. This native limestone spring house is the only outbuilding remaining and sits behind the house.  It was built about 1840 with materials previously used in earlier buildings. The walls are 17 inches thick.  

 As a sign outside the mansion indicates, the mansion is on what is called the Great River Road. 

Next to the mansion is the Church of the Holy Family and next to it is the church's original building. 

Having been built in 1799, the building is the oldest church west of the Allegheny Mountains. 1799 is also the year that Jarrot bought his property on which the mansion stands.

 A large billboard outside the church includes a timeline of the church and area. 

In the early 1900's you can see that the Jarrot Mansion was leased to the church to be used as a school. 

In 1943, Oliver Parks of Parks College, purchased the house but two years later he gave it to the church. In 1968 the church sold the mansion to the city of Cahokia. 

 Also, across from the church is this historical marker. 

Comments: We enjoyed seeing this historical home.  We had a great tour guide, the gentleman who overseas several Illinois historical sites.  The emphasis of the thirty-minute tour was on the restoration of the 200+-year-old building. The goal is definitely to get it back to what it was like in 1810 (plus electricity!). As the state of Illinois has funding issues the restoration is not being consistently done so it may take some time to complete it.  

The building has had only five owners, and despite beng over 200 years old, remains remarkably intact. The hbouse was rocked by three earthquakes over 8.0 during the winter of 1811-12. Floodwaters have nearly reached the doors five times - in 1826, 1844, 1851, 1892 and 1903. Despite all its uses, the building retains almost all of its original features, including plaster, flooring, millwork and even some window sash. 

Unfortunately, the building is not open to the public except on special occasions. We are very glad we took advantage of this special tour to visit this historical house.