STE. GENEVIEVE – French Colonial America has announced that this spring the organization will begin expanding living history activities at one of the historic houses on its museum campus in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri – the Beauvais-Linden House at 116 South Main Street.
This house has been the site for a portion of FCA’s educational programming for almost a decade, but with the retirement of key team members, the organization leadership decided to focus primarily on utilizing the property for “living history” activities in which volunteers and staff, working in authentic historic environments and dressed in authentic period clothing, will carry out demonstrations and storytelling, interacting with audiences of all ages to help them discover the intriguing and unique colonial-era history of this region, and to better understand the distinctive French Creole culture and way of life that developed there.
In this initial phase of the project, the house will be open on Saturdays starting March 30, 2024 and running through November 9, 2024. Hours will be from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission will be free, although donations are welcome. On living history Saturdays, guest will be able to visit historic spaces in the house including a trading post, a parlor with games, and a work room for sewing, food preparation and other crafts. Outside, they may encounter hunters and voyageurs, gardens, and other “residents” of late 18th century Upper Louisianan.
In addition, we are turning one of the front rooms at the house into a specialty gift shop, which will also be open on Saturdays, offering a variety of collectibles, the sale of which will help support our mission of historic preservation and education.