Save Historic Becker-Anthes House

We are the Schrand family.  We live in St. Louis Missouri and we love and value the architectural history that our city possesses.   We recently found out about this old stone house in the Lafayette Square neighborhood which piqued our interest.   After researching this old cottage we found that it was built most likely around 1844 by German immigrants out of limestone mined in the Lafayette neighborhood itself.   The building was sold to the Anthes family in 1850 who resided in the structure for the next 56 years.  This building is one of the two oldest structures in the Lafayette Square neighborhood and probably one of the oldest structures in St. Louis city proper.   As a family, we have decided to try and purchase this property from the City of St. Louis who is the current owner and restore the building to its original form to serve as a museum and education center to tell the story of this neighborhood before the mansions and when it was referred to as the St. Louis common grounds.  The first inhabitants were part of the great German immigration that spiked the population in St. Louis in the 1840s and helped influence the growth of the city to the form it is today.   We are very passionate about history and feel this little house has a story to tell.  We would also like to invest in property surrounding the building to create public gardens for residents of the neighborhood and possible prairie rehab to show what the terrain looked like before the settlers came.