Living with livestock: exploring the unique Wilhelm Pelster House-Barn in Franklin County, MO

Southeast corner of the Pelster House-Barn, Cedar Fork Road, Franklin County, MO.Photo byHistoric American Buildings Survey, Creator. Retrieved from the Library of Congress.

The Wilhelm Pelster House-Barn is an interesting combination of a structure. It’s also been referred to as the Pelster-Panhorst House-Barn. It’s a historic home and barn located in Franklin County, Missouri, close to New Haven. Wilhelm Pelster, a German immigrant, constructed this building between 1860 and 1864. The building style is referred to as Fachwerk construction. 

The Pelster House-Barn was designed to accommodate livestock and owners under one roof. It’s rectangular in shape. The exterior is weatherboarded and also has masonry construction. The house-barn has four levels. 

The building is also a reflection of traditions and techniques used in medieval northern European buildings by German immigrants in Missouri from about 1860 to 1864. The foundation is 24 inches thick of coursed stone. A heavy, hand-hewn timber frame of German Fachwerk construction sits on the foundation. Wood construction involved pegs, not nails.

The structure has a steeply pitched gable roof covering the building and it slopes down on the east side to cover a porch. A corrugated sheet metal roof replaced a wood-shingled one. 

The southern third of the building is the house portion. The first level was a cellar which was divided into cattle stalls. It was used for storage of fruit and vegetables. The second level which is considered the first floor contains two 20-foot square rooms with a narrow room to the west that was most likely used for cooking. On the east side of the building is an entrance to the house portion.

The third level, or second floor, of the house portion, contains two rooms. There is a staircase that leads up to this level. There’s a narrow landing at the top of the stairs, there’s access to a loft area over the southern two-thirds of the building which is the fourth level. 

The interior walls of the house section are covered with lath and plaster and painted. A lath consists of narrow strips of wood to form latticework, which serves as a backing for plaster or stucco, or a support for slates and other roofing materials.

The barn portion of the building

Stables and stalls and storage bins are on the first level. The interior length of the stable is a manger. On the north side of the building are double doors that provide access to the stalls on either side. On the northeast side is an opening leading to a storage shed which might have been added later. 

Franklin, Gasconade, and Warren Counties were heavily inhabited by German settlers from 1825 to 1875. The setting earned the name of Missouri Rhineland. About 38 acres surround the house-barn. 

As depicted in the above photo, there is an entrance to the barn area.

Although the Pelster House-Barn was a very useful farming structure at one time, it became storage for farm equipment. When this building was nominated for the National Register, it was beginning to show signs of deterioration due to neglect. While the then-owners didn’t have significant use of the structure, they had an interest in preserving it. It’s definitely a Missouri-German landmark.

The significance of the Pelster House-Barn is found in its architecture, agriculture, and importantly, the German settlements in Missouri.

Wilhelm Pelster

The Pelster family arrived in America around 1850 or before. The reason they left German to come to America is unknown. Many who did come were farmers and they wanted a better world.

Philip Frederick Pelster, his wife, Mary, and sons, Rodolph and Wilhelm, came to Missouri around 1850 and settled in Franklin County. In 1856, their 32-year-old son, Wilhelm (William) Pelster, purchased the land where he eventually built a house-barn in the tradition of the old world.

A room in the northwest corner of the barn on the main level.Photo byHistoric American Buildings Survey, creator; retrieved from the Library of Congress.

He built temporary housing until the house-barn could be completed. Only local tradition substantiates that construction began before the Civil War. A descendant of Wilhelm’s, according to Alfred Pelster, indicated that a Confederate raid interfered with the construction which led to it being completed after the war. 

Wilhelm Pelster lived in his house-barn for a few years before he died in 1908. Being married three times, he had 10 children. The Pelster House-Barn remained in the Pelster family until 1955. It was sold twice before landing in the hands of the owners (at the time it was being nominated for the National Register) in 1961. 

At one time, it was hopeful the structure could be converted into a living history museum. The last family to own the Pelster House-Barn donated the property to the Missouri Heritage Trust (now Missouri Preservation) in 1979. In 1982, volunteers worked on the building. A little over 20 years ago, the hope was that funding would become available to restore the building. 

The property is now owned by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources. In 2006, a non-profit named Friends of the Pelster House-Barn was established, but in 2007, it received a dissolution notification for failing to file a registration report. 

Thanks for reading!