If you spend any time in Old Town Florissant, you start to notice that several of the buildings are too old, too low-slung, and too oddly proportioned to be ordinary 19th-century construction. They are not. The oldest of them go back to the 1790s, when this part of Missouri was a Spanish colonial outpost populated mostly by French Creole farmers. They have survived 230 years of weather, growth, and redevelopment because Florissant has, by accident and by design, kept much of its original village intact.

This is a short guided tour of the five historic landmarks that anchor Old Town Florissant. Each is open to the public at least some of the year. Together they tell the story of how a frontier French village under Spanish rule became one of Missouri's most distinctive small-town cores.

1. The Old St. Ferdinand Shrine (1789 / 1821)

The Old St. Ferdinand Shrine, in Old Town Florissant, is among the oldest Catholic church buildings west of the Mississippi River. According to local historical records, an early log church was built on this site in the late 1780s, shortly after the village was founded. The current brick structure dates to the early 19th century, built by the early Catholic community in the region.

The shrine complex includes the church, the rectory, the convent (associated with Mother Rose Philippine Duchesne, who was canonized as a saint in 1988), and a museum. The church is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Mother Duchesne and her sisters of the Society of the Sacred Heart established educational work in Florissant in the early 1800s, including a school for girls. The convent building still standing on the shrine grounds preserves much of the original colonial-era construction. Visitors today can walk through the historic spaces.

Visit: The shrine is generally open for tours and Mass. Check current hours before going.

2. Taille de Noyer (1790)

Taille de Noyer — the name is French for “cutting of the walnut,” reflecting the walnut grove that once stood on the property — began in the late 18th century as a small French colonial cabin. Over the following century, it grew into a substantial mansion associated with one of the prominent families of early St. Louis.

According to the Florissant Valley Historical Society, the original log structure is preserved at the heart of the building, with later additions surrounding it. The expanded house reflects the wealth of its 19th-century owners, who turned the property into a country estate.

Taille de Noyer is operated as a museum by the Florissant Valley Historical Society. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places. Tours showcase the layered architecture and a collection of 18th and 19th-century furnishings.

Address: 1067 Taille de Noyer Road, on the campus of McCluer High School.

3. Casa Alvarez (1790)

Casa Alvarez is a stone house dating to the late 18th century, associated with a Spanish colonial-era resident of the Fleurissant Valley. The house reflects the building style typical of upper Louisiana French and Spanish colonial homes — thick walls and a steeply pitched roof.

According to local historical records, Casa Alvarez is among the oldest residential structures still standing in Missouri. It is on the National Register of Historic Places. The house is private but visible from the street, and tours are sometimes offered by appointment in coordination with the Florissant Valley Historical Society.

Casa Alvarez is one of the few surviving examples of the late Spanish colonial period in eastern Missouri. The architectural details — the thickness of the walls, the small windows, the steep roof — reflect frontier construction priorities of the 1780s and 1790s.

4. The Aubuchon House (early 1800s)

The Aubuchon House on St. Catherine Street is one of several early-19th-century French-Creole-influenced homes still standing in Old Town. The Aubuchon family was among the original French Creole settlers of the village, and the house reflects the transitional architecture of the post-Louisiana-Purchase period — French village layout with American building methods.

The house has been carefully preserved and is part of Florissant's historic district. Walking the streets around it — rue St. Catherine, rue St. Denis, rue St. Charles — gives a sense of the original village grid that has survived the city growing up around it.

5. The Old Florissant Valley Courthouse

The Old Florissant Valley Courthouse anchors what was, for much of the 19th century, the civic center of Florissant. The building served as the seat of local government and the venue for justice-of-the-peace proceedings. Today it stands as a reminder of when Florissant was a village distinct from St. Louis County's larger administrative apparatus.

While not as old as the colonial-era buildings, the courthouse marks the transition from village to incorporated city in the 19th century, helping to define the town's emerging governmental identity.

Walking the Old Town district

The five landmarks above are spread across the Old Town historic district, which extends roughly from St. Ferdinand Street north to St. Anthony's, and from Rue St. Charles east to Lindbergh. The district is small enough to walk in an afternoon. The Florissant Valley Historical Society publishes a walking-tour brochure that includes additional homes, business buildings, and sites of historical interest along the route.

Old Town Florissant has working coffee shops, restaurants, and antique stores in addition to the historic buildings. The mix of active commerce and 230-year-old architecture is part of what makes the district unusual: this is not a museum town. People live here, work here, and walk past the Old St. Ferdinand Shrine on the way to the grocery store.

Why this matters

Most American suburban communities have erased their pre-20th-century histories under decades of growth. Florissant's Old Town has resisted that erasure. The buildings that survive are not replicas; they are the actual structures, on their original sites, where the village began. For history-minded visitors, Old Town Florissant is one of the most significant historic walks in the region.

For more on the village's founding, see our article on the founding of Florissant. For the story of the city's 20th-century growth into one of Missouri's largest, see how Florissant grew after WWII. For the firm's roots in the community, visit our Florissant attorney page.

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