The historic Bartsch-Jasper House is located at 138 Old Pottery Road in Washington, Missouri (Franklin County). It also goes by other names such as the August Bartsch House, the Henry Jasper House, or the Charles Kampschroeder House. On September 22, 2000, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
This one-and-a-half-story house has two entrances. It has a stone foundation and brick and weatherboard walls. The architect is unknown.
The house was constructed in two phases. The eastern side of the home is the oldest part and it was built around 1855. In 1893, it was expanded to what you see today.
In the front, there’s an open hip-roofed front porch.
A hip roof porch is one that slopes downward from the peak on all four sides. There is no gable or flat end to it. The roof is shaped like a pyramid and is commonly found in cottages, bungalows, and ranch-style homes. (Source.)
The house is categorized as Vernacular Missouri-German, Subtype: Double Entrance. The house is part of a Multiple Property Listing: Historic Resources of Washington, Missouri.
This structure represents an example of the Missouri-German tradition of building. The house is on the south side of Old Pottery Road, which used to be a popular roadway at that time until Highway 100 was built.
The front part of the east half of the house which dates back to around 1855 appears to have had only one room on each floor. It might have had a separate kitchen building. When the west half of the house was added on around 1893, the house was doubled in size and a front porch was included. Another room was included in the addition toward the rear of the house, and an additional room was added to the east rear of the house.
There are two front doors. The walls and ceiling of the east room were replastered. There’s a fireplace and built-in cupboard in that room. The west room has the kitchen and an enclosed stairway that leads to the second floor and the unfinished basement. The rear of the west room was divided to make a laundry room and bathroom. There are two rooms on the second floor.
The house was originally built for the August Bartsch family. When new ownership took over, it was expanded by Henry Jasper. The Bartsch-Jasper house has a lot of characteristics of other Missouri-German houses in Washington, Missouri such as the brick walls, arched window tops and a dentaled cornice. Dentaled means a “[s]mall rectangular blocks that, when placed together in a row abutting a molding, suggest a row of teeth.” (Source.)
A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown, as in crown molding atop an interior wall or above kitchen cabinets or a bookcase. (Source.)
There are several Double Entrance houses in Washington which were basically made by expanding an earlier house.
The site of the house had one of the few Civil War fatalities in Washington. A few years after the house was built, Confederate General Sterling Price and his troops entered the area in late 1864. Washington was very much pro-Union.
Bartsch’s son was shot as he started running toward his house. That incident might have been the reason for the Bartsch family to sell their house. Of the 43 acres owned by the Bartsch family, 23 of them were around the house. The next owner had the property for about 25 years before it was purchased by Henry Jasper around 1893. Jasper only owned the property for a couple of years before it was owned by Charles Kampschroeder.
Washington, Missouri
The city of Washington was named after George Washington. It’s located near the Missouri River and is the largest city in Franklin County. According to World Population Review, the population is 15,439 as of 2023.
An interesting tidbit: The first Walmart Supercenter opens in Washington, Missouri, combining general merchandise and a full-scale supermarket to provide one-stop shopping convenience. (Source.)
Thanks very much for reading!
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