The Slezak House is in the Soulard neighborhood, a National Historic District and one of the most unique and historically authentic urban neighborhoods in America.

Antoine Pierre Soulard was born in Rochefort, France, in 1766.  He was a lieutenant in the French navy before arriving in Marblehead, Massachusetts in 1794.  Soulard traveled on to St. Louis and was appointed the King's Surveyor General of the Upper Louisiana for the Spanish government.  Antoine Soulard signed the document turning over the territory to the United States governor, Ames Stoddard.  

Some of the land Antoine Soulard was given in payment for his service would later become the Soulard neighborhood.  The neighborhood was settled and built mostly by working class immigrants representing a diverse mix of ethnic groups including Bohemian, Croatian, French, Hungarian, German, Irish, Italian, Lebanese, Serbian, Slovak, and Syrian.

Antoine Pierre Soulard died in 1825 and is buried in Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis.

To find out more about Soulard, visit these websites:

Soulard Community Information Network

Soulard Restoration Group

Soulard Business Association

Soulard Mardi Gras

The Slezak House is the fourth building up from the northwest corner of Geyer Avenue and Buel Street, Plate #25 on Compton & Dry Pictoral St. Louis 1875  (Geyer Avenue is the diagonal street in the lower left corner of the plate).

Prior to the existence of Soulard, read about
 The Commonfields and Residences of St. Louis

Saint John Nepomuk church is the oldest Czech Catholic church in America and was founded in 1854 in an area known as Bohemian Hill because of the large concentration of immigrants from Bohemia.

The Soulard Market was established in 1838 by Julia Cerre Soulard, wife of Antoine Soulard, and continues as the oldest farmers market west of the Mississippi River.

The Soulard, Benton Park, LaSalle Park and Lafayette Square neighborhoods comprise the Old Frenchtown area of St. Louis.  Each is a National Historic District.