Slezak House is approximately 150 years old.
The earliest available records date occupancy of the house at 1869. However, it is likely that Joseph Slezak inherited the house from a deceased brother. Records do not indicate the property was purchased by Joseph. Possibly unmarried, John Slezak died in 1869 and may have been the owner and earlier occupant.
Also, the architecture of the house, it's location in the urbanization pattern of the day and similar cottages, may indicate that the house was built in the late 1850s.
The Slezak House Sesquicentennial
was celebrated in 2010-11!
In honor of Bohemian immigrants who settled and helped build Soulard,
the Czech National Flag was displayed at the Slezak House in 2010-11.
In 2009, Czechs celebrated the 20 year anniversary of the fall of communism.
The Bohemian Coat of Arms
Bohemian Beer
The Zatec brewery may have been paying brewing tax in 1004 to the City of Zatec, making the Czech brewery the oldest in operation in the world.
The Soulard neighborhood is entering a time when many structures will start to turn 150 years old.
For more about housing types in St. Louis from this period, see
Period I: The Walking City 1820-1869
Discover more about 19th century history.
Slezak House Sesquicentennial Timeline
1764 Village of
1766 Antoine Pierre Soulard born in
1770 Spanish government officially assumes control of territory
1794 Antoine Pierre Soulard arrives in Marblehead, MA
1800 Spanish return territory to France
1803 United States buys the Territory of Louisiana from France
1805 St. Louis established as the seat of government for the Territory of Louisiana
1812 Territory of Missouri established
1817 First steamboat on the Mississippi River north of the Ohio River to reach St. Louis
1822 Volunteer fire department organized
1825 Antoine Pierre Soulard dies
1838 Julia Cerre Soulard establishes Soulard Public Market
1850 Cholera Epidemic in midwest (again in several cities in 1866)
1854
1857 St. Louis Fire Department begins with paid firemen
1860 Eberhard Anheuser purchases Bavarian Brewery (est. 1852)
1854 Railroad reaches
1857 Dred Scott case decided at the Old Courthouse in St. Louis
1859 Slezak House is built
1860 Abraham Lincoln elected President
1860 Pony Express Mail Service begins at
1861-65 American Civil War
1869 Joseph Slezak family occupies Slezak House
1874
1879 E. Anheuser & Co. brewery officially becomes Anheuser Busch brewery
1890 Joseph Slezak dies
1892
1892 Joseph Krivanec family purchases Slezak House
1900 Immigration to the
17,286,000 from
1,219,000 from
370,000 from
249,000 from all other places
1901 Catharine Slezak dies
1950 Peak population year in St. Louis with 857,000
1974 Soulard residents organize neighborhood real estate revitalization program
1975 Marie Krivanec-Michalek sells Slezak House
1990
2001
2007 The canary in the coalmine ignored, the nation's great economic and fiscal tsunami begins to rise.
2010-11 Slezak House Sesquicentennial
2012 New kitchen completed
2013 Plans to restore the street facade of the house
