Fairfax House
Rock Hill
St. Louis County
The James Collier Marshall Home, known as Fairfax, occupies one corner at the intersection of Manchester and McNight Roads, the main intersection in the town of Rock Hill. As an historic building, Fairfax is noteworthy as one of the oldest and most historically significant braced-frame buildings extant in the County of Saint Louis. James Collier Marshall and his brothers settled Rock Hill, where they operated a trading post, built log cabins, and farmed. Completed in 1841, Fairfax became a gathering place for area settlers. Virtually unchanged, the building retains most of its original interior finishes and wood trim, including a hand-turned stair railing and newel post. Today the City of Rock Hill owns Fairfax. The house has been moved twice to prevent demolition and now sits approximately 400 feet from its original location. It is presently vacant and used only occasionally for community meetings. With limited public resources, plans for renovating Fairfax fell apart following changes in city leadership and the building is showing adverse effects from deferred maintenance. Located in an area of intense commercial development, these pressures also pose a serious threat to the property. Fairfax was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.
Listed in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.
Update: The Giddings-Lovejoy Presbytery sold the property on which these two buildings (including next door church) sits in 2010. The City of Rock Hill granted permission to Fenton-based UGas to construct a gas station on the current site of these two landmarks soon after. UGas agreed to move the Fairfax house, but not the church, and gave locals one year in which to find a new owner. The group was unable to raise the funds necessary to move the church in the short time allowed. It looks now like Fairfax will be moved to city-owned property elsewhere, and that the church will probably be destroyed and its building stone reused for a chapel at a winery near Foristell, Missouri.
