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Sitting at the base of Garrison Hill Bluff, almost directly below Fort Kaskaskia, The Pierre Menard Home is one of the finest examples of Southern French Colonial architecture in the middle Mississippi River Valley. Pierre Menard, a French Canadian fur trapper and entrepreneur, began construction on this post-on-sill home in 1800 in the manner that most homes in the area were built, with hand-hewn timbers laid on the foundation (sills) and vertical studs mortised and tenoned into the sills. Local sandstone and limestone was used for the foundation, walks, and walls. Native woods used for the frame construction and finishing included oak, walnut, ash, cypress, and poplar. The home was built in a pecan grove and when the home was built it was at the edge of Kaskaskia village. Floods and erosion forced Kaskaskia to move and the Menard Home is all that is left of the original village that was once the first State Capitol of Illinois.
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