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Historic Florissant, Inc. will celebrate its 40th anniversary on Sunday, April 19, with an open house at the Franz Gittemeier House, 1067 Dunn Road in Florissant. The house will be open from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. for visitors to enjoy refreshments and hear the stories of the ten Florissant Landmark properties that have been saved from demolition by this organization.

Historic Florissant, Inc. was incorporated in April of 1969, the brainstorm of five women who saw the need for an organization that could respond quickly when historic property was in jeopardy.

Two of those original five women remain on the board of directors – Mary Kay Gladbach and Rosemary Davison, who served as president for 39 of those 40 years. She is now President Emeritus, after turning over the office of President to Gretchen Crank. Most every day you will find Rosemary in the office of HFI, working on the many projects of the organization.

The other three original board members were Sheila Williams, Marilyn DeWitt and Lois Zimmerman. Lois and her husband restored and lived in Casa Alverez for many years and were avid antique collectors. Each year, Historic Florissant awards the Zimmerman Award, named in her memory, to someone who has made a notable contribution to historic preservation in Florissant.

Guided bus tours will leave the Gittemeier House at 11 AM, 1 PM and 3 PM, taking visitors past all of the rescued properties. The bus tours are free, but reservations are strongly encouraged. Each bus tour will last about 45 minutes. You may be surprised to learn that some of our most beautiful buildings were once in danger and fell under the protection of Historic Florissant, Inc.

Refreshments will be served throughout the day at the Gittemeier House. Videos showing many of the sites will be playing and old photographs will spark your memory of the way we were.

For more information or to make a reservation on one of the bus tours, call HFI at 314-921-7055 or email: gdcrank@aol.com

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