J.O. Pierce made his money selling crackers and hardtack to the Union Army during the Civil War; hence the nickname of his mansion, "Cracker Castle." Build at Chouteau and St. Ange in 1863 for about $115,000, the high Victorian Italianate house had so many rooms that guests sometimes got lost. Pierce sold the house in 1868 to attorney Fidelo C. Sharp, who sold it in 1878 to another attorney, Congressman Charles E. Pearce. A bachelor, Pearce lived in Cracker Castle for 18 years, until the tornado of 1896 made the mansion uninhabitable. It was later demolished, and in the mid-1900s, the Darst-Webbe housing project—now also demolished—occupied the site.
Flashback - 1880
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