History of the House

This house was built in 1897 for Charles and Emma Dieckriede. Charles was a German immigrant who went into the wholesale grocery business with his relatives in St. Louis, Missouri. By the time he built this house, he had retired from the business. The house was designed by Missouri-born and German trained Architect Ernst Janssen. The declared construction cost of the house on the building permit was $15,000.00. The neighborhood of Compton Heights, in which the house is located, was where the wealthy Germans resided at the turn of the century, and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Turret Finial

The metal trim on the roof and on the Finial were made of galvanized steel. The Finial on the turret stood into the 1970s, but by the early 80s, it had rusted and fallen to the side of the turret, suspended only by a retrofitted lightning cable. The owners at the time, took down the fallen portion of the Finial, leaving only the base intact on the roof. The subsequent owners apparently discarded some of the Finial pieces, not knowing what they were. By the time the house was bought by its current owner, Shahrdad Khodamoradi, all that remained was the upper spike and the base portions of the Finial. Birds had found their way under the base of the Finial, and rain had begun coming in through the hole left by the broken spike.

Reconstruction of the Design

When the new owner decided to restore the Finial to original, all he had to go by was a copy of a print taken of the house in the late 1890s. He enlisted the assistance of good friend and Architect, Jon Goeders, and together they did detailed measurements of the original spike. This proved invaluable since there were ghosts of the missing ornamentation on the spike. Next, the bottom portion of the Finial was removed from the roof for further accurate measurements. The necessary repairs were then done to the woodwork and slate at the tip of the turret, and the whole area was waterproofed.

At that point, the owner had the good fortune of finding out about the Swekowsky collection. Dr. Swekowsky was a dentist who loved the grand old Victorian homes and collected an extensive array of their photographs. When he died, his collection was left to the Teaching Sisters of Notre Dame, who painstakingly researched and catalogued these photos and negatives. With the assistance of Sister Dionysia Brockman, Mr. Khodamoradi was able to find the actual glass negative of the house, taken circa 1898. He had a very large print of this negative made, which was subsequently scanned.

Using a combination of these close-ups and the actual measurements, a reasonably accurate drawing of the original finial was finally produced. A decision was made to utilize copper for the replacement to insure the longevity of the piece.

Duplication of the Original

The drawings were delivered to CopperCraft in late August 1999 for pricing and fabrication. CopperCraft developed computer generated drawings of the Finial for approval by the owner and from which new spin molds were made for the spun copper parts. The drawings also became the basis of the flat pattern layouts from which the Finial's remaining parts would be computer cut. The parts were assembled by hand and then soldered watertight, polished and then packaged for delivery.

The Finial was delivered in December 1999, culminating a four month approval and fabrication process. Though only a single part of the general restoration of this house, the turret Finial, once installed, again became a beautiful crown to this exquisite example of Victorian design.