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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHolcombe AdditionW Hancock Street Lily Lake A History of the H,.lcombe's Adld itins Residential Area Stillwater, Minnesota by Donald Empson Funded in part by a grant from the National Park Service Administered by the Minnesota Historical Society And The Heritage Preservation Commission of the City of Stillwater S. Holcombe Street W. Willard Street Members of the Stillwater Heritage Preservation Commission HOWARD LIEBERMAN (CHAIR) 914 S. GREELEY STREET STILLWATER JEFF JOHNSON 309 S. FIFTH STREET STILLWATER ROBERT KIMBREL 724 W. OAK STREET STILLWATER G. DEAN MILLER 622 N. THIRD STREET STILLWATER ROGER TOMTEN 718 S. FIFTH STREET STILLWATER PHIL EASTWOOD 301 W. MYRTLE STREET STILLWATER Cover: This small house at 717 W. Churchill Street, built in 1856, is one of the treasures of the Holcombe neighborhood. A History of the IIoleombe9s Addition esidential Area STILLWATER, MINNESOTA Researched.and Written by DONALD EMPSON EMPSON ARCHIVES P.O. Box 791 STILLWATER, MN 55082 (651) 351-0172 OCTOBER, 1999 Funded in part by a Grant from the National Park Service Administered by the Minnesota PILStorical Society And The Heritage Preservation Cordrnmassiorn oft. e City of Stillwater MAP OF SURVEY AREA 939 927 919 910 911 905 822 821 JJ_IL_ R1O 804 813 805 S MARTHA ST 722 712 719 71_7- 715 709 904 00 .- 1 N w co w S H4RRIFT SS 921 621 c) 615 n C 0 610 602 0) N 928 0 Z 3 921 922 919 916 907 N s gOA 903 M IS Udd I IIM N 1 cCa w 812 21,4 rn 811 0 0 w N 719 717 0) 709 703 621 613 rn a-, S_HOLCOMRE .ST TABLE OF CONTENTS With Gratitude To Page 1 Introduction Page 3 Research Design Page 5 Preface Page 7 From Mexico to Minnesota, 1847-1858 Page 9 After the Civil War, 1865-1900 Page 35 The Old and the New, 1900-1950 Page 41 Growth and Change, 1950-1999 Page 43 Block by Block History Page 45 Early History of Lakeview Hospital Page 129 History of Washington Square Page 137 Appendix A (Dates of Houses) Page 139 Appendix B (City Directory 1894) Page 141 Appendix C (City Directory 1930) Page 145 Appendix D (City Directory 1954) Page 147 Bibliography Page 151 Recommendations Page 155 Index Page 159 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF HISTORIC PRESERVATION FUND SUPPORT AND NONDISCRIMINATION POLICY This project has been financed in part with Federal funds from the National Park Service, Department of Interior, through the Minnesota Historical Society under provisions of the National Historic Preservation Act as amended. However the contents and opinions do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of the Interior, nor does the mention of trade names or commercial products constitute endorsement or recommendation by the Department of the Interior. Under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the U.S. Department of Interior prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, or handicap in its federally assisted program. If you believe you have been discriminated against in any program activity, or facility as described above, or if you desire further information, please write to: Office of Equal Opportunity, U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C., 20240. WITH GRATITUDE TO: Bill Funari Joseph Brosious Gene Lampi Bob & Shirley Webber Jim Johnson Betsy Glennon Mead Stone Becky Jenkins Mary McDonough Deborah Landrith Ernest Peaslee Tim Nowicke Amy Hooley Stephen & Ann Marlow Morli Weldon, City Clerk Peter & Jean Marie Ulland Dave Magnuson, City Attorney Mary M. O'Brien Anita Buck Joe Holmberg Betty Janecky Dorothy Gerson Betty Osborne Dorothy Scullen Molly Stewart Virginia Daniels Jack Hooley Elizabeth & Richard Conners Charlie & Nancy Hooley Lawrence Ryan Howard Lieberman Elsie Cates Laura Weston Pat Ponath Jennie Nelson Helen McKnight Warren J. Murphy James Crimmins Terry & Mildred Proper 1 INTRODUCTION Between December 1, 1998, and June 1, 1999, Empson Archives conducted a National Register survey of the Holcombe's Additions HPPA residential area of Stillwater, Washington County, Minnesota. The project area was the NW 1/4 of Section 33, Township 30, Range 20. Included within the survey area are Holcombe's Addition to Stillwater, and Holcombe's Second Addition to Stillwater. The objective of the study was to conduct an intensive historical survey of the Holcombe's Additions residential neighborhood bounded by, or on a line with, South Center Street on the West; South Holcombe Street on the East; West Hancock Street on the South; and West Willard Street on the North. There are 122 structures within this survey area covering 80 acres. The work was conducted between December lst, 1998 and June 1st, 1999 by Donald Empson, the principal investigator; and his wife, Kathleen Vadnais. Donald Empson, the principal investigator, meets the Secretary of the Interior's Professional Qualifications Standards. Particular thanks to Brent T. Peterson, a fellow historian, and a former Commissioner on the Stillwater Historic Preservation Commission, for his corrections to this manuscript, and for his bringing some historic house photographs to my attention. Also many thanks to Sue Fitzgerald, coordinator to the Stillwater Historic Preservation Commission, for her efforts in expediting the work of this survey. The property types in this survey included dwellings, associated garages and carriage houses, outbuildings, objects and structures, and businesses. These properties were located, photographed and their physical descriptions documented. The project team compiled building files on each inventoried site for the City of Stillwater's Heritage Preservation Commission. A project report was prepared for the City of Stillwater and for the Minnesota State Historic Preservation Office. The format of the final report is determined by regulations of the Minnesota Historical Society. Properties within the Holcombe's Additions residential area were evaluated for preliminary National Register significance in terms of one appropriate statewide historic contexts: "St. Croix Valley Triangle Lumbering (1843- 1914)." The project team consulted the Stillwater historic context study (Vogel 1993) in evaluating local significance and determined the appropriate 3 Introduction context was: "Development of Residential Neighborhoods in Stillwater, 1850's-1940's." This effort is part of the on -going program of the Minnesota Historical Society's State Historic Preservation Orrice (SHPO) which began after passage of the Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended. The SHPO administers the National Register of Historic Places program in Minnesota. In the early years of this program, the SHPO concentrated on basic inventories of the 87 counties in Minnesota on a county -by -county basis. Stillwater established a Heritage Preservation Commission in 1973 and, in conjunction with a federal grant from the Minnesota SHPO, contracted for is first National Register survey of the downtown commercial area in 1988. This study led to the placing of Stillwater's downtown commercial area on the National Register in 1991. In 1992-3, the Stillwater Heritage Preservation Commission (HPC) received a Certified Local Government (CLG) grant and sponsored a study of historic contexts in the city, conducted by Robert C. Vogel and Associates. The final report, "Stillwater Historic Contexts: A Comprehensive Planning Approach," was completed in July 1993. The Stillwater HPC has divided the city's neighborhoods into Historic Preservation Planning Areas (HPPAs) and intends to proceed with systematic surveys of all Stillwater neighborhoods over the next decade. The current report summarizes the results of the fourth HPPA to be systemically surveyed. The four previous surveys were of the North Hill (Original Town) the South Hill (Original Town), the Greeley Residential Area, and the Dutchtown Residential Area. The Stillwater Heritage Preservation Commission has indicated that it will make this survey history available to the residents of the area. 4 RESEARCH DESIGN The project area was the NW 1/ of Section 33, Township 30 N, Range 20 W. Included within the survey area are Holcombe's Addition to Stillwater and Holcombe's Second Addition to Stillwater. We have done a thorough study of the area, despite the considerable time and money constraints. We have used the yearly tax assessor's records collected in the State Archives and available on microfilm, 1861-1900, at the Stillwater Public Library --a gift of Rivertown Restoration. These records were generated much the same way they are today. Every year the tax assessor viewed all the properties in the city and made an estimate of the market value of the land and the improvements. By following a property through the years, it is usually possible to determine when the value jumped from that of a lot only to that of a lot with a building on it. This record also contains the name of the property owner through the years. While this kind of research is tedious in the extreme, it gave us accurate information that can be found in no other way. (Two previous surveys have used the date of the building found on the assessment card at the tax assessor's office. Before the turn of the century, these dates are notoriously inaccurate, an admission readily made by the tax assessor's office itself.) Rivertown Restoration recently paid to have the Stillwater building permit applications, 1886-1940, microfilmed. They, along with an index compiled by Kay Thueson, are available at the Stillwater Public Library. The applications give the date of building, the size of the structure, name of the owner, sometimes the name of the builder and architect, and other incidental information. There are also applications for repairs and remodeling. This information was invaluable and essential for this study. There are useful records available in the Water Department, the Fire Department, and the Public Works Department and in the Minutes of the Stillwater City Council that have never been used before. The Sanborn Insurance Maps did not illustrate the residential area, but they were useful in following the history of the some of the businesses. There are a number of unpublished manuscripts and some published reminiscences which contained useful information, but since they are often inaccurate, we only quoted them when we could verify their information from another source. In general, we used only original sources for our research. 5 Research Design: For visual aids, there are two Bird's Eye View Maps of Stillwater drawn in 1869, and again in 1879. With their accurate representations of each house and building, these were extremely useful, and we reproduced sections of both maps in the text of this report. We talked to the residents of the area in cases where we had some uncertainties; when convenient we obtained copies of Property Abstracts. We also used the land records at the office of the Recorder of Deeds. We also used the Stillwater City Directories; consulted the local newspapers on microfilm at the Stillwater Public Library, and pursued other research materials that were useful. We incorporated the information gleaned from our research in the context of Robert Vogel's Stillwater Historic Contexts and other research done previously in Stillwater. We reviewed the survey work on the properties prepared by the Stillwater Heritage Preservation Commission. We identified, dated, and cataloged the 122 properties in the Preservation Planning Area in the manner required by the Minnesota Historical Society. We discussed the architectural styles in the Preservation Planning Area and compared them to other Stillwater neighborhoods. We photographed all properties. We have prepared a report that describes the development of the area, recommendations for future survey work, and evaluated the possibility of properties that might be eligible for local historic designation and/or eligible for the National Register of Historic Places. We are not making any nominations ourselves. We have discussed any possible planning methods for preservation of historic structures, landscapes, and neighborhoods. We have attended three meetings with the Stillwater H.P.C. The work was conducted between December lst, 1998 and June 1st, 1999 by Donald Empson, the principal investigator and his wife, Kathleen Vadnais. 6 PREFACE Holcombe's Additions are one of the oldest neighborhoods in Stillwater. Before the Civil War, when most of Stillwater's population was concentrated in the "original basin" of the downtown area, the Holcombe neighborhood was flourishing with approximately 75 homes, and a population of around 300 people. However, these homes were not the grand Victorian mansions we like to associate with Stillwater; instead many of them were the small one-story, two -room houses that were typical of the economy around the middle of the l9th century. Commencing with the increasing prosperity of the 1870's, the process of replacing these first small inexpensive houses with larger homes began. This process of removal accelerated in the early years of the 20th century when many of these houses, now decrepit and in disrepair, were simply demolished. By the time of the post World War iI building boom, many lots that had once contained houses had fallen vacant. After World War Ii, Holcombe's Addition enjoyed a building boom. These new homes were built either on lots that had previously contained one of the earliest homes, or on side lots that had been attached to one of the older homes remaining. Over half of the houses standing today in Holcombe's Additions have been built since World War iI. Yet, despite the influx of more recent dwellings, there still remains in many parts of the neighborhood, a semblance of the earliest history, a glimpse of the past, a sense of how the original area might have appeared. If the remnants of the past are nurtured and preserved, Holcombe's Additions can serve as a reminder and example of one of Stillwater's first neighborhoods. But if new construction, unsympathetic to history, continues, and if the residents do not husband and protect their historic heritage, then soon Holcombe's Additions will lose its unique flavor, and become, to all appearance, another suburban enclave. 7 Dedicated to Kathleen Vadnais my wife, partner, editor, research associate, proofreader, caretaker 8 FROM MEXICO TO MINNESOTA, 1847-1858 Like most of his fellow soldiers in Captain Smith's Second Regiment of Illinois Volunteers, Private Asa J. Hill was sick; sicker than he had ever been before in his entire life. While camped in the Mexican desert, just south of the Rio Grande River, illness and disease were killing many more soldiers than the Mexican Army, against whom they were supposed to be waging war. The year was 1847, and United States President, James K. Polk, had declared war on Mexico. At issue was the territory today occupied by the states of Texas, New Mexico and California, land which had belonged to Mexico and Spain for centuries. When the Mexican government refused to sell these disputed territories to the United States for 30 million dollars, Polk provoked an attack by the Mexicans as an excuse for a military invasion. Congress overwhelmingly approved the declaration of war, but the sentiment across the United States was divided. Democrats, especially those in the Southwest, strongly favored the conflict. Most Whigs viewed Polk's motives as conscienceless land grabbing. And Abolitionists saw the war as an attempt by the slave states to extend slavery and enhance their power when additional slave states were created out of the soon -to -be -acquired Mexican lands. But Private Hill had no philosophical reasons for fighting in this war, nor was he there for the $8-a-month pay an army private received. Because enthusiasm and enlistment in the army had dwindled in the second year of the war, Congress had to resort to an extraordinary inducement: a land bounty. According to the Ten Regiments Act of 1847, regular and volunteer soldiers signing up for a year's duty in the Mexican War were to receive a 160 acres of unclaimed public land in the form of a Military Land Warrant. In issuing these Land Warrants, there was much Congressional discussion as to whether the Warrants should be assignable: whether the soldier could use the Warrant only for himself, or whether the Warrant could be assigned, or sold, to a third party. The debate ended with the provision that the Warrants could be assigned or sold to a third party.' Thus it was that when Hill returned to Illinois after his year of illness and war in the military service, he was able to sell his 160 acre Warrant for t The fascinating story of these Military Land Warrants is well told in Sixty Million Acres; American Veterans and The Public Lands before the Civil War by James W. Oberly, Kent State University Press, 1990. 9 From Mexico to Minnesota, 1847-1858 approximately 5150 — more than the total sum of his entire year of military pay at $8 a month. After passing through the hands of a middleman, or broker, Asa Hill's Mexican War Land Warrant ended up in the hands of Stillwater land surveyor and lumberman, Mahlon Black, who paid approximately 8160 for the Warrant, or $1 an acre. On January 10, 1851, Black applied a part of, or "located," this blank check for 160 acres to the 40 acres in the NW 1/ of the NW V/ of Section 33, T30N, R2OW.2 Today this area is in Stillwater between or on a line with S. Center Street, W. Hancock Street, S. William Street, and W. Willard Street. (See Page 12). If Black had purchased this same land directly from the U.S. Government, he would have had to pay the minimum price per acre: $1.25. By using a Warrant, he saved himself $40, a month's wage in those days. Samuel Leech, on the other hand, was not as fortunate as Black, for he paid the minimum government price of $1.25 an acre when he purchased the adjoining 40 acres of the NE 1/ of the NW 1/ of Section 33 on April 2, 1849.3 Today this area is between or on a line with S. William Street, W. Hancock Street, W. Willard Street, and S. Holcombe Street. (See Page 12). Three -and -a -half years after he purchased his tract of land, Mahlon Black sold his 40 aces to another Stillwater pioneer, Samuel Burkleo, who paid $160, or 84 an acre for the property, giving Black a 400% return on his original investment.4 Two years later, in August of 1855, Burkleo sold the same 40 acres to Stillwater businessman and entrepreneur, William Holcombe for $600, or $15 an acre.5 Samuel Leech waited almost five years to sell his tract of land, but in October of 1854, he sold his 40 acres to William Holcombe for $400, or $10 an acre.6 These two purchases gave William Holcombe 80 acres on the flatland above downtown Stillwater, in the area near and around Lily Lake. 2 D Deeds 612 Warrant #32,698 s 2 Deeds 57 4 D Deeds 320 :> E Deeds 594 G E Deeds 67; F Deeds 430 10 From Mexico to Minnesota, 1847-1858 Boots YEARS On the western frontier of Minnesota, the 1850's were boom years, and optimism was at an all-time peak. The eastern part of the state, and its cities, including Stillwater, were growing rapidly, and the one thing every newcomer needed was land: land to farm, land to live on, land for commercial enterprise. The businessmen of Stillwater were well aware of this demand, and many of them bought tracts of land to develop into building lots. William Holcombe was no exception, and on June 28th, 1855, he platted the 40 acres he had bought from Samuel Leech into building lots — most of them 50 feet by 150 feet — under the name of Holcombe's Addition to Stillwater. Four months later, he platted the 40 acres he had purchased from Samuel Burkleo into building lots under the name of Holcombe's Second Adclition.7 (See Pages 12 & 13). The lots were generally of good quality for building, but in the northeast quarter, Blocks 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, there is a large ravine running diagonally through the properties. This ravine, which may have extended as far as Lily Lake, continued east out of Holcombe's Addition on what once may have been a route downtown and to the river. TIIE STREET NAMES When a developer divides his acres into building lots, he has to add streets to provide access to all the lots. In providing the streets, the developer also names them, and such was the case in Holcombe's Additions. In the normal course of events, the lots would be laid out, surveyed, platted, and the streets named and registered before any of the lots were sold. However, in Holcombe's Additions, the streets were named for some of the first people buying lots. Perhaps those people for whom the streets were named had indicated an interest in buying a lot, or even put money down towards the purchase of a lot, before the lots were surveyed and completely ready for sale. Not all of the original street names remain. In 1881, the Stillwater City Council changed some of the original street names. Their intent was 7 A Plats 55; A Plats 59 11 From Mexico to Minnesota, 1847-1858 Lily Lake S. Center Street SURVEY AREA NW 1/ of Section 33, Township 30 N. Range 20 W. W. Willard Street NW 1/4 of (40 acres) NW 1/4 Holcombe's Second Addition NE 1/4 of NW 1/4 (40 acres) Holcombe's Addition W. Hancock Street SW 1/4 of (40 acres) NW 1/4 S. William Street W. Orleans Street N SE 1/4 of NW 1/4 (40 acres) S. Holcombe Street 12 From Mexico to Minnesota, 1847-1858 Z rr^^ cn m . � n O ..Q V/ — .- U `-� 5 V V1 • 0 te S. -o d rn O v O O x T COYM CO CO W s _ Cr> f, .M__ , CO co T YM W is agtaooTol N Y CO Y m o 1 CO OSD S) if ) CO '3S 3ataseg •I M MY W CO YM W T T �y� W (' is zlnd) m '4S viilavi i •! CO Washington Square BIk.21 BIk.5 N_ Y CO ('S Sat{aaag) 52 cm lS uaaang 1S AIITTiM . 'S Plat of Holcombe's Additions 13 From Mexico to Minnesota, 1847-1858 that all those streets which ran on the same course would have the same name throughout its length.8 WILLARD STREET Moses S. Willard and his wife, Mary Ann, bought Lots 1 to 6, Block 2, from William Holcombe on February 12, 1856 for a total price of S100. A couple of weeks later, Willard sold Lots 4, 5, & 6 to Mahlon Black for $125.9 On Lots 1,2 & 3, five years before the Civil War, Willard built a house in which he lived until 1882. There is a mention in the local newspaper that on December 1, 1856, "three deer wandered into town passing in full view of M. S. Willard's residence." 1° Today this Greek Revival house built in 1856, remains at 703 W. Willard Street. Unfortunately, recent changes have destroyed much of its historical appearance. Willard was born in New Hampshire in 1813, and came to Stillwater in 1855 where he ran a furniture and cabinet making business until his retirement in 1882. (When William Holcombe died in 1870, it was Moses Willard who made his casket and charged the estate $65.11) After his retirement, Willard spent some time in California, before returning to New England. He died at his sister's home in Francestown, N. H., on February 20, 1888.12 His wife, Mary Ann, had died in Stillwater in April 1879, from a heart attack that occurred when she was leaving the house one Sunday morning to attend service at the Universalist Church.13 ABBOTT STREET Milton H. and Mary J. Abbott bought several lots from William Holcombe: Lots 1, 2, 3 in Block 8 (the location of the houses at 702 & 706 S. 8 Ordinance No. 54. The Charter and Ordinances of the City of Stillwater. Compiled by C. F. Gregory, City Attorney. Stillwater, Lumberman Steam Printing Co, 1881. 9 F Deeds 226; F Deeds 322 10 History of the St. Croix Valley by Augustus B. Easton, Editor -in -Chief, Chicago, H.C. Cooper Jr. & Co., 1909. Page 81. 11 Washington County Probate Court, File #226 12 History of the St. Croix Valley by Augustus B. Easton, Editor -in -Chief, Chicago, H.C. Cooper Jr. & Co., 1909. Page 124. 13 Stillwater Messenger, March 3, 1888. 14 From Mexico to Minnesota, 1847-1858 Holcombe St. today). Abbott purchased Lot 4 from Hollis Murdock; the total price for the four lots purchased in 1857 was $200.14 A little over a year later, Abbott sold the four lots to another Stillwater resident, Samuel J. R. McMillan, for $1, 200. That price included the substantial house — with room for their four children and servant girl, Mary Cantwell — that the Abbotts had built on their lots .15 Milton Abbott was a newspaperman: the second editor of Stillwater's first newspaper, The St. Croix Union. In his newspaper, he wrote several times about his residence and the area around it. His accounts give us some wonderful descriptions of this neighborhood when it was first settled. They also give us considerable insight into the kind of man Abbott was, a man who sounds surprisingly contemporary in his feelings about "urban sprawl." This description of himself, and Holcombe's Addition was written in 1855, several years before the Civil War when Stillwater was just a fledgling village. "Stillwater —A Protest" `Tt is related of Daniel Boone, that he could not be contented except when in the wilderness, far in advance of civilization. This spirit prompted him to leave North Carolina, and explore, and ultimately settle in, the wilds of Kentucky; and when Kentucky became somewhat settled up by the whites, and they had gathered around his possessions there, he again moved, and settled in the very outskirts of Missouri. He seemed to delight in the wild grandeur of the untouched forest and unbroken prairie; and he was in his natural element while hunting the deer, and bear, and buffalo. Though a very humane and amiable man, the refinements and luxuries of civilization had but few charms for him. Boone was not alone in this feeling. —He was a type or representative of a numerous class of citizens. There are now thousands who possess his spirit in kind, if not in degree. They are everywhere scattered over the vast domain of the U. States, but they may be found chiefly in the Territories and frontiers of the new States. We have some of them in Minnesota —and among them we class our humble self! Yes —we have the feeling which led Daniel Boone to migrate from N. Carolina to Kentucky, and from Kentucky to Missouri. Like him, we do not like to be too closely environed by the advancing hordes of emigration. We want fresh, pure air —and we want plenty of 14 H Deeds 149; I Deeds 161; I Deeds 469. 15 K Deeds 271; 1857 Census #344 15 From Mexico to Minnesota, 1847-1858 elbow -room. We want a good large spot for play -grounds; and for pasture for a horse, a cow, a few fat porkers, a Shanghai rooster and his seraglio of hens. And above all, we want to live among men of liberal ideas; men of generous and ennobling impulses —men who will not "dicker" all day long for five cents, as some of them will in the densely populated portions of the States. It is because we possess such a spirit that we, last spring, settled up our affairs in Illinois, tore ourselves away from many pleasant remembrances and associations of the past and turned our face Minnesota -ward. We fondly flattered ourself that there we should see the same scenes, and live nearly the same life that we saw and lived in the early history of the great sucker State. We wanted again to see the wild deer, as, with infinite agility and grace he bounded over his own chosen haunts; we wished again to see the prairie -hen —perchance to eat hire; —we desired once more to hear the wild howl of the wolf, —and above all, we wanted to see, as we had seen in Illinois, the red man of the forest, in all his toggery and majesty. This was the feeling —these were some of the reasons which induced us to emigrate to Minnesota. When we started, we did not expect to locate in Stillwater. We were under some obligations to go elsewhere; but the Excelsior happened to come up Lake St. Croix before going to St. Paul, and this turned the scale —though, at the time, we were not aware of it. Had the Excelsior gone to Saint Paul first, in all probability we should have been in St. Paul now. But it was otherwise ordained, and we settled in Stillwater in consequence. We must be plain. We confess we did not altogether like the appearance of Stillwater. We admired the beautiful Lake St. Croix —we admired the excellent and beautiful fish which occasionally leaped from its waters —we loved the pure springs which came gushing and sparkling from its hill -sides, and above all we were enraptured with the kindness and hospitality of its citizens. But the sand and the rugged hills, and some other things, we did not altogether fancy. A day or two after our arrival, we essayed to climb one of these same rugged hills; —and we succeeded, and thought we had achieved wonders! However, notwithstanding our dislikes, and objections, we determined, as we have already said, to settle in Stillwater. This 16 From Mexico to Minnesota, 1847-1858 being determined on, the next step was to procure a house to live in till one could be built; but Stillwater then was very much like it is now, although 105 dwelling houses have since been built — there were no vacant houses to rent;16 but after a few days, Capt. Holcombe partially fitted up his old dwelling -house on Main st— and here we lived for several weeks. The next step was to make preparations for building —or, rather, to select a lot or lots upon which to build. With this end in view, we traveled over, and scanned closely, every part of the land within the present limits of the city of Stillwater. As for the city proper —we mean the main, business part —we passed that by immediately for these reasons: 1. The lots in it were held at high rates. 2. Few wanted to sell at any price. 3. We tho't then, (and so we think now) that this part of Stillwater will ultimately be built up with large business houses, and that the families living there will have to take to the hills eventually. We next went out in the direction of M'Kusick's Lake. There are some delightful spots out that way, but we were fearful that scarcely would we get our tent pitched there, ere some speculating Yankee would purchase John M'Kusick's mill property, and erect several manufactories thereon;17 and with our notions of frontier life, and elbow -room, and independence, the reader can easily see . that this would very materially interfere. So we concluded not to live there. We next visited Carli & Schulenburg's Addition to Stillwater.'8 But there were insuperable objections to settling there.— There was Schulenburg's big mill, giving employment to fifty or sixty hands, day and night, —whacking and thwacking, thrashing and clashing, drawing and sawing incessantly. Besides there were too many buildings going up. It would soon be densely peopled, and this would impinge our ideas of elbow- room and independence. So we retraced our steps and went down the Lake even beyond Staples' saw mill.19 The mill itself 16 The 1850's brought many immigrants to Minnesota; there was a chronic shortage of housing in every city and village. 17 To power his sawmill downtown, McKusick diverted Brown's Creek into Lake McKusick, and drained the lake down a ravine beginning at (today) Laurel & Owens Streets. Because the ravine had water flowing through it, and therefore, water power, McKusick always figured to sell that ravine land as commercial property to be used by a number of water powered mills. Had he succeeded, much of the North Hill would have been an industrial site. 18 Dutchtown; See A History of the Dutchtown Residential Area by Donald Empson, 1998. 19 Hersey & Staples Addition; the area southeast of E. Willard Street and Sixth Avenue. 17 From Mexico to Minnesota, 1847-1858 was fairly alive with workmen; and beyond it we saw many signs of improvement. We plainly perceived that it would not be at all prudent for us to attempt to locate anywhere in that direction. Too much was going on there —too many were making preparations for building. It will not be long ere Baytown and Stillwater will meet, and had we built there, we should have been in a pretty fix—would'nt we? The only course left us was to climb the hills and take a survey of Nelson's Addition to Stillwater. ° We did so, and found the lots attractive —nay, bewitching. But Nelson, —we could not find Nelson —he was off somewhere. Besides, to tell the whole truth, more improvement was being made there than we liked. We foresaw that very soon it would be filled up, and improved like a city; and then, farewell to our cow, and pigs, and poultry, and extended play -grounds, and garden. So, with a saddened heart, and heavy step, we went down into Stillwater proper again; and we casually mentioned our troubles to Capt. Holcombe. We acquainted him with our tastes, and told him what we wanted. He immediately informed us that he could suit us exactly; that he owned several acres directly back of, and adjoining Nelson's Addition to Stillwater, and that if we would build out there, we should not want for room at all. What a joyous announcement! We felt much like embracing the man — but we didn't. We only went with him out to the land he spake of, and were delighted.— There was not a house, or fence upon it. It was wild and uncultivated. It was precisely as it was when the red man of the forest roamed over it and we imagined we could see some of his footprints. The nearest neighbors were Asa B. Green and his excellent lady, —and they were nearly a quarter of a mile distant; so there was no danger that we should fall out and quarrel about neighborhood matters. In our peregrinations and perambulations we saw several of the little animals here called gophers —sleek, active, nimble, saucy chaps —and several ant -hills. This was delightful! We instantly mentally said May not such sights only be an earnest of something better and greater? Doubtless we shall yet see deer and hear the prairie- wold out here.' And in this thing we haven't been deceived. Well: we must make a long story short, for we begin to tire of this historical review. We were so pleased with every thing in Holcombe s Addition —its wildness —scenery —its remoteness 20 The South Hill 18 From Mexico to Minnesota, 1847-1858 from human habitations —its distance from the Lake, being just a half mile —its cool and pure breezes —its gophers, and its anthills —that we concluded, at once, to put up a shanty our there; 21—and this resolution in due time, was carried into effect through the help of Delano who furnished the seasoned lumber, —and Penney who bossed the job; and a mustachioed fellow who painted it, —and our mayor, who hauled the lumber, —and Macomb & Simpson, who furnished the nails, hinges, locks, &c,—and Willim, ex-Representive, who plastered it, —and Captain Holcombe, who watched the whole proceedings with more than paternal tenderness and anxiety. We say that in due time, it was finished and we moved into it. But hardly had this been accomplished, when one day we saw, just across `Abbott st' —ahem!—preparations for building three houses! We had fondly irnagined that we had stepped without the pale of civilization, and that our nearest neighbor would be Asa B. Green, the sheriff, but alas! how very much we were mistaken. On inquiry, we found that one of our new neighbors was a hard-working, whole-souled Irishman, Carli by name that another was a carpenter, Smith by name; and that the other Willard23, the Furniture -Dealer and cabinet-maker. Well: as there is no help for it, we took it quietly, and of necessity made it a virtue. Indeed, on reviewing the whole matter over, we felt rather pleased than otherwise. We naturally like a decent Irishman; the carpenter we might want at some future time, and Mr. W. could furnish us with what furniture we might need, to say nothing of social considerations. But scarcely had we thus acquiesced in this state of things when another dwelling shot up south of us, upon lots imrnediately adjoining ours. Oh! horrible. We some thought of pulling up stakes right off, and making another fresh start, but on finding that the builder was none other than the Rev. A. C. Pennock24, we concluded to remain a while longer. But why should we enu,rnerate? Suffice it to say it has been one continued act of encroachment and aggression ever since. We settled in Holcombe's Addition to Stillwater mainly because we supposed we should be isolated; but we have been most sadly disappointed. The wave of emigration has already 21 Abbott's house was in the location of 702 & 706 S. Holcombe St. today. 22 James Carley whose second house in this location remains at 609 W. Willard. 23 Moses Willard whose house remains at 703 W. Willard today. 24 Pennock's house was in the location of 610 W. Churchill today. 19 From Mexico to Minnesota, 1847-1858 rolled a quarter of a mile beyond us —even out to Lilly Lake. Houses have gone up as if by magic. Most of them, too, are good ones. One, built by the Receiver, is worth about $6,000, and another commenced by Rev. T. M. Fullerton25, will cost about the same amount. True, our neighbors are of the best —among them are Rev. J. A. Russell and his amiable lady26 but what does all this avail when one is actuated by the unfettered, unrestrained spirit of Boone? Not only have our fondest hopes thus been crushed outright, but there is a prospect that they will shortly undergo a still further and equally ruthless laceration. Do you inquire how? Several acres of land, lying immediately south and west of Dr. Puggsley's dwelling —which, when we came to Stillwater, were said to be owned by heirs, and consequently could not be sold until the youngest became of age, --have recently been purchased by Parker, Thompson & Mower, and some of it is now advertised for sale in the Union27. Not only so but they have cut out a street, and thus despoiled the meandering and sequestered path in which we travel daily in going to and from our office; and as a consequence we now travel over Nelson's $700 grade.28 Judging the future by the past, all that portion of Stillwater soon be built up, and dotted over with comfortable dwelling houses, well filled with industrious and contented inhabitants. Well: we might, possibly, with great difficulty, bring our mind to submit to all this bustle and improvement; this ruthless despoiling of Nature's beauty and comeliness; but it is said that a Railroad will soon be built between Stillwater and St. Paul; and that it will run very close to our domicil! And not only so, but it is said the Directors intend erecting a depot upon one corner of one of our lots!29 What shall we do? What course shall we pursue? Shall we again flee to the wilderness? Suppose we should —what guarantee have we that we shall not again be overtaken by im,rnigration's full wave? Who can say that Railroads will not very soon be built there, and that the iron horse will not, careering and snorting, rush past us? No! —we 25 Fullerton's house was on the north side of Lily Lake near the west end of Willard Street. 26 The house of Joseph A. and Sarah E. Russell remains at 716 S. Harriet Street today. 27 This was Thompson, Parker & Mower's First Addition, between Olive and Pine; between Fifth and Holcombe Streets. This tract would have been directly on Abbott's walk to downtown. 28 Probably a rough grading of what is now the Third Street hill to the Historic Courthouse. 29 Abbott did not need to worry about the railroad. In order to be successful, the railroad —which finally came in 1870—had to run into downtown Stillwater. The bluffs around the downtown are far too steep for a railroad, and when it was finally built the railroad ran into the north end of town along the gradual grade of Brown's creek. 20 From Mexico to Minnesota, 1847-1858 will not yet flee: we will maintain our ground awhile longer. Meanwhile as Napoleon Bonaparte, when upon the Island of St. Helen, issued a protest to all Europe and the civilized world, against the mal-treatment he experienced from the British Government, so, be it known, that we issue this our PROTEST We hereby respectfully yet firmly protest against any more annoyances, and aggressions, and invasions of our inherent rights. We are willing to buy the past in oblivion; but we most firmly Protest against Capt. Holcombe's selling off any more lots to actual settlers.30 We protest against Mower, Parker & Thompson selling off their newly acquired Addition to Stillwater; for they will thereby spoil our secluded and sequestered pathway —Let buyers go to M"Kusick, or Carli, or Socrates Nelson. Finally we protest against the project of running a Railroad so near our premises. We do not want our pigs and poultry decapitated by the ponderous machinery of the locomotive, nor our cow caught up by that ugly - looking customer, ...the cow catcher. Nor do we wish to hear the dolorous puffing of the engine, or the unearthy sounds of its shrill whistle. Against all these, we most solemnly protest; and if we be not heeded —and we are somewhat fearful we shall not be —there is one alternative left us, but what that is we shall not now divulge.31" For all the fieriness of the preceding article, Abbott was as big a civic booster as anyone in the village; as we shall see, during his two years as Editor, his newspaper often espoused the growth of the young city. When the great depression began in 1857, Abbott's newspaper ran into financial difficulties, and the last issue was on November 13, 1857.32 For a time, Abbott worked as the Receiver of the Stillwater Land Office,33 but in October 3o Most of the lots in Stillwater at this time were being sold to speculators: out of town buyers who never intended to live here, but simply meant to hold the lots until the price rose higher. As it turned out, it was fortunate so few of Holcombe's lots were sold to speculators. 31 St. Croix Union, December 22, 1855. 32 History of the St. Croix Valley by Augustus B. Easton, Editor -in -Chief, Chicago, H.C. Cooper Jr. & Co., 1909. Page 232. 33 Ibid. Page 356. 21 From Mexico to Minnesota, 1847-1858 1858, Abbott sold his house on Abbott Street and left Stillwater for parts unknown. PENNOCK/CHURCHILL STREET The original name of this street was Pennock Street. The Rev. Ames C. Pennock and his wife, Elizabeth J. bought Lots 10, 11, and 12, Block 8 (the present day location of 602 and 610 W. Churchill Street) in May of 1856 for $80 — a very reasonable price! 34 A little over a year later, in September of 1857, he purchased, for $180, Lots 7 and 8 also in Block 8. (Today the location of 622 W. Churchill).35 Pennock was a minister for the Methodist Episcopal Church. By 1857, Pennock must have left Stillwater, for he is not listed in the census. In 1866, Pennock and his wife were living in Columbia County, Wisconsin, when they sold all their property in Stillwater. Lots 10, 11, & 12, containing their house, sold to William M. Smith of Stillwater for 5450. Lots 7 & 8 sold to John Montgomery, also of Stillwater, for $80.36 The street name, Churchill, was extended west in 1881 from Churchill, Nelson & Slaughter's Addition. The City Council wished to have all the streets running along the same line, bear the same name.37 Levi Churchill, for whom the Addition was named, was a businessman and land speculator living in St. Louis; he never settled in Stillwater. ANDERSON STREET Andrew Anderson of Stillwater purchased Lot 6 of Block 9 for $110 in May of 1857. Like so many Stillwater residents, Anderson left Stillwater after the great crash of 1857. In 1864, when he sold this lot to William Webster of Stillwater for $75, Anderson was living in Salt Lake City, Utah Territory.38 (Today this site is the location of 621 W. Churchill St.) There is no indication Anderson built a house on his site. 34 G Deeds 301 35 I Deeds 484 38 R Deeds 40; R Deeds 450 37 Ordinance No. 54. The Charter and Ordinances of the City of Stillwater. Compiled by C. F. Gregory, City Attorney. Stillwater, Lumberman Steam Printing Co, 1881. 38 H Deeds 628; T Deeds 459 92 Front Mexico to Minnesota, 1847-1858 WESTERN ROW/GREELEY STREET This street was originally named Western Row simply because it was the westernmost street on the plat. The street name of Greeley was extended south from Greeley and Slaughter's Addition. Elam and Hannah Greeley were pioneers of Stillwater; their large house was on the southwest corner of Greeley and Myrtle Streets. BEECHER/EVERETT STREET This street was originally named Beecher Street. Gustavus Beecher (or Becher) bought all of Block 3 from William Holcombe in August of 1855 for $300.39 (Block 3 is between S.Everett, W.Willard, W.Abbott, and S.Martha Streets). He did not build on his property. Beecher made a nice profit a year -and -a -half later when he sold his Block 3 in November of 1856 for $1, 00040. But that intervening year and a half was probably the most tumultuous time in all of Beecher's life. In the summer of 1856, William Buel, a Stillwater "carpenter and joiner", contracted to build Beecher a 20 foot by 30 foot two-story house on the south side of Chestnut Street between Second and Third Streets. Beecher was to pay Buel $3 a day for Buel's labor, and $2.50 a day for the labor of any assistants Buel might use. Building the house took Buel 105 days at a cost to Beecher of $315.25. The total hours of Buel's assistants came to 79 days at an expense of $198.22, making the total cost of Beecher's new house $513.47. However when Buel came to collect his payment, Beecher was in jail, and Buel found it necessary in William. Buel vs. Gustave Beecher to file a lien upon Beecher's Chestnut Street property.41 His fellow landowner, Milton Abbott, described Beecher's offense in his newspaper: 39 F Deeds 1 4o G Deeds 466 41 Washington County Court Records in Minnesota State Archives, Box 1, File A 397, Locator number (old) 58.K.3.6F 23 From Mexico to Minnesota, 1847-1858 "Gustavus Becher We stated in our last that this rnan had been arrested on a charge of rape upon his own daughter; that he had admitted that he was guilty of incest, but not of rape; and that we should, this week, notice the affair still further, and somewhat in detail. We have now to add that he was required to give a bond of $5,000 for his appearance at the next term of the court; and failing to comply with the terms of the bond he was lodged in the Territorial Prison for safe keeping. We had intended to comment on this case quite lengthily; but we refrain out of deference to the feelings of the husband of the woman whom Becher has so foully wronged. We simply say that for lustful bestiality and utter heartlessness and depravity there are few cases in the annals of crirne that equal it. We hope he will get justice. "4 The details of this sad case which Abbott spared his readers are elaborated in a court case: John Leach vs. Mary Leach 43. John Leach, 30 years old, had lived in Stillwater for seven years when he married Mary Becher, 19 years old, on March 19, 1856. From March 19th to the 28th of July, 1856, John kept her as his wife and believed her "a pure, chaste, virtuous, and honest maid." But John was deceived by her, and his court complaint states: "she was not and had not been, at and prior to the date of said marriage, pure, chaste, and virtuous, but was and had been lewd and given to lewd, unchaste, and criminal acts and behavior with one Gustavus Becher", and, the complaint continues on to say that Mary "in December, 1855 in Stillwater on various days and times had criminal sexual and carnal intercourse and connection with Gustavus Becher" and as a result she conceived and "became pregnant and big with child by the said Gustavus Becher" and on July 27th, 1856, four months and eight days after her marriage to John Leach, she delivered a full grown female child. To complicate matters even further, Beecher, who was from St. Louis, had recently married a Stillwater woman, Anna Munes, on February 13th, 1855, only eight months before impregnating his daughter, Mary." 42 St. Croix Union, August 8, 1856. 43 Washington County Court Records in the Minnesota State Archives, Box 1, File A 369, Locator number (old) 58.K.3.6F 44 St. Croix Union, February 20, 1855. 24 From Mexico to Minnesota, 1847-1858 Beecher was given a free room in the Territorial Prison, but on November 11, 1856, he was transferred to places unknown.45 Everett was the middle name of Levi E. Thompson, one of the proprietors of Thompson, Parker & Mower's Second Addition. The street name was extended south to Holcombe's Addition in 1881. PUTZ/MARTHA STREET Elizabeth Putz purchased Lot 1 of Block 7 from William Holcombe in May of 1856 for $60, and Lot 2 of the same block in September of 1856 for $50.46 She and her husband, Robert, (whom she married the previous year-17) sold those same two lots in September of 1856 for $1,000 — which price indicated a house on the lots.48 This earliest of homes remains, at least in part, at 812 Harriet Street. Robert Putz had the first tin shop in Stillwater in 1854.49 The name of Martha Street was extended south from Thompson, Parker & Mower's Second Addition. Martha G. Thompson was the wife of Levi Thompson. SMITH/HARRIET STREET William Holcombe sold George W. and Hannah Smith, Lot 6, Block 1 for $25 in March of 1856.J0 A little over a year later, in August of 1857, they resold the lot for $300; a price that would indicate a house on the lot.51 (Today this site is the location of 621 W. Willard Street.) Smith was a daguerretypist, an early form of photographer. According to his ad in the newspaper,52 Smith apparently had a floating "Saloon, ready to take life -like 45 Warden's Book, Page 6 46 F Deeds 468; H Deeds 303 47 St. Croix Union, September 29, 1855. 48 H Deeds 304 49 Stillwater Trades Review, January 1898 5o G Deeds 332 51 I Deeds 218 52 St. Croix Union, September 29, 1855. 25 From Mexico to Minnesota, 1847-1858 likenesses of any who may patronize him" and moved up and down the river plying his trade. The name of Harriet Street was extended south from Thompson, Parker, & Mower's Second Addition. Harriet was the wife of William H. Mower, one of the developers of that tract. OWENS STREET Owens is not a street that appeared on the original map of Holcombe's Second Addition. It was added as a part of Walter Nelson's Addition, a century later, in 1955. Owens is another street name extended south from Greeley & Slaughter's Addition. It was named for John P. Owens, a resident of St. Paul, and editor of the first newspaper in Minnesota.53 HOLCOMBE STREET Holcombe Street was named, of course, for William Holcombe, the developer of Holcombe's Additions. He was somewhat of a famous man in the earliest history of the St. Croix Valley and Minnesota. Born in Lambertville, N. J., on July 22, 1804, Holcombe was the oldest of the eight children of Emley Holcombe and Mary Skillman. According to the custom of the Society of Friends to whom his family belonged, William was bred to a trade, that of carriage maker. At the age of 18, he left home and traveled to Utica, N.Y., where, in 1826, he married Martha Wilson. Three years later, he moved to Columbus, Ohio, where he owned a large carriage factory. After being burned out, he moved to Cincinnati, and from there to Galena, Illinois, where he engaged in steamboating. In Galena his wife died, leaving him with motherless children to raise. He soon moved to St. Louis where he engaged unsuccessfully in the mercantile business, and then, in 1839, he came to the St. Croix Valley to the falls of the St. Croix as a 53 For more information on Thompson, Parker & Mower's Second Addition, Greeley & Slaughter's Addition, and the street names of Greeley, William, Martha, Owens, Harriet, and Everett, see A History of the Greeley Residential Area by Donald Empson, 1997. 26 From Mexico to Minnesota, 1847-1858 William Holcombe's house on Lily Lake at 720 S. Greeley Street Photograph courtesy of the Washington County Historical Society William Holcombe's business Block in downtown Stillwater Photograph. courtesy of Jim Johnson 2 / From Mexico to Minnesota, 1847-1858 resident proprietor and agent of the St. Croix Falls Lumbering Company. He helped determine the location of one of the first roads in the territory: from the mouth of St. Croix Lake via Marine to St. Croix Falls. He helped organize the First Presbyterian Church upon moving to Stillwater in 1846. In 1847, he married the widow, Henrietta Clendenin. He was very active in the politics of organizing the Minnesota Territory; he was a receiver at the General Land Office in Stillwater for four years; he was a member of the Democratic wing of the Constitutional Convention of Minnesota in 1857, and was elected first Lieutenant Governor of the state. He was also active in the religious, political and business affairs of Stillwater, serving as Mayor in 1868-1870.54 Upon his death on September 5, 1870, the Stillwater Gazette bordered its columns with a black border, and the newspaper contained several resolutions and testimonials in his honor.55 Holcombe built a large house on the east side of Lily Lake, on Block 18 of his Addition. On the 1870 Bird's Eye View map of Stillwater, the house is shown as being a little west of the northwest corner of Abbott and Greeley Streets. The newspaper recorded that "Captain Holcombe has just finished one of the finest residences for himself upon the Addition to be found in the Territory."56 In 1863, the house had an assessed value of $1,600.57 On at least one occasion, Holcombe's house was the scene of a Pic Nic: Sunday School Pic Nic "The Sabbath School connected with the Second Presbyterian church held their annual pic nic last Saturday in Gov. Holcombe's58 yard on the east bank of Lilly Lake. The first part of the day was rather cold with indications of rain, but before ten o'clock it cleared off and every one felt relieved and glad when they saw the sun first break from the overshadowing clouds. On the grounds several swings had been erected into which the children piled promiscuously. Others amused themselves in wandering on the sandy beach hunting carnelians and curious pebbles. Thus in their quiet, unostentatious way, the day was spent, and it was a real pleasure to witness the happy 54. In memoriam: sermon on the death of Hon. Holcombe, delivered in the Second Presbyterian Church, Stillwater, Minn., Sept. 25th, 1870 by Rev. James Cochran. Stillwater, Minn: printed at the office of the Messenger, 1870. 55 There are many biographical references to Holcombe. I used: History of the St. Croix Valley by Augustus B. Easton, Editor -in -Chief, Chicago, H.C. Cooper Jr. & Co., 1909. Page 306. There is a good obituary in the Stillwater Gazette, September 10, 1870. Minnesota Historical Society Collections, Vol 10, Part 2, page 857, has a biography written by his granddaughter 56 St. Croix Union, July 11, 1856. 57 Washington County Tax Assessor's Records in Minnesota State Archives, SAM 78, Roll 4. 58 Although he was only Lieutenant Governor, he was often called Governor in Stillwater. 28 From Mexico to Minnesota, 1847-1858 smiling countenances of the children as they gathered around the table spread with the good things that had been prepared by the teachers of the school. After the repast, singing by the children and a prayer by Rev. Mr. Caldwell each repaired to their home feeling that they had done a good thing, and that it was 'better to give than receive. "'59 THE FEVER Stillwater began with a sawmill in 1844. Five years later, when Minnesota became a Territory, the population was estimated at 609.60 A year later the population had jumped to 1,052. Most of the residents lived in what is the downtown area today. But boom times lay ahead. Thousands of immigrants were pouring into the Territory, and the price of land was rising rapidly. Through the early 1850's, the price of land doubled, and doubled again. The Territory was struck with the fever of land speculation. With the continuing influx of newcomers, all of whom needed a place to live, how could the price of land not continue to rise — or so the speculator reasoned. When Holcombe's Additions were platted, the speculation in land prices was just beginning in earnest, peaking in the year 1857, when, it is estimated, that in Minnesota, at least 700 towns were platted into more than 300,000 lots — enough for 1,500,000 people.61 Stillwater did not escape the speculation fever. The St. Croix Union newspaper was delighted to point out that: "About two years ago, Hersey, Staples & Co. gave $600 for a lot [which] last week sold for $3000 to Mr. Dodge... We add that when Hersey Staples & Co. made the aforesaid purchase, many thought they had given a very high price... but time will prove that the lot will increase as rapidly in value, in the next two years, as it has done in the two just passed. Mr. Dodge has already been offered $500 advance on what he gave. Our faith in Stillwater is unbounded."62 59 Stillwater Republican, September 15, 1868. 60Theodore C. Blegen. Minnesota A History of the State. U. of Minnesota Press. 1963. Page 159. 61William Wafts Folwell. A History of Minnesota. St. Paul, The Minnesota Historical Society, 1956. Vol. 1, page 362. 62 Si. Croix Union, August 6, 1856. 29 From Mexico to Minnesota, 1847-1858 On another occasion, the editor struck back at any who might doubt the future. `Less than two years ago they sneered at Stillwater's being anything outside the Basin, or Original Limits [of downtown]. We well recollect that we were laughed at, by some, for pitching our tent out in Holcombe's Addition —it being then a wild unbroken wilderness. But what are now the facts? There are over 100 houses out there now —some of them first class —and about 600 inhabitants. Lots which, when we located there [two years ago] could be had for $25 cannot now be purchased for less than a hundred dollars —and they are constantly rising.. Lots...have been enhanced in value four -fold within the past two years, and the way we read the signs of the tunes, they lack much of having reached their maximum.63 MORE ADDITIONS Anticipating quick profits in the land, Stillwater entrepreneurs did what others throughout the settled portions of Minnesota Territory were doing: they platted Additions. The trick was, they reasoned, to buy the land by the acre and sell it by the foot. "STILLWATER FOREVER Another Addition to Stillwater. Additions to Stillwater are all the rage now. Within a few days past, Jacob Maerty has sold to Joshua B. Carter and Gov. Ramsey, 140 acres of land lying west of Stillwater and adjoining Holcombe's Addition, for $7000. It is soon to be surveyed into town lots. We rejoice to see this movement. There are now three heavy St. Paul capitalists and speculators deeply interested in Stillwater; viz. R. F. Slaughter, Col. H M'Kenty, and Gov. Ramsey. We are glad to know that St. Paul speculators are vitally interested here, because it argues that they now see what we saw nearly three years ago; that is, that Stillwater is destined inevitably to be a great place. They now see that Stillwater is not a 'one-horse town, chucked down 63 St. Croix Union, December 5, 1856. 30 From Mexico to Minnesota, 1847-1858 among the hills in the sand.' They now see that Stillwater has unrivaled advantages -that she has much capital -that a Rail - Road is to come here probably before one runs to St. Paul, and that Stillwater is rapidly advancing in all that contributes to material prosperity and greatness.'�4 HURRAH FOR STILLWATER" Closer to home, Abbott also recorded the progress in Holcombe's Addition: "On Holcombe's addition buildings go up sometimes at the rate of two and three a day; and the moment they are fit to go into they are filled with inhabitants. —Two wells, each about a dozen feet deep, have been dug there lately by a couple of citizens, which thus far, have afforded a plenty of water. Should they hold out a few weeks longer, we shall have something more to say about them. We are somewhat chary when treating of Holcombe's addition, principally because we live there (we are the first settler) and have a little interest there; but one fact we will notice. That is several ministers live there. There are four with whom we are acquainted, and who are our neighbors, viz: Rev. J. A. Russell, of the Episcopalian denomination; Rev. S. A. Evans, O. S. Presbyterian; and Rev. Mr. Brown; and Rev. A. C. Pennock each of the Methodist denomination. Beside this, a lot has been donated by Capt. Holcombe to the Methodist church for a parsonage; which, when built, of course will be occupied by another minister. The Rev. T. M. Fullerton will soon move into his house on Lilly Lake; we suppose; so that the probability is we shall, before long, be completely environed by ministers. If Rev. H.M. Nichols and the Catholic priest (whose name we have not yet learned) would locate out there, they would get a good sniff of fresh air, and do and feel better."65 William Holcombe was in the heat of the speculation fever, and his Additions to Stillwater were only two of several Additions he made. There is Holcombe's Addition to St. Paul (16 blocks between Summit & Marshall Avenues; between Dale & Grotto Streets) which contains a small roundabout and park at Laurel and St. Albans Streets named Holcombe Circle; he held lots in the Middleton Village plat in Baytown Township south of Stillwater, 64St. Croix Union, December 12, 1856. 65 St. Croix Union, August 1, 1856. 31 From Mexico to Minnesota, 1847-1858 and, with partners on August 28th of 1857, he platted Farrington, Thom, Steele and Holcombe's Addition to Stillwater on the south side of Lily Lake. Coinciding with the crash, the timing of this plat was unfortunate, and the Addition was vacated in 1879. Today this area, (between the line of Orleans Street on the south; the line of Center Street extended south as the eastern line; on the north by Lily Lake; and on the west by a line extended north on Washington Street) is largely encompassed within "The Highlands of Stillwater" Addition. As late as February, 1857, the future looked bright: "Real Estate and Business in Stillwater The price of land in our city and vicinity has advanced with astonishing rapidity during the last two years, and from present appearances we shall see still greater improvements in the future. During the week past Mr. H. R. Murdock purchased ten acres of land adjoining Cooper's Addition, from Mr. Slaughter, for $100 per acre. Two years ago this same land was sold for five dollars per acre. Three thousand seven hundred dollars have been recently offered by Mr. Gorgas, the banker, for a lot on Main street, corner of Chestnut-25 feet front and 80 feet deep —and refused. The owners —the Messrs. Murdock, Druggists —intend to build a splendid stone building on it in the spring. This is at the rate of about $150 a front foot, and be it reinem,bered that the whole lot, of which this is only a part, a little over a year ago, sold for $10 a front foot. This, to say the least, is a very fair advance. There are yet many splendid investments and fortunes to be made in this city —which is, as yet, in its infancy —and every day presents new evidences of its future greatness...On every side preparations are being made for the erection of capacious ware houses; substantial —and in some instances fine private dwellings, and every thing promises a season of unprecedented prosperity. "66 66 St. Croix Union, February 13, 1857. 32 From Mexico to Minnesota, 1847-1858 THE CRASH On the 24th of August, 1857, the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company of New York failed; its creditors were forced to default, and a calamitous chain of events spread across the United States. Within two months, almost everybody in Minnesota was in debt; the Territory was literally emptied of cash. City lots became virtually worthless. Those who were formerly wealthy found themselves bankrupt. Stillwater boosters were in despair, and the city was never to fully recover its boundless optimism after this Depression of 1857. Writing of St. Paul, Thomas Newson described what was also true of Stillwater: "And then cane. the terribly hard times. With no money, no values, no property, no business, little or no emigration, no banks, or banks with empty vaults, no courage, no hope, notes due, mortgages foreclosed, men heavily in debt, land depreciated from fifty to seventy-five per cent, no trade, indeed with nothing to trade, no foundation to build on, no one can imagine the frightful condition of affairs in St. Paul in the latter part of the year 1857 but he who passed through it all..."67 The Stillwater Democrat, on January 1, 1859 editorialized: "A Happy New Year to our Friends and Patrons. Eighteen hundred and fifty eight, with its panics and monetary convulsions, its depression of trade and depreciation in value of all and every kind of purchaseable and ponderable goods and estates, has, thank goodness, departed for ever..." The sale of lots in Holcombe's Addition, and indeed, everywhere in Stillwater slowed and then stopped. In Block 10 of Holcombe's Addition, for example, there were no property transactions between April 30, 1857, and January 31, 1876.68 Captain Holcombe, who years earlier had failed in previous businesses in Cincinnati and St. Louis, found himself again in perilous financial straits, due to the Depression of 1857. Like many other Stillwater land developers, including Levi Thompson and William Mower, 67 T.M. Newson. Pen Pictures of St. Paul, Minnesota and Biographical Sketches of Old Settlers. By the Author, St. Paul, 1886. Page 698. 68 Tract Index: Book H, Page. 266, Washington County Recorder's Office 33 From Mexico to Minnesota, 1847-1858 Holcombe held a lot of property he could not sell. When he could not pay on a promissory note for $3,900 (at 8% interest) he owed to his younger brother, Alexander Holcombe of Lambertville, New Jersey69, he was forced to put his homestead, and all his hundreds of acres of property in trusteeship with his son.7° The population of Stillwater declined, and all plans for the future were put on hold. A couple of the local banks, not being able to obtain cash, printed their own bank notes, and Washington County was forced to issue its own scrip payable against tax dollars that were difficult, if not impossible to collect. 69 J. Montgomery Seaver. The Holcomb(e) genealogy; a genealogy, history and directory... of the Holcomb(e)s of the world....American Historical -genealogical Society, Philadelphia, Pa, 1925. Pages 136-138. i0 O Deeds 33 34 AFTER THE CIVIL WAR, 1865-1900 In a long newspaper article quoted in the previous chapter, Milton Abbott complained bitterly about the number of settlers actually living in Holcombe's Addition, and he suggested, indirectly, that perhaps the lots should only be sold to land speculators who would not actually take up residence there. While this idea may have given Abbott more elbow room, such a policy of selling to speculators would have been a disaster for the Addition, as it turned out. In 1861, when we have the first Washington County tax Assessor's records to study, we can see the devastating effects of the Crash of 1857. Whole Additions, blocks and blocks, hundreds of lots, were now in the possession of the State of Minnesota, forfeited by land speculators who, now that the lots were valueless, had no reason to pay the taxes. Whole neighborhoods in the city were vacant, tax -forfeited land: without value, without occupants, and without hope that the situation would improve in the near future. One of the few exceptions to this city-wide bleakness is Holcombe's Addition, where, by design or accident, relatively few lots were in the hands of speculators. The 1861 Assessor's records list a total of only 15 tax forfeited lots in the whole addition. Instead, the records show a number of houses already built within this neighborhood, and a core of stable residents dating from the 1850's. (However, according to the 1860 Census, there were in Holcombe's Additions — as in every other neighborhood — a number of vacant houses.) Working from the remaining tax assessor's records, there were at least 24 houses in Holcombe's Addition at the beginning of the 1860's — of which at least 7 remain. With a few exceptions, these homes were almost all small houses: one-story, two -room structures with no basement. There were undoubtedly more houses built before the Crash of 1857, but they were abandoned after the Crash, listed as vacant in the 1860 Census, and probably demolished for the scrap lumber by the other settlers who remained. It is difficult to say exactly how many houses were built here in the 1850's, but is possible the number was close to 50. Milton Abbott claimed there were over a 100 houses and 600 people living here in the 1850's, 140 years ago. (By comparison, today there are 122 houses in Holcombe's Additions) During and after the Civil War, the pace of development very gradually increased. In the 1860's, as near as can be determined, there were 35 After the Civil War, 1865-1900 another 17 houses built — of which four remain today. These again appear to have been mostly the one-story, two -room homes of the previous decade. In the 1870's, the general prosperity in Stillwater increased, and there were another 22 houses built in Holcombe's Addition — of which 18 remain today. THE 1880's In the 1880's, there was relative affluence in Stillwater, and most of the older houses that remain in Stillwater were built during this decade. Whole neighborhoods, which had been vacant in the 1870's, were filled with houses during the building boom of the 1880's. Paul Caplazi wrote in his 1944 manuscript: `The eighties were happy days for Stillwater. It was a time between the Civil War and the Spanish American War, there were no wars, no strikes, no unemployment, no troube of any kind, everybody was working and happy." But Holcombe's Addition was already largely settled, and unlike the newer neighborhoods, there were only seven homes built here during the 1880's — all of which remain today. In the 1890's, when other neighborhoods were continuing to develop, there were only five new homes built in Holcombe's Addition. One of the indications of this early settlement is the fact that, until after WW II, most of the homes in Holcombe's Addition had three lots with the house. In other neighborhoods, built later in the 1880's, land was more valuable, and many of those later houses are constructed on single, or even half lots. Writing of Holcombe's Addition, Paul Caplazi said: "St. Paul had its Rondo St. Gang and Rice Street Gang. Stillwater had the Holcombe's Addition gang and the 41h St. gang. When the 4th St. gang went on parade you would think you were among the Indians, but as hard boiled as were the lumberjacks they were a jolly lot...Holcombe's Addition is that part of Stillwater which lies west of Holcombe St. and south of Willard to Lily Lake. There was a place there called loafer's corner. It is one of the oldest parts of Stillwater. People lived there in the Sixties. 36 After the Civil War, 1865-1900 Tuttle, [706 S. Holcombe] Smith, [602 W. Churchill] Mulvey, [622 W. Churchill] Jourdain, [805 W. Abbott] Curtiss, [706 W. Churchill] O'Neal, [Block 7, Lot 7, now gone] Keefe, [603 W. Churchill] Kundert,[709 W. Churchill] Leach, [Block 1, Lot 8, now gone] Brown, [722 W. Anderson] Cronin, [823 W. Anderson] Brasser, [Brassow, Block 14, Lot 7, now gone] DeCurtin, [DeCurtins, Block 13, Lot 1, now gone] Simnot, [Sinnott, Block 13, Lot 2, now gone] Katterburg, [Kattenberg] where the Hospital is now and others are early residents of that district. Mr. Amos Carolton of Oak Park, Mrs. John Bourdaghs and Mrs. John Burrnaster were born there. Their father Paul Caplazi lived on the northwest corner of Anderson and Martha Streets [the house stood where 810 W. Anderson is today] until 1960 [sic] when he moved to a farin near the Stillwater Junction which is now the John Nurmaster farm. Elliot lived on the south east corner of Anderson and Harriet Streets [Block 16, Lots 4- 7] until he moved to lower Main and operated the Dan Elliot Boarding House and later the Elliot House at 3rd and Chestnut. Sylvanus Trask one of the earliest of Stillwater residents lived on the northeast corner of Anderson and Harriet. [Block 9, Lot 8, now gone.] There was a path from Holcoinbe down through the ravine to 401 near the Baptist Church down Pine to the northwest corner of the Junior H.S. down the old grade to 2nd where the gas tank is now and down Nelson to Main. That is the route those who lived in Holcombe's Addition used to go to town in the early days. They had to carry their groceries and a sack of flour to their homes and there were no deliveries made at that time." In the 1880's, the city hospital on W. Anderson and S. Greeley Streets became an influence in the community. Beginning with the home of Henry Kattenberg, the hospital has grown to become a major influence in the life of Stillwater. LILY LAKE In his reminiscence of Stillwater before the turn of the century, Paul Caplazi also writes of Lily Lake: 37 After the Civil War, 1865-1900 "One day in the late [eighteen] seventies some boys were playing on a raft near the shore of Lily Lake. The raft drifted out a little ways from shore a Doran boy got excited wanted to get back to shore jumped into deep water could not swim and drowned. The lake was dragged; on Sunday a large crowd was present but they could not find the body. Then a few days later his body was found on the shore near where he jumped in, about where the Sutton ice house is now [1014 S. Greeley]. At that time, Lily Lake was large. It run south and east of Greeley St. There was a bridge over the water on Greeley St. Boys could sit on the bridge and fish with their feet near the water. Lily Lake in the early days was called Sunfish Lake.71 There was a rescue from drowning in Lily Lake that few people know of. It was early in November in the late eighties. The lake was frozen around the shore out about a hundred yards. The middle was open, some boys were skating near the shore on the north west corner of the lake near the Orrin Mower ice house. Neily Crimmins skated out too far, went down and began calling for help. Henry Mohs and two other boys tore some long wide boards off nearby fence and skated out as near as they dare go and pushed the boards out to him end to end and Neily crawled out on those boards." It appears that ice cutting began on Lily Lake shortly after the Civil War. By the 1880's, it was well established as the following newspaper notices illustrate. Use Pure Ice. Andrew Friday has come out with a new delivery wagon, and is delivering pure Lily Lake ice to a good many customers. Lily Lake ice is the best ice in the world, is not defiled with sewerage and other impurities like the ice of other lakes. People who desire to take ice for the season, will find it to their advantage to interview Andrew. He thoroughly understands his business, is very accommodating to the women folks in placing the ice in the refrigerators, and is liberal in his rates. Orders can be left at Mosier Bro's store, or with him, at Lily Lake.72 71. I cannot find any other evidence of this name ever being used. 72 Stillwater Daily Gazette, May 19, 1886. Friday's (or Freitag's) ice house was on Block 20, Lot 14, across from the Stillwater Hospital. 38 After the Civil War, 1865-1900 Another ad in the same newspaper touted a competitive product: LILY LAKE ICE The Old Reliable The undersigned will furnish the people of Stillwater with this splendid ice for the coming season, and will make prices as low and as responsable as any other concern in this city. Orders may be left with the undersigned or at the Boom Company's office, with S. P. Richardson. Also will sell and deliver Wood and Water to any part of the city. Oren Mower73 According to one local resident who worked as a nurse at the hospital, as late as 1950, ice was delivered from Lily Lake to the hospital where it was chopped up and used to cool patient's drinks. 73 Stillwater Daily Gazette, May 12, 1886. Mower's ice house was at the south end of Center Street. 39 After the Civil War, 1865-1900 Lily Lake Ice Company delivery truck circa 1910. Ice cutting on Lily Lake circa 1945 Both photographs courtesy of the St. Croix Collection, Stillwater Public Library 40 THE OLD AND THE NEW, 1900-1950 When we were kids... There was a city skating rink on Lily Lake roughly in front of what is today 1115 W. Willard Street. It was a wide oval on the lake ice for public skating, and in the center of the oval was a hockey rink. The public skated around the outside of the hockey rink. In the 1930's there was a beach at the present location, but it deteriorated until extensive renovation was done about 1950. Some children would go swimming at the end of Churchill Street, which was not an authorized beach. The girls would change on one side, and the boys on the other side of the path to the beach. The Veterans Memorial Beach at Lily Lake was dedicated in 1949 by the VFW. There was also the Legion Beach on the east side of the St. Croix River near the end of the lift bridge in what is today known as Kolliner Park. Lily Lake had a cute dressing and changing house, which has since been replaced with the ice arena. Most of the younger neighborhood kids played at Washington Square, which had a large sandbox, a teeter -toter, and a set of swings. Some of the kids in the hospital area would play in the Schnell yard at 910 Anderson, where there was a baseball diamond in the large front yard. There was another baseball diamond at the corner of Holcombe and Hancock Streets. In the winter, they would slide down the hill at the end of Hancock Street (if it were extended) into Brick Pond. South of Hancock Street where the Stillwater Junior High School is now, there were truck farms, most notably the farm of Henry P. Schubert who lived at 1016 S. Holcombe Street. There was a movie theatre at 114 W. Churchill St. on the northeast side of Fourth and Churchill in what is now a private garage. Ruben Jacobson and his Stillwater Delivery Company would deliver groceries, parcels, and other merchandise with his horse and wagon. Where the First Church of Christ Scientist is now, the Jandas had a large, perfectly maintained garden. 41 The Old and the New, 1900-1950 Many of the children went to St. Michael's Catholic School; those in the public school system went to Greeley Elementary School. The grocery store for the area was Pat White Groceries at 603 W. Churchill Street at the corner with S. Holcombe Street. Originally a private residence, the house was converted to a store and residence in 1935 by Walter Nelson and the first proprietors of the store were the Kennedy's. During the second World War, it was in the hands of the Berglund family. In 1945, Virginia and Pat White purchased the house and store. There the Whites ran a full -service corner grocery store supplying meat, produce, on -sale and off -sale beer, and groceries to the neighborhood 365 days a year. (Even if they were not "officially" open, residents often knocked at the back door requesting access to the store.) In addition to supplying groceries, the White's also raised five children in their house. Finally in 1969, facing increased competition from the supermarkets, they closed the store, and the building was converted back to a single-family residence. Regular customers were Stan Donahue, Bill McKnight, Sr, Wilbert Kniebel, Charlie LaCosse, and the families of the Bartkeys, McGlinches, and Pominvilles. Other grocery stores were Hooley's Groceries and Meats at 902 S. Fourth St. and Kearney's Groceries at 824-826 S. Fourth Street.. The girls of the neighborhood used Washington Square as their playground. The boys used the nearby ravine for their games and sports: skiing and sliding in the winter; playing cowboys and Indians in the summer. They played ball at the Athletic Field. Churchill Street was paved; the other streets were gravel roads. The streetcar, and later the bus ran on Churchill St. There is much more traffic now. Back then there was no Junior High School, and the hospital was small. Greeley Street, before it was widened in 1969, was just a narrow road. 42 GROWTH AND CHANGE, 1950-1999 The biggest change in Holcombe's Addition in the last 50 years is the increase in houses. More than half of the homes presently existing in Holcombe's have been built since the Second World War, so that today there are more "new" houses here than older houses. Most of the homes were built as infill on lots purchased from older homesteads, but there were two sub- divisions added. The North family platted Block 19 of Holcombe's Addition into North Lily Lots, and what was once the lake side front yard of the large William Clark house became the site of several homes. Walter Nelson bought the Tolen house and property, and what had originally been Block 18, William Holcombe's lake shore residence, became the site of several new homes. In 1950, Lakeview Hospital was a single brick building at 939 Anderson Street with a couple of smaller buildings behind used for laundry and staff lodging. Today, nothing remains of that 1950's complex, and the hospital buildings have at least tripled in size, while the size of the campus has increased by at least that much. The ravine on Abbot Street used to be (like all ravines in Stillwater) a place to dump trash; today it has been cleaned up, and forms an attractive back yard to the houses bordering it. Today, all the streets are paved, and every house has city water and sewer. When once the children went to Greeley and Nelson public elementary schools, today they attend Oak Park Elementary. Those who want a private school attend St. Michael's School just as their parents and grandparents did 50 years earlier. The sounds of the Junior High School athletic field echo throughout the neighborhood on crisp fall afternoons. However, there is one aspect of Holcombe's Addition that has remained constant throughout its history: Its residents have always thought it a very good place to live and raise their children. 43 Growth and Change, 19:504999 Pat White in his grocery store at 603 W. Churchill Street. Photographs courtesy of Virginia Daniels 44 A BLOCK BY BLOCK HISTORY OF THE HOUSES, PAST AND PRESENT, IN HOLCOMBE'S ADDITIONS 45 • Block by Block History Cl) a '= a) E a E o co TL C r� c0 aa) co O s 3 C c> a) $ a) O a) ial -Ern Y O �2 O tl) tC y,CO a)o > E 1 il C V d oU > Q •2� CO >O a E O • 4 46E t0 Q cc I a 0 d > N E a cu .a 2 N O E O U') .N O Q "v+ a) a,, Q) I'd 6 p E a) otiCO�i �� 0 � � � ® O ° E > a v) co CO I CO .0 U �T a GO 'a ca 2 .c r u) O ._ N c� i �� = a� E'® a `acts O c '.zi' •c) >,+n ow-0N�- (0cIN�o�®a 0Q_ a cii co 0 .-NoQ �, 03 i> E Z N > a>w a > Tv 0 V1y o , a) a) W >, L N ® W 44 o a) m V a 0 `a O y• O CC :0 a9 a) _ = a .�, a 3 "e' a) ' m 0 o i O 3 �3 0 O X °.c aE3�� t C ai ca co a) V L a) ai d..�'L O a L .0 'a O u 0 ce 46 Block by Block History Map courtesy of Empson Archives E o,Ei)E°•Qv .4-o �o o a) o,kN�0ma(0_ a) ccn 0 �®° • aL ) • L 0 O sl O. E m � a a� a) 0 aas _ 4.+ • d >+ 4,, Ca O as `E � U a) d) ia) E N tC m3 Et0 +' Ca) E p = a) 0 `I nCZ c70 O N 3 t0 -c RS c En o E LN E E 0 6- 2a9 W CD a) 9- O a) u) _ a "0 a) L cC v 1 L a) 113 o p cc. O v CZ +r 5' c E 1.—_ -2 i a) c o m .0 d > CD � N CO_ 47 Block by Blocky History 48 Block by Block History 1870 Birds Eye View Map enlarged twice. See also Page 46. 49 Block by Block History 50 Block by Block History 1870 Birds Eye View Map enlarged twice. See also Page 46. 51 Block by Block History j >- 1879 Birds Eye View Map enlarged twice. See also Page 47. Block by Block History 55 Bloch by Bloch History A triple enlargement of the 1879 Birds Eye View Map showing Blocks 2 and 3. Of particular interest is the Yorks house at 712 S. Martha Street which occupied all of Block 3 for almost a century. Other houses clearly shown are the Willard house at 703 W. Willard Street, the Jackson house at 719 W. Willard, and the Wohlers house at 721 S. Martha Street. 56 Block by Block History A N Harriet (Smith) Street BLOCK 1 Lots 1-12 Willard Street 6 5 4 3 2 1 7 8 9 10 11 12 Abbott Street Holcombe St. Lot 3, Block 1, was purchased for $31 from Wiliam Holcombe by a 28- year old, Irish-born laborer, James Carley and his wife, Mary, in September of 1855.74 He was one of the original inhabitants of the Addition, as mentioned by Abbott.75 He built a small house with its long side facing the street in 1856, valued at $75-$100, which can be seen on the 1869 Bird's Eye View map on the SW corner of Willard and Holcombe Streets. The decade of the Civil War brought prosperity to Carley, who, by now working in a warehouse, purchased Lot 1 in 1866 for $40.76, In 1871, for the first time, he is listed as having taxable personal property in the amount of $220, a measure of some wealth in that period. In that same year, Carley took out a one-year, $300 mortgage at 12% interest77 and built himself a much larger house, valued at $1,500 by the newspaper enthusiastically enumerating city wide improvements for that year,i8 and listed at a more modest value of $650 by the tax Assessor. The following year, 1872, he purchased, for $100, the third of his three adjacent lots, Lot 2, from Dennis McGann, a resident of Little Rock, Arkansas. In their home, the Carleys raised nine children. This two-story house, with its sidelighted door which remains at 609 W. Willard Street, can be seen '4 H Deeds 414; 1860 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 91, #735 75 Page 76 1870 U. S. Census, Washington County: Stillwater: Page 4, #32; P Deeds 453. " I Mortgages 193 78 Stillwater Gazette, November 14, 1871; 1880 U. S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 246. 57 Block by Block History on the 1879 Bird's Eye View with its one-story addition and porch in the rear. It is in remarkably original condition. Although James died in 1906, remembered as "...a man of good qualities and his neighbors spoke well of him.," i9 two daughters were living in the home as late as 1931. Today the south half of Lots 1, 2, & 3 are occupied by 600 S. Holcombe, a newer house built in 1947. Lot 6 of Block 1 was purchased by David W. Armstrong, acting as a trustee for three minor children by his deceased first wife, in August of 1857 for $300. Two years later, in May of 1859, he purchased Lots 4 and 5 for an additional $400.80 The 1860 Census lists him, age 39, his wife, Lucinda, 28, a daughter, Arabella, 2, and Elizabeth McGuire, a 16-year-old domestic, as living between Moses Willard and James Carley.81 However, the first official notice of a house on these lots is 1863, in the middle of the Civil War, when the Assessor assigned a value of $900 to the house, and $50 to each lot.82 This large house, which remains at 621 W. Willard, can be seen on the SE corner of Willard and Smith [Harriet] on both the 1869 and 1879 Bird's Eye View Maps. Armstrong was born in New York State in 1819, coming west in the 1850's in pursuit of better health. Until the crash of 1857, he was cashier of the St. Croix Valley Bank.83 He subsequently became a commercial merchant and agent for the American Express Company.84 He was also a man of some substance: the 1871 records first list him as having $250 in taxable personal property. His obituary noted him as a man "...known far and wide for his excellent judgment and honorable dealing."85 Just before the Christmas of 1873, this property passed into the hands of the First National Bank of Stillwater for a sale price of $3,000, but Armstrong continued to live there until the house was sold again in 1880.86 This house, with its several six pane over six pane windows, retains a 79 Stillwater Daily Gazette, December 8, 1906. 80 I Deeds 218; L Deeds 131. 81 1860 U.S. Census, Washington County: Stillwater: Page 91, #734. 82 The Assessor was usually a year behind, so the house would probably have been built in 1862, but then where would Armstrong have been living in 1860? 83 History of Washington County and The St. Croix Valley, North Star Publishing Company, Minneapolis, 1881. Page 557 has a biography of Armstrong. 84 Pryor & Co's Stillwater City Directory, 1876-77. Stillwater, Minn: Pryor & Co.,Publishers, 1876 85 Stillwater Daily Gazette, January 15, 1894. 86 X Deeds 481; 5 Deeds 337. 58 Block by Block History number of its original design characteristics. There is a city building permit for the addition of a $75 porch in 1914. A second building permit records the building of a $450 garage in 1923.87 Today, Lot 4 is occupied by a rambler at 613 W. Willard built in 1954. Lots 7 & 8 were purchased for $205 in June of 1861 by Herman Rice who had a small $200 house in the ravine. It can be seen on the NE corner of Abbott and Smith [Harriet] in the 1869 Bird's Eye View Map. In July of 1868, John Leach, (one-time husband to Mary Beecher) bought Lots 7, 8, 9, & 10 for $50088, and what appears to be his house can be seen in the 1879 Bird's Eye View Map. John Leach, a riverboat pilot, was born in Ireland and lived in this house with his second wife, Ellen, and three children.89 (By 1880, John, age 63, and his wife, Ellen, age 39, had eight children, the youngest one being seven months old!)9° John Leach was a man to whom the Gods were not kind. Besides his unhappy marriage to Mary Beecher (page 16) his obituary recorded the end of his life. Death of John Leach When it was announced today that poor old John Leach had been found dead in his bed in his lonely little cottage in Holcombe's addition, no one was surprised. In his sightless, almost helpless condition, life had long since ceased to have any value to him., and no doubt death was welcome. Mr. Leach was born in Ireland in 1818. He came to the St. Croix valley about 1845, locating in Marine, where, however, he remained only a year. Since then has been a resident of Stillwater. He early engaged in the business of running rafts from this place to various points on the Lower Mississippi. He soon acquired a thorough knowledge of the river and was classed among the skillful and trusty pilots. He married Miss Kelly —daughter of James Kelly, long since deceased — about 30 years ago. The widow and a family of several children survive him. The oldest son, Arthur, has been in Montana or some other far western locality for many years. The great calamity which befell him —the utter loss of his sight —occurred nearly twenty-five years ago. Since that time he 87 City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #1556, #1968. 88 N Deeds 318; V Deeds 2. 89 1870 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 3, #22. 90 1880 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 260, #267. 59 Block by Block History has been totally blind —housed in a lonely cabin —the building itself being donated by the kindness of a friend —dividing his time in favorable weather between groping in a blind and aimless way from one well-known spot to another, or lying supinely on his cot, bitterly recalling the memories of the world's brightness, but faintly remembered, and sadly pondering on the bleak, drear and hopeless future. The funeral will occur to -morrow at 8:00 o'clock from the residence, 715 S. Harriet Street.91 There is a building permit on record for August of 1888 which records that Thomas Roney, a local carpenter, built a small one-story 12-foot by 14- foot $200 cottage on Lot 7 92. The construction cost was paid by Jacob Bean, a wealthy lumberman — probably the source of the reference in the obituary above.. Children who grew up in the neighborhood during the 1930's and early 1940's remember John's son, Horace Leach as a recluse, living in his small shack without electricity or water. After the home burned, Horace went to Pine Point. Today only the ravine remains. Lots 11 & 12 of Block 1 have a more confusing history. At one point, in 1864, during the Civil War, these two lots —with a $200 house on them — were owned by the Stillwater School District. William Holcombe sold the District Lot 11 for $25, and Carli & Schulenburg from Dutchtown gave a Quit Claim deed on Lot 12.93 Interestingly enough, the 1869 Bird's Eye View Map does not show any buildings on these lots on the NW corner of Abbott and Holcombe streets, and the Assessor's records also show no listing of a house on this property between 1864 and 1871. In February of 1871, the two lots were bought, for $300, from the Stillwater school district, by Maria J. Stephen and her husband, Arthur Stephen, a 40-year-old plasterer and brickmason from Scotland." Stephen is a famous (well, rather famous) man because he was the one who suggested the name Oakdale (for that Washington County township) at the first town meeting on November 1, 1858. Stephen came to Minnesota in 1849, at the age of 19. He settled first in St. Paul, then moved to Oakdale as a farmer in 1854. He was a chairman of the Oakdale town Board, and Postmaster of Oakdale from 1857-1867. In 1869, his Oakdale home burned, and he moved 91 Stillwater Gazette, March 8, 1896. 92 City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #349. 93 Q Deeds 328; Q Deeds 329. 94 T Deeds 412; Pryor & Co's Stillwater City Directory, 1876-77. Stillwater, Minn: Pryor & Co.,Publishers, 1876; 1870 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 4, #26. 60 Block by Block History to Stillwater to live in this house. He applied the plaster work on the Historic Courthouse in Stillwater.95 It appears the Stephen family built a second house on these lots about 1871. The Assessor recorded the value at $250. In the mid-1870's, the value of the house tripled and a three -section house can be seen in the 1879 Bird's Eye View Map. What appears to be a part of this early house remains today at 602 S. Holcombe. The north side of the house has two six pane over six pane windows dating from the original. house. Although it now has a Holcombe Street address, the original house number was 602 W. Abbott Street, denoting the front of the residence. There is also a building permit taken out in 1904 which details a 22- foot by l0-foot addition to this house.96 A much newer house, built in 1952 by Frank & Madeline Garavalia, occupies the North half of Lots 11 & 12. The house number is 616 S. Holcombe. . .R,,Irs J 0►'G,. ?. x ' cft. ..a[mcric a #- W yes r co., ,. a, n. Chestin.ut, res coat Smith afrtelliartt. WILL. -I? 1), 27.1. S., Fit rni tucrol an cl Urn 42ertctic•i a rd, 48 South ;11 air 1'es Willard, cor Smith. CAR- ` - ,-[LEIS, (tr. Carley. J. C. .itt,t4,,) +et t- "n- del/ C,tooti, gPo eriess provis orts,mac_ Uni'.m. Business listings from the Stillwater City Directory for residents of Blocks 1 and 2. J5 For a more complete biography, see The History of Oakdale Township, Vol 1, Oakdale Lake Elmo Historical Society, 1996. Page 23. 95 City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #1150. 61 Block by Block History Photograph courtesy of the Washington County Historical Society Arthur Stephen 1830 - 1911 The Man Who Named Oakdale Above is the Armstrong house at 621 W. Willard St. in a photograph taken around 1920. To the left is a drawing of Arthur Stephen who built a house at 602 W. Abbott St., but renumbered today as 602 S. Holcombe Street. Drawing from The History of Oakdale Township. Volume 1, Published by the Oakdale Lake Elmo Historical Society, 1996. 62 Block by Block History Block 2 Lots 1-12 Willard Street 6 5 4 3 2 1 7 8 9 10 11 12 Abbott Street (Smith) Street Moses S. Willard and his wife, Mary Ann, bought Lots 1 to 6, Block 2, from William Holcombe on February 12, 1856, for a total price of $100. A couple of weeks later, Willard sold Lots 4, 5, & 6 to Mahlon Black for $125.97 During the summer of 1856, Willard built a two-story house on the SE corner of W. Willard and Smith [Harriet] Streets. There is a mention in the local_ newspaper that on December 1, 1856, "three deer wandered into town passing in full view of M. S, Willard's residence,"98 Throughout the 1860's and early '70's, Willard's house had an assessed value of $650 and his two- story gable front house can be clearly seen on the 1869 Bird's Eye View Map. In 1874, the assessed value of the house doubled, reflecting the fact that what appears to be a second two-story house was apparently moved in and added at a right angle to the west side of the original house, doubling the size. The house, with its west addition, can be seen on the 1879 Bird's Eye View Map. This lovely Greek Revival house at 703 W. Willard, which could be a showplace of the neighborhood and the city, has undergone some unsympathetic alterations recently, including a large attached garage, and new windows which have changed the original proportions. New artificial siding has covered original woodworking details. 97 F Deeds 226; F Deeds 322 `8 History of the St. Croix Valley by Augustus B. Easton, Editor -in -Chief, Chicago, H.C. Cooper Jr. & Co., 1909. rage 81. 63 Block by Block History Willard was born in New Hampshire in 1813 and came to Stillwater in 1855 where he ran a furniture and cabinet-making business until his retirement in 1882. In 1871, Willard's personal property — which would have included his furniture tools and inventory — was listed at $1,755. (When William Holcombe died in 1870, it was Moses Willard who made his casket and charged the estate $65.99) Willard spent some time in California, before returning to New England. He died at his sister's home in Francestown, N. H., on February 20, 1888.100 His wife, Mary Ann, died in Stillwater in April 1879, from a heart attack that occurred when she was leaving the house one Sunday morning to attend service at the Universalist Church, °1 Today there is a newer house on Lot 3, once part of Willard's property. 709 W. Willard Street was built in 1955. Lots 4, 5, & 6 were purchased by Charles and Mattie Jackson on June 1, 1877. In mid -November, the couple, anxious to build their house, took out a $900 mortgage from the Stillwater Building Association, followed by a second mortgage in January, 1878, for an additional $600.1°22 Their house with its addition in the rear, is evident in the 1879 Bird's Eye View Map. Today this home has the address of 719 W. Willard. Charles Jackson was one of the few black men in 19th Century Stillwater. He was born a slave in central Georgia about 1851; after the Civil War, he followed the Union Army north, and eventually ended up in St. Paul, Minnesota. While working in a livery stable there, he met Albert Lowell, proprietor of the Sawyer House, Stillwater's grand hotel. Lowell offered him a job, and Jackson came to Stillwater to work as a barber, first for Lowell, later on his own, and at one time, as a partner with Samuel Hadley, another black barber who lived in Holcombe's Addition. (Bernice Hadley, age 7, was living in Jackson's house in 1880 in addition to his own three children)1o3 Charles Jackson, one of Stillwater's black pioneers, died in Stillwater on May 5, 1903. 1o<< Lot 4 was split off from the other two lots, and in 1946 a new house was built at 717 W. Willard. 99 Washington County Probate Court, File #226. 100 History of the St. Croix Valley by Augustus B. Easton, Editor -in -Chief, Chicago, H.C. Cooper Jr. & Co., 1909. Page 124. t01 Stillwater Messenger, March 3, 1888. 102 1 Deeds 378; N Mortgages 96; N Mortgages 139. 103 1880 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 245, #24 104 For additional information on Jackson, see Stillwater Gazette, March 5, 1886; St. Croix Valley Press, July 6, 1995, "From slave to pioneer" by Brent Peterson. 64 Block by Block History Lots 7, 8, & 9 were purchased by Otto Frederick Wohlers, along with his Irish born wife, Catherine, and five children1°5 in September of 1867 for $400.1°6 The 1873 Tax Assessor's records indicate a $600 house on the lot. The 1874 and 1875 Assessor's records both contain a hand-written pencil note "add $600 for house" and by 1875, the value has increased to $1, 560, indicating a quite substantial house on the lot. The German-born Wohlers is listed in the 1876 City Directory as a "drayman"; an individual engaged in hauling freight in a horse cart. If a traveler wished to take a train trip, he might call a drayman to haul his luggage from his residence to the train station. This Italianate style house remains at 721 S. Martha. Although Frederick Wohlers, Sr. died in 1908,1°7 his descendants did not sell the house until 1958. The present owner purchased the house in 1958, and although the house is now 129 years old, he is only the second owner! Lots 10, 11, &12. The Rev. Joseph A. Russell, age 32, an Episcopalian minister, and his wife, Sarah, 26, purchased these lots in December of 1855 from William Holcombe. On these lots, at the edge of the ravine, he built a small house, valued at $200 by the tax Assessor. His small one-story house with its two front windows can be seen, in both Bird's Eye View Maps on Smith [Harriet] Street behind Moses Willard's home. Today this home remains at 716 S. Harriet, although its 143-year history is belied by its present day appearance. At the time he purchased these lots, Rev. Russell was principal of the Stillwater Seminary, a select private religious school. The 1860 Census lists his family of three children, and a teacher living in his household.108 105 1870 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 4, #25 100 S Deeds 207 107 Stillwater Daily Gazette, July 15, 1908. 108 1860 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 91, #730; F Deeds 167; F Deeds 409. 65 Bloch by Block History The Wohlers house at 721 S. Martha in 1880. Photograph courtesy of Jim Johnson The Wohlers house at 721 S. Martha in 1958. Photograph courtesy of Warren Murphy 66 Block by Block History A N Everett (Beecher) Street. BLOCK 3 Lots 1-12 Willard Street 6 5 4 3 2 1 7 8 9 10 11 12 Abbott Street Martha (Putz) Street Thomas J. Yorks purchased Lots 1-12 of Block 3 from the ill-fated Gustavus Beecher on November lst, 1856, for $1,000.1°9 He built a house on this block where he was living in 1860 with his wife, Sarah, 26, a son Eugene, age 1, and twins: Marianne and Clarence, three months old. Matilda Taurer, age 18, a wet nurse, and Mary Curely, a 35-year-old Irish- born domestic, completed the household.11° After the Civil War, he built a second house, large and fancy, on the east side of Block 3; a house with a cupola valued at $1,400 in 1870. His home was certainly one of the finest built in Holcombe's Addition — or for that matter, anywhere in Stillwater. In 1857, Yorks was elected Washington County Register of Deeds; he was reelected in 1859 and 1861.111 In 1863, close to the time of building his house, Yorks was relatively wealthy, having personal property worth $1,175. By 1871, when the majority of the residents in the city were enjoying increasing prosperity, the personal property of Yorks was only listed as $120. Perhaps reflecting his straitened circumstances, his household, with its five children, had no servants in 1870 or 1880. The 1876 Stillwater City Directory lists him as a "bookkeeper." 109 G Deeds 466. 110 1860 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 120, #956. 111 History of the St. Croix Valley by Augustus B. Easton, Editor -in -Chief, Chicago, H.C. Cooper Jr. & Co., 1909. Pages 85, 93, 95. 67 Block by Block History Yorks died June 14, 1918 at age 88. As late as 1930, the house was still in the Yorks family. Children of the area in the late 1930's remember this large hulking house, sitting vacant and dark and spooky, alone in the center of this square block. After the house was gone, the block was used as a softball field, and later as a track to show horses. Today the block is occupied by houses at 803 W. Willard on the North half of Lots 1 & 2 built in 1948; 710 S. Martha on the South half of Lots 1 & 2 built in 1969; 811 W. Willard on Lots 3 & 4 built in 1950; 703 S. Everett on part of Lots 4, 5, & 6 built in 1948; 709 S. Everett on the South half of Lots 5 & 6 built in 1952; 715 S. Everett on North half of Lots 7 & 8 built in 1955; 721 S. Everett on the South half of Lots 7, 8 & 9 built in 1956; 812 W. Abbott on Lots 9 & 10 built in 1949; 722 S. Martha on part of Lots 10, 11 & 12 built in 1948; and 716 S. Martha on part of Lots 10, 11 & 12 built in 1948. PRICES In 1880, a dozen eggs might cost 121 cents; butter was 20 cents a pound. Ham was 40 cents a pound, and (in April) potatoes were selling for 60 cents a bushel. A common laborer would make $1.50 to $2 for a 10-12 hour day. A skilled worker might make up to $3.50 a day. An average building lot in the "suburbs" cost between $40 and $60; an average house would cost between $300 and $500. A good cow could cost as much as $75. Almost everyone walked so there were no transportation costs. n2 112 Stillwater Lumberman, April 25, 1879. 68 Block by Block History A N [line of William Street] Block 4 Lots 1-8 Willard Street 4 3 2 1 5 6 7 8 Abbott Street Everett (Beecher) Street Lots 1 & 2. Henry Delwer, a prosperous drayman who had come to Stillwater in 1856, and his wife, Louise, built a substantial $1,300 house on these lots in 1881. Unfortunately, the German-born Henry did not live to enjoy his house, having the misfortune to die on July 25, 1881, at the young age of 48. His wife lived in the house after his death for a few years, but in the 1890's, it came into the possession of Peter N. Peterson who was the proprietor of a marble and granite works on North Main Street in Stillwater with a second branch in St. Paul. Around the turn of the century, when the famous Younger Brothers (members of Jesse James gang) were released from the State Prison in Stillwater, they moved to St. Paul where they were employed by Peterson. There is, however, a story that one of the Younger Brothers stayed briefly in the attic of this house. The Bieging family, whose members included several contractors and carpenters who built many of Stillwater's homes, lived here for several decades after the turn of the century. This house remains today at 903 W. Willard. Thkla M. Kern, and her husband, Frederick purchased Lots 3 & 4 in August of 1891 for $500.112 Two months later, local carpenter, William Bieging applied for a permit to build a $1,500 1-1/2 story house 26 feet by 30 112 31 Deeds 539. 69 Block by Block History feet with a 12 by 14 foot cellar seven feet deep.113 Perhaps to pay for the house, the Kerns took out a mortgage in December from the St. Croix Savings & Loan for $1,300 at 6%. The monthly payment was $6.50.111 In January of 1892, they hired another contractor to build them a $150 stable. This Queen Anne style house (but not the stable) remains at 907 W. Willard. Kern was the proprietor of Kern & Co. Boots & Shoes. Lot 3 is the site of a newer home at 905 W. Willard built in 1964. Lot 5 is the site of a newer home at 916 W. Abbott built in 1960. The South half of Lots 7 & 8 is the site of a newer home at 722 S. Everett built in 1955. The North half of Lots 7 & 8 is the site of a newer home at 716 S. Everett built in 1956. 113 City of Stillwater Building Permit Application 620. 11 X Mtgs 128. 70 Block by Block History A N [line of William Street] Block 5 Lots 1-8 Abbott Street 4 3 2 1 5 6 7 8 Churchill (Pennock) Street Everett (Beecher) Street John C. and Eliza Caldwell bought Lots 1 & 2 from William Holcombe in January of 1861 — at the height of the depression — for the exorbitant price of $1,250.115 On these lots, they made a $400 improvement, which appears to be a two-story house with a west wing on the 1869 Bird's Eye View Map. . In 1863, the Caldwells purchased Lots 3,4 & 5 from Holcombe, and the following year, they bought the remaining lots on the block: 6, 7 & 8. For these additional six lots, they paid only $25 each.116 Caldwell was a man of some substance: the 1863 Assessor's records list his personal property at $250. In 1869, the whole Block and its sole house was sold to William A. Downs who proceeded to distribute the lots among his family. In fact, this might be called the "Downs" block. By 1880, in this house on Lot 1, Henry Downs, age 67, born in Scotland, is living with his 12 adult children, ranging in age from William, a farmer, age 41 to Anna & Sarah, twins at age 20!117 Like a number of other residents of Holcombe's Additions, all of the children were born in New Brunswick, mapping out the family's route from Scotland to New Brunswick to Minnesota. By the 1890's, it appears this home was gone, and today this is the location of a home built in 1968 at 905 W. Abbott. Lot 2 next door was owned by Archibald Downs, but there was no house on it. 115 N Deeds 200 (I can't fathom why he would have paid that much money!) 116 0 Deeds 310; Q Deeds 248. 117 1880 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 261, #274. 71 Block by Block History Lots 3 & 4 were purchased by Donald Downs, his wife, Eliza, and his four young children.118 In 1877 he built a 1-1/2 story house, valued about $400, which appears on the 1879 Bird's Eye View Map. Most of the male members of the Downs family were laborers and lumbermen. In 1887, there was a building permit taken out to do $300 worth of work on this house, including a bay window and a porch.11s Although changed, this house today remains at 915 W. Abbott. Lots 5 & 6 were purchased by Arthur Downs in 1875,120 who built a small S300 house on the property, which is clearly indicated on the 1879 Bird's Eye View Map. Most of the Downs family were laborers in the lumber trade. This house remains at 912 W. Churchill, the property of Lakeview Hospital. Lots 7 & 8 are the site of 904 W. Churchill built in 1968. It does not appear there were any previous homes on this site. 118 1880 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 261, #273. 119 City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #203. 120 1 Deeds 47. 72 Block by Block History A N Everett (Beecher) Street BLOCK 6 Lots 1-12 Abbott Street 6 5 4 3 2 1 7 8 9 10 11 12 Churchill (Pennock) Street Martha (Putz) Street Since the Civil War, Peter Jourdain, along with his wife, Mary, and daughters, Elizabeth and Rosa (adopted) plus one male servant, had lived on Block 7 in the old Putz house which remains today at 812 S. Harriet. His brother, Oliver, a teamster, lived next door to Peter in a house which remains today at 702 W. Churchill. In April of 1879 this same Peter Jourdain purchased back-to-back Lots 1, 2, 3, and the ravine Lots 10, 11, & 12 for $400.122 The 1880 Assessor's records first list his new home at a value of $1,125, although the house does not appear on the 1879 Bird's Eye View Map, nor is Jourdain living there in June of 1880 when the census was taken. This commodious and fancy house, in an Eastlake Stick style, with its profusion of roof lines, and estate occupying six lots, remains today at 805 W. Abbott looking every bit as splendid and nearly as original as it was over a century ago. Jourdain, a Michigan -born lumbermen, was a man of some wealth: as early as 1863, his personal property was listed at $100, a figure which had increased slightly to $140 by 1871. In 1923, the Jourdain daughter sold the home to Louis and Mary Janda, the owners of Janda's Department Store in downtown Stillwater. In the fall of 1924, Louis Janda hired Emil Bieging, a local builder, to add a $1, 000 sleeping porch and one room to the second floor.123 122 5 Deeds 139. [23 City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #2056. 73 Block by Block History The Janda's lived there until 1976 when it was then sold to The Foster family. All three of these owners celebrated 50th Weddings Anniversaries in this home. In Block 6, on land first purchased for $80 by James D. Stryker of New Jersey, a speculator,'24 there was also a small house on Lot 6 which appears on both the 1869 and 1879 Bird's Eye View Maps. This was occupied, for a time, by Marquis L. Bickford and his wife, Mary. He was a sawyer from Maine, born about 1830, who worked for Isaac Staples in his sawmill.125 Today this site is occupied by a home built in 1983 at 819 W. Abbott. James Barron, a lumberman, bought Lot 7 from William Holcombe in July of 1856 for $100.126 He soon built a small house on his property, and the 1871 list of improvements in the Stillwater newspaper records Barron making $150 improvement to his home.127 On the frontier he was a relatively old man, having been born in Ireland about 1805; joining him in his household were the Dunn brothers: Thomas and Quincy, also lumbermen from Ireland.128 Today this is the location of the Church of First Christ Scientist. Both Barron and Bickford are listed in their homes in the 1877 Stillwater City Directory. 12"/N Deeds 245. 125 Pryor & Co's Stillwater City Directory, 1876-77. Stillwater, Minn: Pryor & Co.,Publishers, 1876; 1880 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 261, #268. 1213G Deeds 96. 127 Stillwater Gazette, November 14, 1871. 128 1870 U. S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 20, #146 74 Block by Block History A N Martha (Putz) Street BLOCK 7 Lots 1-12 Abbott Street 6 5 4 3 2 1 7 8 9 10 11 12 Churchill (Pennock) Street Harriet (Smith) Street Elizabeth Putz purchased Lot 1 of Block 7 from William Holcombe in May of 1856 for $60, and Lot 2 of the same block in September of 1856 for $50.128 She and her husband, Robert, (whom she married the previous year129) sold those same two lots in September of 1856 for $1,000 — which price more than likely meant there was a substantial house on the lots.13o In 1862, Peter Jourdain, along with his wife, Mary, and daughters, Elizabeth and Rosa, purchased the property for $200 131, and lived there until 1880 when he moved to his large house at 805 W. Abbott. In 1886, a new 14-foot by 21-foot, one-story kitchen was added to the rear of the house. Judging by the floor plan, the wood moldings, and the newel post, it appears the front (north) part of the house was remodeled in the 1890's. According to the city building permits, in 1919, Octave Willet, who lived in the house for over four decades, added a bathroom to the house.132 This house, which was assessed at about $450 in 1880, is apparent on both the 1869 and 1879 Bird's Eye View Maps, although it appears to be a larger house fronting on Abbott Street in the 1869 map. Today this very 128 F Deeds 468; H Deeds 303. 128 St. Croix Union, September 29, 1855. 13° H Deeds 304. 131 O Deeds 67. 132 City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #84, #1715. 75 Block by Block History early pioneer house, perched on the top of the ravine, remains at 812 S. Harriet Street. On Lot 3 is a house at 709 W. Abbott which was built in 1970. In 1871, John H. Morgan built a residence, which the newspaper optimistically valued at $1,300, on Lots 4, 5, & 6.133 This house, which had an assessed value of about $600, can clearly be seen on the 1879 Bird's Eye View Map as a two-story home broadside to Abbott Street. Morgan was a mill hand for the Hersey, Bean and Brown Mill.134 In 1880, Edgar Morgan and his wife, Hattie were the residents.'35 Today this is the site of a much remodeled 715 W. Abbott, with its one remaining six -over -six window. Lots 7 & 8 had a small $200 home on it built in the late 1850's by Anthony and Elizabeth Wolf, who acquired the property from William Holcombe.136 John O'Neil, an Irish-born laborer, bought the house and lot for $150,137 and without a wife, was raising six children in his little house.138 By 1880, at age 60, he was living alone in the house.139 This small house is easily discernible on the northeast corner of Putz and Pennock Streets in the Bird's Eye View Maps of 1869 and 1879. Although not apparent by its present day appearance, the core of this old house, sitting on the edge of the ravine, remains at 718 W. Churchill. In the spring of 1858, John Curtis, a 29-year-old stone mason from Ireland, along with his wife, Mary, purchased Lot 11 for $100 from William Holcombe.110 On his property, he built a small 1-1/2 story brick house for themselves and their three children: Mary, John and Hannah. This house, (now covered with stucco) which was valued at about $300, is very obvious in the 1869 Bird's Eye View Map and in the 1879 Bird's Eye View Map where it appears to have the present day addition on the west side. This small house remaining at 706 W. Churchill, which has miraculously survived relatively intact to this day, deserves future preservation. It is a house characteristic of those that populated this neighborhood; it is a house typical of those in which our pioneer fathers and mothers lived. After the Civil War, Curtis added Lots 8, 9 & 10 to his estate.'' 133 Stillwater Gazette, November 14, 1871. 134 Pryor & Co's Stillwater City Directory, 1876-77. Stillwater, Minn: Pryor & Co.,Publishers, 1876. 135 1880 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 261, #269. 136 H Deeds 382. 137 0 Deeds 349. 138 1860 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 94, #76. 139 1880 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 261, #271. 140 M Deeds 30. 1<k1 U Deeds 28; U Deeds 30. 76 Block by Block History Lot 12 was purchased by John H. Morgan in the fall of 1859.142 He built a small $350 home with Greek Revival features on his lot. In 1870, Morgan built his second house on lots 4, 5, and 6 at the other corner of this Block. The new owner of Lot 12 was Oliver Jourdain, a teamster. This home, with its kitchen addition in the rear, can be seen in both the 1869 and 1879 Bird's Eye View Maps. The Michigan -born Oliver, his wife, Margaret, their children, Sarah, Peter, George, Louis, Clarence, and two servants from Norway were all living in this little house in the summer of 1880.113 This house, 140 years old, remains at 702 W. Churchill. Today there are several newer homes interspersed among the historic houses on this block. 803 S. Martha was built in 1965 on the North half of Lots 5 & 6. On the South half of Lots 5 & 6s 811 S. Martha was also built in 1965. On land once belonging to John Curtis, Lots 9 & 10, the house at 712 W. Churchill was built in 1958. 142 M Deeds 364. 1431880 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 260, #265. 77 Block by Block History The Putz house at 812 S. Harriet. Notice the 6 over 6 windows. Photographs courtesy Betsy Glennon & Donald Empson The house at 702 W. Churchill with its Greek Revival return eaves. 78 Block by Block History A N Harriet (Smith) Street BLOCK 8 Lots 1-12 Abbott Street 6 5 4 3 2 1 7 8 9 10 11 12 Churchill (Pennock) Street Holcombe Street Milton Abbott, our intrepid newspaper editor, bought Lots 1, 2, 3, & 4 from William Holcombe, and built his house on these lots in 1856. In 1858, he sold the lots and house to Samuel J. R. McMillan, a Stillwater attorney who would later become associate justice of the state supreme court, and a U.S. Senator. Although McMillan moved to St. Paul, the house and lots remained in his name until 1866, when it was sold to Moses and Almeda Tuttle for $1, 000.145 He was a Stillwater lumberman. What happened to Abbott's house is uncertain, for in 1871, according to the newspaper,146 Tuttle built (or improved) a $2,000 residence on his lots, and the tax Assessor's records throughout the 1870's chronicle an assessed value of about $1,300, indicating what must have been a large house. Unfortunately the two Bird's Eye View Maps are not very helpful in this situation. The 1869 Map shows two small houses on what appears to be the S % and the N 1/2 of the Lots. In the 1879 Map, it appears those two houses have been joined together in a rambling half -block long structure. Today on this site, there are two houses at 702 S. Holcombe and 706 S. Holcombe which were at one time joined together. Before 1912, this home at 702 (including 706) S. Holcombe, which faces on Abbott Street (the street has not been opened), had the house number 601 W. Abbott Street. The Tuttle family lived in this house from 1866 to the end L15 P Deeds 607. 1446 Stillwater Gazette, November 14, 1871. 79 Block by Block History of the First World War. It was not until 1938 that these four lots were split into a north and south parcel. The present owner has in his possession a piece of 21 inch by 1 inch sheathing removed from the walls in the course of his remodeling. He also described a type of construction that involved mortise and tenon work, using very few nails. On Lots 5 & 6, there is what was once the carriage house for the Mulvey home at 807 S. Harriet Street. James Mulvey, a Stillwater lumberman, purchased Lots 7, 8, & 9, and the house thereon, in the spring of 1870. He paid $700 for the three lots and a small house.147 The residence, dating from before the Civil War, was valued at S200 (increasing to $400 by 1872) and appears on the Bird's Eye View Map of 1869 as a small one-story house with a lean-to in the rear. In 1878 the tax Assessor's record has a penciled notation in the entry for Mulvey's lots: "$900 house" and by the following year, the equalized value of the house and lots has jumped to 51,865. Mulvey's large Italianate house can be clearly seen on the 1879 Bird's Eye View Map, and it appears the old house originally on the site has been moved to the rear of the lot. The 1880 Census lists James, age 45, his wife, Miranda, age 36, from New York, and children: Arthur J., 13; Jessie A., 12; Edna M., 4; Walter S., 2; and James' father, John Mulvey, age 67 all living together in their new house along with a servant, age 21, by the name of Ellen Kaus who was from New Brunswick.i48 Mulvey was born in Kent County, England, in 1836, came to America at age 13. In May 1853, he came to Stillwater to engage in the lumbering trade and over the course of the next 30 years he prospered in that business.119 The 1889 Personal Property records indicate that Mulvey had one horse over three years of age, a wagon valued at $40, a sewing machine, three clocks or watches, and a piano. The family lived in their house for three-quarters of a century. Today, this home, all gussied up, is the James Mulvey Inn B&B of Stillwater at 622 W. Churchill. Directly east of the Mulvey house, on Lots 10 & 11, was at one time a small S200 house which had been built in 1856 by the Rev. A. C. Pennock, one of the original settlers in Holcombe's Addition, and the person for whom 147 P Deeds 607. 148 1880 U.S. Census, Washington County: Stillwater: Page 260, #264. 149 History of Washington County and The St. Croix Valley, North Star Publishing Company, Minneapolis, 1881. Page 590. 80 Block by Block History Pennock Street (now Churchill Street) was named. His house, surrounded by trees, can be discerned on the 1869 Bird's Eye View Map. Pennock subsequently sold his home to William Smith (in 1866 for $450) who in turn, sold the house and property for $700 in 1874 to Elzey J. Spindle, a plasterer and stone mason. 15° The 28-year-old Elzey, American born, lived in the house with his wife, Harriet, their infant son, and Harriet's father, Arthur, a Scottish -born bricklayer.151 Spindle, who came to Stillwater with his mother in 1866, went into partnership with his one-time instructor and father-in- law, Arthur Stephen, whom we met in Block 1.152 Apparently, however, this house burned in the late 1870's for it does not appear on the 1879 Bird's Eye View Map. There is a building permit taken out in July of 1888 for a new house on this site. The owner was F. W. Hutchinson, a lumberman, and the builder was Edward Olson, a local contractor who lived at 1011 W. Myrtle Street. The permit details an $800 house, 1-1/2 stories, 14 feet in front, 26 feet in the rear, and 28 feet deep.153 According to a subsequent city building permit, the home underwent $1, 000 worth of remodeling in 1942.15-1 This house remains at 610 W. Churchill. William M. Smith and his wife, Anna, who had lived in the Pennock house,155 built themselves a large square Italianate house on corner Lots 11 & 12 in 1874. The 1875 Assessor's record projected the value of the lots and house at $780. The large house, with a hipped roof and addition on the rear can be clearly seen on the 1879 Bird's Eye View Map. William Smith, who is listed variously as a laborer and river pilot156, had personal property worth $70 in the 1871 Assessor's records; by contrast, James Mulvey, at the other end of the block, was listed as having $40 in personal property that same year. This Italianate style house remains in fairly original condition at 602 W. Churchill. 15° R Deeds 40; Z Deeds 143. 151 1880 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 260, #260. 152 History of Washington County and The St. Croix Valley, North Star Publishing Company, Minneapolis, 1881. Page 600. 15:3 City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #330. 154 City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #2660. 155 Mulvey and Smith are listed adjacently in the 1870 Census: Washington County: Stillwater: Page 20, #150, 151. 156 City directories. 81 Block by Block History "Fancy" houses at 805 W. Abbott and 622 W. Churchill Street g2 Block by Block History A N Harriet (Smith) Street BLOCK 9 Lots 1-12 Churchill (Pennock) Street 6 5 4 3 2 1 7 8 9 10 11 12 Anderson Street Holcombe Street William Gibson acquired Lots 1 & 2 from Wiliam Holcombe in the summer of 1858 for the rather high price of $300.1i7 He soon built his home which the Assessor noted as worth $250. By 1870, when the house is valued at $500, the 1-1/2 story house can easily be discerned on the corner lot in the 1869 Bird's Eye View Map. The owner at this time was Emily Battles, the wife of a Stillwater house builder. In 1872, the house and lots were purchased for $700 by James Keefe, a fresco and sign painter. '5s Keefe was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1834. He learned his trade in Boston, settling in Hudson, Wisconsin, in 1855. After fighting in the Civil War, he moved to Stillwater in 1871, purchasing this home.159 In 1890, Keefe hired Sven Berglund, a local contractor, to build him a new 26-foot by 26-foot 1-1/2- story house on this site.I6° Keefe has four children; two of them, Horace and James H. followed him in the business. The family lived in the house until the 1920's. In 1935, Walter Nelson, the owner of the Sanitary Dairy on Greeley Street took out a permit to convert this house into a residence and store by 157 K Deeds 198. 158 X Deeds 516. 159 History of Washington County and The St. Croix Valley, North Star Publishing Company, Minneapolis, 1881. Page 581. 160 City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #507 (c ). 83 Block by Block History rearranging the interior.161 From 1945 until 1969, this house served as Pat's Groceries as well as the residence for the White family. This house, greatly modernized and changed, remains at 603 W. Churchill Street. Lot 3 was first built upon in 1890 when James Keefe, who lived next door, built a substantial house on this Lot, which, it appears, he held as rental property. This house remains today at 611 W. Churchill. Lot 4 was built upon in 1873 by Julian A. Chenne with a S300 house. Chenne lived there until the property was purchased by Emily Battles in the summer of 1881.162 The 1-1/2 story house can be seen on the 1879 Bird's Eye View Map. In 1886 Emily had a 12-foot by 18-foot 1-1/2-story addition put on the house. What is very surprising is that the work was done by a P. L. Flanagan, and not by her husband, George Battles, a contractor himself.163 Emily Battles did not live there; it was most likely rental property. In 1937, this home was "veneered" with asbestos siding at a cost of $315.164 This home remains at 615 W. Churchill. Lots 5 and 6 were bought by Daniel E. Spindle June 3, 1871.165 He built a $300 1-1/2 story house on the corner — a house which is very evident in the 1879 Bird's Eye View Map. Spindle was, for a time, the janitor at Central School, kitty corner from the Historic Courthouse; later he worked as a clerk.166 In 1915, a workshop was added to the house, and in 1923, a 20- foot by-40 foot, one-story, $350 building was added to serve as an auto repair shop.167 This house remains at 621 W. Churchill Street. Lot 8 had a small house on it, dating from before the Civil War. Frederick Rentz purchased Lots 7 & 8 in 1857 at a cost of $180. He built a house and lived there during the 1860's. By 1868, both lots were in the possession of Sylvanus Trask and his wife, Euphemia.168 One of the earliest residents of Stillwater, Trask came in 1848. He engaged in teaching, was a clerk in the post orrice, and served as a representative in the first territorial legislature.169 He married Euphemia Turner of St. Paul in 1852.' 7 ° 161 City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #2424. 162 9 Deeds 224. 1613 City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #129. 164 City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #2489. 165 T Deeds 473. 166 City Directories. 167 City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #1703, #1956. 168 I Deeds 378; S Deeds 369. 169 1880 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 263, #296; Minnesota Biographies, 1655-1912. Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, Volume XIV. 84 Block by Block History In 1893, Trask was quoted in the newspaper: `Forty-five years ago to- day" remarked Sylvanus Trask last Saturday when he encountered a Gazette representative, `2 landed in Stillwater May 13, 1848. And I have meandered along the street this afternoon, musing on the wonderful changes time will bring to every fair and beautiful thing, and I have only met four persons that I remember seeing that day, and these are they: Jo. Carli, H.N. Setzer, Burt Loomis, and Chas Macey. Of course there are many others around here that were here then, but these are the ones I just happened to meet. "1 7 1 The one-story $400 home can be seen in the 1869 Bird's Eye View Map and, with an addition on the rear, in the 1879 Bird's Eye View Map. The Trask house had the address 618 W. Anderson; this home of one of Minnesota's first legislators has since been replaced by a home built for Doris Behrens in 1941 at 921 S. Harriet. The original cost of this 1941 house was $5, 500.1 2 Lots 9 & 10 were first built upon in 1946 when the home at 612 W. Anderson was built. 606 W. Anderson and 916 S. Holcombe were also built in 1946 upon Lots 11 & 12. 170 Fifty Years in the Northwest, by W. H. C. Folsom. Pioneer Press Company, 1888. Page 73. 171 Stillwater Daily Gazette, May 15, 1893. 172 City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #2619, #2620. 85 Block by Block History SIX -OVER -SIX WINDOWS One of the most distinguishing characteristics of an old house is its windows: the size, the placement, and the style. In general, the smaller the size of the panes, the older the window. As the technology of the 19th Century advanced, it became possible to make larger panes of glass cheaper. In the first houses of Minnesota, built in the period of 1840-1870, the usual window panes were quite small, and each sash held six panes, (six - over -six) separated by quite slender and finely made dividers (muntins). In the following period, from 1870-1910, the windows were comprised of two panes per sash, or two over two windows. Today, of course, they are generally one pane per sash, or one over one. Curiously enough, many new houses use plastic insert dividers in their windows to simulate the older small panes. 86 Block by Block History A N Martha (Putz) Street BLOCK 10 Lots 1-12 Churchill (Pennock) Street 6 5 4 3 2 1 7 8 9 10 11 12 Anderson Street Harriet (Smith) Street Lots 1 & 2 were sold to Patrick O'Donnell in August of 1855173 and O'Donnell apparently had a small house on them during the Civil War, but by the time of the 1869 Bird's Eye View Map there is no house on the map or in the Assessor's records. About 1876, John Kundert, who had owned the property for over a decade 17z!, built a $500 house on the corner Lot 1. Kundert, a Swiss born carpenter, had a remarkable gathering of people in his 1-1/2 story house with its small addition in the rear. On a warm summer day in June of 1880, the census enumerator listed John: age 49, his wife: (whose name I cannot read) age 48, son Thomas, 25, son John 14, son Fred 12, son Eddie 10, son Peter, 8, daughter Lillie 5, married daughter Sarah Winkle age 24, son-in-law Peter Winkle age 32 (a butcher), married daughter Aussie Tracy age 22, son-in-law William Tracy (laborer), married daughter Rosa Tracy 18, son-in-law George Tracy 21. Fourteen people in a house that probably had no more than 5 rooms! 1 i5 In 1891, Maurice and Mary (Whalen) Ryan purchased the home. Working first as a lumberman and later as a teamster, Maurice and his wife raised three children in the house: Loretta, Marguerite, and Gerald. In his later years, Maurice served as a member of the Stillwater Fire Department from 1912-1917, and subsequently worked for City Hall as a patrol driver. Mary died in 1916, and Maurice in 1926. Marguerite became the head of the 173 E Deeds 614. 174 He bought it June 26, 1867 (S Deeds 134). 175 1880 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 261, #274. 87 Block by Block History household until 1936 when son, Gerald and his new wife, Helen, moved into the house. Together they raised four sons in the house: Gerald, Lawrence, Thomas and James. Through three generations, the Ryan family has lived here for over a century. Today this house remains at 904 S. Harriet. Lot 3 had a very small house upon it built in the 1850's. This house can be clearly seen toward the middle of the block on the 1869 Bird's Eye View Map. The first occupant and owner was Antoine Tuor, or Tour, who bought the property from William Holcombe just before the Christmas of 1856.176. He lived there for eight years when John Kundert bought Lot 3 as well as Lots 1 & 2. He apparently rented it out for a number of years, and some part of this early house may be incorporated into the present house at 709 W. Churchill. Lot 4 is the site of a newer home at 715 W. Churchill built in 1952. The wonderful little $200 Greek Revival home at 717 W. Churchill was built on Lot 5 by Jacob Marty who purchased the property from William Holcombe for $64 on November 5, 1856. Marty immediately took out a $150 mortgage at 3% from a Reuben Cole of Putnam County, New York.' 7 Less than two years later, Marty sold the lot and house to Edward Ayers, a recent arrival from Otswego County, New York, who gave Marty the equivalent of a Contract for Deed in the amount of $200, plus the assumption of the underlying $150 mortgage to Rueben Cole. Within 6 months, as the depression quickly worsened, Ayers sold the property to Francis Aiple, a Stillwater brewer, who eventually defaulted on the mortgage to Cole. 178 In 1862, the property was offered for sale by the Sheriff to pay off the mortgage and interest of $234. In 1864, a local investor, Lorenzo Cornman and his partner, Alpheus Stickney (who would later make a fortune in railroads and the South St. Paul stock yards) got another mortgage from Rueben Cole, this time for $9,150, on numerous pieces of property in and around Stillwater, including this house and lot. The following year, Cornman sold this delightful house and lot to the Prussian born John and Elizabeth Warner who lived here along with their daughter, Mary179 for at least the following 70 years! The house can be clearly seen on the 1869 Bird's Eye View Map and the east gable end of the home can be seen on the Bird's Eye View Map of 1879. 178 I Deeds 91. 177 G Deeds 504; C Mtgs 113. 178 J Deeds 225; B Bonds 464; L Deeds 31. 179 1880 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 261, #270. 88 Block by Block History This charming residence, built before Minnesota became a state, is one of the gems of the Holcombe neighborhood. With its broadside symmetrical front to the street, and its Greek Revival return eaves, it is representative of the small houses in which the majority of the population of Stillwater lived 140 years ago. However, unlike many of those early houses which were constructed as absolutely inexpensively as possible, this small house has several decorative trim details characteristic of Greek Revival architecture, which put it a cut above the average residence of that period. Fortunately the present owner has taken care to maintain the original characteristics of the house. Despite its small size, there would be many potential purchasers willing to preserve the house should it ever come on the market. By and large, in Stillwater, it is no longer the Victorian mansions, the homes of the rich and famous, that are threatened with destruction or remuddling. It is the few remaining small homes, the houses of the working man and woman, that desperately need attention and preservation. The houses at 717 W. Churchill Street, 706 W. Churchill Street, and 706 W. Anderson Street deserve special mention in any attempt to preserve the historical fabric of Stillwater. Lot 6 was the site of a $200 house built in the 1850's by Jacob Tuor, a carpenter, who bought his lot from William Holcombe in May of 1857 for $69.75.18° (Judging from all the different prices of the Lots as they were first sold by Holcombe, I get the strong impression that the price of these lots was quite negotiable!) Jacob lived there all during the 1860's and `70's. Documented in the tax Assessor's records and the 1876 City Directory, this structure appears on the 1869 Bird's Eye View Map. In 1882, he sold the property to O. Fred. Wohlers who lived at 721 S. Martha Street. About 1887, either a new home was built, or the old house was greatly enlarged under the ownership of John Cosgrove, a lumberman. Today the site is occupied by a home at 719 W. Churchill. Lots 7 & 8 were the site of a small $125 house built before the Civil War. John and Ann Brown were the first residents buying the lots from William Holcombe in September of 1857 for $180. In 1870, Jacob and Louisa Meile purchased the house and lots, and sold them a year later to Michael 18° I Deeds 412. 89 Block by Block History Donovan, his wife, and three children181. Donovan, from New Brunswick, was listed as a cook in the 1880 Census.182 By 1879, the house and lot were listed as having an assessed value of $365. This house can be seen on the front of the lot, broadside to Anderson Street, as a tall narrow, one-story house on both the 1869 and 1879 Bird's Eye View Maps. Today this house, built before Minnesota became a state, remains greatly expanded at 722 W. Anderson. The 1879 Bird's Eye View Map depicts three buildings between 719 W. Churchill and 722 W. Anderson. These may be barns, or some other kind of outbuildings; they do not appear as a separate taxable entry — although they could be part of the overall assessed value of the lots. Lots 9 & 10. This residence was built in the summer of 1890 by a 31- year-old carpenter from Oak Park Heights, Angus Donalds183, for the property owner, Thomas McCarthy, his wife Katherine and their three sons, Raymond, Leo, and Guy. Thomas McCarthy was a lumberjack who spent half the year away from home in the woods so when Katherine McCarthy died, the William Regan family moved into the home to care for the McCarthy boys. Mrs. Regan and Katherine McCarthy were sisters. The McCarthy -Regan house became the O'Brien house in 1960 when the daughter of Guy McCarthy, Mary M. (Mrs. Joseph G.) O'Brien purchased it. Throughout its 109-year history, the house has always belonged to Mrs. O'Brien's father's family. 184 The house remains looking very stately at 712 W. Anderson, and a new addition has been added to the east side of the house. At the east end of this block, on Lots 11 & 12, remains a remarkable stone house at 706 W. Anderson Street. Michael Hanley, a stone mason, born in Ireland about 1813, bought Lot 11 from William Holcombe in the winter of 1862 for $100185. He immediately built this house in which Hanley and his wife, Mary, raised at least seven children: Kate, Ellen, Anna, Daniel, Michael, Peter, and John.186 The family resided in the house for almost two decades. In 1871, Hanley added Lot 12 to his estate, and in 1876, he foolishly took out a $350 mortgage from a man in Wyoming County, N.Y. In 1879, The home of hapless Hanley was repossessed.187 The assessed value of the two lots and this house was set at $315 in 1880. 181 M Deeds 361; T Deeds 339; T Deeds 611. 182 1880 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 263, #291. 183 City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #501 181 Jo, Croixside Press, 1976. Page 64. 185 O Deeds 6. 186 1870 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 30, #223; 1880 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 263, #294. 187 T Deeds 160; K Mtgs 488; 3 Deeds 516; 12 Deeds 101 90 Block by Block History This (sort of) Greek Revival house, with its addition in the rear, can be seen on the 1869 Bird's Eye View Map. On the 1879 Bird's Eye View Map, the addition is not drawn in. This house is another neighborhood gem in the same way as the houses at 717 W. Churchill and 706 W. Churchill. This is another example in cut limestone of the type of house in which most residents of Stillwater lived in the mid -nineteenth century. This home has the typical symmetrical facade, broadside to the street, with what was probably originally a kitchen addition in the rear. The front part of the house would typically have been divided into two rooms, with the chimney (and stove) on the central wall. Upstairs there would have been a loft for sleeping, or to serve as a guest room. This home appears to be fairly original, although it looks like the roof has been raised at one time, and a portico added over the front door. This is another home in the area which, if marketed for its historical character, would fetch a premium price. There is a watercolor painting of this house hanging in the Stillwater Public Library. 918 S. Harriet was built in 1961 on part of Lots 11 & 12, part of the original Hanley estate. 91 Block by Block History OLD HOUSES AS ANTIQUES Old houses are much like any other antique object. They are a connection to the past. They represent the style and craftsmanship of a different era. They evoke a feeling of nostalgia. They are becoming increasingly rare and difficult to obtain. And, generally the value is increasing, particularly for the finest original examples. Just like any other antique, the value of an old house depends upon how original in appearance it is. If you take an antique toy car, and spray it with new paint to make it look shiny again, you have destroyed much of its original value. If you take an antique dresser, and change the knobs on its drawers, you have subtracted from its value. So it is with old houses, too — particularly in Stillwater. If you take an old house, and put in new windows of a different size and placement, you have destroyed the original symmetry and design on that house, and depreciated its value as an antique. If you have aluminum or vinyl siding installed on your older home, you have covered up many of the details that made your house distinguished from a newer house. (You have also provided the potential for rot under the siding.) There is a whole home improvement industry dedicated to altering, changing, and ultimately, devaluing your antique house. Take for example, the home at 703 W. Willard St. This house was built in 1856, before Minnesota became a state. The house is well documented; it was mentioned in the local newspaper twice during the first year of its existence. The owner was Moses Willard, a Stillwater pioneer, and the source of the street name. This is one of the oldest houses in Stillwater, and one of the most historic — potentially eligible for registration on a list of historic sites. Within the past year, however, there have been dramatic changes to the appearance of the house, which have altered its historic character. New windows of a different size and placement; a modern two -bay garage attached to the side of the house; a modern pop -out bay window; and vinyl siding have transformed what was a classic Greek Revival house of the pre -Civil War period. These "improvements" have changed the appearance to the extent that it would no longer be eligible for a list of historic sites. Unfortunately, this is not the exception. Many people with older homes feel their houses must be "updated" and in doing so, they overlook the antique value of a house. Homeowners who might treasure their grandfather's old clock have no qualms about adding patio doors to the front of their century -old home. Parents who treasure their children's first drawings thoughtlessly plunk modern decks on the visible side of their 100-year-old house. Window sizes and placement are changed without regard to the original design of the home. But maybe in the long run, this is a good thing. It does ensure that those houses which have retained their authenticity will — like fine antiques — only continue to increase in value. 92 Block by Block History A N a) -465 41) a) W BLOCK 11 Lots 1-12 Churchill (Pennock) Street 6 5 4 3 2 1 7 8 9 10 11 12 Anderson Street Martha (Putz) Street Antoine Muggli purchased Lot 1 from William Holcombe in May of 1856, and built a large $600 house.188 After 1863, the house — perhaps burned — is no longer listed in the Assessor's records. In this same early period, there was also a house on Lot 2, a small $100 house owned by Francis Ellis.189 The house is no longer listed as being there in 1870. Both the 1869 and 1879 Bird's Eye View Maps indicate no structure on these two lots. In the fall of 1888, the Kent family, who had been living next door, paid Sven Berglund, a local contractor, $1,150 to build them a 1-1/ story, 22 feet by 42 feet house on Lots 1 & 2.190 This home, at 805 W. Churchill, remains a classic example of a late 1880's house. A 24-foot by 4-foot porch was added by a local contractor, Emil Bieging, in the summer of 1919. In May of 1930, Emil was called upon again to do some $600 worth of repair work after a fire in the house. 191 On Lots 3 & 4, there was another small $200 house built before the Civil War by Ulrick Seigenthaler, who bought the lots from Holcombe in October of 1856 for $80. The property was purchased in 1865 by James Kent and his wife, Johanna, both immigrants from Ireland, who lived there with 188 I Deeds 548. 189 C Deeds 712. "x) City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #352. LJ1 City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #1718, #2308. 93 Block by Block History their family for over 20 years before moving one door east.192. Their small home, broadside to the street, can be seen on both the 1869 and 1879 Bird's Eye View Maps. Today that site is occupied by a newer house at 813 W. Churchill built in 1946. In September of 1856, Jacob and Marian Greider bought Lots 5 & 6 from Wiliam Holcombe for S75.193 The house they built was another small home, valued at about $200 by the Assessor. Sitting broadside to the street, it can be seen on the southeast corner of Beecher and Pennock Streets on both the 1869 and 1879 Bird's Eye View Maps. Although the property was always listed in the name of Marian, the head of the household was Barbara Greeder or Greader, a woman born in Switzerland around 1830. Living with her were eight children.194 Today this lot is vacant, but the house that was there had the number 815 W. Churchill. Lots 7 & 8 have never been built upon. Lots 9 & 10 were purchased by Charles Clegg in1874195, and he immediately built his house; the first on the lot. Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Clegg came to Stillwater in 1868 by way of St. Louis and Dubuque. After working in the lumber industry for nine years, he opened the California Fruit Store on Third Street.196 Today this house, greatly altered, remains at 810 W. Anderson. Lot 9 also contains a duplex at 812-814 W. Anderson that was built in 1977. There was apparently a tiny Civil War structure upon Lot 11, but the present house at 804 W. Anderson, on Lots 11 & 12, dates from 1873 when J. M. Wheeler built a $500 house on these two lots. Jewitt Wheeler, who owned other property in the area, is listed in the 1870 Census as a farmer with assets of $6,000 in land. He and his wife, Rebecca, are living in this area with their three children, and a 12-year-old servant girl.197 192 H Deeds 365; P Deeds 166. 193 G Deeds 558. 1.9'1 1870 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 28, #202; 1880 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 261, #276. 1"5 Z Deeds 242. 198 History of Washington County and The St. Croix Valley, North Star Publishing Company, Minneapolis, 1881. Page 566. 197 1870 U.S. Census, Washington County: Stillwater: Page 29, #210. 94 Block by Block History A N [line of William Street] BLOCK 12 Lots 1-8 Churchill (Pennock) Street 4 :3 2 1 5 s 7 8 Anderson Street Everett (Beecher) Street A man with the exotic name of Virgillius Palli bought Lot 1 from William Holcombe in June of 1856 for $75. He optimistically built a large house before having to sign the property back to Holcombe in 1860, in the depths of the depression for $1, 265! 198 This large house is very evident as a two-story house on the 1869 Bird's Eye View Map. This house was subsequently owned by Holcombe's sons until 1874 when it was sold to Cornelius Harrigan. In 1881, the property was sold to James P. Fitzgerald, a blacksmith who, five year earlier, had boarded with Harrigan.'99 It does not appear Fitzgerald lived at this location. Today this place is the location of a very attractive Craftsman style house built in 1931 at 905 W. Churchill. On Lot 4, there is a newer house built in 1947 at 911 W. Churchill. There were at one time houses on Lots 5 & 6; property now owned by Lakeview Hospital. The house on Lot 5 was a small house, built before the Civil War, and owned for some years by Robert Barkley. The house on Lot 6 was a larger house valued about $500 which was also built before the Civil War. It appears that, at least in first two decades, it was used as rental property. Both the houses on Lot 1 and Lot 6 can be seen on the 1879 Bird's Eye View Map. 198 J Deeds 399: N Deeds 120. 199 X Deeds 80; Z Deeds 95; 8 Deeds 376. 95 Block by Block History Lots 7 & 8 were the location of a home at 910 W. Anderson. This large brick house with its basement kitchen was owned by the Schnell family. Not deemed able to move, it was demolished by the hospital in 1977. 96 Block by Block History A N [line of William Street] BLOCK 13 Lots 1-6 Anderson Street 4 3 2 1 5 6 [line of Hancock Street] Everett (Beecher) Street Today this block is all part of the Lakeview Hospital campus, but there were, in the 19th and early 20th century, three houses on this block. Lot 1 had a $400 pre -Civil War home owned by Joseph DeCurtins, a German born carpenter who built several houses in the area. Having bought the lot from William Holcombe in 1857 for $100, he lived there for over 20 years.20° It had the number 901 W. Anderson. This home was moved out on Oakgreen Avenue in Stillwater Township in order to make way for the hospital. David Tozer, a young lumberman, bought Lot 2 from William Holcombe in 1856 and built a small $200 house. The hard-working Tozer went on to amass a fortune in lumber, and is commemorated today by the Tozer Foundation. Nicholas Sinnett, an Irish-born boat builder, and his wife, Mary, acquired the home in 1866, and lived here with their six children.2°1 It had the house number 907 W. Anderson. This small house was bulldozed in order to make way for the hospital. On Lot 3, there was a third pre -Civil War house. In 1870, the Census lists the Irish born John O'Shaughnessy, the shoe manufacturer, living here with his wife, Mary, and their first three children: James, John, and Maggie.202 The 13th child of this family, Ignatius Aloysius O'Shaughnessy, was to make his fortune in oil, and become a leading philanthropist of 2°0 H Deeds 534. 201 G Deeds 460; P Deeds 436. 202 1870 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 28, #208. 97 Block by Block History Minnesota some 75 years later.2°3 That fall, John moved into a new house on Third and Willard Street.204 I believe this house once had the number 913 W. Anderson. It is interesting to observe that two houses on this block, adjacent to each other, were possessed by families that today have charitable foundations in their names: Tozer Foundation and the O'Shaughnessy Foundation, and that the block is now occupied by Lakeview Hospital, a non-profit corporation. 203 St. Croix Valley Press, March 16, 1995. A history article by Brent Peterson. 2°' Stillwater Republican, Nov. 3, 1870; O'Shaughnessy bought the Lot in 1865; Q Deeds 193. 98 Block by Block History A N Everett (Beecher) Street BLOCK 14 Lots 1-8 Anderson Street 6 5 4 3 2 1 7 8 [line of Hancock Street] Martha (Putz) Street There was between 1865 and 1875, a small $100 structure on Lots 1 & 2, which was owned by John Brown205. On the 1869 Bird's Eye View Map it appears to be a small broadside house. Today the lots are occupied by two newer houses: 803 Anderson built in 1947, and 811 W. Anderson built in 1946. On Lots 3 & 4, there was a small pre -Civil War house which was owned variously by Christian DeCurtins, George Brassau and John Brown. By 1872, the house is no longer listed in the tax Assessor's records. Today this site is the location of a quite handsome Craftsman style house at 813 W. Anderson built in 1930. The newer house, which cost $4,000, was built by Victor Bergeron who had lived at 819 W. Anderson for decades.206 George Brassau, a Canadian -born river pilot, built a large $400 home on Lot 5 before the Civil War. In 1874 Louis and Mary Vigneux purchased Lots 5 & 7 for $900, giving Brassau back a mortgage for $680.207 A little over a year later, Vigneux sold the same property to J. Baptiste Desautels for the same $900 amount.208 Two members of this family (Henry & John) were listed in the 1876 City Directory as farmers. In 1880, John Baptiste was 65 years old; his wife, Julia, was 64, and there were five grown children living in the house with them.209 Today this home, built before Lincoln was President, remains, greatly expanded in the 1880's, at 819 W. Anderson Street. 2°5 P Deeds 91. 2°6 City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #2328. 207 X Deeds 514; I Mtgs 608. 2°8 1 Deeds 89. 209 1880 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 263, #288. 99 Block by Block History James Cronin paid William Holcombe $100 for Lot 6 in October of 1856, and he soon built a house on the lot. The original house was a small one-story home, valued at $200, which can be seen broadside to the street in the 1869 Bird's Eye View Map. In 1874, the value of the lot and structure dramatically increased to $900, denoting that a larger house had been built on the lot. In the later, 1879 Bird's Eye View Map, we see a two-story hip - roofed house with a rear addition sitting on the corner lot. The English -born Cronin, and his wife, Mary, born in New Brunswick, lived in the home with their five children: Elizabeth, Ellie, Charles, Agnes, Franklin, and M. J. Collius, a 32 year old boarder.21° James' occupation was generally listed as a laborer. Apparently this Italianate house was burned or demolished, for the home there today, 823 W. Anderson, gives every appearance of having been built in the 1890's. Unfortunately there are no building records extant. It does not appear that Lot 7 was built upon before the present house at 1015 S. Everett Street was constructed in 1963. 210 1880 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 263, #287. 100 Block by Block History A N Martha (Putz) Street BLOCK 15 Lots 1-8 Anderson Street 6 5 4 3 2 1 7 8 [line of Hancock Street] Harriet (Smith William Holcombe sold Catherine Elizabeth Shepple and her husband, John, Lots 1 & 2 in July of 1856 for a total of S75. They soon built a home on their property which was valued at $305 in the 1861 Tax Assessor's records. The following year, John Elmer purchased the property, and the Assessor listed the value of the lot at $25, and the value of the building as $175.211 This house can be discerned on the 1869 Bird's Eye View Map as another of the small one-story houses with a door and two windows in the front, which was broadside to the street. As usual, the chimney was in the middle of the house. That house did not survive the 1880's, and in the summer of 1886, James Barry had builder, Emil Kutzman, build him a $1,000, two-story hip - roofed Italianate house, 22 feet by 24 feet.L12 James Barry was a fireman with the G. H. Atwood Mills; his daughter, Margaret who lived with him, was a student at the Stillwater Business College. Today this Italianate style house remains relatively original at 705 W. Anderson. In August of 1860, Jacob Kellerhouse gave Wiliam Holcombe two notes of S75 each, the first payable in one year; the second note payable the second year, at 10% interest, in return for Lots 3 & 4 of this Block.2ls Kellerhouse built a small home, valued at about $100. In 1867, he sold the lots and house to James McDermott for $800 who lived there through the 1870's before selling the property again in 1880 for $600.211 McDermott, a lumberman, and his wife, Anna, were from New Brunswick.215 In 1895, Fred 211 G Deeds 121; E Deeds 561. 212 City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #204. 213 C Bonds 235; 0 Deeds 473. 21.1 S Deeds 106; 5 Deeds 640. 215 1870 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 30, #222. 101 Block by Block History THIS IS THE UBIQUITOUS PRAIRIE HOUSE, as much a part of the Mid- western landscape as the cornfields. Its balloon construction was a Yankee invention, but it was easy to build and it worked, so it quickly became a universal solution. This house certainly expresses no special kinship with the ground it was built on; it was the same on the open plains or in the wooded hills or on the town lot. It expresses no remembrance of European homes; nor does it express the needs of the life to be lived in it. It expresses simply the carpenter's tech- nique. The easiest way of nailing two-by-fours together determined its shape; the standard mill lengths of timbers determined its dimensions; the standard products of the mill determined its detailing; what they turned on the mill lathes determined its ornament. This was the Model T among houses — truly prefab- ricated, although it was delivered in a great many pieces. Most often it was built in installments. First came the single divided box, with gabled roof. The parlor was in front and the kitchen in back; an enclosed staircase led to two bedrooms. In hot weather the wood -burning cookstove made an oven of the whole house, so an open summer kitchen was added to the side, at right angles to the original structure. As the family grew and prospered, this wing was made two stories high; the summer kitchen became the permanent kitchen; now there was a front parlor for Sunday visitors, and a back parlor for the family, which doubled as a dining room on special occasions. Across the front of the new wing was built the porch. The faults of this house were legion. But you could heat it — more or less — with a wood -burning stove, and in the summer the bedrooms were high enough to catch a little breeze, and it stood against the winds of the prairie storms. Besides, it was cheap, quick, and easy to build. By now it has been remodeled a half dozen times, and the mechanical contrivances it holds today cost several times as much as the house itself. But its basic virtues and faults are still those it was born with. Speaking not of these buildings specifically, Frank Lloyd Wright said, "The true basis for any serious study of the art of architecture still lies in those indige- nous, more humble buildings everywhere that are to architecture what folklore is to literature and folk song to music." From: The Face of Minnesota by John Szarkowski. University of Minnesota Press, 1958. 102 Block by Block History From The Face of Miruiesota by John Szarkowski. University of Minnesota Press, 1958. 103 Block by Block History Tollas, a laborer for the G.H. Atwood Mills, contracted with carpenters, Otto Richert and August Wojahn to build him an $800 home. The structure was 1-1/4 stories, 28 feet by 44 feet, with a cellar floor of cement, and a plastered ceiling.216 Today this house remains with many original characteristics at 711 W. Anderson. There was almost certainly a house on Lot 6 in 1857 when Thomas Cassey sold the property to Michael and Elizabeth O'Donnell for $300. Over the period of the 1860's and 1870's, it had a number of owners,217 none of whom seemed to be living in the house, thus making it almost certainly rental property. The house, another of the small broadsides with two windows in front, and a center chimney, can be easily seen on the 1869 Bird's Eye View Map. In the late 1880's, Caroline McLean either greatly remodeled this old house, or build an entirely new structure because the assessed value of the home jumped from $250 to $825. Today this house remains at 723 W. Anderson. 216 City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #838. 217 D Mtgs 118; J Deeds 508; T Deeds 232. 104 Block by Block History A N Harriet (Smith) Street BLOCK 16 Lots 1-8 Anderson Street 6 5 4 3 2 1 7 8 (line of Hancock Street] Holcombe Street Hannah S. West purchased Lots 1, 2, 3 & 8 from William Holcombe's trustee in 1867 for $100. She soon contracted with George W. Battles to build her a house on Lot 8, but for reasons we will never know, Hannah chose not to pay George. In retaliation, he filed a lien against her house in the amount of $120.20 which broke down to: 800 feet clear seasoned pine lumber $40.00 6 doors at $5.50 apiece $33.00 13-1 /2 days work at $3. 50 per day $47.20218 The 1870 Census reveals that the head of the household was Hannah West, a 44-year-old woman from Maine. She lived in the house with her daughter, Emeline, age 27 and three sons: George, 26; Samuel, 25, and Cyrus, 19.L19 In 1874, Hannah sold the house.220 This house, which was valued at $300 in 1880, appears on the 1879 Bird's Eye View Map as a squarish -one-story house with its gable end to Anderson Street, but set back from Anderson Street closer to what is today Hancock Street. This house, with its tin roof, remains today at 1016 S. Holcombe. Lots 1, 2 & 3 are the site of a new house built in 1997 at 601 W. Anderson. This new house replaces a previous structure with the number, 1004 S. Holcombe that had been built about 1883 by Conrad Jargg. Behind this house on the south side of the same Lots is the home at 1010 S. 218 S Deeds 113; A Liens 59. 219 1870.U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 31, #227. 22° Y Deeds 152. 105 Block by Block History Holcombe. This home was built as a small $250 house by Gothold Kruger about 1883. 629 W. Anderson was built on Lots 6 & 7 in 1955. Block 16 is an excellent opportunity to compare the two Bird's Eye View Maps to document the information found in the Tax Assessor's records. The assessor's records denote a house built in 1864 on Lots 4, 5, & 6 which would be the west half of the block facing Anderson Street. The house was listed at a value of $200, meaning it was a small house. On the 1869 Bird's Eye View Map, we can see the only house on the block, approximately in the middle of the block as a one-story house with a front door and a window on both sides, and the usual chimney in the middle. In 1872, the value of that house was increased to $500, and in the 1879 Bird's Eye View Map we can see that there is now a fairly large addition on the rear of the house. It had several owners: McKay, Elliot, and Rutherford, among them. Today that is the location of a newer home built in 1974 at 619 W. Anderson. 106 Block by Block Histo 706 W. Churchill & 706 W. Anderson are among the oldest homes of the neighborhood 107 Block by Block History 904 S. Harriet & 712 W. Anderson have been in the same families for over a century: 108 Block by Block History A N Greeley (Western Row) Street BLOCK 17 Lots 1-12 Willard Street 7 3 2 1 8 9 10 4 5 6 11 12 Abbott Street In 1880, there were only two houses on Block 17. One, built in 1877, on Lots 7 & 8, was the home of Samuel and Olivia Hadley. He was a black barber and one-time partner to another black barber, Samuel Jackson, who lived for a time at 719 W. Willard Street. The house was listed as a $500 building, and it can be clearly seen on the 1879 Bird's Eye View Map with a shed behind it. What exactly happened to this house is uncertain, but in 1910, Theresia and Delbert Kellogg purchased these two lots for $100. (Samuel Hadley paid $300 for these same two lots 34 years earlier!) In 1911, the Kelloggs built the present house at 701 S. Greeley..221 Behind this house, there is a classic 1930's garage built in June, 1939 by Emil Bieging.L22 On Lots 11 & 12, there was a house built in 1874 by Thomas O'Brien, and valued by the Assessor at $350 by 1880. This 1-Y2 story home, with its gable end facing Western Row [S. Greeley] can be clearly seen on the 1879 Bird's Eye View Map. Thomas O'Brien is not listed in the Census or the City Directories, but John O'Brien is listed in the 1880 City Directory as living on the corner of Abbott and Western Row, and he is also listed in the 1880 Census with his wife, Ann (both of them from Ireland) and a household of 11 additional people, all of whom were born in New Brunswick, and seem to be 221 Research done by the author for the Rivertown Restoration House Tour in 1995. 222 City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #2550. 109 Block by Block History related in some way. Look again at this small house pictured on the Bird's Eye View Map and imagine 13 people living in that small home!223 Today this house has been replaced by another older house moved here in 1947 or 1948 from the old High School site, kitty-corner from the Historic Courthouse. When they added a swimming pool to the David Tozer Gym, this house was moved here. It has the number 721 S. Greeley. The other homes on this block were all built after the turn of the century. On Lot 1 is a house at 919 W. Willard built in 1971. On Lot 3 is a house built in 1929 at 921 W. Willard. There is also a building permit taken out in July of 1929 to add two rooms and a bath to this house, a 10 feet by 32 feet addition costing 52,000.224 On Lot 4 and a part of Lot 5 is a newer house at 928 W. Abbott moved here from Block 23 (the hospital site) in 1977. On the other part of Lot 5 and Lot 6 is another newer home at 922 W. Abbott built in 1958. On Lots 9 & 10, there is a classic bungalow, 711 S. Greeley, built in 1911 as a $1, 000 dwelling by G. W. Tolen for his chauffeur and handyman, Herman Lampi. It is said that some of the woodwork in this house came from the old Holcombe/Nelson house that was torn down to build the Tolen mansion on Block 18. Unlike other Stillwater homes, this one was built by an outside contractor: P. J. Sonnen of Minneapolis.225 223 1880 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 261, #272. 224 City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #2275. 225 City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #1465, # 1470. 110 Block by Block History A N BLOCK 18 Willard Street Lake Street Greeley (Western Row) Street The only house on this Block (which was not divided into Lots) was that of William Holcombe. There is a short note in the St. Croix Union of July 11, 1856, that reads: "Captain Holcombe has just finished one of the finest residences for himself upon the Addition to be found in the Territory. Mr. Fullerton, of the Land Office, is also building a fine residence nearby. Both are handsomely situated upon a beautiful lake." Holcombe's house, which was valued by the Assessor at $1, 500, can be seen on the west side of Western Row [S. Greeley] between W. Willard and W. Abbott Streets on the 1869 Bird's Eye View Map. Holcombe died in 1870, and by 1873226, his house had passed into the hands of Charles N. Nelson (for $4,000) who apparently enlarged the main house, and added another residence to the property on the southwest corner of Western Row and W. Willard Street. These dwellings are quite apparent on the 1879 Bird's Eye View Map . On this same 1879 Bird's Eye View Map, there is another large house depicted at the end of W. Willard Street. This large home was actually on Block 1 of Fullerton's Addition, and it was the house (mentioned above) that was built by Thomas M. Fullerton in 1856 at the same time Holcombe was building his house. Fullerton's house was later purchased by William G. Clark, a wealthy merchant and lumberman from St. Louis, whom, it is said, used the residence as a summer home. Clark was born in Baltimore in 1818. He moved to St. Louis in 1836, and took up the wholesale clothing business. In 1842, he entered the lumber trade, and in this capacity, did business with 22E W Deeds 453. 111 Block by Block History many of the Stillwater lumberman who were selling their lumber in St. Louis.227 By the 1920's, this splendid house was no longer standing, but one of the Tolen daughters who lived nearby remembers a large foundation in that area known as "Clarks" or "Bacons" field. This Fullerton/Clark house stood approximately where the residence at 510 S. Owens is today. Charles N. Nelson, who purchased the Holcombe house, was born in Denmark in 1840 of an English father. He was a wealthy lumberman who is generally not well known in Stillwater history. In the 1870's and '80's, Nelson (who had a sawmill in Lakeland) followed the source of timber north, and with other Stillwater capital, organized the C.N. Nelson Lumber Company of Cloquet, which had extensive sawmill and timber holdings in Carlton and St. Louis counties. In 1896, Frederick Weyerhaeuser and his associates bought the properties of Nelson's company.228 Nelson kept his house in Stillwater until about 1903, when he sold it and moved to Port Washington, Long Island, New York. He died May,1923 in Santa Barbara, California (his winter home there was called Oak Knoll). His nickname in Santa Barbara was "The Captain" because of his ocean-going yacht activities.229 After house numbers were assigned in Stillwater, the Holcombe/Nelson house took the number 720 S. Greeley. In the summer of 1911, the Holcombe/Nelson house was demolished, and Gordon Welshons Tolen built a new S15,000 house on the same site. According to the building permit, the house was 36 feet by 50 feet, two stories in height. The building was to have a hipped roof, and be veneered with "uneven brick." The contractor was P. J. Sonnen of Minneapolis. In 1924, Mrs. Tolen paid S1,150 to have an addition to the kitchen porch with a sleeping porch above, and remodeled the breakfast alcove.280 G. W. Tolen was born in Marine on St. Croix March 6, 1880 to James and Candace Tolen. Orphaned at the age of one, he was adopted by his maternal grandparents: Gordon and Ida Welsons. In September of 1905, he married a Stillwater woman, Lois Torinus. Like so many Stillwater residents of the day, both Tolen and his wife came from families engaged in the lumber trade; G. W. was for a time manager of a family lumber mill in 227 There is a biography of William G. Clark in History of St. Louis City and County, including Biographical Sketches of Representative Men, by J. Thomas Scharf. Philadelphia, Louis H. Everts & Co. 1883. Page 1326. 228 Agnes Larson, History of the White Pine Industry in Minnesota, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1949. Page 252. 229 Letter from Paul Fahlstrom of Cloquet; St. Paul Pioneer Press, May 25, 1925; Obituary in the Cloquet Pine Knot, June 1, 1923. 230 City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #1464, #2032. 112 Block by Block History Winton, Minnesota. But he is perhaps best remembered today as the founder of the Cosmopolitan State Bank in Stillwater. He died at the age of 39, while his wife outlived him by 50 years, dying in 1969.231 In 1954, Walter Nelson, a Stillwater businessman and entrepreneur, purchased the Tolen house and property from Mrs. Tolen. He converted the house into apartments, and in 1955, he platted the surrounding six acres of property, once the Holcombe estate, now the Tolen estate, as Walter Nelson's Addition, carving out 17 irregular lots. In order to give access to these Lots, he had to extend Owens Street south, and Abbott Street west. Exactly 100 years after being settled as the Holcombe Estate, this piece of property became Walter Nelson's Addition. On Lot 1, the largest of all the Lots, is the old Tolen (now the Conners) house at 720 S. Greelev Street. On Lot 2 is a house built in 1957 by Edgerton and Roxanne Bronson at 1019 W. Willard. Lot 3, which is vacant today, is said to have been the site of the Carriage house for the Tolen estate. In 1958, Judge John and Mary McDonough built their house at 1005 W. Willard on Lot 4, the location of what had once been the gatehouse to the Tolen Estate232. Lot 5 contains a home at 710 S. Greeley built in 1964 for Burton and Phyllis Randall. Lot 6 is the site of 716 S. Greeley built in 1959 for Lloyd Pirman and his wife. 1006 W. Abbot, built in 1963 is on Lot 7, and 806 S. Greeley, built for Walter Nelson in 1957, is on Lot 8. Lot 10 is the site of 1015 W. Abbott built in 1956, and Lot 11 is the location of 1017 W. Abbott built for Richard and Mary Stevens in 1955, the oldest house in this addition. Lot 13 is the location of 1031 W. Abbott built for Robert Tennant and his wife in 1957, and on Lot 15 is 724 S. Owens built for Bill and Betty Fierke in 1961. Lot 16 is the site of 720 S. Owens, built for Jay Goggins in 1956. 716 S. Owens, built for Margaret Scott in 1956, is on Lot 17. 231 Interview with Betty Janecky, daughter of G.W. & Lois Tolen, April 15, 1999. Tolen's obituary is in the Stillwater Daily Gazette, November 11, 1919. 232 Interview with Mary McDonough, March 20, 1999. 113 Block by Block History The Tolen house at 720 S. Greeley circa 1925. Photographs courtesy of Elizabeth and Richard Conners View from the Tolen House looking south across Lily Lake circa 1925. 114 Block by Block History BLOCK 19 Willard Street A N Block 19 (which was never divided into Lots) was sold to Thomas Fullerton in 1855, probably to provide his access to the lake from his house on the north side of the lake. It had no residences on it at this early period. In 1862, Fullerton, who suffered financial losses in the Panic of 1857, sold Block 19 and Block 1 of Fullerton's Addition, which included the Fullerton House, back to Holcombe in 1862. The property and house were soon sold to William G. Clark, "late of the city of St. Louis" for the sum of $3,000.233 William G. Clark was born in Baltimore, Nov. 4, 1818. At the age of 18, he moved to St. Louis where he subsquently went into the wholesale clothing business. After making a good deal of money in that business, he decided, in 1842, that the lumber business offered greater scope for his talents. He built a saw mil in the northern part of St. Louis, and by 1874, made enough of an ample fortune to retire. He visited Stillwater as early as 1863, and eventually lived here full time.234 In 1949, the North family platted North Lily Lots. Block 2, which comprised most of Block 19, was divided into three Lots. On Lot 1, there is a newer home at 1109 W. Willard built in 1955 for Richard and Rosella Nelson and a second home at 1115 W. Willard designed by architect Michael McGuire for Dr. E.B. Kiolbasa in 1965; on Lot 2, there is a home at 1201 W. Willard built in 1950 for Karl Plain; and Lot 3 is the site of the first home built on this addition in 1949 for Forest Nutting at 1219 W. Willard. 23:1 F Deeds 72; Q Deeds 636; P Deeds 544. 223'1 History of St. Louis City and County, including Bio raphical Sketches of Representative Men, by J. Thomas Scharf. Philadelphia, Louis H. Everts & Co. 1883. Page 1326. 115 Block by Block History BUYING A HOME IN 19TH CENTURY STILLWATER Before the 1880's, during the first 30 years of Stillwater's history, most homes were bought with cash. A family might rent a home for the two or three years it took to save the cash for the purchase price of their own home. Homes were relatively cheaper in this period. A very substantial two-story home with three or four bedrooms could have been bought with $500. The wage of a skilled workman was about $3.50 a day and he worked six days a week. If he worked 50 weeks, he would have earned $1,050, or twice the price of his house, in only one year. Compare that with today, and then add in the enormous amount of interest most homeowners pay in the course of acquiring their house. Of course, a house then was little more than a wooden shell. There was no electricity, plumbing, central heating, insulation, or floor coverings. Beginning in the 1880's, there were savings and loans associations that would loan money to buy homes, as well as many of the fraternal groups willing to lend money to their members. However, up to the great depression of the 1930's, most of these mortgages were short term, interest only, contracts in which the homeowner paid the monthly interest until he could afford to pay off the principal in one payment. In other words, the mortgages were not amortized. During the great depression of the 1930's, when so many people lost their homes to mortgage foreclosures, the lending institutions were very reluctant to make mortgage loans. In response, the Federal Government, with its Federal Home Administration, began to guarantee mortgages, thus encouraging the wary banks to again begin financing homes. However, in order to be guaranteed, the loan had to meet certain criteria — among them was the stipulation the loan had to be amortized. Then, the reasoning went, the homeowner will be paying off his principal as well as the interest, and with the reduced principal, his chances of losing his house to a foreclosure are less likely. 116 Block by Block History A N BLOCK 20 Lots 1-17 Lake Street Greeley (Western Row) Street [line of Hancock Street] Lots 1-17 There were four houses built on this block in the 1800's. By 1900, they had all disappeared. Lots 8 & 9 were owned by Scott and Elizabeth Van Emon. They bought Lot 8 from William Holcombe in September of 1857 for $200, and built a $400-500 house upon it. In the 1860 Census, he is listed as age 45, a farmer from Ohio.235 His wife, Elizabeth, was 29. In 1866, they bought Lot 9 and the house upon it that had been built by a man with the uncertain name of Charles Maybe; a house that had been mortgaged with Scott Van Emon, nine years earlier.236 It was in one of these houses on the west side of the street that the first hospital in Stillwater began. 235 1860 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 90. 23" N Deeds 135; H Deeds 17; R Deeds 39; C Mtgs 628. 117 Block by Block History "At the next meeting, Miss Nellie Pressnell reported that the house of Katie (Mrs. E. J.) Van Einmon was available to be used as a hospital. It was located on Western Row near Anderson. It had eight good rooms, with no repairs needed. Mrs. Van Emmon was willing to lease it reasonably for two or more years. After considerable discussion, it was decided it was better to rent than to build for the present time. On February 27, 1880, the Van Emmon house was taken for a period of two years. "237 Elizabeth Van Emon, who had lived in Stillwater since 1857, died at her residence, 916 S. Greeley, at the age of 82, on August 25, 19122'38. In 1913, Scott Van Emon, Jr. took out a permit to build a new house on Lots 7 & 8. It was to be a $3,000 house, 28 feet by 30 feet, 1-1/2 stories. The construction was to be under the supervision of Scott who would be "using day labor." When asked on the permit if all the materials and workmanship would be in accordance with the law, Scott wrote: "yes, as far as I know."23" This house is still standing at 914 S. Greeley, the oldest house remaining directly on the Lake. Lot 10 was the location of another pre -Civil War home. After nine previous owners, the owner throughout the 1870's was Hugh Ferguson. However the head of the household seems to be Michael Ferguson and his wife, Margaret, both from New Brunswick. His two hard-working sons, Thomas and Frazer, who lived with him, were the proprietors of the Ferguson Bros. Boots and Shoes on Stillwater's Main Street.210 An early history recounts that the brothers, working in lumbering and retailing, succeeded in saving up $2,000 in capital, and, as of 1880, were doing a business of $22,000 a year.211 Today that location is the site of of the home at 920 S. Greeley Street which was built in 1970. Wiliam Holcombe sold Phillip Miller Lots 14 & 15 in July of 1857. Miller built a home there, a small S150 house. In 1869, Anton Krenz, a stone mason, bought the house and lots for $400.2-12 The owner in 1880, Edward 237 Stillwater Evening Gazette, March 18, 1980. Lakeview Commemorative Edition. 238 Stillwater Daily Gazette, August 26, 1912. 39 City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #1541. 2-4° 1880 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 262, #279. Stillwater City Directories. 241 History of Washington County and The St. Croix Valley, North Star Publishing Company, Minneapolis, 1881. Page 572. 2-1 Y Deeds 171; T Deeds 88. 118 Block by Block History Smith and his wife, Lizzie, were living there with their two children. Long after this house was demolished, William (Lyman) Sutton took out a permit to build on these two lots a building for the storage of ice cut from Lily Lake. The building was 100 feet square and 36 feet high. The cost was estimated to be $7,000.243 Today this site is vacant land but the foundation remains.2-14 The remainder of the houses in this Block are all houses built in this century. On Lots 1,2 & 3, there is a house built in 1997 at 824 S. Greeley by Michael and Amy Hooley. The house that was on this site previously was moved to 308 North William Street.245 Lot 4 is the site of a home at 828 S. Greeley Street built over the winter of 1949-1950 by John and Betty Thoreen. The architect was Ed Hanson. The area was once, according to the Thoreens, known as Mulvey's pasture.216 Lots 5 & 6 is the site of a home at 906 S. Greeley built in 1950 by Roderick and Helen Lawson. Lots 8, 9, & 10 is the location of a house at 920 S. Greeley built in 1970 by Charles and Nancy Hooley. He was a one -term Mayor of Stillwater. Lot 11 contains a home at 928 S. Greeley built in 1951. The house on Lot 12 at 1014 S. Greeley was built by Stillwater contractor, Art Johnson, in 1965 for the James Qualey family. It was on the site of the Charles Anderson home.217 (The Anderson home was actually on Lot 13). Anderson was the foreman of the of The City Ice Company, a local firm owned by Lyman Sutton, which cut ice from Lily Lake to distribute to households throughout Stillwater. In his book of reminiscences, Jerome Larson writes about the ice man: Ice was harvested at Lily Lake ( as well as on the St. Croix River) and stored in a large barn near the southeast end of the lake. From the stored supply here, the Lily Lake Ice Co. serviced home and commercial customers, making deliveries from horse-drawn, covered wagons. In the hot weather of the summer, the kids would gather at almost every stop in the 243 City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #2574. 244 1880 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 262, #280. 2-45 Telephone conversation with Amy Hooley, 3-27-99. 246 Jo, Croixside Press, 1976. Page 98. 247 Jo, Croixside Press, 1976. Page 80. The yearly Tax Assessor's records indicate there was a $175 building on this lot during the period of the Civil War. Bonestad was the owner's name. 119 Block by Block History residential areas and reach into the wagon to get small slivers of ice to suck on for a cooling confection. Eddie Olson was the regular delivery man on the route serving our neighborhood. He wore a heavy rubberized pad over his shoulders and back, hoisted large chunks of ice that he had cut with an ice axe and pick, using heavy wrought iron tongs, onto his back and carried the chunk into the house if his customer. Then he'd fit the chunk into the ice compartment of the ice box, located in the kitchen or the back porch.248 In the l9th Century there were other ice houses on Lily Lake. Andrew Freitag had an ice cutting operation in roughly this same location, and there was another Lily Lake Ice Company's house on the north side of the Lake, just west of Grove Street.249 248 Stillwater Reflections and Lincoln School Days; Memories of Growing Up in Stillwater. Jerome Larson. Unpublished manuscript, 1992? Page 109. 249 Sanborn Maps, 1891, 1904, 1910, 1924. 120 Block by Block History A N Greeley (Western Row) Street BLOCK 21 Abbott Street Churchill (Pennock) Street [line of William Street] Block 21 is the location of Washington Square. I can find no evidence of any building on this block, nor has it ever been divided into building lots. I have given a history of this Square in a separate chapter. 121 Block by Block History The Van Emon house located about 914 S. Greeley St. circa 1880. Photograph courtesy of the Washington County Historical Society The Schnell house that was at 910 W. Anderson St. Photograph courtesy of Dorothy Gerson. 122 Block by Block History A N Greeley (Western Row) Street BLOCK 22 Lots 1-12 Churchill (Pennock) Street 7 3 2 l 8 9 10 4 5 6 11 12 Anderson Street [line of William Street] Today this whole block is occupied by Lakeview Hospital, but in the 19th century, it was the scene of three houses. Anton Peterson, a carpenter from St. Paul, built a bungalow and garage on Lots 1 & 2 in 1930. The residence was estimated to cost $6,500; the garage $800. There were oak floors on the first floor and a cement floor in the basement. I believe this house had the number 919 W. Churchill.25o It was taken for the hospital's expansion. Lot 3 was the site of a home built in 1891 by Gustine DeStaffany, a lumberman. This house, which was 16 feet by 29 feet, costing about $450, took the number 927 W. Churchill.251 It was taken for the hospital's expansion. Christopher Ferguson bought Lots 4, 5, & 6, along with a large $700 home from Robert Barclay in 1873.252 It can be seen on the northeast corner of Anderson and Western Row in the 1879 Bird's Eye View Map. Christopher Ferguson was a lumberman born in New Brunswick about 1844; his wife, Clara, 15 years younger, was born in Maine. They had one son, 250City of Stillwater Building Permit Applications #2325, #2326. 251 City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #624. 252 5 Deeds 149. 123 Block by Block History Glen.253 This house had the address 928 W. Anderson. This house is said to have been moved to Oak Park Heights when the hospital expanded. On Lots 7 to 10, there was a 1-1/ story home built before the Civil War that was purchased at a Sheriff's foreclosure sale in 1860 by Samuel Merritt.251 This house can be clearly seen on the southeast corner of Western Row and Pennock on the 1869 and 1879 Bird's Eye View Maps. There were several owners, but it does not appear any of them lived in the house. It was most likely rental property. In 1902, a new home was built on Lot 7 for James Clapperton by Stillwater carpenter, Eugene Schmidt. This house was 26 feet by 30 feet with a single chimney. This new S1,200 house took the number 939 W. Churchill.255 This home was taken for the hospital's expansion. On Lot 11, there was another small pre -Civil War home which was purchased by Richard Barron in 1866.256 Barron, who lived there until his death in 1880, came to Stillwater in 1850. He was engaged in supplying cut lumber to several of the local lumber mills. He and his wife, Elizabeth, (who was also a native of New Brunswick) and their five children were the occupants of this small $300 home.257 This home had the number 934 W. Anderson. 253 1880 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 262, #284. 251 N Deeds 1877. 255 City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #1064. 25( Q Deeds 512. 257 1880 U.S. Census Washington County: Stillwater: Page 262, #283; his biography is in History of Washington County and The St. Croix Valley, North Star Publishing Company, Minneapolis, 1881. Page 557. 124 Block by Block History A N BLOCK 23 Lots 1-7 Anderson Street 4 5 3 2 1 6 7 [line of Hancock Street] [line of William Street] Today, this Block is also occupied by the Lakeview Hospital campus, but there were once two houses here. Lot 3 was the site of yet another pre -Civil War house which went through several owners, contracts, and foreclosures before Lots 1, 2, & 3 were purchased by Patrick Doyle in 1871.258 Doyle, who lived there until 1886, was listed as a laborer. This house can be seen as a small broadside house, to the left of a much larger house on the 1869 Bird's Eye View Map. It took the number 927 W. Anderson. This small house was demolished by the hospital. There is some evidence of a smaller house on the back of Lot 3, which took the number 913 W. Anderson. A newer house, built in the 1960's, at 916 W. Anderson was moved across the park to 928 Abbot Street in 1977 when the hospital expanded. Henry Kattenberg bought Lots 4, 5, 6, & 7 in June of 1860 from Joseph Sanborn who was a Missouri resident. He paid $1,000 for the lots and a house — a great deal of money at the height of the depression. Thanks to Mr. Sanborn's delinquency, we have a detailed description of what this house looked like. Joseph A. DeCurtins, a local carpenter, who lived one block east, filed a lien against Sanborn in May of 1860, a month before Kattenberg purchased this house. This lien gives us specific information 258 T Deeds 467. 125 Block by Block History about Kattenberg's house as well as about building materials and practices at this early period. March 5, 1858 June 15, 1858 " 16. " " 19,20 " « « August 6" September October 11 March, 1859 " 19th April 9 " " 13 " June 4 " f! ff Making 9 doors for house in Holcombe's Addition $36.50 4 window sash 1.50 each $5.00 2 days work planking up and fix cellar $3.45 Work of three men, one day each $7.75 3 days of self & 2 men mooing and fixing old house $7.50 80 feet pine lumber added in $1.00 Making well ????? [can't read] $13.95 2-3/4 days work on stairway & cellar door $6.85 1-1/2 days making platform [scaffold] & fitting windows $3.35 3 days work putting on flooring on roof of new house $7.50 2 planks lumber $.60 laying floor $.75 Planning siding $6.00 other boards $3.60 Putting a cornice on old house $6.25 Putting on brackets $16.00 Henry Kattenberg was born in Prussia in 1821. He came to America in 1847, and to Stillwater in 1848. He opened a shop here as a merchant tailor, and "by industry and close application to business, he prospered and secured a pleasant home."259 However, "by liberality and kindness in extending credits, and an unfortunate venture in lumbering, he lost $14, 000... ", and in 1869, he took out a $1, 000 mortgage at 12% from Charles N. Nelson, his neighbor across Greeley Street. Two years later, he took out another mortgage, and by 1876, both mortgages were in foreclosure.260 His house and lots were repossessed by Nelson's Bank, the First National Bank, and in February of 1880, the property was sold for S1,304 to Henry Westing, a local man of some prominence. Four months later Westing sold the house and lots to the city of Stillwater for S 1,500 to be used as the city hospital.26 It has been written of Kattenberg that "With characteristic honesty, he turned over to his creditors his homestead and all he had to meet his liabilities. In 1880, he removed to Taylor's Falls and commenced keeping hotel at the Falls House, on Bench street. In October, 1886, he purchased the Dalles House of Mrs. C. B. Whiting."262 Kattenberg died in Taylor's Falls, May 6, 1908. 259 Fifty Years in the Northwest, by W. H.C. Folsom. Pioneer Press Company, 1888. Page 72. 260 I Mtgs 292; I Mtgs 296; Y Deeds 478; Y Deeds 476; 2 Deeds 291. 261 5 Deeds 336; 5 Deeds 497. 262 Folsom, Ibid. 126 Block by Block History Kattenberg's house was enlarged with an addition, and it served as the city hospital until 1919 when a new hospital building was built on that site. In July of 1914, a Nurse's Home was built on the east side of Lots 4 & 5. The building was constructed by local contractor, Emil Bieging at a cost of $3,500. It was two stories, 24 feet by 30 feet, wood frame, and took the number 931 W. Anderson.263 This house has since been moved to 1211 South Sixth Street where it is a private residence. 263 Sanborn Insurance Maps, 1924; City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #1567. 127 Block by Block History —W !MANI)* DEED. Now, . SI. I'anl. Ni„u tttt*0 ,Arnie this (10.1/ of V in, the 1/go,. of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighty.. between part of the first post,. and t�� � � purl-y of the seeonri part. U7lnesselh, 7.1 at the said part 'I of the first. part, in. consideration of the sent. of / jLL�/C 2�*tGL�.c,''ed� , C /5Gel--ee Cic�O7...9--1)ollrrrs. !o L�t. in hand u,l.ir1 bl/ the said part •Zof the second part. the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged. dos' hereby GP.lX7. 1i.IltG.d�. SELL and CONF./3y, undo the said parot the second parfQf� yl�ri„r ..o,t assigns, FoRET'M?, a.11 G,y4''��-trrr.ctSot* pa.reel5of land, lying (,Mdl being j,.. the County of 7� v and. Mate of Jlin.ncsota, rleacribed as follows. to wit e.. `i :"eGer�---G��-le--e6 ��.k...1- 4- -., �/L ��jCC[1� �`VJ 1^GGf/ ����IuUG i2'�(� _ �l t-c c c ��-Ic�c- L L.�LGC.Lc-2* / L2GC-� 7-3) l�-r'G2�c-c,�-`--� GGGI�:� t.�G 2 - rf .,"/ a � 42 —2/ L2� �LGC� G7.. "- -c.% ,-r-'i. 'Lt Lam/ _sic ` Iic): f /I� Gar !tom iL�L� v`Z,l l �L [�� /i z G.-i ,,OTT b;u'e and to fold the game, 7'ogei1ter 7ril11 a71 Nte, h.ereditaw e7tl.c attrl apptnHen aflees thereat; to hrinngi.ng or in anywise appertaining, to the stiff nat.! .^f the .second. pars'. '1Ji111 and nssic9»s, -l'QIiJrL/i. .4nrl, the said i f - _ - e-- port. 'f the first part. for /G=L44-1i -e heirs, executors and administralors. dry o7,enant with the saki part of the seeon.d part, `mil, L ,7iarr^ r•7trl assigns, That `Z` —�tj oral,/ soked in fee of the land, and premises aforesaid, and ha S soon right to .sell and convey the same in nla.n.ngr a:,rl form, aforrs•rirl: lhrrl lhe sante are free front all incttnLbranees; and the above bargainers' and. errn,!ed. lands (tors' premises, in. the quiet awl peaceable possession of the said port nJ the .second part, ",L '7e•,•vi."' assigns it -gains! all persons latefallll ,•la.iming or to Clain) 117e`7411701.e or (Mil pa¢ thereof, the said port of the lust part will IT''✓Ili.f'.!✓17 .4.A'n i)ET'La't,. 11 Cslillltnlll U1_'hrretr, The said pa.rt�ot' the first part hereunto se/ the day and near first above. written. IO�I'.Ir, .S.R.11.1I, %NII IIgI.ICt:R RD IN I'RE5RNOF OF Y^ ) E-i:'r`Cl. L= Z /trinrl and seal 24✓1,11 /6 .tla �L<)- The deed to the first City (later Lakeview) Hospital property. Courtesy of the City of Stillwater. 128 EARLY HISTORY OF LAKEUIEW HOSPITAL If you were somehow suddenly transported back to the Stillwater of the 19th Century, you would find circumstances quite different. You might be surprised by the great number of outbuildings: the wood sheds, chicken coops, outhouses, rabbit warrens, barns. You would crinkle your nose at the smells: the horse manure embedded in the muddy streets, the garbage dumped in every vacant lot, the pigs and cows roaming the streets. But much more profound, though less obvious at first, would be the differences in culture and attitude. Could you imagine today, for example, an attitude that would allow a situation similar to that which befell Hugh McDonald: Hugh McDonald, who with his wife and children lives on south Martha street, met with a terrible accident Monday in connection with which his fortitude and endurance have called out much admiration. He had been engaged during the winter as a teamster at Nelson & Johnson's Grindstone camp, and while at his customary work Monday, slipped and fell in front of his sled which bore a tremendous load of logs. Before he could arise, one of the sled runners struck him and its entire length of nine feet passed over his right leg, grinding that member completely off immediately below the knee. Help was near at hand, the amputated leg was picked up near where McDonald lay, and he himself was helped to mount a horse upon which he rode two miles to camp. From camp be was taken in a sled five or six miles to Hinckley where he was put on board the limited train and after a jarring ride of 75 miles reached Stillwater at 7:20 Monday evening. At Hinckley some woman of good sense had bandaged the leg and given McDonald's attendant some eighth -of -a -grain morphine powders, one of which she directed to be taken every hour until he should come under the care of a surgeon. This precaution allowed the injured man to endure the journey better than he otherwise could have done. In response to a telegraph from Hinckley, the patient was met at White Bear by Dr. B. J. Merrill and then received his first professional notice since the accident. The stump of the leg was so crushed and torn that an amputation just above the knee was decided necessary to save any part of the leg or even the patient's life, and the operation was made that night. McDonald came out from under the knife in an encouraging condition and is thought to have a 129 Early History of Lakeview Hospital good chance for recovery. He is about 40 years old and of strong physique.261 Hugh McDonald died the next day. In the middle of the 19th Century, there was the feeling that hospitals were places to go to die; they were miserable places intended only to treat charity cases. In Minnesota, it was not until after the Civil War that hospital construction flourished. By 1871, a city hospital was operating in Minneapolis; two years later, a committee of St. Paul residents planned for a municipal hospital.265 In Stillwater, the move for a city hospital began in the late 1870's with a series of articles and editorials in the local press. Typical of these is the following: A Need of the Place There is a great need of a public hospital in Stillwater. The vast amount of machinery in motion here, the number of men employed in the pineries by winter, and on the drives in the spring, the steamboating and the heavy railroad business, combine to make our laboring population unusually liable to accidents, and there is hardly ever a time when men are not under treatment here for injuries received in their daily avocations. Stillwater has also among her people, a great many young men who have left home and friends, and are working out fortune, or at least honest livelihood for themselves, unaided, and alone. If sick, or injured, these men have no home but a boarding house, no care but that received from strangers. The city is so full of benevolent people, that no needy or suffering person is knowingly neglected, but at the best a boarding house, or even the home of a person in moderate circumstances does not compare in comfort and convenience for the sick, with a well arranged, well managed hospital. Such an institution the city needs, and should have, and if any public spirited body of men or women will take hold of the matter, such a hospital can be erected and put in operation. 266 264 Stillwater Messenger, February 25, 1888 265 The Peoples's Health; A history of public health in Minnesota. Phillip D. Jordan, Minnesota Historical Society, 1953. Pages 436-440. 266 Stillwater Lumberman, April 25, 1879. 130 Early History of Lakeview Hospital The following year, on February 13, 1880, a large group of women met at the house of John McKusick to discuss the need for a hospital. After considerable discussion, they elected to form the County Benevolent Society to promote the building of a hospital in Stillwater. At the next meeting on February 27, the group learned that Elizabeth Van Emon had an eight room house in good repair she would be willing to rent for use as the hospital. The house was located on the west side of Western Row [S. Greeley] near Anderson Street. [This house was in the location of 914 and 920 S. Greeley today.] After more discussion, it was agreed to rent the Van Emon house for a period of two years. In making this decision to locate the hospital so far from the business district, the women may have been convinced by the 19th century notion that the pure country air, and fresh breezes from Lily Lake would be of great benefit to the patients of the hospital. Acting swiftly, the women drew up and signed Articles of Incorporation for the Stillwater City Hospital on March 22, 1880. The hospital did not remain in the Van Emon home very long; in May, the City Council voted to acquire the Henry Kattenberg property and house: Lots 4, 5, 6, & 7 of Block 23 located on the east side of Western Row [S. Greeley] between Anderson and the line of Hancock Street. The house (hospital) itself was located on the south side of Lot 5 with a one-story kitchen wing extending into Lot 6.` (37 In July of 1880, the census enumerator listed the inhabitants of the hospital. There was a matron, Mrs. Combs, age 50. Other staff were a steward, a cook, and a servant. There were six patients: Edward Wiley, age 31, who worked as a stationery engineer, was in the hospital for typhoid fever. 30 year old John Reider was being treated for rheumatism; Thomas Frick, 45, was suffering from "barber's itch." Patrick Mellin, a 45-year-old laborer, was insane, and John Peterson had been scalded, while Edwin Moriaty, age 22, had his thigh crushed while working as a railroad brakeman.268 The women operated the city hospital for the next ten years, interviewing and hiring employees, sewing and mending linens, soliciting donations, and even canning produce to use in the winter months. 267 Sanborn Insurance Maps, 1891 268 1880 U. S. Census, Washington County: Stillwater: Page 262, #278 131 Early History of Lakeview Hospital However the city hospital was not the only hospital in Stillwater during this early period. An article written in 1938 mentions two others: "Two other hospitals [in Stillwater] --one a homeopathic institution --were established about 1881. W. H. Caine was house physician and surgeon, Alexander Donald was oculist and aurist, Drs. Edgerton and Dorion of St. Paul and Dr. Steek of Minneapolis were the consulting surgeons, and Drs. Hutchinson and Humphrey of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, respectively, were the consulting physicians. This hospital was also supported partly, at least, by benefit parties, records of which appeared in the newspapers of that time. The hospital apparently did not last very long, evidently being closed in the spring of 1883, for at that time Dr. Caine was patronizing the city hospital, which he continued to do until he was excluded from the grounds "for conduct unbecoming a physician and a gentleman." [The location of this second hospital is uncertain] ....The third hospital was established in March, 1885, and was especially devoted to the care of lumbermen and private patients.')269 This third hospital was The Minnesota Hospital Zi°, located in what is today a private residence at 1121 N. Fourth Street. This hospital, located on property owned by Seymour & Sabin Company, was the business venture of Dr. E. R. Jellison, and his one-time partner, W. E. Langley. In reporting the closing of the hospital in 1886, the local newspaper explained how the hospital had been funded: "The plan of the management was to sell tickets of two kinds. One style, sold at five dollars, entitled the holder, if sick or injured, to board, nursing and medical attendance; the other, which was sold at ten dollars, gave the same privileges with the additional stipulation that the holder, if injured, should be assured the sure of five dollars per week for a certain length of time pending recovery. The lumber camps were thoroughly canvassed and it is thought several hundred of these tickets were sold to the woodsmen. It was generally supposed that the 269 Minnesota Medicine, "History of Medicine in Minnesota" August 1938, Page 574. 27° For many years, it has been thought that this building was the original city hospital (Kattenburg house) moved to this location. However the present resident of 1121 N. Fourth has in her basement the original siding removed from over the front door in which the name "Minnesota Hospital" can clearly be discerned. 132 Early History of Lakeview Hospital hospital was highly profitable to the proprietor, and the cause of the failure is not understood. "2''71 This elementary kind of health insurance was not unique to The Minnesota Hospital on the North Hill. For a time, the city hospital also sold tickets of this nature to finance its operation. By 1891, the city hospital on Greeley Street had outlived its competition, and a new brick veneered hospital was built at a cost of $6,116 by local contractor, Sven Berglund.272 The architect was E. P. Bassford, the busiest architect in St. Paul during this decade.L73 (Bassford is perhaps best remembered today as the architect of the 150 room St. Paul City Hall — Ramsey County Courthouse built in 1889. demolished in 1933). The Stillwater Hospital was not one of his more creative works: it was a plain, almost square, (48 feet by 44 feet), building. On the first floor were two surgical wards, an operating ward, and fever ward. The second floor held the female ward, and five private rooms. There were waterclosets and bathrooms on both floors. The attic was designed for drying clothes. This 1891 hospital building was built on Lot 6, just south of the original hospital, and connected to the original hospital (the Kattenberg house) with a passageway. In a well-known postcard postmarked 1911, you can see the first hospital building (the Kattenberg house) in the foreground, and the 1891 brick veneered hospital in the background.2 7 ' For the next 20 years, the women continued to run the hospital with their biggest difficulty in raising funds. They sponsored theatrical entertainments, catered dinners, took care of children at the Opera House during performances, and sponsored a marathon dance carnival by Professor Speedy. In July of 1914, a Nurse's Home was built on the east side of Lots 4 & 5. The building was constructed by local contractor, Emil Bieging at a cost of $3,500. It was two stories, 24 feet by 30 feet, wood frame, and took the 271 The Messenger, May 15, 1886 272 Annual Report of City Hospital, 1892; City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #614 272 Lost Twin Cities by Larry Millett. Minnesota Historical Society, 1992. Page 65, 206. 274 The Sanborn Insurance Maps of 1891 and 1904 show the same 2 story frame structure on Lot 5 before and after the 1891 hospital was built. The postcard indicates the same. The charge in the 1892 Annual Report of $38.75 for moving the Annex might well refer to moving the Contagion Ward, a separate building, south on the lots, about 100 feet. 133 Early History of Lakeview Hospital number 931 W. Anderson.275 This house has since been moved to 1211 South Sixth Street where it is a private residence. After the First World War, the push for a new building that had first surfaced in 1912, began in earnest. Mayor Kolliner of Stillwater called on all the citizens to support a new building designed by architects, Buecher & Orth from St. Paul. Through public subscription, $90,000 was raised, and local contractor, O.H. Olsen began work on in September of 1919. This third hospital building was built on Lots 5 & 6, (the site of the first hospital building), on the north side of, and adjacent to the 1891 (second building.) At this time, the first hospital building (the Kattenberg house) was most likely demolished or moved.2 7 s This newest hospital building was named the Lakeview Memorial Hospital, and two rooms were set aside for soldiers and sailors, who would be treated free if they were unable to pay the hospital dues. There was also a bathroom on every floor, an electric elevator, and a dining room and kitchen on the ground floor. In 1958, the Lakeview Memorial Hospital Association was incorporated, and a fund drive that culminated in pledges of $1,181,000 began the construction of a fourth hospital building. Construction on the original portion of the new hospital began in November of 1959, and a second story was added in 1966. Since that time, the hospital has continued to grow and expand both in its services, and the size and number of its buildings as well as the size of its campus. 275 Sanborn Insurance Maps, 1924; City of Stillwater Building Permit Application #1567. F Sanborn Insurance Maps, 1924. 134 Early History of Lakeview Hospital The Kattenburg house, the first hospital building, is on the left; the second hospital building at 1007 S. Greeley, built in 1891, is on the right. Both photographs courtesy of the St. Croix Collection, Stillwater Public Library The third hospital building at 939 W. Anderson St. was built in 1919. The Nurses' Quarters is on the left, and the 1891 building can be glimpsed on the right. 1 Early History of Lakeview Hospital 136 HISTORY OF WASHINGTON SQUARE Alone among all the developers in Stillwater during the 19th Century, William Holcombe set aside some of his development for public or open space. Block 21 was dedicated to the public as Washington Square. However Holcombe was not entirely altruistic. He located his public square across the street (Western Row, now S. Greeley Street) from his own palatial residence, so the square both extended the open view from his front windows, as well as making the appearance of his house more impressive. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the notion of a public space was quite common. This common space was typically undeveloped in any way; it might be used for pasture, military drills, gathering twigs and sticks for firewood kindling, or a myriad of other uses. Faced with the gray bleak towns spawned by the Industrial Revolution, a maze of small cramped streets lined with often squalid tenements, early city reformers took inspiration from the landscape gardeners who had laid out the sumptuous private gardens of the 18' h century palaces and noblemen. In earnest discussions about the relationship between art and nature —a typically Romantic debate —the reformers expressed their concern about the city in terms of mass, space, and nature. Beginning in London in the 1820's, and France 10 years later, the park movement spread to the United States within two decades. New York's Central Park, the first effort towards a beautified recreational area in this country, was conceived and laid out in the 1850's. Whether Holcombe designated Washington Square in the traditional older sense of a public commons for use as a pasture, or in the evolving sense of it as a public park as we understand that term today, will probably never be known. The fact that he named it a Square probably indicates the traditional older use; the fact that it is today known as Washington Square Park is evidence of the current meaning and use of this public space. But Holcombe's generosity, however self-serving, did not extend to his two sons, William and Edwin. After their father's death in 1870, the two brothers attempted to reclaim the Square. City Park While some of our people have been urging the City Council to take measures to have the property given to the city by Wm. Holcombe, Sen., for a park, [by the time of this newspaper 137 History of Washington Square article, the notion of a "park" was well established] secured by deed or otherwise, the Holcomb brothers have not been wholly idle. A complaint has been filed in the district court, alleging that since the first day of June, 1872, E.V. Holcomb and William Holcomb have been the owners and entitled to the possession of 'Washington square" in Holcomb's Addition, and that in 1874, the city entered upon and took possession of the said premises. The plaintiffs ask to have immediate possession given them, and such other relief as the court may grant. The necessary papers were served upon the city clerk last Monday, thus placing the matter where the city will probably have to take action or lose the property. It has generally been the understanding that while Mr. Holcomb was mayor, in 1867, we believe, he gave the property to the city for park purposes, and he being the executive officer of the city, it was supposed he would have the proper papers executed and put on record; but nothing but verbal testimony has thus far been adduced that he intended to give it to the city. In 1874, the city had the property enclosed with a fence, and virtually took possession of it. It may be possible that Mr. Holcombe intended to make the gift, conditioned on the city's improving the same immediately, in which case the property would now revert to his heirs.277 Unfortunately any records of this court case have long since disappeared, so we have no way of knowing how or why the issue was settled in favor of the city. However it is worth noting that in the inventory of property taken at the time of William Holcombe's death in 1870, Washington Square was not listed. There is no evidence that the Square has ever been used for other than a public purpose. Children growing up in the area used it as a playground, although in those earlier days, the equipment available was little more than a set of swings and a sandbox. 277 The Stillwater Lumberman, April 30, 1875. 138 APPBNDLK A BUILDING DATES For over six months, I have researched these houses and their building dates. I have used the records of the yearly visits by the tax assessor which are now in the Minnesota State Archives; I have used the City of Stillwater Building Permits; I have used the deeds and mortgages found in the Washington County Recorder's Office; in short, I have thoroughly researched the dates which I present below. In many cases, particularly for those homes built before 1900, my building dates will be different than the dates you have for your house. This difference in dates is generally the result of a real estate agent using a building date found in the Assessor's Office when listing the home for sale. Before 1900, these dates in the Assessor's Office are generally inaccurate, and only meant to serve as a general guideline. Those dates with question marks, in most cases, indicate that I could not determine if any part of the original house remains within what is today, a greatly remodeled and changed structure. This, of course, then poses the question that, if, within the present structure, only one wall remains of an 1850's house, is the building date of that house the 1850's? I have tried to give a date that is indicative of the earliest part of the remaining house, even though its present day appearance might belie its history. 1856 1856 1856 1856 1857 1858 1858 1858? 1860 1860-62 1860? 1862 1870 717 W. Churchill 703 W. Willard 812 S. Harriet 716 S. Harriet 722 W. Anderson 819 W. Anderson 706 W. Churchill 709 W. Churchill 702 W. Churchill 621 W. Willard 718 W. Churchill 706 W. Anderson 1016 S. Holcombe 1870-71 1871 1871 1871? 1871? 1871? 1873 1873 1873 1874 1874 1874 1875 721 S. Martha 715 W. Abbott 609 W. Willard 602 S. Holcombe 702 S. Holcombe 706 S. Holcombe 621 W. Churchill 804 W. Anderson 615 W. Churchill 602 W. Churchill 810 W. Anderson 823 W. Anderson 912 W. Churchill 139 Appendix A Building Dates 1876 1877 1878 1878 1880 1881 1883 1886 1887? 1887? 1888 1888 1890 1890 1890 1891 1895 1911 1911 1911 1913 1929 1930 1931 1942 1946 1946 1946 1946 1946 904 S. Harriet 915 W. Abbott 719 W. Willard 622 W. Churchill 805 W. Abbott 903 W. Willard 1010 S. Holcombe 705 W. Anderson 719 W. Churchill 723 W. Anderson 805 W. Churchill 610 W. Churchill 712 W. Anderson 611 W. Churchill 603 W. Churchill 907 W. Willard 711 W. Anderson 701 S. Greeley 720 S. Greeley 711 S. Greeley 914 S. Greeley 921 W. Willard 813 W. Anderson 905 W. Churchill 921 S. Harriet 916 S. Holcombe 717 W. Willard 606 W. Anderson 612 W. Anderson 813 W. Churchill 1946 811 W. Anderson 1947 (moved) 721 S. Greeley 1947 911 W. Churchill 1947 803 W. Anderson 1947 1948 1948 1948 1948 1949 1949 1949 1950 1950 1950 1951 1952 600 S. Holcombe 803 W. Willard 716 S. Martha 722 S. Martha 703 S. Everett 1219 W. Willard 828 S. Greeley 812 W. Abbott 1201 W. Willard 811 W. Willard 906 S. Greeley 928 S. Greeley 715 W. Churchill 1952 1952 1954 1955 1955 1955 1955 1955 1955 1956 1956 1956 1956 1956 1957 1957 1957 1958 1958 1958 1959 1960 1961 1961 1963 1963 1964 1964 1965 1965 1965 1965 1968 1968 1969 1970 1970 1971 1974 1977 1977 1980 1983 1997 1997 1998 709 S. Everett 616 S. Holcombe 613 W. Willard 1109 W. Willard 629 W. Anderson 722 S. Everett 715 S. Everett 1017 W. Abbott 709 W. Willard 716 S. Owens 720 S. Owens 1015 W. Abbott 716 S. Everett 721 S. Everett 1019 W. Willard 1031 W. Abbott 806 S. Greeley 1005 W. Willard 922 W. Abbott 712 W. Churchill 716 S. Greeley 916 W. Abbott 918 S. Harriet 724 S. Owens 1015 S. Everett 1006 W. Abbott 905 W. Willard 710 S. Greeley 1115 W. Willard 803 S. Martha 811 S. Martha 1014 S. Greeley 904 W. Churchill 905 W. Abbott 710 S. Martha 709 W. Abbott 920 S. Greeley 919 W. Willard 619 W. Anderson 812-814 W. Anderson 928 W. Abbott 1015 S. Martha 819 W. Abbott 601 W. Anderson 824 S. Greeley 1020 W. Holcombe 140 APPENDIX B These names, addresses, and occupations were taken from the R. L. Polk & Co's Stillwater City Directory for 1894-95. Res means generally the home owner; Bds means a boarder, often an adult child of the home owner. Street House No. Abbott 0601. Abbott 0601 Abbott 0602 Abbott Abbott Abbott Abbott Abbott Abbott Abbott Abbott 0715 0715 0715 0715 0805 0805 0805 0805 Abbott 0915 Abbott Abbott Abbott Abbott Abbott Abbott Abbott Abbott 0934 0934 0934 0934 Name Almeda Tuttle Harriet Tuttle Robert L. Butler Charles Wicklund Edward Veliquete John Johnson Peter Miner Augusta Ingstrom Clarence O. Jourdain Louis I. Jourdain Peter Jourdain A. Wm. Hoage Ann O'Brien John Sullivan Michael Sullivan Thomas Sullivan North side between Owens and Lily Lake North side between Owens and Lily Lake North side between Owens and Lily Lake North side between Owens and Lily Lake Anderson Anderson Anderson 0618 0618 0618 Anderson 0623 Anderson 0705 Anderson 0705 Anderson 0706 Anderson 0712 Anderson 0722 Anderson Anderson Anderson 0723 0723 0723 Byron W. Trask George W. Trask Sylvanus Trask Joseph McGee James Barry Margaret Barry John Crimmins Thomas McCarthy Wm. Regan Henry McLain Vincent McLain Wm. McLain Occupation Res/Bds (Widow - Moses) R No Occupation Given B Machinist R Laborer. East Side Lbr. Co. R Rafter R Laborer R Laborer, T.C. Kilty R Domestic ? Clerk B Clerk. Mn. Thresher Mnfg. Co. B Jourdain & Mathews, Logs & Lbr. R Teamster R (Widow - John) B Lumberman B Laborer R Lumberman B Eliza Simons, Domestic B John D. Cropper. Coachman B Sarah Cropper, Domestic B Wm. G. Clark R Comp., Stillwater Messenger B Labor B No Occupation Given R Mason R Fireman, G. H. Atwood Student, Stillwater Bus. College B No Occupation Given R Lumberman R Rafter R Lumberman R Lumberman B Lumberman T3 141 Appendix B Stillwater City Directory, 1894-95 Anderson 0804 Anderson 0804 Anderson 0804 Anderson 0819 Anderson 0823 Anderson 0823 Anderson 0823 Anderson 0901 Anderson 0901 Anderson 0907 Anderson 0907 Anderson 0907 Anderson 0907 Anderson 0910 Anderson 0913 Anderson 0927 Anderson 0927 Anderson 0928 Anderson 0934 Anderson 0934 Anderson 0934 Anderson 0934 Anderson 0934 Anderson 0934 Anderson 0934 Churchill 0602 Churchill 0602 Churchill 0603 Churchill 0603 Churchill 0603 Churchill 0610 Churchill 0611 Churchill 0615 Churchill 0615 Churchill 0615 Churchill 0621 Churchill 0621 Churchill 0622 Churchill 0622 Churchill 0702 Churchill 0706 Churchill 0706 Hugh Sherrard Nathaniel L. Sherrard Nathaniel Sherrard Victor P. Bergeron James C. Sullivan Thomas Scullin Wm. McDonald Anna Sennitt James Walsh Edward T. Sinnott Mary Sinnott Wm. T. Sinnott Wm. Wilson Edwin Eichorn Patrick Scullin John Denvier Malcolm Denvier Michael Walsh James T. Barron Charlotte Gustafson Edward M. Barron Elizabeth Barron Elizabeth Van Emon Frank Barron Scott Van Emon James A. Brennan James L. Crowley Horace L. Keefe James H. Keefe James Keefe Wm. Hutchison Carleton Aylard Emily Battles Mrs. Hattie J. Wells Thomas D. Wells Burton H. Patwell Napoleon Patwell Arthur Mulvey James Mulvey John G. McCarthy Charles Jackson Claude Jackson Lumberman Lumberman Cook B B R Filer R Rafter R Fireman on Steamer Alice D. B Boomman R Domestic Lumberman Rafter (Widow - Nicholas) Comp., E. E. Cowell Printer B R R B B B Blacksmith R Engineer on Steamer Alice :D. R Rafter for Musser-S L. L& Mnfg. R Lumberman B Raftsman R Bookkeeper, Jordain & Mathews R Domestic Lumberman (Widow - Richard) (Widow - Scott) Student Clerk, Eagle Hdwr. Co. Lumberman Teamster B B B B B R R James Keefe & Son. Painters James Keefe & Son, Painters James Keefe & Son, Painters Lumberman R High School Principal R (Widow - George W.) No Occupation Given Pankonin & Wells R B R Plumber • B No Occupation Given R Lumberman B Mulvey & Carmichael R Lumberman R Jackson & Son, Barbers R Jackson & Son, Barbers B B B R 142 Appendix B Stillwater City Directory, 1894-95 Churchill 0709 Churchill 0717 Churchill 0717 Churchill 0718 Churchill 0718 Churchill 0719 Churchill 0805 Churchill 0805 Churchill 0805 Churchill 0815 Churchill 0821 Churchill 0821. Churchill 0821 Churchill 0827 Churchill 0912 Churchill 0912 Churchill 0912 Churchill 0912 Churchill 0912 Churchill 0927 Churchill 0927 Churchill 0933 Churchill 0933 Everett 0802 Everett 0802 Everett 0802 Everett 1014 Everett 1014 Greeley 0720 Greeley 0720 Greeley 0720 Greeley 1007 Greeley 1007 Greeley 1007 Greeley 1007 Greeley 1007 Greeley 1007 Greeley 1007 Greeley 1007 Greeley 1007 Greeley 1007 Greeley 1007 Greeley 1007 Greeley 1007 Greeley 1007 Greeley 1007 Michael Doyle Elizabeth Warner Wm. Warner Daniel J. McKenzie Wm. Noonan John H. Cosgrove James W. Kent Johanna Kent Thomas F. Maher Albert Weckwerth Barbara Greeder John M. Greeder Miss Christina Sutter Samuel S. Seers Charles. A. Brotherton Francis R. Brotherton John A. Brotherton Lucy J. Brotherton William Brotherton Gustine D. De Staffany Sena Casperson Charles E. Clapperton James A. Clapperton Henry La Furgey John La Furgey Mary J. La Furgey Chas. A. Anderson Peter Jackson Anne E. Peterson Charles N. Nelson George F. Nelson City Hospital Albert McKee Andrew Peterson August Johnson Caroline Henningsen. Charles Shulz Christina Milke Edward Johnson Ellen Johnson Estine Baker George M. Stevens Hannah Nelson Henry Hummel James I-Ianson John Philbrook Martin Wordal Restaurant, 310 E. Chestnut R (Widow - John) Carpenter Clerk, Ziegler Bros. No Occupation Given Lumberman Lumberman (Widow - James) Lumberman Shoemaker, A. Arndt (Widow - Jacob) Clerk, O'Neal Bros. Cook Laborer Lumberman Lumberman Lumberman Dressmaker Works for G. H. Atwood Lumberman Domestic Tall.yman Scaler Lumberman Lumberman (Widow - Gideon) Teamster Laborer Domestic Pres., First Nat'l Bank No Occupation Given Laborer Laborer Watchman Domestic Laborer Domestic Laborer Domestic Domestic Physician Domestic No Occupation Given Laborer Laborer Laborer 143 Appendix B Stillwater City Directory, 1894-95 Greeley 1007 Mary Larkins Laundress B Greeley 1007 Mercie A. Young Matron, City Hospital R Greeley 1007 Millie Johnson Domestic B Greeley 1.007 NeLs A. Nelson Laborer B Greeley 1007 Nels Olberg Laborer B Greeley 1007 Ole Erickson Laborer B Hancock 1022 Harriet 0715 Harriet 0715 Harriet 0716 Harriet 0716 Albert Arndt Laborer for Frank Berry B Horace Leech John Leech Christian Lubahn Frank Lubahn Laborer, G. H. Atwood B No Occupation Given R Laborer R Laborer B Harriet 0812 Octave Willett Clerk R Holcombe 1004 Holcombe 1004 Holcombe 1010 Holcombe 1010 Conrad Jagg Laborer R Conrad W. Jack Molder, Mn. Thresher Mnfg. Co. R Emil E. Krueger Comp., St. Croix Post B Ernest Muller Upholsterer, Simonet Bros. B Holcombe 1016 Clemens Kunzelman Mason R Holcombe 1016 John Schutte Rafter B Martha 0712 Franklin Yorks Tallyman B Martha 071.2 Malcolm Yorks Bookkeeper B Martha 0712 Thomas J. Yorks Real Estate R Martha 0721 Frederick O. Wohlers No Occupation Given R Martha 0721 Frederick O. Wohlers, Jr Drayman R Willard 0609 Belle Carley Cashier, Murphy & Co. B Willard 0609 Etta Carley Dressmaker, L. S. Carley B Willard 0609 Helen Carley Dressmaker, L. S. Carley B Willard 0609 James F. Carley No Occupation Given R Willard 0609 Lucy S. Carley Dressmaker B Willard 0621 Clifford H. Cannon Telegraph Operator, Union Depot R Willard 0621 Ella Nelson Domestic ? Willard 0621 Mrs. Ella Henderson No Occupation Given B Willard 0621 Wm. C. Henderson Henderson & Co. (Grocers, 408 S. Martha) R Willard 0703 Willard 0703 John Muldoon No Occupation Given R Wm. Gowan Lumberman R Willard 0719 Samuel H. Hadley Barber, Lumbermen's Exchange R Willard 0903 Peter N. Peterson John Peterson & Co.. Marble Wks R Willard 0907 Frederick W. Kern Kern & Co., Boots & Shoes R Willard 0907 Max S. Kern Clerk, Kern & Co., Boots & Shoes B 144 APPENDIX C These addresses and names are taken from the Polk's Stillwater 1930-1931 City Directory Street House No. Name House is owned by some member of the family Abbott 715 Frank G. Kern Abbott 805 Louis Janda x Abbott 915 Mrs. Emma C. Granquist x Abbott 915 Albert E. Ponath Anderson 618 Mrs. Emily Behrens x Anderson 623 Mrs. Helen Beiderman x Anderson 705 Jerome Crimmins x Anderson 706 Hans K. Hanson Anderson 711 Geo. C. Barker x Anderson 712 Mary Regan x Anderson 722 Mrs. Emma D. Litfin Anderson 723 Mrs. Louisa Raduenz x Anderson 804 Vacant Anderson 810 Mrs. Lillian Berglund x Anderson 819 Victor P. Bergeron x Anderson 823 Jeremiah J. Murphy x Anderson 901 Louis Berquist x Anderson 907 Edw T. Sinnott x Anderson 910 Joseph L. Fish x Anderson 915 Chris Schafer x Anderson 927 Mrs. Anna C. Burgland x Anderson 928 James W. Kent x Anderson 939 Lakeview Mem. Hosp. Anderson 939 Carl A. Raeder Anderson 939 Carley, Gertrude, nurse Churchill 602 John A. Fredrickson x Churchill 603 Milton J. Howard, contr. x Churchill 610 J. E. Beaudet x Churchill 611 Gustave A. Arndt x Churchill 615 Hugo W. Kniebel x Churchill 621 Louis F. Meyer x Churchill 622 Jessie A. Mulvey x Churchill 702 Jeremiah O. Talley x Churchill 706 Vacant Churchill 709 Mrs. Louise Hanly x Churchill 717 Wm. J. Warner x Churchill 718 Danl. J. McKenzie Churchill 719 Joseph A. Powers Churchill 805 Louis M. Carney Churchill 821 Ralph A. Roettger x 145 Appendix C Stillwater City Directory, 1930-31 Churchill 912 Aug. F. Duwe Churchill 927 Wm. F. Niederer Churchill 939 Mrs. Mary McCarthy Churchill 939 Edw H. Schultz, genl repr Churchill 939 Emil F. Balfanz Churchill 939 Ernest C. Meyer Churchill 939 Geo. H. Barker x Greeley 701 Geo. Williams x Greeley 711 Herman Lampi x Greeley 720 Lois Tolen x Greeley 914 Joseph W. Mardaus x Greeley 1014 Chas. A. Anderson x Harriet 715 Horace Leach x Harriet 716 Theo Plaster Harriet 812 Mrs. Octave A. Willett x Harriet 904 Mrs. Marguerite Burris x Holcombe 602 Joseph Garavalia x Holcombe 702 Myron M. Ingberg Holcombe 706 Marcus J. Daly Holcombe 1004 Edw K. Bailes x Holcombe 1010 Emil A. Bartkey x Holcombe 1016 Henry P. Schubert x Martha 712 Marion Yorks x Martha 721 Otto F. Wohlers, expmn Martha 721 Nels P. Hansen Willard 609 Lucy J Carley x Willard 621 Wm. F. Beyers x Willard 703 Mrs. Eliz McLeer x Willard 719 Martin O. Madson x Willard 903 Otto A. Bieging x Willard 907 Nancy Olson x Willard 919 Conrad S. Christopherson Willard 921 Wm. K Wieden Willard 930 Chas. Reems x 146 APPENDIX D These addresses and names are taken from the Polk's 1954 Stillwater City Directory Street House Name House is owned No. by some member of the family Abbott 715 Mrs. Ida B. Zollner x Abbott 805 Marcella R. Janda x Abbott 812 Harold F. LaBore x Abbott 915 Mrs. Emma C. Granquist x Abbott 915 Albert C. Ponath Anderson 606 Howard E. Palmer x Anderson 612 Marvin H. Simon x Anderson 623 Mrs. Helen G. Biedermann x Anderson 705 Jerome Crimmins x Anderson 706 Carl H. Meyer x Anderson 711 Geo. C. Barker x Anderson 712 Kath M. Regan x Anderson 722 Roy A. Dietz x Anderson 723 Donald G. Carlson x Anderson 803 Nicolas M. Bashara x Anderson 804 Robt G. Noren x Anderson 810 Edw P. Yunker x Anderson 811 Ross N. Diethert x Anderson 813 Irene N. Bergeron, drsmk x Anderson 819 Bert G. Ostner Anderson 822 Fritz D. Ulrich x Anderson 823 Valentine N. Radke x Anderson 901 Louis M. Salmore x Anderson 907 Leo N. Schnell x Anderson 910 Anthony T. Schnell x Anderson 915 Walter J. Garling x Anderson 927 Alf M. Janilla Anderson 928 Mrs. Mary A. Kent x Anderson 937 Hospital Nurses Home Anderson 939 Lakeview Memorial Hospital Anderson 939 Chas. J. Sadek Churchill 602 Roy J. McGlinch x Churchill 603 Pat White Grocery Churchill 610 Jos. A. Rosell x Churchill 611 Eug. J. Pominville x Churchill 615 Hugo W. Kniebel x Churchill 621 Ernest C. Meyer x Churchill 622 Jessie A. Mulvey x Churchill 702 Robt J. Steinbeiser x Churchill 706 Arnold C. Alcorn x Churchill 709 Lois O. Hanley x 147 Appendix D Stillwater City Directory,1954 Churchill 715 Wm. E. Meier, contr x Churchill 717 Vivian E. Clark Churchill 718 Melvin H. Nelson Churchill 719 Jos. A. Powers x Churchill 805 Thos. Maher x Churchill 813 Arth. Newman x Churchill 821 Ralph A. Roettger, pntr x Churchill 905 Rev. Leonard A. Ziemer x Churchill 911 Russell J. Ogren x Churchill 912 Wm. J. Richert x Churchill 919 Jas. J. Becker x Churchill 927 Mrs. Margt. D. Niederer x Churchill 939 Merrill F. Knapp x Churchill 939 Delina A. Bergeron, drsmkr Churchill 939 Donald J. Secrest x Greeley 701 Mrs. Lillian Williams x Greeley 711 Arth. W. Lampi x Greeley 720 Mrs. Lois Tolen x Greeley 721 Wm. U. Lampi x Greeley 824 Gerhard P. Kaske x Greeley 828 John F. Thoreen x Greeley 906 Roderick A. Lawson x Greeley 914 Chas. T. Newman x Greeley 928 Jas. W. Hanson x Greeley 928 Harold H. Lange Greeley 1014 City Ice Co Harriet 716 Knute Cedarbloom x Harriet 812 Stanley L. LaCosse x Harriet 904 Gerald V. Ryan Harriet 921 Walter A. Kutz x Harriet 924 Lawrence Ryan Harriet 924 Herbert Ringheim Holcombe 600 Emil Ruline Holcombe 602 Jos. Garavalia x Holcombe 702 Mrs. Grace M. McAlpine Holcombe 706 Alice J. Kelley x Holcombe 716 Frank C. Garavalia x Holcombe 916 Simon C. Johnson x Holcombe 1004 Alf D. Asp x Holcombe 1010 Emil A. Bartkey x Holcombe 1016 Mrs. Eliz Schubert x Martha 716 Pierre J. McDonald x Martha 721 Helen K. Wohlers x Martha 722 Donald Palmer x Willard 609 Kenneth A. Peterson x Willard 613 John Elgethun x Willard 621 Frank T. Nolde x Willard 703 Edw. Fredrickson x x 148 Appendix D Stillwater City Directory,1954 Willard 717 Ernest E. Doe x Willard 719 Earl W. Neske x Willard 803 G. T. Flynn x Willard 811 Louis P. Zeuli x Willard 903 Kenneth H. Bieging x Willard 907 John W. Peterson x Willard 919 Herman F. Schmidt x Willard 921 Arth. J. Anez x Willard 1201 Karl A. Plain x Willard 1219 Forrest A. Nutting x 149 150 BIBLIOGRAPHY Birds Eye Views of Stillwater, 1870 and 1879. Drawn by Albert Ruger. Originals in the Washington County Historical Society, Warden's House Museum, and the Minnesota Historical Society. Reprints available from Empson Archives, P.O. Box 791, Stillwater, MN 55082. Paul Caplazi. Unpublished manuscript, April, 1944. The Charter and Ordinances of the City of Stillwater. Compiled by C. F. Gregory, City Attorney. Stillwater, Lumberman Steam Printing Co, 1881 Fifty Years in the Northwest, by W. H. C. Folsom. Pioneer Press Company, 1888. History of the Greeley Residential Area, Stillwater, Minnesota by Donald Empson, Empson Archives, 1997. The History of Oakdale Township, Vol 1, Oakdale Lake Elmo Historical Society, 1996. History of the St. Croix Valley, edited by Augustus B. Easton. Chicago, H.C. Cooper Jr. & Co., 1909. History of St. Louis City and County, including Biographical Sketches of Representative Men, by J. Thomas Scharf. Philadelphia, Louis H. Everts & Co. 1883. History of the White Pine Industry in Minnesota by Agnes M. Larson, University of Minnesota Press, 1949. History of Washington County and The St. Croix Valley, North Star Publishing Company, Minneapolis, 1881. In memoriam: sermon on the death of Hon. Wm. Holcombe, delivered in the Second Presbyterian Church, Stillwater, Minn., Sept. 25th1, 1870 by Rev. James Cochran. Stillwater, Minn: printed at the office of the Messenger, 1870. The Peoples's Health; A history of public health in Minnesota. Phillip D. Jordan, Minnesota Historical Society, 1953. Pages 436-440. 151 Bibliography Minnesota Biographies, 1655-1912. Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, Volume XIV. Sanborn Insurance Maps, 1884, 1891, 1898, 1904, 1910, 1924. St. Croix Union [newspaper, Stillwater, Minnesota] J. Montgomery Seaver. The Holcomb(e) genealogy; a genealogy, history and directory... of the Holcomb(e)s of the world....American Historical - genealogical Society, Philadelphia, Pa, 1925. Pages 136-138. Sectional Map of the City of Stillwater, [1878]. There is a copy of this map hanging in the Washington County Recorder's Office. Sixty Million Acres; American Veterans and The Public Lands before the Civil War by James W. Oberly, Kent State University Press, 1990. Stillwater City Directories, 1876-1964 Stillwater Daily Gazette [newspaper, Stillwater, Minnesota] Stillwater Historic Contexts: A Comprehensive Planning Approach. Stillwater: Stillwater Heritage Preservation Commission, July 1993. Stillwater Gazette [newspaper, Stillwater, Minnesota] Stillwater Lumberman [newspaper, Stillwater, Minnesota] Stillwater Messenger [newspaper, Stillwater, Minnesota] Stillwater Public Library. Stillwater Building Permits [on microfilm] Stillwater Public Library. St. Croix Collection. Stillwater Reflections and Lincoln School Days; Memories of Growing Up in Stillwater. Jerome Larson. Unpublished manuscript, 1992? United States. Census of Minnesota Territory. Washington County. Stillwater. United States. Census of 1860, 1870, 1880, Washington County: Stillwater: Washington County Probate Court Files. 152 Bibliography Washington County Recorder's Office: Books of Deeds, Books of Mortgages, Books of Bonds, Books of Plats. Washington County Tax Assessor's records for 1861-1900. Minnesota State Archives. Microfilm copies can be found at the Minnesota Historical Society, and the Stillwater Public Library. 153 154 RECOMMENDATIONS The following are my recommendations for Holcombe's Addition. They are based on the assumption it is desirable to maintain and promote the historic character of this neighborhood. It is my belief that the long term prosperity and value of Holcombe's Additions and Stillwater's other older neighborhoods lies in preserving their old fashioned character. This is what distinguishes Stillwater from the myriad of other suburban developments surrounding the Twin Cities, and makes Stillwater a unique place to live. LOT SIZE REQUIREMENTS Holcombe's Addition is physically different from many other older Stillwater neighborhoods. Because it was settled early -- in the 1850's and `60's,-- when lots were relatively inexpensive, most of the older homes in Holcombe's had "estates" of two and three lots which resulted in an open spacious neighborhood appearance. By the 1880's, when other parts of old Stillwater were built, the price of lots was relatively expensive and homes were often built on a single lot, or even a half lot. During the building boom after the World War II, many of the empty lots in Stillwater and in Holcombe's Additions were built upon, and today we often see blocks in which two 100-year old houses may be separated by one or two 1950's Ramblers. However, unlike other parts of old Stillwater where the housing density is higher and many of the previously empty lots have been built upon, there are still a surprising number of vacant, buildable lots in Holcombe's Addition. As the pressure to build within Stillwater continues, these empty lots will become a greater and greater source of temptation to developers and real estate speculators. Under the present city ordinances, any half lot of 7,500 square feet is a buildable lot. If present trends continue, more and more of these now -vacant lots will be built upon. It is quite possible that in 20-30 years, the density of Holcombe's Addition could double from 122 houses to 250 houses. Because there are presently no design building restrictions in Stillwater residential neighborhoods, these new houses will not only increase 155 Recommendations the density of the area — thus destroying some of its appeal — they will also add further to the architectural jumble, and obliterate what historic streetscape remains today. Because no one builds small houses any more, (and the city has no design guidelines for blending into a neighborhood) these newer houses of 2,000-4,000 square feet will overwhelm the small 7,500 square foot building lots, and destroy the scale of the streetscape that is one basis, albeit subtle, of Stillwater's attraction. Spacious yards and open spaces are a characteristic of l9th Century neighborhoods. I recommend the City of Stillwater change the minimum buildable lot size from 7,500 square feet to a minimum of 10,000 square feet. I also recommend the City explore the possibility of design guidelines for the older parts of Stillwater including Holcombe's Additions. HOSPITAL NEIGHBORHOOD Over the years, Lakeview Hospital has acquired and demolished several older homes in the expansion of its facility. If present demographic and health care trends continue, the liklihood of Lakeview Hospital or other health -related construction expanding further into the residential neighborhood is almost a certainty. It is unlikely such construction would expand west across S. Greeley Street because of the high cost of acquiring real estate on Lily Lake. Expansion to the north is not possible because of Washington Park. Extension to the south is not possible because of Brick Pond and its wetlands. Therefore, any enlargement will almost certainly take place into the residential area to the east, along the course of West Churchill and West Anderson Streets. When, in the course of their expansion, Lakeview Hospital acquires the older homes of the neighborhood, I would urge them to work with the neighborhood to make the houses available for moving, perhaps even providing financial assistance as, for example, United Hospitals in St. Paul has done. 156 Recommendations HISTORIC DESIGNATION In this survey, as in previous surveys, I have tried to identify homes that are significant or unique; homes that are typical of a long forgotten time; or homes that are particularly representative of Stillwater. But these surveys of mine are soon forgotten, and the significance I have ascribed to a particular dwelling may be forgotten as soon as the next owner. I urge the City of Stillwater and the Heritage Preservation Committee to initiate a process of designating and marking the historically significant houses in Stillwater. This will have the benefit of apprising the present owner that his home has value as a city landmark, and it will enable those interested in the history of the city to find the historical homes. The City of Stillwater should initiate its own historic designation for houses throughout the city that are a significant part of Stillwater's history. RAVINES Ravines are characteristic of Stillwater, with its many hills eroded into mini tributaries of the St. Croix River. Ravines are unique spaces in the city. They have their own flora and fauna. They have served through the years as roads, walking paths, gardens, play areas, and treasured wild life preserves. Some are public, some are private. The northeastern portion of Holcombe's Addition is dissected by a ravine. It runs diagonally from West Churchill Street west of South Everett Street on a diagonal course northeast to just south of West Willard Street on South Holcombe Street. From there it continues to the northeast, forming the roadway for West Willard Street for a block or two, before it fades away. This ravine, and the others in Stillwater, form an important part of the 19th Century landscape. In order to preserve this ravine, the City of Stillwater should never vacate West Abbott Street between South Holcombe Street and South Harriet Street. 157 158 Index A Abbott St. named, 15 Abbott St. 601 W., 79 Abbott St. 602 W., 61 Abbott St. 709 W., 76 Abbott St. 715 W., 76 Abbott St. 805 W., 73 Abbott St. 805 W., 75 Abbott St. 812 W., 68 Abbott St. 819 W., 74 Abbott St. 905 W., 71 Abbott St. 915 W., 72 Abbott St. 916 W., 70 Abbott St. 922 W., 110 Abbott St. 928 W, 110, 125 Abbott St. 1006 W, 113 Abbott St. 1017 W, 113 Abbott St. 1031 W, 113 Abbott, Milton, 79 builds house, 19 Abbott, Milton H & Mary J., 14 Aiple, Francis, 88 Alcorn, Arnold C., 147 American Express Company, 58 Anderson St. named, 22 Anderson St. 601 W., 105 Anderson St. 606 W., 85 Anderson St. 612 W., 85 Anderson St. 619 W., 106 Anderson St. 705 W., 101 Anderson St. 706 W., 89, 90 Anderson St. 711 W., 104 Anderson St. 712 W., 90 Anderson St. 722 W., 90 Anderson St. 723 W., 104 Anderson St. 803 W., 99 Anderson St. 804 W., 94 Anderson St. 810 W., 94 Anderson St. 811 W., 99 Anderson St. 812-814, 94 Anderson St. 813 W., 99 Anderson St. 819 W., 99 Anderson St. 823 W, 100 Anderson St. 901 W, 97 Anderson St. 907 W, 97 Anderson St. 910 W,41, 96 Anderson St. 913 W, 97, 125 Anderson St. 916 W, 125 Anderson St. 927 W, 125 Anderson St. 928 W, 124 Anderson St. 931 W, 127,134 Anderson St. 934 W, 124 Anderson, Andrew, 22 Anderson, Charles, 119 Anderson, Charles A., 143, 146 Anez, Arthur J., 149 Architecture Craftsman, 95, 99 Eastlake Stick, 73 Greek Revival, 14, 77, 88, 89, 91 Italianate, 65, 80, 81, 101 Queen Anne, 70 Armstrong, David & Lucinda, 58 Arndt, Albert, 144 Arndt, Gustave A., 145 Asp, Alfred D., 148 Ayers, Edward, 88 Aylard, Carleton, 142 Bailes, Edward K., 146 Baker, Estine, 143 Balfanz, Emil F., 146 Barclay, Robert, 123 Barker, George C., 145, 147 Barker, George H., 146 Barkley, Robert, 95 Barron, James, Edward M, Elizabeth, Frank, 74, 142 Barron, Richard & Elizabeth, 124 Barry, James & Margaret, 101, 141 Bartke_y, Enid A., 146, 148 Bartkeys, 42 baseball diamond, 41 Bashara, Nicholas M., 147 Bassford, Edward P., 133 Battles, Emily & George W, 84, 105, 142 Bean, Jacob, 60 Beaudet, J. E., 145 Becker, James J., 148 Beecher, Gustavus, 23, 67 Beecher, Mary, 24, 59 Behrens, Doris, 85 Behrens, Mrs. Emily, 145 Beiderman, Mrs. Helen, 145 Bergeron, Delina A., 148 Bergeron, Irene, 147 Bergeron, Victor P., 99, 142, 145 Berglund, Mrs. Lillian, 145 Berglund, Sven, 83, 93, 133 Berquist, Louis, 145 Beyers, William F., 146 Bickford, Marquis L. & Mary, 74 Biedemiann, Mrs. Helen G., 147 Bieging family, 69 Bieging, Emil, 73, 93, 109, 127, 133 Bieging, Kenneth H., 149 Bieging, Otto O., 146 Bieging, William, 69 Black, Mahlon, 10, 14, 63 159 Index Anez, Arthur J., 149 Architecture Craftsman, 95, 99 Eastlake Stick, 73 Greek Revival, 14, 77, 88, 89, 91 Italianate, 65, 80, 81,101 Queen Anne, 70 Armstrong, David & Lucinda, 58 Arndt, Albert, 144 Arndt, Gustave A., 145 Asp, Alfred D., 148 Ayers, Edward, 88 Aylard, Carleton, 142 B Bailes, Edward K., 146 Baker, Estine, 143 Balfanz, Enul F., 146 Barclay, Robert, 123 Barker, George C., 145, 147 Barker, George H., 146 Barkley, Robert, 95 Barron, James, Edward M, Elizabeth, Frank, 74, 142 Barron, Richard & Elizabeth, 124 Barry, James & Margaret, 101, 141 Bartkey, Emil A., 146,148 Bartkeys, 42 baseball diamond, 41 Bashara, Nicholas M., 147 Bassford, Edward P., 133 Battles, Emily & George W, 84,105, 142 Bean, Jacob, 60 Beaudet, J. E., 145 Becker, James J., 148 Beecher, Gustavus, 23, 67 Beecher, Mary, 24, 59 Behrens, Doris, 85 Behrens, Mrs. Emily, 145 Beiderman, Mrs. Helen, 145 Bergeron, D'elina A., 148 Bergeron, Irene, 147 Bergeron, Victor P., 99, 142, 145 Berglund, Mrs. Lillian, 145 Berglund, Sven, 83, 93, 133 Berquist, Louis, 145 Beyers, William F., 146 Bickford, Marquis L. & Mary, 74 Biedermann, Mrs. Helen G., 147 Bieging family, 69 Bieging, Emil, 73, 93,109, 127, 133 Bieging, Kenneth H., 149 Bieging, Otto O., 146 Bieging, William, 69 Black, Mahlon, 10, 14, 63 Block 1, 57 Block 2, 63 Block 3, 67 Block 4, 69 Block 5, 71 Block 6, 73 Block 7, 75 Block 8, 79 Block 9, 83 Block 10, 87 Block 11, 93 Block 12, 95 Block 13, 97 Block 14, 99 Block 15, 101 Block 16, 105 Block 17, 109 Block 18, 111 Block 19, 115 Block 20, 117 Block 21, 121 Block 22, 123 Block 23, 125 Brassau, George, 99 Brennan, James A, 142 Brick Pond, 41 Bronson, Edgerton & Roxanne, 113 Brosious, Joseph, 1 Brotherton, Charles A, Francis R, John A, Lucy J, Willitun, 143 Brown, John & Ann, 89, 99 Buck, Anita, 1 Buel, William, 23 Burgland, Mrs. Anna C., 145 Burldeo, Samuel, 10 Burris, Mrs. Marguerite, 146 Butler, Robert L., 141 Caldwell Eliza & John C., 71 California Fruit Store, 94 Cannon, Clifford H., 144 Cantwell, Mary, 15 Carley, Belle, Etta, Helen, James F, Lucy S, 144 Carley, Gertrude, 145 Carley, James & Mary, 57 Carley, Lucy J., 146 Carli & Schulenburg, 60 Carli & Schulenburg's Addition, 17 Carlson, Donald G., 147 Carly, James, 19 Carney, Louis M., 145 Casperson, Sena, 143 Cassey, Thomas, 104 Cates, Elsie, 1 Cedarbloom, Knute, 148 Cheime, Julian A., 84 Christopherson, Conrad S., 146 Church of First Christ Scientist., 74 Churchill St. named, 22 159 Index Churchill St. 602 W., 81 Churchill St. 603 W., 42, 84 Churchill St. 610 W., 81 Churchill St. 611 W., 84 Churchill St. 615 W., 84 Churchill St. 621 W., 84 Churchill St. 622 W., 80 Churchill St. 702 W., 73, 77 Churchill St. 706 W., 76, 89, 91 Churchill St_ 709 W., 88 Churchill St. 712 W., 77 Churchill St. 715 W., 88 Churchill St. 717 W., 88, 89, 91 Churchill St. 718 W., 76 Churchill St. 719 W., 89, 90 Churchill St. 805 W., 93 Churchill St. 813 W., 94 Churchill St. 815 W., 94 Churchill St. 904 W., 72 Churchill St. 905 W., 95 Churchill St. 911 W., 95 Churchill St. 912 W.. 72 Churchill St. 919 W, 123 Churchill St. 927 W, 123 Churchill St. 939 W, 124 City Ice Co. 148 Clapperton, Charles E, James A., 124, 143 Clark, Vivian E., 148 Clark, William G., 43, 111, 115, 141 Clegg, Charles, 94 Cole, Rueben, 88 Collius, M. J.. 100 Combs, Mrs, 131 Conners, Elizabeth & Richard, 1 Cornman, Lorenzo, 88 Cosgrove, John, 89, 143 Crimmins, James, 1 Crimmins, Jerome, 145, 147 Crimmins, John, 141 Crimmins, Neily, 38 Cronin, James & Mary, 100 Cropper, John & Sarah, 141 Crowley, James L., 142 Curely, Mary, 67 Curtis, John & Mary, 76 Daly, Marcus J., 146 Daniels, Virginia, 1 De Staffany, Gustine D., 143 DeCurtins, Christinan, 99 DeCurtins, Joseph A., 97, 125 Delwar, Henry & Louise, 69 Denvier, John, Malcolm. 142 Desautels, Henry & John, 99 Desautels, John Baptiste & Julia, 99 DeStaffany, Gustine, 123 Diethert, Ross N., 147 Dietz, Roy A., 147 Doe, Ernest E., 149 Donahue, Stan, 42 Donalds, Angus, 90 Donovan, Michael, 89 Downs block, 71 Downs, Archibald, 71 Downs, Arthur, 72 Downs, Donald & Eliza, 72 Downs, Henry, 71 Downs, William A., 71 Doyle, Michael, 143 Doyle, Patrick, 125 Dunn, Thomas & Quincy, 74 Duwe, August F., 146 Eichorn, Edwin, 142 Elgethun, John, 148 Ellis, Francis, 93 Elmer, John, 101 Erickson, Ole, 144 Everett St. named, 23 Everett St. 703 S., 68 Everett St. 709 S., 68 Everett St. 715 S., 68 Everett St. 716 S., 70 Everett St. 721 S., 68 Everett St. 722 S., 70 Everett St. 1015 S., 100 Ferguson Bros. Boots and Shoes, 118 Ferguson, Christopher & Clara, 123 Ferguson, Michael, Hugh, & Margaret, 118 Ferguson, Thomas & Frazer, 118 Fierke, Bill & Betty, 113 First National Bank of Stillwater, 58 Fish, Joseph L., 145 Fitzgerald, James P., 95 Flanagan, P.L., 84 Flynn, G.T., 149 Foster family, 74 Fredrickson, Edward, 148 Fredrickson, John A., 145 Freitag, Andrew, 120 Fullerton, Rev. T. M., 20, 31, 111, 115 Funari, Bill, 1 G Garavalia, Frank C. & Madeline, 61. 148 Garavalia, Joseph, 146, 148 Garling, Walter J1, 147 Gerson, Dorothy, 1 160 Index Gibson, William, 83 Glennon, Betsy, 1 Goggins, Jay, 113 Gowan, William, 144 Granquist, Mrs. Emma C., 145, 147 Greeder, Barbara & Jacob, John M., 143 Greeley School, 43 Greeley St. named, 23 Greeley St. 701 S., 109 Greeley St. 710 S., 113 Greeley St. 711 S., 110 Greeley St. 716 S., 113 Greeley St. 720 S., 112 Greeley St. 721 S., 110 Greeley St. 806 S., 113 Greeley St. 824 S., 119 Greeley St. 828 S., 119 Greeley St. 906 S., 119 Greeley St. 914 S., 118, 131 Greeley St. 916 S., 118 Greeley St. 920 S., 118, 119, 131 Greeley St. 928 S., 119 Greeley St, 1014 S., 38, 119 Green, Asa B., 18 Greider, Jacob & Marian, 94 Grieder, Barbara, 94 Gustafson, Charlotte, 142 Hadley, Samuel, 144 Hadley, Samuel & Bernice, 64 Hadley, Samuel & Olivia., 109 Hanley, Lois O., 147 Hanley, Michael & Mary, 90 Hanly, Mrs. Louise, 145 Hansen, Nels P., 146 Hanson, Ed, 119 Hanson, Hans K., 145 Hanson, James, 143 Hanson, James W., 148 Harriet St. named, 25 Harriet St. 715 S., 60 Harriet St 716 S., 65 Harriet St. 812 S., 76 Harriet St. 904 S., 88 Harriet St. 918 S., 91 Harriet St. 921 S.., 85 Harrigan, Cornelius, 95 Henderson, Mrs Ella, William C., 144 Henningsen, Caroline, 143 Hersey, Bean and Brown Mill., 76 Hill, Private Asa J., 9 Hoage, A. Wm., 141 Holcombe St. 602 S., 61 Holcombe St. 616 S., 61 Holcombe St. 702 S., 79 Holcombe St. 706 S., 79 Holcombe St. 916 S., 85 Holcombe St. 1004 S., 105 Holcombe St. 1010 S., 105 Holcombe St. 1016 S., 105 Holcombe, Alexander, 34 Holcombe, William biography, 26 buys property, 10 house, 28, 111 plats Addition, 11 Holcombe's Addition to St. Paul, 31 Holmberg, Joe, 1 Hooley, Charles & Nancy, 1, 119 Hooley, Jack, 1 Hooley, Michael & Amy, 1, 119 Hooley's Groceries and Meats. 42 Hospital Nurses Home, 147 Howard, Milton J., 145 Hummel, Henry, 143 Hutchinson, F. W., 81 Hutchison, William, 142 Ingberg, Myron M.. 146 Ingstrom, Augusta, 141 Jack, Conrad W., 144 Jackson, Charles & Mattie, 64 Jackson, Charles, Claude, 142 Jackson, Peter, 143 Jackson, Samuel, 109 Jacobson, Ruben, 41 Jagg, Conrad, 144 Janda, Louis & Mary, 73, 145 Janda, Marcella R, 147 Janecky, Betty, 1 Janilla, Alf M., 147 Jargg, Conrad, 105 Jellison, Dr. E. R., 132 Jenkins, Becky, 1 Johnson, Art, 119 Johnson, August, 143 Johnson, Edward, 143 Johnson, Ellen, 143 Johnson, Jim, 1 Johnson, John, 141 Johnson, Millie, 144 Johnson, Simon C., 148 Jourdain, Clarence, Louis, Peter, 141 Jourdain, Mary & Peter, 73, 75 Jourdain, Oliver & Margaret, 73, 77 161 Index Kaske, Gerhard P., 148 Kattenberg, Henry, 125, 131. Kaus, Ellen, 80 Keamey's Groceries, 42 Keefe, Horace L, James H. 83, 84, 142 Kellerhouse, Jacob, 101 Kelley, Alice J, 148 Kellogg, Theresia & Delbert, 109 Kent, James W, Johanna & James, 93, 143, 145 Kent, Mrs. Mary A., 147 Kern & Co. Boots & Shoes., 70 Kern, Frank G., 145 Kern, Frederick W, Max S., 144 Kern, Thlda & Frederick, 69 Knapp, Merrill F., 148 Kniebel, Hugo W., 145, 147 Kniebel, Wilbert, 42 Krenz, Anton, 118 Krueger, Emil E., 144 Kruger, Gothold, 106 Kundert, John, 87, 88 Kunzelman, Clemens, 144 Kutz, Walter A., 148 Kutzman, Emil, 101 L La Furgey, Henry, John, Mary J & Gideon, 143 LaBore, Harold F., 147 LaCosse, Charles, 42 LaCosse, Stanley, 148 Lakeview Hospital, 72, 117, 123, 125, 147 early history, 129 recommendations. 31 Lampi, Arthur W., 148 Lampi, Gene, 1 Lampi, Herman, 110, 146 Lampi, William U., 148 Landrith, Deborah, 1 Lange, Harold H., 148 Langley, W. E., 132 Larkins, Mary, 144 Lawson, Roderick & Helen, 119, 148 Leach, Horace, John, 24, 144, 146 Leach, John & Ellen, 59 Leech, Samuel, 10 Lieberman, Howard, 1 Lily Lake, 37, 41, 131 Lily Lake Ice Company, 120 Litfm, Mrs. Emma D., 145 Lowell, Albert, 64 Lubahn, Christian, Frank, 144 M Madson, Martin O., 146 Magnuson, Dave, 1 Maher, Thomas F, 143, 148 Mardaus, Joseph W., 146 Marlow, Stephen & Ann, 1 Martha St. named, 25 Martha St. 710 S., 68 Martha St. 716 S.. 68 Martha St. 721 S., 65 Martha St. 722 S., 68 Martha St. 803 S., 77 Martha St. 811 S., 77 Marty, Jacob, 88 Maybe, Charles, 117 McAlpine, Mrs. Grace M., 148 McCarthy, Guy, 90 McCarthy, John G., 142 McCarthy, Mrs. Mary, 146 McCarthy, Thomas & Katherine, 90, 141 McDermott, James & Anna, 101 McDonald, Hugh, 129 McDonald, Pierre J., 148 McDonald, William, 142 McDonough, John & Mary, 1, 113 McGann, Dennis, 57 McGee, Joseph, 141 McGlinch, Roy J., 147 McGlinches, 42 McGuire, Elizabeth, 58 McKee, Albert, 143 McKenzie, Daniel J., 143, 145 McKnight, Bill, 42 McKnight, Helen, 1 McKusick Lake, 17 McLain, Henry, Vincent, William, 141 McLean, Caroline, 104 McLeer, Mrs. Elizabeth, 146 McMillan, Samuel J.R., 15, 79 Meier, William E., 148 Meile, Jacob & Louisa, 89 Merritt, Samuel, 124 Meyer, Carl H., 147 Meyer, Ernest C., 146, 147 Meyer, Louis F., 145 Milke, Christina, 143 Miller, Phillip, 118 Miner, Peter, 141 Mohs, Henry, 38 Morgan, Edgar & Hattie, 76 Morgan, John H., 76, 77 Muggli, Antoine, 93 Muldoon, John, 144 Muller, Ernest, 144 Mulvey Inn B&B, 80 Mulvey, Arthur, James, 142 Mulvey, James & Miranda, 80, 81 Mulvey, Jessie A., 145, 147 Mulvey, John, 80 Mulvey's pasture, 119 Munes, Anna, 24 162 Index Murphy, Jermiah J., 145 Nelson School, 43 Nelson, Charles N, George F, 111, 143 Nelson, Ella, 144 Nelson, Hannah, 143 Nelson, Melvin H., 148 Nelson, Nels A, 144 Nelson, Richard & Rosella, 115 Nelson, Walter, 42, 43, 83, 113 Neske, Earl W., 149 Newman, Arthur, 148 Newman, Charles T., 148 Niederer, Mrs. Margaret D., 148 Niederer, William F., 146 Nolde, Frank T., 148 Noonan_ William, 143 Noren, Robert G., 147 North family, 43, 115 North Lily Lots, 115 Nowicke, Tim, 1 Nurse's Home, 127 Nutting, Forrest A., 115, 149 0 O'Brien, Ann & John, 141 O'Brien, Mary M., 1, 90 O'Brien Thomas & John, 109 O'Donnell, Michael & Elizabeth, 104 Oakdale, 60 O'Donnell, Patrick, 87 Ogren, Russell J., 148 Olberg, Nels, 144 Olson, Edward, 81 Olson, Nancy, 146 O'Neil, John, 76 Osborne, Betty, 1 O'Shaughnessy, Ignatius Aloysius, 97 O'Shaughnessy, John & Mary, 97 Ostner, Bert G., 147 Owens St. named, 26 Owens St. 510 S, 112 Owens St. 716 S., 113 Owens St. 720 S., 113 Owens St. 724 S., 113 P 1 Palli, Virgillius, 95 Palmer, Donald, 148 Palmer, Howard E., 147 Pat White Grocery, 42, 84, 147 Patwell, Burton H, Napoleon, 142 Peaslee, Ernest, 1 Pennock, Rev. Ames C & Elizabeth J., 19, 22, 31, 80 Peterson, Andrew, 143 Peterson, Anne E., 143 Peterson, Anton, 123 Peterson, John W., 149 Peterson, Kenneth A., 148 Peterson, Peter N., 69, 144 Philbrook, John, 143 Pirman, Lloyd, 113 Plain, Karl A., 115, 149 Plaster, Theodore, 146 Pominville, Eugene J., 147 Pominvilles, 42 Ponath, Albert C., 147 Ponath, Albert E., 145 Ponath, Pat, 1 Powers, Joseph A., 145, 148 Putz, Elizabeth & Robert, 25, 75 Qualey, James, 119 R Radke, Valentine N., 147 Raduenz, Mrs. Louisa, 145 Raeder, Carl A., 145 Randall, Burton & Phyllis, 113 Ravines, 32 Recommendations, 30 Reems, Charles, 146 Regan, Kathleen M., 147 Regan, Mary, 145 Regan, William, 90, 141 Rentz, Frederick, 84 Rice, Herman, 59 Richert, Otto, 104 Richert, William J., 148 Ringheim, Herbert, 148 Roettger, Ralph A., 145. 148 Roney, Thomas, 60 Rosell, Joseph A., 147 Ruline, Emil, 148 Russell, Rev. Joseph A. & Sarah, 20, 31, 65 Ryan, Gerald V., 148 Ryan, Gerald, Lawrence, Thomas, James, 87 Ryan, Lawrence, 1, 148 Ryan, Loretta, Marguerite, Gerald, 87 Ryan, Maurice & Mary, 87 L S Sadek, Charles J., 147 Salmore, Louis M., 147 Sanborn, Joseph, 125 Scers, Samuel S., 143 Schafer, Chris, 145 163 Index Schmidt, Eugene, 124 Schmidt, Herman F., 149 Schnell house, 41 Schnell, Anthony T., 147 Schnell, Leo N., 147 Schubert truck farm, 41 Schubert, Henry P., 146 Schubert, Mrs. Elizabeth, 148 Schultz, Edward H., 146 Schutte, John, 144 Scott, Margaret, 113 Scullen, Dorothy, 1 Scullin, Patrick, 142 Scullin, Thomas, 142 Secrest, Donald J., 148 Seigenthaler, Ulrick, 93 Sennitt, Anna, 142 Shepple, Catherine Elizabeth & John, 101 Sherrard, Hugh, Nathaniel L, Nathaniel, 142 Shulz, Charles, 143 Simon, Marvin H., 147 Simons, Eliza, 141 Sinnett, Nicholas & Mary, 97 Sinnott, Edward T, Mary, & Nicholas William T, 142 Sinnott, Edward T., 145 skating rink, 41 Smith, Edward & Lizzie, 119 Smith, George W. & Hannah, 25 Smith, William M. & Anna, 81 Sonnen, P. J., 110, 112 Spindle, Daniel E., 84 Spindle, Elzey J & Harriet, 81 St. Croix Savings & Loan, 70 St. Croix Valley Bank, 58 St. Michael's School, 43 Steinbeiser, Robert J., 147 Stephen Arthur & Maria J., 60, 81 Stevens, Dr. George M., 143 Stevens, Richard & Mary, 113 Stewart, Molly, 1 Stickney, Alpheus, 88 Stillwater School District, 60 Stillwater Seminary, 65 Stone, Mead, 1 street names, 11 Stryker, James D., 74 Sullivan, James C.. 142 Sullivan, John, Michael, Thomas, 141 Sutter, Miss Christina, 143 Sutton, William (Lyman), 119 T Talley, Jeremiah O., 145 Taurer, Matilda, 67 Tennant, Robert, 113 The City Ice Company, 119 The Highlands of Stillwater Addition, 32 The Minnesota Hospital, 132 1 The St. Croix Union, 15 Thom, Steele and Holcombe's Addition to Stillwater, 32 Thoreen, John & Betty, 119 Thoreen, John F., 148 Tolen house, 43 Tolen, G.W., 110, 112 Tolen, Lois, 146, 148 Tollas, Fred, 104 Torinus, Lois, 112 Tour. See Tuor Tozer, David, 97 Tracy, Aussie & William, 87 Tracy, Rosa & George, 87 Trask, Euphemia & Sylvanus, 84 Trask, Sylvanus, George W, Byron W, 141 Tuor, Antoine, 88 Tuor, Jacob, 89 Tuttle, Almeda, Moses, Harriet, 141 Tuttle, Moses & Almeda, 79 U Ulland, Peter & Jean Marie, 1 Ulrich, Fritz G., 147 Van Emon, Jr, Scott., 118 Van Emon, Scott & Elizabeth, 117, 131, 142 Veliquete, Edward, 141 Veterans Memorial Beach, 41 Vigneux, Louis & Mary, 99 W Walsh, James, 142 Walsh, Michael, 142 Walter Nelson's Addition, 113 Warner, Elizabeth & John, William, 88, 143 Warner, William J., 145 Washington Square, 41, 42, 121 history, 137 Webber, Bob & Shirley, 1 Webster, William, 22 Weckwerth, Albert, 143 Weldon, Morli, 1 Wells, Mrs. Hattie J, Thomas D, 142 West, Hannah S., 105 Westing, Henry, 126 Wheeler, Jewitt M. & Rebecca, 94 White, Pat & Virginia, 42, 84 Wicklund, Charles, 141 Wieden, William K., 146 Willard Moses, 19 Willard St. named, 14 Willard St. 609 W., 58 164 Index Willard St. 613 W., 59 Willard St. 621 W., 58 Willard St. 703 W., 14 Willard St. 703 W., 63 Willard St. 717 W., 64 Willard St. 719 W., 64 Willard St. 803 W., 68 Willard St. 811 W., 68 Willard St. 905 W., 70 Willard St. 907 W., 70 Willard St. 921 W., 110 Willard St. 1005 W., 113 Willard St. 1019 W., 113 Willard St. 1109 W., 115 Willard St. 1115 W., 41, 115 Willard St. 1201 W., 115 Willard St. 1219 W., 115 Willard, Moses S. & Mary Ann, 14, 63 Willett, Octave, 75, 144 Willett, Mrs. Octave A., 146 Williams, George, 146 Williams, Mrs. Lillian, 148 Wilson, William, 142 Winkle, Sarah & Peter, 87 Wohlers, Frederick 0, Frederick 0, Jr., 144 Wohlers, Helen K., 148 Wohlers, Otto Frederick & Catherine, 65, 89, 146 Wojahn, August, 104 Wolf, Anthony & Elizabeth, 76 Wordal, Martin, 143 Yorks, Marion, 146 Yorks, Thomas J. & Sarah, 67 Yorks, Thomas, Malcolm, Franklin. 144 Young, Mercie A., 144 Younger Brothers, 69 Yunker, Edward P., 147 Zeuli, Louis P., 149 Ziemer, Rev. Leonard A., 148 Zollner, Mrs. Ida B., 147 165 166 N. Fourth Street A History of the Dutchtown Residential Area Stillwater, Minnesota by Donald Empson Funded in part by a grant from the National Park Service Administered by the Minnesota Historical Society And The Heritage Preservation Commission of the City of Stillwater St. Croix River E. Alder Street CENTER STREET A History of the SttillzG Qee1 eso asidential Area 133,Donald Etnpson Funded i •4d n part by Q grant ministered by the from the theOfinnesot loci rhe Heritage Preservation ¢ Historical o y ek. Sert,zce ration Y City of Stillwater ion ester zp1z of the HCLCO MBE STREW„ Available for the First Time in 129 Years TWO mots rgi of STIL,bWATER, MINNESO`PA Drawn in 1870 -- Drawn Again in 1879 featuring *All Homes and Neighborhoods of the Day* *Churches Built by Those Early Congregations * *Bustling Waterfront Lumber !/fills* *Trees, Hills, Bluffs, and Streams* In the Fall of 1869, four years after the Civil War, Albert Ruger, an accomplished urban illustrator, made a pencil sketch of Stillwater. The Stillwater Republican wrote that Ruger's sketch "shows every street, and the name of same, and the buildings are clearly defined, and properly located that every citizen can point out his own residence be it ever so small." In 1879 Albert Ruger returned to Stillwater to again draw the prosperous city, which had doubled in size. The Stillwater Gazette wrote, "The picture will be valuable as a present map of the city, and will in the future possess great interest for reference. Remarkably Accurate and Scrupulously Detailed plus A Thoroughly Documented Guidebook Complete with Footnotes Framed copies may be seen in the Reference Room at the Stillwater Public Library ---ONE (1870 or 1879) Bird's Eye View and Guidebook: $25, plus $1.63 tax, plus $5 for mailing tube and postage (FREE DELIVERY in ZIP Code 55082). ---BOTH (1870 & 1879) Bird's Eye Views and Guidebook: $40, plus $2.60 tax, plus $5 for mailing tube and postage (FREE DELIVERY in ZIP Code 55082). To Order Send a Check to: EMPSON ARCHIVES P.O. Box 791 Stillwater, MN 55082 or call 651-351-0172