Placeography:Minnesota Pioneer House Project

This project is part of the Minnesota Sesquicentennial Celebration.

While not nearly as sexy as as their Victorian cousins, these houses built by early Minnesota settlers from the days when Minnesota was a territory and a young state are as historical if not even more so. These were houses built while most of Minnesota was still wilderness and finding skilled labor was difficult if not impossible, where sometimes if you wanted a shelter you had to build it yourself.

Help find and document the remaining pioneer houses built from before the end of the Civil War (1865). Many are known to local historians but many more are undocumented. To make matters worse city or county records often document these houses as being built when building records started begin kept, usually around the 1880s or 1890s.

Many left from that period are Greek Revival, the first true architectural style to achieve popularity in Minnesota. General characteristics of Greek Revival Style include corners defined by pilaster strips, which are corner boards in the shape of half-columns (often of the Greek Doric pattern); heavy friezeboards, trim boards under the eaves at the cornice level; full triangular pedimented gables similar to Greek temple triangles, principal entries with sidelights and transoms; and six-over-six pane double-hung windows with thin muntin divisions. Where a porch is present, the posts supporting the porch roofs are often in the form of classical columns.

	#	Street	Street suffix	Direction	City	County	Built
Alexander Faribault House, 12 Northeast 1st Avenue, Faribault, Minnesota	12	1st	Avenue	NE	Faribault	Rice	1853
Banfill Tavern, 6666 East River Road, Fridley, Minnesota	6,666	River	Road	E	Fridley	Anoka	1847
Bartholomew House, 6901 Lyndale Avenue South, Richfield, Minnesota	6,901	Lyndale	Avenue	S	Richfield	Hennepin County, Minnesota	1852
Charles Chapman House, 418 McCauley, South Bend Township, Minnesota	418	McCauley			South Bend Township	Blue Earth	1858
George Baslington Farmhouse, Goodhue County, Minnesota					Pine Island Township	Goodhue	1850
Gibbs Museum of Pioneer and Dakota Life
James L. Lawther House, 927 West 3rd Street, Red Wing, Minnesota	927	3rd	Street	W	Red Wing	Goodhue	1857
James P. Gail Farmhouse, Garden City Township, Minnesota					Garden City Township	Blue Earth	1857
Johann Schimmelpfennig Farmstead, Benton Township, Minnesota					Benton Township	Carver
MacDonald-Todd House, 309 West 7th Street, Hastings, Minnesota	309	7th	Street	W	Hastings	Dakota County, Minnesota	1857
Munch-Roos House, 360 Bench Street, Taylors Falls, Minnesota	360	Bench	Street		Taylors Falls	Chisago	1853
Paul Munch House, Summer Street, Franconia Township, Minnesota		Summer	Street		Franconia Township	Chisago	1855
Shaw-Hammons House, 302 Fremont Street, Anoka, Minnesota	302	Fremont	Street		Anoka	Anoka	1852
Taylors Falls Public Library, 473 Bench Street, Taylors Falls, Minnesota	473	Bench	Street		Taylors Falls	Chisago	1854
Walker and Valentine House, 504 High Street, Rushford, Minnesota	504	High	Street		Rushford	Fillmore	1859
William G. Le Duc House, 1629 Vermillion Street, Hastings, Minnesota	1,629	Vermillion	Street		Hastings	Dakota County, Minnesota	1862
Woodbury House, 1632 Ferry Street South, Anoka, Minnesota	1,632	Ferry	Street	S	Anoka	Anoka	1858

Notes

1.Death of a Dream: Farmhouses in the Heartland

2.Old Rail Fence Corners

3.Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum

4.Homes in the Heartland