Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Way Back When-sday: Historic Minnesota Homes

My current work in progress is set in 1898 in Minnesota. Recently I came across an interesting website dedicated to a Minnesota architect, Edgar E. Joralemon. He designed residential and commercial buildings in the Minneapolis area in the 1890s.

Many of his buildings are still standing today, but sadly, many of them have been torn down. A gentleman named Charles Test has started a website dedicated to collecting pictures of the buildings Joralemon designs.

If you go to www.chuckstoyland.com you'll find many more. Charles has graciously given me permission to share these pictures. There are many more on his website. If you visit the link, you'll also find out when the homes were built, how much they cost to build (most around $15,000) and when they were torn down--and why.










What about you? I've always dreamed of living in a house like one of these. Would you prefer to live in a brand new house with all the bells and whistles, or would you rather live in a hundred and fifteen year old mansion?

18 comments:

  1. I love looking at the stately Victorian homes in my Gold Rush town, but I don't think I want to live in one. The rooms are small, and there can be a good deal of maintenance, or so I hear. I content myself with having my characters inhabit them.

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    1. I love looking at them, too, Keli! And old homes do have a lot of maintenance and they generally had small rooms-but if money wasn't a problem, I'd love to buy one and bring it up to modern standards. In my current WIP the hero is building one of these beauties.

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  2. Wow, those are huge! We live in an old arts and craft style home. I love the character. Oh, you could write stories inside the walls of some of those beauties you posted :)

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    1. Lisa, we used to live in a turn-of-the-century home, but is wasn't anything like one of these houses! I love thinking of the lives people led in these home and right away my mind goes to a good story I could tell!

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  3. While I LOVE the idea of a sweet old mansion, I have a feeling if I were to plunk down money, it'd be on a newer home with modern conveniences. I'm just too practical, I guess. But if I had more time and money and maintenance know-how, I'd love to buy an old mansion and fix it up to be a modern beauty--keeping all the old charm but adding some modern features like a walk-in closet. Haha!

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    1. Yes, yes, yes! I have to admit, living in a hundred year old house is charming, but it can also be frustrating at times. Although we had great closet space in the bedrooms, there were no main entry closets and no storage space on the main floor, which was a problem. But, it's a give and take.

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  4. I'd rather live in an old house and add the bells and whistles. Why yes, I do like to have my cake and eat it too!

    Loved these homes. I so want a big porch! :)

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    1. I would love a big porch, too! And a back stairway. Those were two things I always wanted.

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  5. Wow, these old houses are BEYOND cool! I would actually like to renovate and live in an old, abandoned, architecturally cool church. Can you picture stained glass in the kitchen and an organ loft turned cozy writing space? SWEET!

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    1. That would be awesome, Donna! We had a cool old church go up for sale in our town a few years ago, but it's on a major road and I didn't think that would be fun to raise our kids there. But it would be an amazing home!

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  6. If money were no object I would vote for the character of the old houses. You can always re-model to add modern conveniences, but you can never add the character of those old houses to the modern ones.

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    1. I agree, Cori! There is nothing like a slanted floor where you children can throw a ball and it rolls back to them! :) our oldest did that in the last house we lived in.

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  7. I LOVE old houses!1 I love not living in them, too!! They are usually very cold in winter and I like heat. Ohhhh, but these are SOOOOOO pretty!

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    1. Yes , Jennifer, we lived in an old house for years and it was very cold in winter. The current house we own is much newer, twice the square footage and costs us half as much to heat. But, it was such a charming little house.

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  8. Old houses are fun but they seem like a lot of work to maintain. If I didn't have to worry about any of that, I'd love it, though! :) I'd DEFINITELY love to stay at a B&B in a house like this. So fun!

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    1. You're right, Lindz. They not only suck up time for maintenance, but a lot of money, too. There's something always needing to be fixed. But, they are so beautiful. I wish we still built houses like this.

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  9. I'll take the Portage Red Stone/1893 Samuel H Hall House please!! Very similar design to my favorite house in Duluth. :) Some day I'll have a turret.

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    1. My dream house would have a front porch, a back servants stairway, a turret and a beautiful grand staircase. Sigh. :)

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