St Paul Historic Home 11

This weeks featured Historic Home is 312 Summit Avenue.

Built in 1857 for David Stuart, this home is the oldest home on the Avenue still standing. A photo of the home in 1888 can be found at the Minnesota Historical Society website as well as another photo taken in 1859 showing the six earliest homes to be built on Summit (312 is the furthest home on the left).

Constructed in the Italianate style with a stucco exterior, the home has survived almost in tact and boasts an amazing 10,000 square feet of living space. It has the classic defining elements like tall, paired-curved windows, bracketed eaves, double front door,etc. However the cupola originally on the roof of the home has been removed (probably in 1919 when then current owner Arthur Driscoll added a third story addition) as have the front terrace balustrade and the balustrade above the front door entrance. At some time in the past, the home was converted to a multi-unit dwelling and is currently a three family home.

During my research of the home, I found it interesting to learn the original owner died the year the home was constructed. Soon after his death, with no one to pay the mortgage, the home went in to foreclosure and was sold at a sheriff’s sale in 1860. Times were hard for future owners of the home as well, for it saw two more foreclosure auctions during the Civil War.

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