Concrete Block House #8
Individual Landmark
| |
Address: 2826 Fourth Street North
Neighborhood: Hawthorne
Construction Date: 1885
Contractor: Union Stone & Building Company
Architect: Lemuel Jepson
Architectural Style: Concrete Block
Historic Use: Private Residence
Current Use: Private Residence
Date of Local Designation: 1985
Date of National Designation: N/A
Area of Significance: Architecture, Invention
Period of Significance: 1880-1899, 1900-
Historic Profile: In 1885, real estate entrepreneur, William N. Holway, formed the Union Stone and Building Company in Minneapolis. Their largest contribution to the city was a cluster of concrete block houses and rowhouses on the north-side of Minneapolis between 3 rd and 4 th Streets and 26 th Avenue North. Eight houses as well as an eleven unit rowhouse remain as examples of the very early use of concrete blocks as an artistic architectural material. In her article, "Early Development of the Artistic Concrete Block," Ann Gillespie states that the introduction of pre-cast concrete into North America occurred in the late 1860s. Even though the new building material offered the advantages of being easily formed to resemble natural stone at a considerably lower price, the widespread use of concrete blocks in residential structures was never widely embraced. The community developed by William Holway is an exception. Although the buildings were designed by individual architects, they all share similar stylistic elements -- two and one half stories featuring side hall plans rectangular fenestration and roofs of multi-gable variety with ornamented primary façade dormers. All of the houses, with the exception of one, have retained their original concrete exteriors and merit their historic status.
Description: Two and one-half story; painted cast concrete block; rectangular plan; gabled hip roof with street facing eyelid dormer window. The original front porch has been removed.
Photo Credits:
1984, National Register of Historic Places Inventory – Nomination Form
2006, Minneapolis CPED
Works Cited:
City of Minneapolis, "National Register of Historic Places – Nomination Form," February 1982.
Updated: February 2007
Last updated Nov. 23, 2011