Relics on Redwood
The walls in these classic houses in Marshall surely have plenty of stories to tell. Here are the stories behind those houses.By Jodelle Greiner
Article Photos
Pieces of Marshall's social and business history are for sale on East Redwood Street. Three houses built by early settlers who were business and community leaders are for sale in a one-block stretch of East Redwood Street. The houses are owned by the Schwan Development Corporation of the Schwan Food Co. and were once part of a plan to develop the houses and area into a cultural arts center.
In the 1890s, Marshall was starting to get a real foothold on the Minnesota prairie and the Harden, Burchard and Dibble families rode the wave by building new homes.
The houses were showplaces in their day, said Andrea Swenson-Hess, who researched the houses while employed at Schwan, along with Ellen Skramstad, after Schwan bought the houses in 2006.
In the 1800s, the Redwood Street location was part of the "prominent side of the town," Swenson-Hess said.
As far as Swenson-Hess can find out, they were the first houses built on that block, even though the land had been plotted and in some cases, owned by several other people.
The outsides of the houses have changed very little since those days, judging from the pictures in "Marshall, Minnesota," a souvenir book published in December 1900 by Wall & Haines of Minneapolis, soon after the houses were finished. The outside of the Harden and Burchard houses appear much as they did in "Marshall, Minnesota", but the Dibble house originally had a porch that wrapped around the southern side.
"The porch of the Dibble house burned and was knocked off," Swenson-Hess said.
Who Built the Houses
The house on the corner of Redwood and 4th Street, 309 Redwood St., was built by Myron W. Harden, who was president of First National Bank of Marshall. He married May Standring and they had two children, daughter, Mate, and son, Leonard, "An Illustrated History of Lyon County" by A.P. Rose (1912) said.
The building of the middle house at 305 Redwood St. was started by Henry M. Burchard, who died in 1898. Son, James C. Burchard continued construction and succeeded his father as a general land agent for the railroad, according to "Marshall, Minnesota". J.C. Burchard married Sidonia M. Schupp and they had three children, Simeon, John E., and William, "An Illustrated History of Lyon County" said.
The third house originally fronted Third Street, but is now listed as 301 Redwood St. It was built by William S. Dibble, who owned the Bank of Marshall. He married Gertrude Owen and they had two daughters, Elizabeth and Sidonia, the book "Marshall, Minnesota" said.
The families certainly knew each other, said Swenson-Hess, adding that as bankers and a railroad land agent, the three men would have worked together on land deals.
There are indications they knew each other socially, as well.
"All three families were Masons," she said. "The women were social; very, very social. They started the first women's news club."
Newspaper stories support her theory. The Harden and Burchard families were frequently mentioned as having attended the same gatherings, such as a large card party in March 1899 hosted by the Hardens and the Burchards at the Harden home, and when the Hardens' daughter, Mate, married William Gatewood in their house in 1913 with about 150 guests, a story in the Marshall News-Messenger said.
WHAT WERE THE HOUSES LIKE
"From the information, it sounded like their houses were open to a lot of people," Swenson-Hess said.
Swenson-Hess said she tried to find blueprints to the houses, but couldn't.
She does know that the Burchard house had a ballroom on the third floor for "lots of parties," she said.
The most information about the inside of the houses is from the book "Marshall, Minnesota" and centers on the Dibble house.
"It was designed by Mrs. Dibble, and the plans were drawn by H.P. Fulton of Marshall. Each room is a poem in itself - each distinct and different - the furnishings of which are gathered from the four quarters of the globe regardless of expenses. Oak, mahogany, cherry, bird's eye maple, sycamore, white birch, cedar, cypress, red curly birch - all piano finished - are employed, giving to the home a grandeur which is dazzling in its beauty, and also every modern appliance conducive to comfort and the savings of labor have been utilized," the book said.
Swenson-Hess added that the materials were from Africa, Italy and Spain.
"It took a while to come across by boat and train," she said.
Which is part of the reason the house took seven years to build and reportedly cost $7,000, according to notes compiled by Skramstad. None of the houses cost more than $9,000, said Swenson-Hess.
Swenson-Hess said some of the "modern comforts" included sinks and hot water.
"I believe the Burchard house had an indoor toilet," she said.
"Everything was hand-done. That was part of the expense. They were Masons, they could do a lot of that themselves," she added.
WHAT HAPPENED TO THE HOUSES
It's difficult to know for sure what happened to all the fancy furnishings after the families moved out and sold the homes. Swenson-Hess assumes the families took all the furnishings with them, like the piano from the Harden house. During the renovations for the cultural arts center, she was surprised and thrilled to find the original wood floors under the carpeting.
As the houses changed owners, the houses themselves underwent changes.
"The Dibble house was sold to a widow. Almost immediately, it was turned into apartments," Swenson-Hess said. That's note-worthy because, "In the 1930s, apartments weren't that common." She believes the entrance was changed from Third Street to Redwood at that time.
The houses have gone from being the social center of Marshall to sitting empty of human inhabitants.
For information about the history of Marshall and Lyon County, read the books mentioned in this article, or "History of Marshall" by A.P. Rose and "Prairie Town" by John Radzilowski, all available at the Marshall-Lyon County Library.
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merioncooper
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06-25-09 9:46 AM
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Thank you Mr. F. Somedays I feel like I am walking naked through the woods after all this fleecing. Believe, that's not a pretty sight.
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EdmundFitzgerald
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06-24-09 11:20 PM
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Dearest Merry On: You may be correct – “business icons” more pathetic than Pippin may have attempted to fleece us. I can’t think of anything scarier.
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merioncooper
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06-24-09 3:45 PM
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Madoff, AIG, Lehman Brothers, basically anyone with a Wall Street office didn't do too badly at blowing other people's money -- at least Pippin's efforts got a new school, YMCA built. Where did Wall Street's messes go? Thin air. And, you, Mr. Fitzgerald, are paying for the drastic failures through the bailouts. I don't think Schwan's is getting bailout money, and I certainly like having a new YMCA much more than holding a letter from the feds saying, "sorry, but Mr. Madoff stole all your investments." You can swim at the Y, all you can do with a letter like that is wipe your ---.
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EdmundFitzgerald
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06-24-09 3:01 PM
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That’s right, merryon, we’re talking ASKING price. And I’m asking 10 grand for a busted-up lawnmower I’m trying to get rid of. Think I’ll get it? Only a Titanic fool would make an offer on one of these dives. It’d cost you 50 bucks a day just to heat the place during the winter. And good luck finding a banker to loan you the dough! Pippin is the only bozo alive who could have squandered cash so pathetically.
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merioncooper
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06-24-09 1:28 PM
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That is the ASKING price.
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EdmundFitzgerald
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06-24-09 12:01 PM
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“They are selling for a combined $430,000 or so” – they are selling to WHOM, merryoncooper? YOU, perhaps? Cripes, it’ll cost at least that much money to hire an excavator to tear down and haul away those rotten ramshackle spook houses.
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merioncooper
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06-24-09 10:52 AM
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Edmund, I agree the Landmark Bistro has been a costly blunder. But I don't think that's so about the houses on Redwood: They are selling for a combined $430,000 or so, and I don't think Schwan's paid that much for them. Assuming there are about 2,200 Schwan's employees in Marshall that averages out to $195 per employee, and far less if you average it out company wide, like about 17 dollars. I would guess there's more than $430,000 of merchandise or material on a single Schwan's semi.
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EdmundFitzgerald
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06-24-09 2:32 AM
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The buffoon Pippin hadn’t already urinated away enough of the Schwan company’s money on his tragicomical “Landmark Bistro/Empty Mercantile project”. He just HAD to also acquire these three piles of bonfire wood. Gawd, who would be stupid enough to spend a single penny on these trash dumps … Wait a minute, the phone’s ringing! Why, it’s none other than the poisoned-brained owner of the “Hotel-In-Flames Marshall” building! Hello, Sir! Let’s get down to business!
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