Landmark Site

Berglund House

 

This home first appears in records in 1887 as a small structure with no specific owner listed. However, in the same year, Sven Berglund’s name appears on a permit for an addition to the home. Berglund was a Swedish lumberman who settled in Stillwater in 1857 at age 23. After several years as a woodsman, he purchased a half interest in the Stillwater Manufacturing Company, which contracted millwork for a nation clientele. He was one of the most prolific builders in Stillwater, and he also contracted to do the interior finish of the National Museum of Honolulu, where he also did millwork for wealthy plantation owners.

Berglund was a skilled carpenter, with his home neatly crafted and up to date. The 1882 Polk’s City Directory advertised:
"Berglund, Sven, Contractor and Builder, Prepared to do all kinds of building. Estimate furnished on application. Job work promptly attended to. Oversees his own contracts; res sw cor Elm and Martha."

Berglund assured that his own home was stylish, with shingled gables and latticed trim at the height of Queen Anne fashion. The house was originally "L" shaped, with a rear addition after 1900. Berglund experienced chimney fires at the house in 1901 and 1904, but records suggest the damage was limited. The porch, an early and distinguished feature of the home, was neglected for many years, but was restored based on old photographs. The home incorporates a Swedish sawtooth design on interior woodwork, a unique fireplace and built-in china cabinet.

Sven occupied the home with his wife, Tilda, and three children: Hilma, Emil, and Raymond. Others also spent time living in the home, including Nicholas Backe, a clerk at the Stillwater Hardware Company and secretary of the Norwegian Ski Club in 1890 (Backe and his family were soon to become the Berglunds’ next-door-neighbors) and in Catherine Ostrand, a widow, in 1894. Rosa Lundeen provided domestic services in the house around 1900. Daughter Hilma, born in 1886, spent considerable time at home as a teenager due to illness, choosing to pursue art during this time. She became a well-known weaver and artist, a member of the Minneapolis Handicraft Guild and good friend and teacher of Margaret Cargill. Her work can be seen at the Swedish Institute in Minneapolis.

From about 1910 through the mid 1950s, the home was under the ownership of Edward O. Johnson, a Swedish immigrant and proprietor of a Stillwater meat market, with his Swedish-born wife Hilda and children Edith, Gilbert, Erven, Hazel, Robert, Evan, Donald and Dorothy.

Source(s): City Directory. Stillwater: R. L. Polk and, Various. Print. Crump, Robert. Minnesota Prints and Printmakers, 1900-1945. Saint Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society, 2009. Print. Empson, Don. A History of the Greeley Residential Area Stillwater, Minnesota. City of Stillwater Heritage Preservation Committee. Stillwater, MN, 1997. Print. Larson, Paul Clifford. Stillwater's Lumber-Boom Architecture: An Annotated Photographic Essay. 1975. MS. St. Croix Collection, Stillwater Public Library. Tschofen, Carmen. The Staples and May’s Addition to Stillwater Washington County, Minnesota. City of Stillwater Heritage Preservation Committee. Stillwater, MN, 2005. Print. US Federal Census. Various years.

Washington County Parcel Identification Number (PIN): 2803020210042

Common Property Name: Berglund House

Neighborhood: Staples and Mays Addition

State Historic Preservation Office Inventory Number: WA-SWC-1589

Construction Date: 1887

Builder:

Architect:

Architectural Style: Queen Anne