Heirloom Home

Frederick and Thkla Kern House

 

Gaye and Ron Lundstrom bought this house in October of 2002. Although the house had been severely modernized, Gaye and Ron went to work to restore the house to its original glory. Every day, all day, for six months, the couple worked to restore the inside of the house. They removed the lowered ceilings made of acoustical tile, and they enlarged doorways that had been shrunk to fit a modern door. All the original interior moldings and trim were missing, so they had to locate replacements. Many of the windows had been changed and were returned to their original size.

When they were done with the interior refurbishing, it took Gaye the next four summers to restore the exterior working on her own. Aluminum siding was removed, and the original wood siding underneath repaired. The decorative details of the exterior had to be recreated. She used seven colors of paint; each coat and primer applied twice. The front porch, which had been enclosed for years, was re-opened.

When asked if the six years of work was worth it, Gaye responds that she thinks restoring her house is a major accomplishment of her life.
She states passionately that she has personally saved a piece of Stillwater history--and she is right.

Frederick W. Kern, born in Prussia around 1850, and his wife, Thkla, born in Iowa around 1854, moved to Stillwater in the early 1870s. They, along with other members of his family, opened a store selling boots and shoes in downtown Stillwater. Their first residence was near Fourth and Mulberry Streets; a few years later, they moved to the South Hill near Fourth and Willard Streets. The 1880 Census lists the Kern household as Frederick, age 30; and Thkla, age 26; along with their children, Anita, age 5; Max, age 3; Lizzie Murdock, an 18-year-old servant; and Gustave Kern, Frederick’s 23-year-old brother who was clerking in the store.

In the 1870s and 80s, Stillwater was a fast-growing community, flooded with immigrant workers, and offering prosperity to hard-working merchants. In August of 1891, Thkla and Frederick paid $500 for Lots 3 and 4 in Block 4 of Holcombe’s Addition. Two months later, local carpenter, William Bieging, applied for a permit to build a $1,500 one-and-one-half story house, 26 feet by 30 feet with a 12-foot by 14-foot cellar. To pay for the house, the Kerns took out a mortgage in December from the St. Croix Savings & Loan for $1,300 at 6%. Their monthly payment was $6.50.

Perhaps Frederick was not such a good merchant. In the late 1890s, a few years after building this house, his business failed, and the 1898-99 Stillwater City Directory records him moving to St. Paul, where his trail is lost.

The next family in residence was the Olsons. The 1910 U.S. Census lists the Swedish-born Joseph Olson, age 65, as a road contractor; his daughter, Nan, age 30, who is working out of the house as a dressmaker; another daughter, Ellen, age 24, a milliner; and a son, Arthur, age 21, who is a cook in a restaurant. This family lived in the house through two generations, until 1953.

This endearing house with its turret and decorative details is a wonderful example of a miniature Queen Anne style house. There are several other houses very similar to it in Stillwater. See, for example, the house at 213 West Elm Street.

Source(s): Information complied by Donald Empson, Empson Archives on 4/4/2009. Book 31 of Deeds, page 539; Book X of Mortgages, page 128. City of Stillwater Building Permit application 620. 1880 and 1910 Census; Stillwater City Directories 1877- 1899. Gaye Lundstrom knows all the details about the history of the house.

Washington County Parcel Identification Number (PIN): 3303020210027

Common Property Name: Frederick and Thkla Kern House

Neighborhood: Holcombes Addition

State Historic Preservation Office Inventory Number: WA-SWC-944

Construction Date: 1891

Builder: Bieging, William

Architect:

Architectural Style: Queen Anne