Landmark Site

National Register of Historic Places - Individually Listed Property

Albert & Helen Lammers House

 

This Queen Anne home is on the National Register of Historic Places, noted for its turrets, detailed woodworking on the gables, elaborate entry portico, carved sleeping porch, and unusual roofline ornamentation, which includes a roof cresting drawn from Norse dragon lodges. The elaborate woodwork reflects well the occupation of the owner, a lumberman, as well as the skill of the Norwegian craftsmen who are reported to have executed the fine and exuberant details. Termed both a "carpenter's frenzy" and an example of the "Nonsuch" style, the 1893 home remains a well-preserved and distinctive Stillwater landmark today. Restoration has included the 1991 reconstruction of the corner turret, which reportedly blew off during a storm in the late 1950s.

Albert Lammers was a prominent logging contractor, born in Minnesota. While the 1880 census lists him as working on the river with no specific address, in 1882 he married Emma C. Kroon and spent the next decades in business with his brother, George. By 1900 they were well settled in at their elaborate home, with children Walter, Lenore, Roger and Wyman, and assisted by servant Minnie Magnusen and coachman Earl Hitchcock. Emma's activities in the home were like those of many other lumber wives of the era, including card parties and Presbyterian church suppers, and she was also able to travel abroad with her children. The home was also the site of two Lammers brothers' funerals: Ben (1897) and Elmer (1899), whose funeral was "largely attended and the floral offerings were beautiful."

At the same time, Lammers' massive lumbering empire experienced the pangs of a depleted industry, and Lammers spent not only large amounts of the logging season in his camps around Minnesota, but continued to diversify into mining and began seeking new sources of wood with other lumbering magnates. News accounts note his lengthy travels for land deals in South Carolina and Florida, and, by 1906 (with William O'Brien and several others) for the establishment of a lumbering company in the Bahama Islands.

Emma died in 1910, leaving Lenore in charge of the household, with Roger also living in the home. Albert died in British Columbia in 1920, where he had been pursuing his lumbering interests. The home had been rented to John Ferguson (an engineer), his sister Grizella, and her young daughter, Clara. By the mid 1920s, Fred Stoebe, secretary of Twin Cities Forge, and his wife, Alice, owned the home. They lived here until Fred's death in 1956, with renters sharing the home beginning in the 1950s.

Source(s): City Directory. Stillwater: R. L. Polk and, Various. Print. Larson, Paul Clifford. Stillwater's Lumber-Boom Architecture: An Annotated Photographic Essay. 1975. MS. St. Croix Marquis, Albert Nelson. The Book of Minnesotans; a Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men of the State of Minnesota. Chicago: A.N. Marquis &, 1907. Print. Johnston, Patricia Condon., and John Runk. Stillwater: Minnesota's Birthplace in Photographs by John Runk. Afton, MN: Johnston Pub., 1982. Print. US Federal Census. Various years.

Washington County Parcel Identification Number (PIN): 3303020140106

Common Property Name: Albert & Helen Lammers House

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State Historic Preservation Office Inventory Number:

Construction Date: 1893

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Architect:

Architectural Style: Queen Anne

NRHP: National Register of Historic Places - Individually Listed Property - 4/20/1982