A 'charming,' historic home rests near Pill Hill
Mar. 25—ROCHESTER — Amy Crockett loves learning about homes. She finds beauty in the architectural details and the importance of each home.
As a Realtor with Edina Realty, Crockett describes a sky blue home in Rochester as "cute" and "charming." The two-and-a-half-story home, built in the American Foursquare style, has a small lot of 5,227 square feet near Pill Hill.
"This is such a charming house nestled in the terrace of Pill Hill," Crockett described of the home at 819 Sixth St. SW.
The Pill Hill area homes, close to the Mayo Clinic and downtown, stretch between Third Street and Ninth Street Southwest and Seventh and 10th Avenue Southwest. This home carries its own "historic character" from its 1918 construction to hardwood floors, built-in cabinets and arched doorways.
"Some of these architectural details in an older home you just don't see as much in newer properties so custom built-ins, the beautiful woodwork and detail," Crockett said. "This home has a picture rail in the dining room so you can hang pictures ... up on the molding ... which just make it a unique, special feature."
The bright, light spaces of the home follow the Foursquare style, or "Prairie Box," designed with a room in each corner of the house along with a hipped roof and dormer windows. With homes across the country designed through kits by companies such as Radford, Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Aladdin,
the style was known as "truly American . . . the square type of modern home,"
according to Arts and Crafts Homes. The homes were popular from the 1890s to 1930s.
Foursquare homes are also known for including a full or half-width front porch,
the Homes and Gardens website said. A small deck rests at the back of the Rochester property. The home also has a built-in elevated bar and a fireplace in the lower level. The five-bedroom and three-bathroom home is listed at $499,000.
"(The home is) just surrounded by all those lovely historic homes in Pill Hill," Crockett said. "It has a very charming almost European neighborhood feel the way the homes are all sharing that back ... little alleyway with green space behind the home, really cute."
Throughout the
Pill Hill district,
the home styles range from Colonial to Tudor Revival, Prairie School, Craftsman, Spanish Colonial Revival and Bungalow, according to the district's National Register of Historic Places designation. The houses also featured "local interpretations" of the day's popular styles with builders such as Garfield Schwartz and architect Harold Crawford. Some of Crawford's most-known homes in Pill Hill are in the Tudor style.
As "one of the city's most distinguished residential neighborhoods," as the National Register states, Pill Hill shares the historic charm of many houses.
"(Pill Hill is) beautiful and it's been beautiful historically. It's not an area that has ever declined in its aesthetic appeal or the desirability of where people want to live," Crockett said. "It has still maintained, I think, a lot of that style and that desirability of where people would want to be for years, from back when Dr. Mayo lived in that neighborhood. It's just something that's really held its ... class of that neighborhood, the history, all of that."
