Education Restoration Preservation

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Recent posts:

Healy Block Residential Historic District – 3137 Second Ave So: Healy-Forbes House Healy Block Residential Historic District – Architecture Healy Block Residential Historic District – an Introduction Anders Christensen Receives Preservation Alliance of Minnesota Executive Director’s Award Anders Christensen’s Remarks on Receiving Preservation Alliance of Minnesota Award Healy Project Fundraiser at the Lowbrow, May 7th Winter Party Fundraiser December 2017 Talk: Preservation Advocacy, August 17th Open House at 1300 Mount Curve Avenue East Lake of the Isles Walking Tour May 21st New Research on the “Lost” Healy Block: Tour May 7th A Presentation on Master Builders Ingham and Parsons, Saturday, March 18th. Healy Project Winter Party Henry Ingham’s Yorkshire Healy Project Fundraiser at the Lowbrow, May 9th Healy Block Historic District Tour: April 17th Healy Project Holiday Old House Reception CANCELED–Healy Block Historic District Walking Tour–November 8 More Hauntings: Houses Built by Henry Ingham Healy House Hauntings Tour Intro to the History of the North Wedge North Wedge Architectural Walking Tour, October 3rd Healy Phoenix #2 Healy Phoenix #1 Report on the Event: A Great Dinner for a Good Cause A Child’s View of T.P. Healy’s Family Big Win for Healy Block Residents: Revised I-35W Expansion Plan T.P. Healy: Farmer, Commission Merchant & Wholesale Grocer in Nova Scotia Open April 25th: Restored 1885 House in Wedge Learn from the Past, Learn from the Present Grandstanding and Stonewalling at City Hall: Trashing the Public Trust Orth House Demolition An Open Letter to Minneapolis City Council Regarding the Orth House Demolition The Truth Will Out II: More Lies That Brought Down 2320 Colfax Avenue South The Truth Will Out: Lies that Brought Down 2320 Colfax Avenue South Judge Denies Injunction against Wrecking 2320 Colfax Avenue South Poisoning the Well: Testimony about 2320 Colfax Avenue South “City Ghosts” Visit Victorian House Historic North Wedge Walking Tour: Sunday, September 7th Combining New and Old: A New Vision for the Orth House A Place That Matters Healy Project Files Suit to Stop Demolition of the Orth House Happy Earth Day, Zero-Credibility City of Minneapolis Stop Demolition: Allow a designation study for the Orth House Perverting New Urbanism II: Greenwashing Demolition Perverting New Urbanism for Fun and Profit Size Matters: Development at Franklin-Lyndale DEN$ITY: Building Utopia in Gopher City Hypocrisy at City Hall: Planning Department Scorns Sustainable Development Déjà Vu All Over Again: Threats to Healy Houses Renewed Healy Project Special Kickoff Tour Saving Private Houses In Landmark Decision, City Council Stops Demolition of 2320 Colfax Avenue South What’s the Greenest Building? Who Lives in Lowry Hill East? Revoltin’ Developments VI: What You Can Do Revoltin’ Developments V: Sappy Citizens and Maudlin Attachments Revoltin’ Developments IV: Density and City Planning Revoltin’ Developments III: Density and Livability Revoltin’ Developments II: Healy Houses in the Wedge Revoltin’ Developments, Part I Healy Descendant Acquires the Bennett-McBride House On Memorial Day Lost Healys on the Healy Block More Lost Healys The Broom House: 3111 Second Avenue South More on Round Hill Happy Birthday, T.P. The Edmund G. Babbidge House: 3120 Third Avenue South Brightening the Corner: 3101 Second Avenue South 2936 Portland Avenue The Andrew H. Adams House: 3107 Second Avenue South Clones: 2932 Park and 1425 Dupont North The J.B. Hudson House: 3127 Second Avenue South Second Healy Family Home: 3131 Second Avenue South Schlocked: ‎2639-41 Bryant Avenue South 1976 Sheridan Avenue South: Preserved Exterior The William L. Summer House, 3145 Second Avenue South Two More in the Wedge Weapon of Mass Healy Destruction: I-35W Construction The Third: Healy Builds in the Wedge The Second: 3139 Second Avenue South Healy’s First House: 3137 Second Avenue South Anders Christensen, T.P.Healy, and the Healy Project

2936 Portland Avenue

Permit information:

2936 Portland Ave. So.
28 x 60 Frame dwelling
Owner: T. P. Healy
Architect:
Builder: T. P. Healy
B22718
6-12-90 / 9-1-90
Est. cost: $6,000.
I have been scrupulous in recording how Healy fills out the building permit in regards the lines Owner, Architect, and Builder. I have no idea why he chooses to put himself down as the builder on this house when he typically does not.

So much of the design aesthetic of this period is integrating the round and curves with the rectilinear and the triangle. Healy gives us dozens of variations with very few identical twins. (Photo from May 2011)


 The southside gable end. Note the characteristic Healy curved second story wall below the gable end.

By the end of 2011, the house was vacant and boarded up. In 1981 the then-owners of this house told the researchers that it had a ghost cat who would run down the stairs from the upper unit and leap through the closed door.
–A.C.
A relatively plain Healy Queen Anne set between its more elaborate neighbors. According to Madeline Douglas, the current owners, the Mauris, have brought this house back to life. Master Carpenter Peter Holly, who lives on the Healy Block, has restored the porch woodwork to its intricate original glory, as he has so many other Healys.

Permit information:
3107 Second Ave. So.
30 x 50 Frame dwelling
Owner: T. P. Healy
Architect:
Builder:
B24747
3-30-91 / 6-1-91
Est. cost: $5,000.


This photo shows the porch restoration by Peter Holly. The porch and entrance reveal the elegance of Healy’s design: the delicacy of the posts, railings, and upper trim, the classic double entrance doors, the skirting, the curved window, the elaborately trimmed main window. 
  1890: One world passing away; a new world being born. John Henry Cardinal Newman, a leader of the Oxford Movement, died (b. 1801). Artist Vincent Van Gogh died (b. 1853). Composer Cesar Franck died (b. 1822). Russian statesman V. M. Molotov born (d. 1986). American general and president Dwight D. Eisenhower born (d. 1969). French soldier and statesman Charles DeGaulle born (d. 1970).
Formation of the American Tobacco Company, after a price war among cigarette companies, created a monopoly organized by James Buchanan Duke. Duke later created similar monopolies for plug tobacco and snuff. Ultimately he established the Duke Endowment, principally for the benefit of Trinity College in Durham, N.C., in 1924 renamed Duke University.
Aug. 6: The first electrocution took place at Auburn Prison, Auburn, N.Y. The executed prisoner was William Kemmler of Buffalo, who had been convicted of the hatchet murder of Matilda “Tillie” Ziegler, his common-law wife, on Mar. 28, 1889. The execution was botched. George Westinghopuse, Jr., reported: “It has been a brutal affair. They could have done better with an axe.”
(To promote his advocacy of electrocution as an ideal way of execution, Thomas Alva Edison went around the country publicly killing elephants and other animals by running an electrical current through them.)
The existence of urban slums was well known by many, but it was not until the publication this year of “How the Other Half Lives” by Jacob Riis, a Danish-born New York City Journalist, that the reality of the miserable lives led by thousands in the slums was brought home to the general public. The book triggered efforts to alleviate these conditions by improving labnor conditions and instituting building codes. In his book Riis cited facts and figures and told of his experiences in the slums. Battling alone at first, Riis gained many supporters and found a powerful ally in Theodore Roosevelt. He also made enemies of landlords and politicians who were profiting from the slums.

 Healy rarely built the same house twice. In this case he had the good sense to build the second across town from the one in Central, over North in Old Highland.

Permit information:
2932 Park Ave.
30 x 60 Frame dwelling
Owner: George F. Hitchcock
Architect:
Builder: T. P. Healy
B22071
4-23-90 / 9-1-90
Est. cost: $7,000.

 What do we call this second floor porch ceiling structure? A diagonally projected conical porch roof? (An old picture of this house shows the original porch posts and decorative woodwork.)
A lovely Queen Anne detail: the round porch corner below the upper porch. The wall of the second story is curved below the south gable end.
The front gable end with false balcony.
The typical two-door entrance.

Permit information:
1425 Dupont Ave. No.
30 x 65 Wood dwelling
Owner: F. S. Stevens
Architect:
Builder: T. P. Healy
B22279
5-6-90 / 8-1-90
Est. cost: $7,000.

The house in Old Highland, even better preserved than the house on Park Avenue. 
The north gable end overlooking 15th Street. Healy used this feature repeatedly during this period; this is the only one that hasn’t been covered up or altered. Note the insulbrick siding at the peak. According to David Piehl, this house was covered in this fake brick siding when its current owner, Greg Rosenau, acquired it. Restoration is a process; there is rarely a conclusion. Ask any old house owner.
The interesting second story round-on-rectangle window detail.
This window dressing looks like the framing to a shrine.

–A.C.

Permit information:
3127 Second Ave. So.
30 x 55 Frame dwelling
Owner: T. P. Healy
Architect:
Builder: Self
B21731
4-2-90 / 7-1-90
Est. cost: $6,000.

This was the home of J. B. Hudson, an important figure in the retail jewelry business in Minneapolis. Healy would build J. B. Hudson a second home on Lowry Hill in 1905.   (Photo taken in 2011)


The front gable end with the distinctive cap over the triple set of gable end windows. On the second floor, note the arched stained glass transoms over the rectangular window in the bay. 

Note by owner David Piehl: All of the jewelled glass windows in my house were stolen when it was vacant prior to my ownership…with documentation provided by Andy Gage, they were reproduced by Century Studios to look as close to original as possible(remember that Century Studios makes the finest Tiffany reproductions, experts have trouble telling they aren’t original). The piano window had been missing for so long that we had no documentation on it, same with the second floor arched windows. The piano window was created using a design Robert Quene created, and I bought a set of antique windows from Keith Miller that fit the 2nd floor; the person Keith purchased them from claimed to have salvaged them from a house across the street before the demolitions to make way for “progress”.

The house with new paint job under way (Photo taken in 2012)


From 1890-1892, T. P. Healy builds the Queen Annes that we think of as his classics. My records show that he built 30 houses and a couple of barns during this three year period. Six of these houses have been wrecked, four for I-35. Minneapolis’s population had nearly quadrupled in the 1880’s; it was still growing. Twenty-three of these houses were built by Healy on spec; seven were built for clients. Only two were designed by architects; Healy designed the rest. Nationally, the American economy was heading for a bubble and a crash in 1893.

The building record for T. P. Healy reflects 15 houses and a barn built in the 1880s after his arrival here in 1885. Seven of these houses have been demolished, six by the construction of I-35 in 1959-60. There are undoubtedly more houses built by Healy during this period that have not been found. They may have been demolished. They would likely be in the Central or Whittier neighborhoods, or the Lake Street corridor from 28th St. to 31st St. If anyone reading this page is the kind of person who likes to dig through City building records, go find some more Healys.
–A.C.

Permit information:
3131 Second Ave. So.
28 x 55 Wood dwelling
Owner: T. P. Healy
Architect:
Builder:
B21410
2-24-90 / 5-1-90
Est. cost: $5,000.

The Healy Family lived here only two years, 1890-92. In the Healy Block literature, the house is called the Healy-Rea House
From 1890-1892, T. P. Healy builds the Queen Annes that we think of as his classics. My records show that he built 30 houses and a couple of barns during this three year period. Six of these houses have been wrecked, four for I-35. Minneapolis’s population had nearly quadrupled in the 1880s; it was still growing. Twenty-three of these houses were built by Healy on spec; seven were built for clients. Only two were designed by architects; 
Healy designed the rest. Nationally, the American economy was heading for a bubble and a crash in 1893.


The front gable end features a high-pitched roof and unusual window treatment.

Note by David Piehl: “Those doors themselves are not original to the house. In the 1970’s this house was a boarding house, and the owner of 3127 (Adrian Sarff) took one of the original doors with him as a “souvenir” when he sold it to Bruce Grosklags. Bruce talked the absentee landlord of 3131 out of the doors there, and so for many years that set of doors was on 3127. The other original door from 3127 was removed from the basement when George & Andy left, but in the early 1990’s Andy helped me locate it. Some of the Sarff family stopped by to see the house in the mid 1990’s as they returned home from Adrian’s funeral. I was aware that they had the other door (made into a coffee table), and delicately suggested they contact me if they ever wanted to part with it. A few weeks later it appeared on my front porch with a note from them. A few inches at the top and bottom had been cut off, but Pete Holley made a near-seamless repair and I reinstalled them. The original doors for 3131 are badly weathered, but salvageable and are in my basement until the current or future owners of 3131 want to restore them.”

The classic Healy second story–the bay with an elaborately trimmed center window, the porch, the rich fretwork.

–A.C.

Healy goes back to the Wedge to build what used to be a Queen Anne.  Today, Healy’s design is visible only in the general shape of the house.

The front gable end showing new siding and windows in 2012.

Permit information:
2639-41 Bryant Ave. So.
28 x 52 Frame dwelling
Owner: T. P. Healy
Architect: ” ” “
Builder:
B20046
8-22-89 / 10-1-89
Est. cost: $5,000.
Note that Healy uses uses punctuation to indicate that he is the designer of this house. The only time he does this on a permit.

New fenestration, asbestos siding, and the lack of original ornament insure that little of Healy’s design remains. Photo taken in 2011, before remuddling shown above on second-story facade was undertaken.
In June of 1889, Healy took out the permit for a house wrecked for I-35:
Permit information:
3132 Second Ave. So.
40 x 52 Frame dwelling
Owner: T. P. Healy
Architect:
Builder:
B19302
6-22-89 / 10-1-89
Est. cost: $5,000.
This house is much wider than he is typically building at this time.
 The dates on the permits show that Healy is working on three different houses in two different neighborhoods at this time–Central and Kenwood.
An 1880’s house Healy designed and built with most exterior features intact. Original address was 1840 Sheridan Ave. So. The permit was taken out by B. R. Coppage. Healy would build another house for Coppage at 1912 Queen Ave. So. in 1891.

Permit information:

1976 Sheridan Ave. So.
32 x 48 Frame dwelling
Owner: B. R. Coppage
Architect:
Builder: T. P. Healy
B18834
5-22-89 / 9-1-89
Est. cost: $4,000.

 The north side gable end. This has undoubtedly been changed. Gable ends were typically covered with shakes. The little window is not original. This probably looked liked the gable end on 1425 Dupont Ave. No. in Old Highland:curves rather than sharp edges.
The front gable end window pattern: note that the central, larger window drops below rather than rises above, also, the decorated half round window cap that unifies the three windows into a unit. The second story porch has been added; the first floor porch has obviously been altered.
 
Northside, second story windows. This window treatment does not seem common for Minneapolis at this time. It seems archaic, like a leftover from the Italianate style. Is it something that Healy brought with him from Nova Scotia?
A The south side gable end. The top of the gable end projects out above the window, a common feature from this period. Note the window dressing, very elaborate, with the fancy corbel.


George Orff, the architect, signed the permit. He was working as a City official at this time.



Permit information:
3145 Second Ave. So.
30 x 50 Wood dwelling
Owner: T. P. Healy
Architect:
Builder:
B17515
1-18-89 / 5-1-89
Est. cost: $6,000.



The Tudor front porch and side porch were added in 1908 according to the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota brochure on the Healy Block.


The south gable end.
One of three original barns left on the Healy Block.

In 1888 Healy built two Queen Annes side-by-side on the 2700 block of Aldrich Avenue South.  Although both have been covered in siding, some details remain.

2745 Aldrich Ave. S. Healy’s Queen Annes of this period are typically twice as deep as they are wide.
The south gable end.

Permit information:
2745 Aldrich Ave. So.
27 x 57 Wood dwelling
Owner: T. P. Healy
Architect:
Builder:
B16779
10-13-88 / 12-15-88
Est. cost: $4,000.

The elaborate window dressing on the front gable of 2745.

 To its south is another 1888 Queen Anne:

2747-2749 Aldrich Avenue S. We can’t see the detail on the front gable end, but Healy is not going to build identical houses next to each other.

Permit information:
2747-49 Aldrich Ave. So.
27 x 57 Wood dwelling
Owner: T. P. Healy
Architect:
Builder:
B16778
10-13-88 / 12-15-88

Detail of south gable end.

Est. cost: $4,000.



Unusual second story window detail.                    

 In 1960, miles of homes on the west side of Second Avenue South were wrecked to permit the construction of the new Interstate highway, 35W.  Among those destroyed were half of the houses on the current Healy Block.

There are only two houses on the Healy building list from 1887: 3140 Second Ave. So. and 3142 Second Ave. So. This is where they sat from 1887-1960.
The view looking north on the Healy Block from 32nd Street.  At left is the strip of grass at the I-35W off-ramp.
Permit information:
3142 Second Ave. So.
28 x 45 Wood dwelling
Owner: T. P. Healy
Architect:
Builder:
B13561
12-28-87 / 5-1-88

Est. cost: $4,000.

The site of 3106 Second Ave. S.
Permit information:
3106 Second Ave. So.
24 x 40 Wood dwelling
Owner: T. P. Healy
Architect:
Builder:
B15363
6-14-88/11-1-88
Est. cost: $3,000.
He has gone back to a much smaller and cheaper house. House was wrecked in 1959 for I-35W

The site of 3108 Second Ave. S.

Permit information:
3108 Second Ave. So.
24 x 40 Wood dwelling
Owner: T. P. Healy
Architect:
Builder:
B15364
6-14-88/11-1-88
Est. cost: $3,000.