102 4th Avenue Southwest
Faribault, MN, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Thomas McCall House ( Tetrault,Francois,House )

Statement of Significance:

The Thomas McCall House is significant within the context of Faribault’s aesthetic development as demonstrated through the built environment. (This context spans the Minnesota Historical Society contexts: Early Agriculture and River Settlement and Agricultural Development and Railroad Construction^ The context encompasses the activities, institutions and structures which represented the community's aspirations for physical beauty and culture as expressed through craftsmanship, art and architecture. Buildings significant within this context exhibit a high degree of architectural sensitivity and special attention given to scale, stylistic vocabulary, use of quality materials, and master craftsmanship.

Within that context, the Thomas McCall House is significant as one of Faribault's largest and most elaborate houses constructed of native limestone and as a refined example of French Second Empire and Italianate influences on the mid-to-late 19th Century architectural fashion. It is also significant for its close association with local master stone mason Thomas McCall and is a fine example of his mastery of stone cutting and masonry.

Locating on the Straight River the early Faribault residents had easy access to high quality limestone deposits within a mile of the Faribault settlement. Faribault's first three quarries were opened in the mid-1850s and owned separately by Alexander Faribault, Charles Wood and M.N. Pond. This indigenous natural resource, combined with the development of major religious and state institutions and their need for facilities, served to draw master craftsmen and designers to Faribault, Stonemasons William E. Jones, Edward Goodman, Thomas and Cormack McCall came to Faribault to v/ork on the large stone contracts being generated by these institutions. Similarly, architects Henry Congdon of New York City, Cass Gilbert of Saint Paul, and Willcox and Johnston of Saint Paul worked on large commissions and have left a legacy of finely designed, native limestone buildings in Faribault.

There arc many factors which contribute to the aesthetic quality of a particular place. Faribault, Minnesota, is a community which, partially through fate and partially through insightful planning, achieved a high standard of civic pride. Early practices of social justice and tolerance did much to affect the enduring social and economic prosperity of the community. Proximity to natural building blocks did much to affect Faribault's architectural prosperity.

As the community and its institutions grew, so did civic and personal pride. The fine designs which flourished from the 1860s to the early 1900s were not, however, limited to public or ecclesiastical architecture; the designs of private homes displayed the same pride and sophistication as their more imposing institutional neighbors. The same entrepreneurs who were building elaborate Italianate commercial blocks on Central Avenue (then Main Street) were also building exquisite, highly refined Italianate and Queen Anne style homes in Faribault's residential neighborhoods.

The Thomas McCall House is a fine example of a refined style rendered in native limestone by a master stone mason for his own residence. The structure was built circa 1868 and, according to historic photographic documentation, an 1888 panoramic vi>w of Faribault, and a letter from an early resident, was designed in the French Second Empire style. The early residence displayed the distinctive Mansard roof with roof dormers that gained American popularity in the Northeast and the Midwest. Below the distinctive roof line, the features of the Second Empire building were very closely related to the concurrent style, Italianate. The bracketing of the eaves, window and door shapes and crowns were similarly treated with elaborate hoods and varying degrees arches.

The French Second Empire popularity was fleeting and by the mid-1880s the once "modern" Empire style had fallen from vogue. The house retained Second Empire status until ca. 1908 when under the ownership of Francois Tetrault, also a stone mason and contractor (no oral or written record exists of his works), the Mansard roof was removed and replaced with the existing low pitched hipped roof. It is believed that the inverted fleur de lis banding under the eaves was also added by Tetrault at the time of the roof modification. The metamorphoses of residential architecture from one style to another is a common occurrence in Faribault as it is throughout the United States.

The stone structure which already shared a stylistic vocabulary with the Italianate, took on the identity it displays to this day. The Thomas McCall House, as it now stands, is Faribault's largest and most stylish limestone residence rendered in the Italianate style. Although the overall scale and composition of the house was altered with the removal of the roof, the main architectural significance of the house, its finely crafted stone facades, is not altered.

Thomas McCall came to Faribault in 1862 with his brother, Cormack McCall. The McCall brothers were stone masons who had worked on buildings in the east, including Saint Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. A listing of the buildings constructed by the McCall Brothers includes the Episcopal Cathedral, the Memorial Chapel, Shumway Hall, Seabury Divinity School, Johnston Hall, Mott Hall, and the Faribault City Hall.

Thomas McCall resided in this large structure for approximately 10 years. Circa 1880 the McCalls moved into the more modest brick structure across First Street at 28 4th Avenue SW, the abstract notes that the stone house was sold by Thomas McCall & wife to-Angelia A. Jackson in 1878.