1195 West Circle Drive
Rochester, MN, USA

George Stoppel Farmstead

The George Stoppel Farmstead is a pioneer farm located just outside the western city limits of Rochester, Minnesota, United States. The farmstead is owned and operated by the History Center of Olmsted County. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. It was nominated for being one of the few surviving mid-19th-century farmsteads in the urbanizing Rochester in the Rochester metropolitan area, with an architecturally distinctive farmhouse and shed.

National Register of Historic Places - George Stoppel Farmstead

Statement of Significance:

The significance of this proposed district lies in its building architecture, use and arrangement. The following must be considered factors in a determination of the district's significance: (1) the importance of farming and its role in the state's political, social, and economic history; (2) a lack of interpretation of this history in the form of a "farm unit" consisting of buildings, machinery, crops, stock, and live activities; (3) the use of such a farm unit in the program of the Olmsted County Historical Society; (4) the predicted urbanization of the township where this district is located -- as well as other townships in Olmsted County -- and the subsequent decline of farming in Olmsted County.

First, this combination of three relatively unaltered farm buildings on original locations and of the same time period is a unique one in the county. Second, the farmhouse is a two- and one-half story native limestone lean-to salt box a good example of a particular design and material that is unique for this period in Minnesota. Published documentation on surviving houses of architectural significance in Minnesota have not recorded similar homes; most are Greek Revival, Victorian Gothic, Bracketed Italian or combinations and transitions of these three.

The two-story utility shed with its double smokehouse-and cupola stands perhaps as a surviving example, if not an oddity, of architectural significance. Nothing has been found in Olmsted County that matches this structure; it is unlikely that another will be found in southern Minnesota.

About the history of farming, this district exemplifies a story repeated time and again in Minnesota. The story is of land being preempted in the mid-1850s by a young immigrant who, although trained as a skilled craftsman in the old country, (in this case coopering) decides to chance farming based on the availability of land. It is a story of an immigrant who cannot speak the English language fluently or write it yet manages to contribute to the growth of the county and state. It is the story of an immigrant who had, by 1874, put his land under "a high state of cultivation and erected excellent buildings of all kinds." This district is significant because here we have a good portion of the visual aspect of this story in its natural and original setting. In Minnesota we have seen efforts for pieces of this type of farm preservation but mostly we have seen concentration on single family dwellings and/or fortifications.

In considering the significance of this proposed district it should not be overlooked that the growth of Rochester will tend to urbanize many of our townships. In this process we will lose many of the existing farms and farm buildings in Olmsted County. The probabilities of a good portion of Olmsted County becoming housing and industrial developments is good. In this sense, one of long range planning, the district with its buildings and open space becomes significant to insure preservation and open space. In fact, much of the neighboring land of this proposed historical district is already pocketed with suburban homes.