127 1st Street Northwest
Faribault, MN, USA

National Register of Historic Places - John N. Cottrell and Elizabeth Taylor Clinton House

Statement of Significance:

The John N. and Elisabeth Taylor Clinton Cottrell House is significant within the context of Faribault’s aesthetic development as demonstrated through the built environment. (This context spans the Minnesota Historical Society’s context: 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 with special attention given to scale, stylistic vocabulary and use of quality materials.

This house is significant as an excellent and intact example of the Stick Style and the only building of that style identified in the Faribault historic sites survey. The beauty and design purity of this rare architectural style make the Cottrell House a major contributor to Faribault's fine collection of masterfully crafted residential buildings.

The built environment of Faribault represents the desire of Faribault residents to forge a physical setting that would speak a visual language of civic pride for the self-proclaimed "Athens of the West". That language would articulate Faribault's appreciation of education, professionalism, prosperity, culture and beauty.

There are 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.

Locating on the Straight River the early 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 work on the large stone contracts being generated by these institutions. Similarly, architects Henry Congdon of New York City, Cass Gilbert of Saint Paul, Willcox and Johnston of Saint Paul, and Thomas F. Ellerbe worked on large commissions and have left a legacy of finely designed, native limestone buildings in Faribault.

The development of a network of railways through Faribault, (1865,1882, and 1901) contributed to the quality and kinds of building materials available, especially in terms of finished lumber and plate glass. The technological development of mass-produced lathe and jigsaw architectural detailing that grew out of the post-Civil War industrialization of the 1870s and 1880s also arrived in Faribault via the rails and was incorporated into the exuberant detailing of Faribault's residential architecture.

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 Cottrell House was built for John C.N. and Elizabeth Taylor Clinton Cottrell. John was born in Quebec in 1827. After participation in the 1849 gold rush Cottrell remained on the west coast and opened a mining store. In 1856 John married Elizabeth Taylor Clinton and in 1857 opened a hardware store in Faribault. Cottrell served for twenty-five years as a warden of the Cathedral and was a longtime trustee of the Seabury Divinity School. The Cottrell House is an expression of the Cottrell family’s position within Faribault and their desire to build a home that reflected their appreciation of architectural style.