1282 Folsom St
St Paul, MN 55117, USA

National Register of Historic Places

Excerpt from the summary of significance:
The Casiville Bullard House, built in 1909-1910, is eligible for the National Register under Criterion B (associated with the life of a significant person) and under Criterion A (significant to the broad patterns of our history) in the areas of Social History and Ethnic Heritage. The Bullard House is historically important as the home of Casiville Bullard, an African American stone mason and bricklayer who is significant as one of few skilled African American craftsmen known to be working in the building trades in St. Paul in the early 20th century. The property is significant within the statewide historic context entitled "Urban Centers, 1870-1940."

Casiville "Charlie" Bullard was born February 24, 1873, in Memphis, Tennessee, the eldest of seven children. His parents, who were former slaves, worked as cotton pickers. When Casiville was a young boy, he worked with his parents picking cotton and simultaneously tending his younger siblings. (Casiville's children remember being told that when young Casiville reached the end of a cotton row, he would pick up his baby brother and carry him down to the end of the next row (Blakey, Dec. 1995).) Casiville worked during most of his youth and his opportunities for education were limited. As a result, he obtained only a third-grade education, but was reportedly a broadly talented, intelligent man who was known for his proficiency in complex calculations and estimates during his career as a mason (Blakey, Dec. 1995).

Bullard apparently trained as a mason before moving to St. Paul around the turn of the century. Family members remember Bullard recounting that he learned the masonry trade in Memphis from a brother-in-law. The trades of stone mason and bricklayer were not uncommon occupations for African Americans to hold in the South in the 19th century. Prior to and immediately after the Civil War, African Americans far outnumbered white workers in many jobs which had traditionally been held by slaves. These included building trades and the so-called "trowel trades" such as stone masonry, bricklaying, and plastering, as well as carpentry, painting, cabinetmaking, gunsmithing, blacksmithing, spinning, weaving, shoemaking, and milling (Greene and Woodson 1930, rpt. 1970, 22; Spero and Harris 1931, 16-17.) Many of these skills were passed down by family members and these trades remained dominated by African American workers in the South even after emancipation.

Bullard was trained in masonry and carpentry, specializing in cutting and laying marble, granite, brick, and concrete block, and laying pine and oak flooring. Arlee Blakey, Bullard's youngest daughter who was born in 1917, stated that her father could cut stone on site, lay the stone, make brick, lay brick, dig and pour concrete foundations, and create intricate designs in brickwork. She said, "He had to learn to make the brick and cut the stone before he could even lay it. They liked it that he was versatile, that he could work in any medium" (Blakey, Dec. 1995).

Bullard moved to St. Paul permanently around 1902, but may have begun working in Minnesota seasonally as early as 1898, returning to Memphis during the winter months. When Bullard moved to the city he joined Minnesota's largest concentration of African American residents. He arrived in St. Paul on the heels of the largest group of African Americans to move to the city before World War II. During this period, between 1885 and 1900, St. Paul's African American population increased by 1,600 people, rising from 663 to 2,263.

A few African Americans had been living in Minnesota at least as early as 1802. However, it was not until 1849 (when Minnesota became a territory) that the first census enumerated African Americans. This first census recorded 40 free persons of African descent, 30 of whom lived in St. Paul (Taylor 1981, 73). Between 1850 and 1870 relatively few blacks moved to Minnesota, and following the Civil War, between 1870 and 1885, the migration of African Americans to Minnesota was slow but steady. Census data indicates 207 African Americans resided in St. Paul in 1870, 264 in 1875, 468 in 1880, and 663 in 1885 (Taylor 1977, 22-23).

Bullard’s move to St. Paul from the South was an experience shared by many of the city's African Americans and was part of a broad pattern of African American migration to northern cities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Florette Henri writes that between 1890 and 1910, approximately 200,000 African American southerners moved north in search of jobs (Henri 1975, 51). While a relatively small percentage of these migrants moved to St. Paul, the city's African American population rose by 474 percent between 1890 and 1910. The majority of African Americans who moved to St. Paul were from upper southern states including Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, Missouri, the District of Columbia, and Kentucky, as well as from Alabama and Mississippi (Taylor 1977, 52-53; Harris 1926, 11). By 1920, 49.1 percent of Minnesota’s African American population had come from the South (Taylor 1977, 225) .

Bullard moved to St. Paul several years before the so-called "Great Migration” of African Americans to northern cities which began about 1910 and peaked during World War I. During the Great Migration, when 1,500 African Americans moved to Minnesota, the black population of St. Paul grew only by 7.4 percent, while that of Minneapolis increased by 51.5 percent (Taylor 1977, 225). It was after this World War I increase that the black population of Minneapolis surpassed that of St. Paul

Casiville Bullard's family recalls that he "was called” to St. Paul to work as a stone mason on the State Capitol which was under construction between 1898 and 1905. African American workers were recruited from Georgia's marble-producing region (and possibly from other southern states) by the St. Paul firm of Butler-Ryan Construction (later Butler Brothers), to work on the capitol building (Butler 1995). Butler-Ryan was the general contractor for the Capitol, the superstructure of which was constructed of Georgia marble. The recruitment of African Americans to work on the Capitol was also noted by labor historians Greene and Woodson who wrote in 1930 (during a discussion of African American craftsmen in the building trades) that "In St. Paul Negro bricklayers and stone masons imported from the South worked on the construction of the beautiful Capitol building” (Greene and Woodson 1930, rpt. 1970, 321-322). It is not known if Bullard was among these recruits or precisely how he became employed on the Capitol. He had no relatives living in St. Paul at the time. His family states that whenever Bullard spoke of his migration, he remarked that he "was called” to work on the Capitol and that the Capitol and the Great Northern Railroad’s Dale Street Shops (built beginning in 1902) were his first major jobs in the city.

Some of Bullard's reasons for moving north may have been consistent with national trends. African Americans have reported that they left the South to obtain better living conditions and higher wages, and to escape Jim Crow laws and a climate of increasing racism. Many African Americans were facing daily living conditions which were becoming intolerable. In the last quarter of the 19th century in the South, discrimination in housing and employment was widespread, systematic segregation laws were increasing, and a wave of new legislation removing African Americans' political power and legal rights was enacted (Henri 1975, 1-53).

Casiville Bullard may also have found himself being pushed out of his craft in the South by white tradesmen. Many African American craftsmen were drawn to northern cities at the turn of the century not only by employment opportunities during a construction boom, but also because of the increasing prejudicial working climate in the South. In the years after slavery ended the number of African Americans in skilled trades in the South declined sharply as society preferred to pay wages to white workers and as trade unions barred blacks from membership (Spero and Harris 1931, 159-160; Greene and Woodson 1930, rpt. 1970, 191).

Foner writes: Blacks in the South were gradually eliminated from skilled positions they had held since slavery. Beginning in the 1890s, white workers, most of them members of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and the Railroad Brotherhood, steadily eliminated black labor from jobs in the shipping, railroad, and building industries in the older southern seaboard cities. The jobs of electricians, plumbers, gasfitters and steam fitters, railroad engineers and firemen, stationary engineers, crane men, hoistmen, machinists, and hundreds of other skilled and semi-skilled occupations were labeled 'for whites only.' Black electricians, plumbers, pipefitters, and carpenters had constituted a fair percentage of those crafts at the turn of the century. A generation later, black building-trades work had become 'almost marginal, ' and by 1950 blacks accounted for only one percent of the electricians and 3.2 percent of the carpenters (Foner 1989, 200).

As late as 1920 there were 10,609 African American brick and stone masons in the United States, only 2,507 of whom, like Casiville Bullard, lived in northern states (Spero and Harris 1931, 159). Moving to a northern city did not assure employment, however. African Americans in the North faced job discrimination and competition from large numbers of European immigrants who had been moving to northern cities since the 1820s. It was not until World War I when European immigration slowed and U.S. industry faced a labor shortage that employment opportunities for African Americans in northern cities improved. In St. Paul, Bullard was one of few skilled African Americans working in the building trades at the turn of the century. Taylor writes that "few Blacks made it into the ranks of the skilled craftsmen" in St. Paul (Taylor 1977, 57). He cites census figures which indicate that there were 171 marble and stone cutters in St. Paul in 1900, only two of whom were African American (Taylor 1977, 272). (Taylor does not identify the two.) The construction industry in St. Paul was strongly union-based and was driven by ethnic preference. Germans and Irish dominated the bricklayers' union, for example, and most of the union carpenters were Swedes (Butler 1995). Taylor writes that:

Locally the trade and crafts industry was monopolized by small family businesses. Skills were passed down generationally. Family businesses in the first instances hired only relatives, secondarily other whites preferably of the same ethnic or religious background. These they trained or apprenticed in the trade or business. Unless a Black possessed a skill before arriving in the city there were precious few opportunities to acquire one (Taylor 1977, 57-58).

A notable exception to this trend was the St. Paul Paving and Construction Company which was founded in 1908 by civil engineer T. C. Cuthbert. It was one of the largest black-owned businesses in St. Paul in the early 20th century. At one point St. Paul Paving was reportedly employing 19 African American stone masons and laborers to install concrete paving, build brick houses, and work on other construction projects (McWatt 1994, 10). It is not known whether Casiville Bullard ever worked for the company.

Unlike Cuthbert and Bullard, the majority of African Americans in turn of the century St. Paul worked as unskilled laborers or in service positions. In 1895 the state census reported that 49.6 percent of St. Paul's African American men were porters, waiters, cooks, or janitors; 11.9 percent were domestics or servants; 10 percent were railroad employees, and 9.4 percent were barbers (Taylor 1977, 57, 62-63). In the conclusion of his study of St. Paul's early African American community Taylor observes that:

The St. Paul Black community grew slowly when compared with other northern centers. Because of the lack of industry and diversification in employment opportunities the city offered limited employment potential. Most Blacks were relegated to the ranks of menial, domestic and service-related employees (Taylor 1977, 256).

He also notes that as late as 1910 more than 60 percent of the African Americans in St. Paul were men (Taylor 1977, 256).

Bullard worked as a stone mason and bricklayer in St. Paul from the turn of the century to about 1950. For most of his long career Bullard was a freelance, unionized stone mason and bricklayer who worked on union construction projects. (An early exception is the year 1902 when he is listed in the city directory as a mason for the William F. Porten Construction Company which built the Great Northern Railroad's Dale Street Shops, on which Bullard worked). As a union mason, Bullard would likely have joined fellow union workers in reporting to the union offices in St. Paul's Labor Temple at 416 Auditorium Street to be assigned to each construction job. His family members report that their father always had work, that he was often "called" to jobs in other states and cities, and that he made a wage that supported his ten children, the purchase of land, the construction of homes, and the establishment of several small businesses (Blakey, Dec. 1995).

Bullard worked as a stone mason and bricklayer on a number of major public and private building projects in St. Paul and Minneapolis. Arlee Blakey remembers that whenever she would drive around St. Paul with her father, he would point out the public buildings on which he had laid stone or brick. Although he also worked on commercial buildings and houses, he was particularly proud of his work on public buildings (Blakey, Dec. 1995).

Several of the buildings on which Bullard worked are among the Twin Cities' finest architectural landmarks, and many represent distinctive uses of native and imported stone. For example, granite from Sauk Rapids, Rockville, St. Cloud, and Ortonville was used for the State Capitol, the Federal Courts Building, and the St. Paul Cathedral. Domestic and imported marbles including pink Tennessee marble and Georgia marble were used in the State Capitol, the St. Paul Public Library/James J. Hill Reference Library, and the interior of the Union Depot. Buff-colored Mankato dolostone and Indiana limestone were used in the Women’s City Club and St. Paul City Hall/Ramsey County Courthouse. Casiville Bullard even worked in ice, serving as a mason for several of the St. Paul Winter Carnival ice palaces.

Bullard excelled in both stone and brick masonry, an unusual occurrence among stone masons and bricklayers in Minnesota who were more usually proficient in one or the other medium (Butler 1995). Bullard was apparently asked by contractors to work on difficult stone and brick masonry challenges. Blakey recalls her father speaking of his work on the State Capitol. She said, "He was a specialist in all types of stone. I remember him telling about helping put the horses [Quadriga] up there [in 1906]. He said it took quite a while to get the horses put up." Blakey also indicated that her father worked on the "Vision of Peace" statue at the St. Paul City Hall/Ramsey County Courthouse. She recalls, "He said they had to take it [the statue] apart four times. There was something different about it that it took them four times to finally get it right. He told me ... it was a very intricate statue and it had to be put together just right" (Blakey, Dec. 1995). [The Mexican Onyx "Vision of Peace" statue is 36 feet tall, weighs 60 tons, and was erected in 1936. The statue was carved in St. Paul by Giovanni Garatti and 19 craftsmen following designs by Swedish sculptor Carl Milles. Bullard may have been among the 19 craftsmen.] Bullard often worked outside of Minnesota, particularly during the winter months. Blakey reports that Casiville spoke of helping to construct an ornamental "pool” at the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah (Blakey, Dec. 1995).

James Milsap, a retired African American building contractor, recalls that at the age of nine in 1941 he watched Bullard work on the Ober Boys' Club in St. Paul:

I remember Mr. Bullard laying the brick for the Boy's Club. He was the only African American on the job. His son might have been there, but Mr. Bullard was the only one I was interested in. The fact that he was the only African American person there and that his work was so fascinating is what drew me to the job site every day. ... He was a corner mason. There were bricklayers, masons, mortar men, and then there was the corner mason who was the most important" (Milsap 1996).

Milsap explained that the construction of a masonry building hinged on the accuracy and skill of the corner mason. He said that if the corners weren't constructed correctly, the entire building would be off. He also explained. Today bricklayers use tools like brick saws to cut and fit the brick. Not Mr. Bullard. He took a brick hammer and knocked the corners off the brick and laid them. He'd measure where he wanted the brick to fit— (of course, now they have saws)—but in those days they used a chisel or brick hammer, and 'bing' just knock the corner right off. That alone, shows his skill. When he finished, it was impeccable. The finished product is the proof of the pudding (Milsap 1996).

Milsap, who owned a construction company in St. Paul for nearly 30 said that Casiville Bullard inspired him to become a contractor: years, Mr. Bullard's whole point in talking to me was to make me reach as high as I could possibly reach. What he undoubtedly was thinking was that there were no African American superintendents or foremen, and he encouraged me to strive for those positions rather than being a bricklayer. Mind you, he didn't tell me not to be a bricklayer, he told me what I wanted to do is become a superintendent. At that time, other than the owner of company, the highest person on the job was the superintendent. Of course, at that time, I heard everything he said, but I was more fascinated with him getting the mortar off his trowel and watching the dexterity with which he worked (Milsap 1996).

Bullard weathered the Depression by working on various W.P.A. and other federal work relief projects. For example, he constructed buildings for a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp, built masonry manholes in St. Paul, and worked on a Kellogg Boulevard Street paving project. He also worked extensively at Como Park under the W.P.A. in the 1930s. At Como Park he helped build Monkey Island and other zoo structures, a horticulture building, masonry gates and bridges, and other improvements. During World War II he helped construct housing for the Twin Cities Ordnance Plant in New Brighton. A partial list of buildings on which Bullard worked as a stone or brick mason includes the following. Several of the buildings are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Minnesota State Capitol Erection of Quadriga 1906, Federal Courts Building (Landmark Ctr), Great Northern RR Dale Street Shops, St. Paul Cathedral, Bullard House at 1282 Folsom St., Horace Irvine House (Governor's Residence), St. Paul Hotel Lowry Office Building Addition, St. Paul Public Library/Hill Ref. Library, St. Paul Union Depot, Pilgrim Baptist Church, Bullard House at 712 W. Maryland Ave., Highland Water Tower, Women's City Club (now Minn. Museum of Art), St. Paul City Hall/Ramsey Co. Courthouse Erection of Vision of Peace statue 1936, Como Park Zoo Buildings and Park Structures Kellogg Boulevard repaving project (W.P.A.), Various W.P.A. projects St. Paul Winter Carnival Ice Palace, Other St. Paul Ice Palaces, Ober Boys' Club First Baptist Church Alterations, Farmers Union G.T.A. and the Foshay Tower.
Bullard's long list of other jobs includes the Zinsmaster Baking Company and the Purity Baking Company in St. Paul, a church in Breckenridge, and brick and stone structures in Winona. He also constructed many fireplaces and chimneys on houses in the St. Paul's Highland Park neighborhood. Burt Shannon, a lifelong resident of St. Paul, recalls that Casiville Bullard and his son Benny constructed a concrete basement for his father, George Clifford Shannon, in 1913 or 1914, at 1021 Colne Street. He said that the Bullards dug out the basement with hand shovels and that they used a horse and tray to grade the hole. Casiville would have been approximately 45 years old when he worked on this house (Shannon 1995).

Bullard was a member of Local #1 of the Bricklayers' and Stone Masons' Union of St. Paul, one of few trade unions nationwide that admitted blacks. Membership in the union was exclusive, and only skilled craftsmen who had served an appropriate apprenticeship, carried a "traveling card" from another local, and/or were vouched for by two other members were admitted (Butler 1995). In St. Paul there were very few African Americans registered as members of Local #1 during the first 100 years of its existence (Wittek 1995, Butler 1995). Walter Butler III, the recent president of Butler Construction, remembers only one African American union mason in St. Paul in the 1940s, but does not recall his name (Butler 1995).

The national organization of the International Bricklayers' and Masons' Union was formed in 1865. Paul B. Worthman notes that the union was admitting African Americans by the late 19th century. He writes: Its constitution prohibited racial discrimination. The union's national leaders often urged locals to admit qualified black craftsmen. By 1881 the national organization was strong enough to require its locals to accept travelling cards from black union members, and in 1903 the Bricklayers' national convention strengthened the union's stand against racial discrimination by establishing a fine of $100 on any individual member or local found guilty of discriminating against black union bricklayers (Worthman 1969, 398).

Bullard's membership in a trade union was rare in St. Paul in the early and mid-20th century. Walter Ryder wrote in 1931 that "Membership in labor unions among colored workers [in St. Paul] is almost negligible. There are only two firms [in St. Paul] in which it is stated that the Negro workers are union members or have to be treated according to labor union standards" (Ryder 1931, 170). In 1945, the Governor's Interracial Commission conducted a survey among Minnesota labor unions. The 109 unions responding to the survey reported that 646 African Americans and 53,334 white workers belonged to those unions (Governor's Interracial Commission 1945, 42).

Economist Ray Marshall noted that the ". . . extent to which unions succeeded in excluding Negroes was determined mainly by the number of Negroes already in the trade or the ease with which they could be trained. The oldest building trades unions in the South, like the Carpenters and Bricklayers, found it impossible to exclude Negroes and still maintain their organizations because many slaves had been trained for these occupations' 134).

The St. Paul local of the Bricklayers' International Union (later known as the Bricklayers' and Masons' Union) was organized on May 25, 1882. Walter Butler I, president of Butler-Ryan Construction (later Butler Brothers) which constructed the State Capitol, was an organizer of the union and its first recording secretary. By 1890 the local had about 58 members. The union records are incomplete, but it is presumed that Bullard became a member shortly after moving to St. Paul, and that he was unionized by the time he worked on the Capitol. Existing union records indicate that he was a member in at least 1906, 1919, 1928, and 1931. His family believes that he maintained a continuous membership for at least 30 years. Blakey said that her father was extremely proud of his membership in the union, remaining a dues-paying member and carrying his union dues book in his wallet even after he retired (Blakey, Dec. 1995)