14839 Jonathan Carver Parkway
Carver, MN, USA

Full backstory of the Gehl-Mittelsted Farmhouse, provided by Carver County Historical Society

Photo credit: Carver County Historical Society

photo descriptions: "Subject Files, Drawer G1: Gehl Farm and Gehl Farm Notes. “Gehl-Mittelsted Farmstead” [Description]: Front and side views of the Gehl-Mittelsted Farmhouse as it is in the twenty-first century. Rights held by the CCHS....Subject Files, Drawer G1: Gehl Farm and Gehl Farm Notes.“MN Valley Fllodway” [Description]: an aerial shot of the MN Valley Refuge site, showing a floodplain view. Rights held by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service."

Historical significance summary:

"The Gehl-Mittelsted Farmstead is located in the far southern part of Carver County, in San Francisco Township. One of Carver County’s many historic properties, the farmstead was placed on Minnesota’s 10 Most Endangered Historic Sites list in 2006.

The farm was founded by Henry Gehl. Gehl was a German immigrant, born in Schwerin, Mecklenberg-Schwerin, Germany on February 13, 1825. At age twenty-five, he joined the thousands of others immigrating to America during the 1850s. Gehl purchased the farmstead in 1867. In addition to the farm, Gehl also ran butcher shops in both Chaska and Carver, which were supplied by his farm. He did well with both. During the 1880s, the large Chaska brick house on the property was built. It was home to Gehl, his wife Christina Sohns Gehl, and their fourteen children.

Henry and Christina’s son Francis Gehl ran the farm after Henry died in 1890. Three years later, Francis married Beda Hurtig. They had two children: Robert (1895) and Herbert (1896). Sadly, just a few short years later on January 24, 1901, tragedy struck. While crossing railroad tracks on his way home from Jordan, Francis was hit and killed, though the horses survived and continued home.

Upon the tragic death of Francis, his brother Herman A.J. Gehl bought the farm. For the next sixteen years until his death, Herman made “Gehl Ranch” one of the largest farms in southeastern Minnesota. At his death, the farm had over forty horses, one hundred cattle, and two hundred hogs. Following Herman’s death, his son, Henry William Gehl, named for his grandfather, took over both the farm and the meat market in February 1934. At this point, the massive farm was at 2,000 acres, 100 cattle, and about 20,000 turkeys. In February 1935, Henry married Stella Winson. They moved to her home town of Excelsior and operated the farm and meat shop with hired help. Henry W. and Stella Gehl had no children. Henry had a sister, Florence Mittelsted, and brother, Charles F. Gehl, still alive at his death. His will gave the farm to his nephew, Gale Mittelsted, with whom he had formed a business partnership, and niece, Shirley Teske.

The last family owners of the Gehl-Mittelsted farmstead were Gale Mittelsted, his wife, and two sons. Trained as a veterinarian, Gale opened a practice in Chaska after being discharged from the military in 1946 after World War II ended. According to family legend Gale was named “Gehl” Mittelsted after his mother’s family, but it was misspelled on his baptism papers, and it became “Gale” instead. The Mittelsted’s lived in Chaska, working the farm with hired help. In 1980, they moved to the farm, where Gale died in 1983. His wife Anita and sons Peter and Gehl remained on the farm until selling it to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in 1995, making the farmstead a part of the Minnesota Valley Wildlife Refuge.

Although the Fish and Wildlife Service originally planned to turn the house into a Visitor Center, its location on a floodplain, and the fact the house has twice had floodwater reach as high as the floor joists, changed their minds. However, the site still has enduring historic value. Made of Chaska brick, the house is significant for the brick and its early German architecture style. The property was also owned and operated by five generations of the same family, which is historically significant. As part of the Minnesota Valley Wildlife Refuge, the land will not be developed on, divided up, or sold. This will allow the property to be preserved for future generations of visitors. The house is less secure. In 2006, the house and outlying building that remain were placed on a list of Minnesota’s Ten Most Endangered Historic Sites and its future remains uncertain.

Turning Point: In 1995, the US Fish and Wildlife Service purchased the historic Gehl-Mittelsted farmstead, with plans to convert the house to a visitor center and preserve the land as a wildlife refuge for visitors to see.

Chronology:

February 13, 1825: Henry Gehl is born in Schwerin, Mecklenberg-Schwerin, Germany.
1850: Henry Gehl immigrates to America at age twenty-five.
1867: Gehl purchases farmland in San Francisco Township, Carver County.
1880s: A Chaska Brick farmhouse is erected on the property using early German architectural styles.
1890: Henry Gehl dies; son Francis Gehl takes over the farm.
1893: Francis Gehl marries Beda Hurtig
January 24, 1901: Francis Gehl dies in a train accident.
1918: Herman A.J. Gehl takes over the farm and makes “Gehl Ranch” one of the largest farms in southeastern Minnesota
February 1934: Herman Gehl dies and son Henry William Gehl takes over the farm.
February 1935: Henry W. Gehl marries Stella Winson of Excelsior where they settle, running the farm from a distance with hired help.
June 1949: Henry W. Gehl dies.
1949-1983: Gale Mittelsted operates the farm with hired help while running a veterinarian clinic in Chaska.
1980: Gale Mittelsted, his wife Anita and their children move to the farm.
1983: Gale Mittelsted dies.
1995: The Gehl-Mittelsted property is sold to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
2006: The Gehl-Mittelsted farm is listed on Minnesota’s Ten Most Endangered Historic Sites list."

The Gehl-Mittelsted Farmhouse history, provided by Minnesota Bricks

Train crash photo credit: Radaris

"The Gehl-Mittelsted farmstead is located in San Francisco Township of Carver County, near Belle Plaine, Minnesota. The site is now in the possession of the United States Department of the Interior, as part of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge (MVNWR). The MVNWR has erected an interpretive/visitors center just uphill from the original Gehl-Mittelsted farmstead. Signs guide you to the area from the Jonathon-Carver Parkway.


Gehl-Mittelsted Farmhouse
The entrance road to the site takes you over the Carver bluffs and down sharply toward the Minnesota River. You can park at the interpretive center and walk down a blacktop path to the original farmstead. The barn is gone, but the fieldstone base it stood on is still there. However, the Gehl-Mittelsted farmhouse dominates the view, and what a spectacular Chaska brick farmhouse it is!

The house was built on an area of higher terrain right next to the Minnesota River. Of course, what quickly comes to mind is river flooding, and what this family did when the Minnesota River hit some of its historic highs. According to several sources I have come across, it only had water near its main level twice. This is really amazing. I can’t imagine living that close to the river.


Gehl-Mittelsted Outhouse
The house itself is still in fantastic shape as far as the brick is concerned. The roofing is another story. The caretakers have placed tarps over the roof segments to prevent any further damage to the inside. Of course, visitors cannot see what the inside looks like, so I’m sure it is not in too good of shape. The Gehl-Mittelsted farmstead was named to the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota’s top 10 most endangered sites of 2006. According to the Preservation Alliance’s web site, the MVNWR have no plans to restore it. This is no surprise, due to the massive costs involved. Yet, as of November 2009, it is still there.

The Preservation Alliance of Minnesota stated that the house was originally built by Henry and Christina Gehl in the middle 1880s. The Gehls were a wealthy German immigrant farm family. Wealth is evident in this farmstead, even down to the outhouse. The outhouse was built even closer to the Minnesota River than the house. It was also built of Chaska brick and looked very extravagant. However, you can see how the settlers in the 1880s thought nothing of draining their outdoor toilets right into their water source. That led to many epidemics of typhoid fever, until they learned this was not a good practice.

For those Chaska brick fans out there, I highly recommend this site. This is one of the largest Chaska brick houses I have seen and the surrounding country still appears like it did back in the 1880s. That is hard to find these days, with the metro area expanding to the southwest!

The house itself is still in fantastic shape as far as the brick is concerned. The roofing is another story. The caretakers have placed tarps over the roof segments to prevent any further damage to the inside. Of course, visitors cannot see what the inside looks like, so I’m sure it is not in too good of shape. The Gehl-Mittelsted farmstead was named to the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota’s top 10 most endangered sites of 2006. According to the Preservation Alliance’s web site, the MVNWR have no plans to restore it. This is no surprise, due to the massive costs involved. Yet, as of November 2009, it is still there.

The Preservation Alliance of Minnesota stated that the house was originally built by Henry and Christina Gehl in the middle 1880s. The Gehls were a wealthy German immigrant farm family. Wealth is evident in this farmstead, even down to the outhouse. The outhouse was built even closer to the Minnesota River than the house. It was also built of Chaska brick and looked very extravagant. However, you can see how the settlers in the 1880s thought nothing of draining their outdoor toilets right into their water source. That led to many epidemics of typhoid fever, until they learned this was not a good practice.

For those Chaska brick fans out there, I highly recommend this site. This is one of the largest Chaska brick houses I have seen and the surrounding country still appears like it did back in the 1880s. That is hard to find these days, with the metro area expanding to the southwest!"

14839 Jonathan Carver Parkway, Carver, MN, USA

The house is known as the Gehl-Mittelsted farmstead

Home's backstory

Photo credit:

Carver County Historical Society, Facebook post:

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10153699812007177&set=gehl-mittelsted-farm-1920

Insert from MNOpedia:

"The Gehl-Mittelsted Farmstead is located in the far southern part of Carver County, in San Francisco Township. One of Carver County's many historic properties, the farmstead was placed on Minnesota's Ten Most Endangered Historic Sites list in 2006.

The farm was founded by Henry Gehl. Gehl was a German immigrant, born in Schwerin, Mecklenberg-Schwerin, Germany on February 13, 1825. At age twenty-five, he joined the thousands of others immigrating to America during the 1850s. Gehl purchased the farmstead in 1867. In addition to the farm, Gehl also ran butcher shops in both Chaska and Carver, which were supplied by his farm. He did well with both. During the 1880s, the large Chaska brick house on the property was built. It was home to Gehl, his wife Christina Sohns Gehl, and their fourteen children.

Henry and Christina's son Francis Gehl ran the farm after Henry died in 1890. Three years later, Francis married Beda Hurtig. They had two children: Robert (1895) and Herbert (1896). Sadly, just a few short years later on January 24, 1901, tragedy struck. While crossing railroad tracks on his way home from Jordan, Francis was hit and killed, though the horses survived and continued home.

Upon the tragic death of Francis, his brother Herman A.J. Gehl bought the farm. For the next sixteen years until his death, Herman made "Gehl Ranch" one of the largest farms in southeastern Minnesota. At his death, the farm had over forty horses, one hundred cattle, and two hundred hogs.

Following Herman's death, his son, Henry William Gehl, named for his grandfather, took over both the farm and the meat market in February 1934. At this point, the massive farm was at 2,000 acres, 100 cattle, and about 20,000 turkeys. In February 1935, Henry married Stella Winson. They moved to her home town of Excelsior and operated the farm and meat shop with hired help. Henry W. and Stella Gehl had no children. Henry had a sister, Florence Mittelsted, and brother, Charles F. Gehl, still alive at his death. His will gave the farm to his nephew, Gale Mittelsted, with whom he had formed a business partnership, and niece, Shirley Teske.

The last family owners of the Gehl-Mittelsted farmstead were Gale Mittelsted, his wife, and two sons. Trained as a veterinarian, Gale opened a practice in Chaska after being discharged from the military in 1946 after World War II ended. According to family legend Gale was named "Gehl" Mittelsted after his mother's family, but it was misspelled on his baptism papers, and it became "Gale" instead. The Mittelsteds lived in Chaska, working the farm with hired help. In 1980, they moved to the farm, where Gale died in 1983. His wife Anita and sons Peter and Gehl remained on the farm until selling it to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in 1995, making the farmstead a part of the Minnesota Valley Wildlife Refuge.

Although the Fish and Wildlife Service originally planned to turn the house into a Visitor Center, its location on a floodplain, and the fact the house has twice had floodwater reach as high as the floor joists, changed their minds. However, the site still has enduring historic value. Made of Chaska brick, the house is significant for the brick and its early German architecture style. The property was also owned and operated by five generations of the same family, which is historically significant. As part of the Minnesota Valley Wildlife Refuge, the land will not be developed on, divided up, or sold. This will allow the property to be preserved for future generations of visitors. The house is less secure. In 2006, the house and outlying building that remain were placed on a list of Minnesota's Ten Most Endangered Historic Sites and its future remains uncertain."

Featured articles:

"Contemplates a Meat Market." Carver Free Press, May 21, 1885.

"Death Robs City of Prominent Man and Business Proprietor." Weekly Valley Herald, June 6, 1949.

Edwins, Steve and Steve Wilmot, SMSQ Architects. "Gehl-Mittlested Site Reuse Study." Reuse Brief- Site
Value. Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge, December 15, 2007.

Maravelas, Paul Scheftel. "The Gehl Farm in San Francisco Township, Carver County, with some notes on
the village of San Francisco, the Little Rapids, and the Wahpeton Village at that place." Site
study. Compiled by the Carver County Historical Society for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service,
March 15, 1997.

"Married- Henry W. Gehl to Stella Winson." Weekly Valley Herald, February 14, 1935.

"New Butcher Shop." Weekly Valley Herald, February 9, 1882.

"Obituary- Henry Gehl." Weekly Valley Herald, November 27, 1890.

"Public Input Sought on Reuse of Historic House." Norwood Times, February 28, 2008.

"Soon to Graze in Poland Pastures, Cows from Gehl Ranch Destined for Foreign Duty." Weekly Valley
Herald, December 27, 1945.

"Unfortunate Death of Francis Gehl." Weekly Valley Herald, January 31, 1901.

'Exploring a Carver County ghost town: San Francisco, Minn.'

Photo credit: Andy Sturdevant

Photo(s) description: "The Gehl-Mittelsted farmhouse was built by a wealthy German butcher well after the end of San Francisco; The farmhouse is so close to the Minnesota River that the toilets inside the brick outhouse hover right over the water."

"If you drive into San Francisco expecting a Wild West-style ghost town, with swinging doors opening up to abandoned saloons, you will be disappointed.

By Andy Sturdevant

MinnPost illustration by Andy Sturdevant
Nov. 27, 2013
In June 1868, Civil War hero, Army surgeon, and one-term Rep. A.A. “Doc” Ames — who would later become one of the most corrupt mayors in Minneapolis history — relocated from Minnesota to Northern California to try his hand in the newspaper business. In his first month in town, he sent the following dispatch back to the Minneapolis Tribune, breathlessly recounting his early impressions of the city of San Francisco: “… It is a magnificent metropolitan — and a wealthy city — having more inviting qualities than any other, reaching out arms of wealth and happiness to all persons, cities, and countries. Her streets are beautiful, churches elegant, hotels splendid, stores large and well-furnished. She has an industrious population — mills, factories, and machine shops in active operation, answering to the great demands of the city and country.”

Most of America shared Doc Ames’ high opinion of San Francisco in the 1850s and ’60s: a beautiful, prosperous, world-class city, growing by leaps and bounds every decade, attracting ambitious, talented strivers from all over the world. In 1854, a few years before Minnesota statehood, a man named William Foster, who’d just migrated from the west and shared this opinion, put his admiration into action. (Foster had an exceptionally interesting life himself before his arrival in Minnesota that’s worth reading about.) He platted a village site very near the rapids on the Minnesota River, in what would later be Carver County, about 30 miles southwest of Minneapolis. Foster must have had big dreams of reaching out arms of wealth and happiness, because he named his village “San Francisco.” San Francisco, almost as hilly in places as its namesake, sat not on a bay but on the banks and bluffs of the Minnesota.

For a while, Foster’s ambitions for San Francisco seemed to be realized. The next year, in 1855, the village had its own post office, and, most critically, was designated the county seat of newly organized Carver County. Alas, this prominent position in the civic life of Carver County was not to be; two other larger villages downriver, Carver and Chaska, were expanding rapidly at this time and overtook San Francisco shortly. The largest of these villages, Chaska, became the county seat in 1856 by popular vote, and in a few years the population had swelled to over 2,000. Over the next few years, Foster’s original San Francisco town site would be abandoned after a series of debilitating spring floods, and reclaimed as farmland for the many tenant farmers in the area. Foster himself left to return to the Bay Area, where he lived the rest of his life. Most references note San Francisco after this time as a “ghost town.”

San Fran, MNMinnPost illustration by Andy Sturdevant

ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER ADVERTISEMENT

San Francisco is, as far as I can tell, one of the very few ghost towns in the seven county metropolitan area with extant infrastructure, and one of a few in Carver County. Greater Minnesota — especially the Iron Range — is littered with abandoned townships, many with evocative names like Radium, Enterprise, Bodum, and Shell City, and some of them complete with uninhabited structures and decaying main streets. “Ghost town” can be a fraught bit of terminology, and if you drive into San Francisco expecting a Wild West-style ghost town, with swinging doors opening up to abandoned saloons, you will be disappointed. Save one farmhouse, the remains of the original San Francisco and any original structures and roads now seem to be completely gone, absorbed into a farm that sits at Highway 40 and Homestead Road. I spent a lot of a recent Sunday morning driving around, asking around and hoping to locate it, to no avail.

township photo
MinnPost photo by Andy Sturdevant
San Francisco Township is home to about 900 people and a great deal of farmland.
San Francisco is gone, but San Francisco Township, the community that sprang up around the same area, continues to this day, home to about 900 people and a great deal of farmland. The township sits mostly along a dirt road called Homestead Road that roughly follows the bend of the Minnesota River. Much of San Francisco today is farmland and federally protected parkland. It’s interesting for what parts of San Francisco’s past remain, and what parts are gone.

Gone, along with the post office and any other original structures, is the Swedish Methodist Church and cemetery; there seems to be some confusion about whether the cemetery was ever in use or not, but according to the Weekly Valley Herald, the church was disassembled and moved to the adjacent township of East Union around the turn of the century. East Union, an unincorporated township, is still home to a very stately, 150 year old Swedish Lutheran church and cemetery, and historically had a co-op creamery, a gas station, a feed mill, a grocery store, and other attractions that drew San Franciscans for business and trade. The community of Belle Plaine, nearby, was easily accessible, and beginning in 1895, a ferry crossed the river into Jordan and Scott County. Any aspiring prairie Levi Strausses or Domingo Ghirardellis made their livings in those places, not San Francisco.

What little commercial activity there may have been in town seems to be gone. San Francisco shared one major similarity with its West Coast namesake: Most of the clapboard wooden structures were easily susceptible to fire. Newspaper accounts from the late 19th century are full of references to fires claiming houses, farms and other buildings. The land — beautiful, varied natural features ranging from bluffs and hills to woods and wetlands — was most useful to the people of this part of the county as high-quality farmland.

San Francisco Township is home to at least two very interesting historic structures, located about a half-mile from each other. One is abandoned, one is not.

farmhouse
MinnPost photo by Andy Sturdevant
The Gehl-Mittelsted farmhouse was built by a wealthy German butcher well after the end of San Francisco.
Right on the river — so close in fact that the toilets inside the brick outhouse hover right over the water — is the Gehl-Mittelsted farmhouse. It’s boarded up, with a tarp thrown over the roof. Built by a wealthy German butcher well after the end of San Francisco but in the prosperous farming years of the late 19th century (and occupied by the Mittelsted family as recently as 1995), the farmhouse is now located in the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge. Nearby, there are foundational remains of a stone barn that once housed hundreds of hogs and cows. The Gehl-Mittelsted farmhouse is a beautiful and solid piece of craftsmanship, and tucked away in an impossibly picturesque part of the area. It’s the sort of place you’d imagine a yeoman farmer living in quiet, rustic contentment, looking out over livestock and crops to one side and the river valley to the other. The problem is, the house is itself in a terrible state of disrepair — in 2006 it made the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota’s list of most endangered sites — and there doesn’t seem to be any money locally to undertake the extension renovation it’d require. So it sits in a state of suspended animation, looking out of time, the most ghostly site in this township.

toilets
MinnPost photo by Andy Sturdevant
The farmhouse is so close to the Minnesota River that the toilets inside the brick outhouse hover right over the water.
On Homestead Road, however, past the farmsteads and midcentury ramblers that line it, San Francisco Town Hall, built as a schoolhouse in 1917, still stands. It’s still used as the town hall and has been since the ’30s, where the board meets to discuss zoning, roads, building permits, and other local matters. It’s made with the sort of pale yellow Chaska brick that made the area famous, with a white cupola and brown tiled roof. Jerry Scott, who has served on the town’s board for 40 years, lives a few doors away. His number was on the township website, so I gave him a call to see if he wanted to talk about San Francisco. Jerry and his wife, Lois, invited me over to their house to talk a bit about the area; both have lived nearby for their entire lives. They tell me about the town, about flooding in the spring and taking the ferry (“it was 10 cents, which was a lot of money,” said Jerry. “I’d just go to Belle Plaine, we could do that for nothing”), about picking fresh strawberries and farming 160 acres.

schoolhouse
MinnPost photo by Andy Sturdevant
On Homestead Road, however, past the farmsteads and midcentury ramblers that line it, San Francisco Town Hall, built as a schoolhouse in 1917, still stands.
It’s the optimism of the “San Francisco” name that attracted me; it joins the ranks of Minnesota cities and towns like Cambridge, Stockholm, Athens, Hastings, Manchester, New Prague, New Ulm, New London, Rochester, New York Mills, and many others that took their names for other famous, distant cities. But in America, time marches westward, and it seems like a rare thing for a place in the Midwest to bear the name of a Western city, a city that is very nearly one of its contemporaries. Ten years before Foster founded San Francisco, Minn., its western namesake had fewer than a 1,000 residents, a sleepy seaside former Spanish colonial outpost that hadn’t yet made its name; by the time Foster had named his settlement for it, the population had increased tenfold. He undoubtedly hoped his Baghdad by the Bluffs might capture some of that magic. It didn’t, in quite that way, but the name lives on all the same, imparting a strange and wonderful cosmopolitan air to a friendly, quiet farming community.

Thanks to Jerry and Lois Scott for their hospitality, as well as Maidie Felton of the township board and Marlene Magnuson of the Carver County Historical Society for their assistance."

'Public asked to comment on historic Gehl-Mittlested home'

"The Fish and Wildlife Service is holding an open house to get public comment on the historic Gehl-Mittlested House.

The house, located within the Rapids Lake Unit of the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge, is a Chaska brick farmhouse situated on the west bank of the Minnesota River and includes a brick outhouse and stone barn foundation ruins.

A public open house is scheduled for Thursday March 6 at the Rapids Lake Visitor Center, to review preliminary reuse options and to seek public input regarding the reuse of the house.

Charlie Blair, the new Refuge Manager; SMSQ Architects, and others involved in the reuse study will present the findings to date of the Reuse Team and seek public comment.

Two identical sessions are scheduled, one from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. and another from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m., in order to reach a broad audience.

The Visitor Center is located at 15865 Carver Highlands Dr., south of Carver. It is located uphill of the Gehl-Mittelsted House and is fully handicap accessible.


To reach the center, head west on Highway 212 and then go west on Carver County 40 (Main Street) through Carver until the junction with County Road 45, head south. Take County Road 45 to Carver Highlands Dr., which intersects County Road 45 and at County Road 50. Continue 1 mile into the Refuge with the Visitor Center part way down the bluff.

Historic home discussion

What: Open House and Public Comment on the Reuse Options for the Historic Gehl-Mittelsted House

Where: Rapids Lake Education & Visitor Center, 15865 Carver Highlands Drive; Rapids Lake Unit, Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge

When: 3:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., March 6"

'Endangered species: Two Carver County historic properties make list of historic endangered places'

"Signs of rapid growth abound at nearly every turn in eastern Carver County. There are new highways, new businesses and new neighborhoods popping up all over the place. But amid all that is new, concerns increase about the preservation of the county's historic places.

Last week, such concerns landed two Carver County locations on the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota's list of the state's "10 Most Endangered Historic Places."

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Each year the Preservation Alliance selects 10 places for inclusion on its list, based on the level and kind of threat to the location, said Bonnie McDonald, executive director.

This year, the Gehl-Mittelsted House in San Francisco Township, and the Andrew Peterson Farmstead just outside of Waconia, made the list.

The latter was especially good news to Leanne Brown, executive director of the Carver County Historical Society.

"This isn't your average farmstead," she said. "Peterson farms are not a dime a dozen."

Dennis Gimmestad, with the State Historic Preservation Office, would say the same for the Gehl-Mittelsted House.

Preservation of the Andrew Peterson Farmstead, located east of Waconia off of Highway 5 on Parley Lake Road, has attracted the interest of a variety of parties, from the Carver County Historical Society to the Committee of Waconia Heritage Association to the Andrew Peterson Society in Sweden.

"It tells a greater story about the heavy immigration in this part of the country," said Brown.

Andrew Peterson emigrated from the highlands in southern Sweden to the United States in 1850. Five years later, he settled in Minnesota on land in the now-extinct Scandia near Clearwater Lake (now Lake Waconia).

For 44 years, from just prior to moving to his farm, to days before his death, Peterson kept journals, recording various aspects of his daily life. The journals detail activities ranging from constructing his farm buildings and slaughtering pigs to transporting manure and Indian uprisings.

Those 10 volumes, with more than 14,000 entries, were eventually happened upon by Swedish author Vilhelm Moberg, who used material from the journals to write a well-known series of novels about the Swedish emigrant experience. Many have likened Moberg's main character Karl (Charles) Oskar to Andrew Peterson.

"Moberg's absolute most important source was Andrew Peterson's diary, letters and surroundings," wrote Jan Hermelin of the Andrew Peterson Society in an e-mail. The Andrew Peterson Society is a volunteer organization based in Sweden that aims to "increase the awareness of the significance of emigration for the development of society and work towards bringing to life the memory of Andrew Peterson and his achievements and the times in which he lived."

One of their methods of doing such is to "preserve and care for the environment, buildings and documents pertaining to Andrew Peterson and the time in which he lived." That includes both Peterson's journals and Moberg's novels.

"Those novels are very famous in Sweden and also in the U.S.," said Hermelin.

"Moberg's books on emigrants are right up there with (the musical group) ABBA in Sweden," agreed Brown.

The books inspired films and musicals, including a musical created by Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA. That musical, called "Kristina from Duvemala," will debut on Broadway next year. The Andrew Peterson Society is also working on its own musical to honor Andrew Peterson's life.

"It is, of course, important for us to save the memory of Andrew Peterson, including his buildings because he was the original of Vilhelm Moberg's hero Charles Oskar," wrote Hermelin.

The Andrew Peterson Farmstead is composed of nine buildings, including the farmhouse, constructed between 1867 and 1870, two barns, a log house used as a granary, and a smoke house.

The majority of the historic buildings are located on a 20-acre plot of land owned by brothers Wade and Rich Holasek.

Wade Holasek did not return the Herald's calls for comment, but according to a 2005 Herald interview with Holasek, several of the buildings are in dire need of repair and maintenance.

"There's been little to no maintenance for nearly 25 years," he noted at the time. "There's a big hole in the roof of the granary, and holes in the roofs of the other buildings, too."

Holasek has begun doing some of the work himself, but estimates that it could take up to $100,000 to complete the careful restoration process.

"It's a neat thing to have so close to home," said Brown. "But it's not going to stay there on its own."

In 2004, the Holaseks sold 50 acres north of the farm to developers, causing concern among interested preservationists.

"This is dead center for development," said Brown. "The property has a big target on it."

It was that sale that prompted the Carver County Historical Society to break tradition of not getting involved with privately owned properties. The Historical Society prepared and submitted the Andrew Peterson Farmstead for consideration on the Preservation Alliance's endangered places list.

"It's time that there be a little more discussion on it," said Brown.

"The number of true jewels that have the significance of this are limited. We need to keep it as a community treasure for years to come."

Jo Mihelich couldn't agree more. She spent seven years researching and writing a book on Andrew Peterson and the Scandia area he settled in.


"Not a day goes by since the bicentennial that I'm not involved in the history of this area," she said.

Mihelich sits on the Committee of Waconia Heritage Association, and has long advocated for the Peterson farm to be preserved for community benefit.

"It needs to be open to nonprofit organizations to use for festivals, school groups, youth groups, etc. for all perpetuity," she said. "And we need that in writing. We can't have just a handshake."

"Sometimes you have to draw a line in the sand and say we need to find a solution and not just let market forces play out," added Brown.

But according to Holasek, he has no plans to sell the historic plot just yet.

"I know that the heritage society would like to see a learning center created here sometime in the future," he said, in an earlier interview. "I don't have a problem with that and would be willing to consider those possibilities later. My grandfather still lives on the property, and, for now, I am planning to keep the farm going."

Gehl-Mittelsted

While the Andrew Peterson Farmstead is threatened by the rapid development along Highway 5, the Gehl-Mittelsted House is safely tucked away on refuge lands along the Minnesota River.

Sitting high on a sharp bend in the river, the 120-year-old Chaska brick farmhouse enjoys a breathtaking view of the surrounding lands.

"It's a splendid property," said Susan Roth, with the State Historic Preservation Office.

According to the Minnesota Historical Society, the house was built in the 1880s for a prosperous German immigrant farming family. Henry Gehl owned successful meat markets around the Twin Cities including ones in Chaska and Carver.

His two-and-a-half-story-tall house in San Francisco Township is considered to be done in Carver County cottage style. It had a basement, large kitchen with pantry and milk room, a front and rear parlor (the front was known as the "coffin room"), a study, dining room and four bedrooms. The house still contains much of the original millwork and hardware.

It also features a matching brick outhouse on the edge of the steep riverbank. After being inhabited by the Gehl family and its descendents for more than 100 years, the Gehl-Mittelsted House was sold to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services in 1995 to be incorporated into the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge.

According to the Minnesota Historical Society, at the time, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife announced its intention of converting the house to an education center for the refuge. But the fate of the house was later brought into question because of its close position to the river.

According to the Preservation Alliance, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife has a policy that "no structures can be built or maintained in a flood plain."

The Gehl-Mittelsted House has flooded twice in the last century.

"Both times the water only reached to just below the floor joists," pointed out McDonald. "Can you really call that flooding?"

Refuge managers did not return the Herald's calls for comment but, according to the Preservation Alliance, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services does not have a use for the old home. They now intend to build a new visitor center adjacent to the house.

"The real challenge will be how the house can be used to fit in with the overall U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services plan," said Gimmested.

When interviewed by the Herald in August 2005, assistant refuge manager Thomas Kerr said that "all options will be examined" for the house but added that it would take plenty of "money and expertise" to move it.

Meanwhile, time is not on the side of the Gehl-Mittelsted house.

"Anytime a historic property is out of use, it becomes vulnerable," said Gimmested.

Successes

According to McDonald, once the Preservation Alliance commits to furthering the preservation of properties by placing them on its list, they work with advocacy groups to find avenues for fundraising and write letters of support as needed.

Since starting their list of endangered properties in 1992, the Preservation Alliance has brought awareness to 113 historic locations.

Of those, McDonald said that 44 have been saved for sure. Fourteen locations have been demolished. The fate of the other 55 has not yet been determined.

Carver County has already been witness to one of those success stories. Last year, Norwood Young America's pavilion made the Preservation Alliance's list of endangered properties. This year, the pavilion didn't make the list and for good reason.

"They just had their opening of their renovated and saved building last week," noted Brown."

Written by Mollee Francisco

Home in the 1980s

One of the last photos was taken of the home as a private residence.

Photo credit: Minnesota Bricks and Carver County Historial Society

Home was built in a flood zone

Minnesota River Valley Wildlife Refuge couldn't repurpose the farmhouse as its wildlife center because it's built in a flood zone. Water floods have reached the home twice in history, including the big Chaska flood of 1909.

Photo credit: Minnesota Bricks and Carver County Historical Society

Henry Gehl dies in 1890, 2 years after house is built

Henry Gehl's tombstone.

Born Feb 13, 1825
Died Nov 23, 1890

Built in 1888, exploring its architecture, layout, and structure today

"The historic Carver brick farmhouse built in 1888 is endangered. It has become part of the Minnesota River Valley wildlife refuge, so it is considered in the flood plain. Learn more about the history of this house and farmstead, and view evidence of a clay block silo. There's even a brick outhouse!"

Photo credit: MN Bricks and Carver County Historical Society

More about the first homeowners and architect!!

Henry and Christina (Sohns) Gehl were the original homeowners who met in Germany and later moved to America. The house was passed onto several family members before being converted into a public park. Watch the full video by MN Bricks to learn more!