Share what you know,
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Share what you know,
and discover more.
John & Augusta Berg House
It is very difficult to precisely date many of the houses in Dutchtown, as this very northern part of Stillwater is known. Not only was much of the land owned by the Schulenburg & Boeckeler Lumber Company, but the general architecture of these small mill cottages was so fundamental and plain they could have been built any time in the nineteenth century. This house at 1924 North First Street is a small one-and-one-half story with its broad side to First Street, with a door in the middle and a window on each side. This small symmetrical house is typical of the early homes in Stillwater and the Midwest. The front door surround, with its pediment and columns was probably added in the 1920s._x000D_ _x000D_ The house at the intersection of First and Hazel Streets is illustrated on the Dutchtown inset of the 1870 Birds Eye View map of Stillwater, and we know the Schulenburg & Boeckeler Lumber Co. arrived here in 1854, so this house was probably built between 8154 and 1870--most likely in the 1860s._x000D_ _x000D_ According to family lore, the German-born John Berg, and his wife, Augusta, and one married daughter, Augusta Klaman, her husband, Ferdinand, and their children, arrived in Stillwater in the early 1880s. The Bergs lived near the waterfront lumber mill on Schulenburg Alley for a year. But because the river rose each spring and flooded the area, John moved his family up the hill to this corner lot at First and Hazel Streets. In 1881, "Johann" Berg purchased this property and house for $400 according to a deed that was in the familys possession._x000D_ _x000D_ After John and Augustas deaths, the house went to the youngest son, Rheinhard. Upon his death in 1929, the house passed to his two daughters, Lillian and Louise Berg. The Berg sisters lived in the house until Lillian died in 1990, and Louise in 1999, after which, for the first time in 118 years and three generations, this small house passed out of the family._x000D_ _x000D_ Fortunately, the Berg sisters wrote a wonderfully evocative essay about growing up in Dutchtown at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. _x000D_ _x000D_ Besides the literary connection to the past, this house is also notable for its five outbuildings. Unlike any other house in Stillwater, this "estate" has the full complement of supplementary buildings: chicken house, barn, wagon shed, outhouse--practical remnants of what would have been found on the properties of many Nineteenth Century Stillwater homes._x000D_ _x000D_ Today, the "new" guardian of the property, Melanie Ebertz, follows the Berg sisters striving to preserve and protect the old house and its full complement of outbuildings, while trying at the same time adapting them to the Twenty-First Century._x000D_ _x000D_ See also the house at 2011 Schulenburg Alley.
John & Augusta Berg House
It is very difficult to precisely date many of the houses in Dutchtown, as this very northern part of Stillwater is known. Not only was much of the land owned by the Schulenburg & Boeckeler Lumber Company, but the general architecture of these small mill cottages was so fundamental and plain they could have been built any time in the nineteenth century. This house at 1924 North First Street is a small one-and-one-half story with its broad side to First Street, with a door in the middle and a window on each side. This small symmetrical house is typical of the early homes in Stillwater and the Midwest. The front door surround, with its pediment and columns was probably added in the 1920s._x000D_ _x000D_ The house at the intersection of First and Hazel Streets is illustrated on the Dutchtown inset of the 1870 Birds Eye View map of Stillwater, and we know the Schulenburg & Boeckeler Lumber Co. arrived here in 1854, so this house was probably built between 8154 and 1870--most likely in the 1860s._x000D_ _x000D_ According to family lore, the German-born John Berg, and his wife, Augusta, and one married daughter, Augusta Klaman, her husband, Ferdinand, and their children, arrived in Stillwater in the early 1880s. The Bergs lived near the waterfront lumber mill on Schulenburg Alley for a year. But because the river rose each spring and flooded the area, John moved his family up the hill to this corner lot at First and Hazel Streets. In 1881, "Johann" Berg purchased this property and house for $400 according to a deed that was in the familys possession._x000D_ _x000D_ After John and Augustas deaths, the house went to the youngest son, Rheinhard. Upon his death in 1929, the house passed to his two daughters, Lillian and Louise Berg. The Berg sisters lived in the house until Lillian died in 1990, and Louise in 1999, after which, for the first time in 118 years and three generations, this small house passed out of the family._x000D_ _x000D_ Fortunately, the Berg sisters wrote a wonderfully evocative essay about growing up in Dutchtown at the beginning of the Twentieth Century. _x000D_ _x000D_ Besides the literary connection to the past, this house is also notable for its five outbuildings. Unlike any other house in Stillwater, this "estate" has the full complement of supplementary buildings: chicken house, barn, wagon shed, outhouse--practical remnants of what would have been found on the properties of many Nineteenth Century Stillwater homes._x000D_ _x000D_ Today, the "new" guardian of the property, Melanie Ebertz, follows the Berg sisters striving to preserve and protect the old house and its full complement of outbuildings, while trying at the same time adapting them to the Twenty-First Century._x000D_ _x000D_ See also the house at 2011 Schulenburg Alley.
Posted Date
Sep 27, 2021
Source Name
Heirloom Homes and Landmark
