226 Minnesota Avenue East
Glenwood, MN, USA

Ann Bickle History

Ann Bickle

The Ann Bickle House, built in 1913, is eligible for the National Register under Criterion B (associated with the life of a significant person). The house is associated with Ann Bickle, a woman who made significant contributions to her community and state through public service. Bickle is known particularly for her contributions to health care and to World War II civilian defense activities. She served the community of Glenwood as an organizer and volunteer in many civic organizations, as well as being influential on the state level as one of the founders and the first president of the Women's Auxiliary of the Minnesota Hospital Association.

The Ann Bickle House was the home of Ann Jones Bickle (1886-1984) from 1936-1984. Bickle's civic contributions during those years included service on many civic, cultural, and social organizations in Glenwood. She became the first president of the Glenwood Community Hospital Auxiliary in 1939. She was instrumental in raising funds to construct and equip the Glenwood Hospital, which was constructed in 1939-1940, and in funding its subsequent operation. Partly as a result of Bickle's efforts, the Glenwood Hospital was recognized nationally several times during the years 1940-1945 as an outstanding small hospital by the American Hospital Association. During World War II Bickle was Director of Women's Services in Civilian Defense in Pope County and led many facets of the "home front" war effort. She was also a member and officer of a number of social and cultural organizations, including the Glenwood Civic Club, the Glenwood Music Club, the Glenwood Literary Club, and other groups. Prior to her move to Glenwood, Bickle was active in organizations such as the Minnesota Federation of Women's Clubs, the Minneapolis Philharmonic Club, and World War I "home front" efforts. Ann moved to Glenwood in 1936 when she married Frank Bickle, a career Soo Line engineer who had been living in the house since it was built in 1913.

Ann Jones Williams was born in Aberystwyth, Dyfed, Wales on February 15, 1886. Her father. Captain John Williams, a Master Mariner, died October 13, 1898, when his ship sank during a storm. Ann's brother Edward, who was 28 years old, also died during this voyage. Remaining family members included her mother Ellen Jones Williams, a half-sister Claudia, and a brother Isaac. Ann attended preparatory schools in Wales and studied for one year at the University of Wales where she took music classes and voice lessons. As a child, Ann had sung with the well-known Welsh Brenig Edward's choir which earned many awards in music competition. In 1904, when Ann was 18, she immigrated to Calgary, Canada, to homestead with her brother Isaac who had immigrated earlier and established a claim. When Isaac returned to Wales, Ann remained in Calgary where she worked at a hotel which she eventually managed. In 1910, Ann moved to Minneapolis where she married and became a homemaker. By 1921 Ann McKay, separated from her husband, took a position as a saleswoman. Following her divorce, Ann worked in the advertising department of the Chippewa Water Company in Minneapolis.

Ann's second husband, Frank B. J. Sickle, was born December 28, 1876, in Devonshire, England. When he was 14 years old he immigrated to Canada and from there to Gladstone, Michigan, where he worked at a sawmill. In September of 1896, he began working as a fireman on the Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Sault Ste. Marie Railroad (known as the Soo Line) and in July of 1901 was transferred by the railroad to Glenwood. By September of that year he had been promoted to engineer and was assigned the 186-mile run between Glenwood and Thief River Falls. He held this position until he retired in 1946 after having worked 50 years for the railroad. Sickle commissioned the construction of the house in Glenwood in 1913, shortly before his first marriage to Flora Drake who was also an English immigrant. The marriage ended in divorce during the mid-1930s. Ann met Frank Sickle at a church function in Minneapolis where Welsh and English groups socialized. Ann was 50 and Frank was 59 years old when they married on June 10, 1936.

In 1936, Ann moved to Glenwood, then a town of 2,500 people, and into the Sickle House. She immediately began to make an impact on civic and cultural life in the city. Her contributions were far-reaching.

The city of Glenwood is located on the eastern end of Lake Minnewaska in west central Minnesota where it was platted in 1866 by the early settlers. It was named "Glenwood" after the home of one of the founder’s families in New York state. Glenwood became the county seat of Pope County in 1867. Most of the county's early settlers were pioneer farmers of Swedish or Norwegian descent. Immigrants from Germany, England, and Bohemia also moved there in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Glenwood was incorporated as a village in 1881 and received rail service in 1882 when the Little Falls branch of the Northern Pacific Railroad arrived. In 1886 the Soo Line was built through Glenwood and the town became a division headquarters on the Soo. Glenwood's economy was centered around the town's role as an agricultural trade center and as a resort community on Lake Minnewaska. Its current population is about 2,570.

The Ann Bickle House

Description of the Ann Bickle house

The Ann Bickle House, built-in 1913, is located at 226 E. Minnesota Avenue in Glenwood, Minnesota, a town of about 2,570 people in Pope County. The property is located on a corner lot on the southern side of Minnesota Avenue, Glenwood's major thoroughfare and main commercial street. The house stands in a mixed residential and commercial neighborhood about two blocks east of downtown Glenwood. The Bickle House is surrounded by residences to the east, west and south, and commercial properties across Minnesota Avenue to the north.

The Bickle House is a two-story, wood-frame American Foursquare style structure. It was designed by a Michigan firm, Frank P. Allen and Son, and built by Glenwood contractor Albert Wollan. Both the exterior and the interior of the house are essentially intact.

The house measures approximately 38 feet wide by 46 feet deep and rests on a poured concrete foundation that has 18-inch-thick walls. The exterior of the house is covered with stucco. Its truncated hipped roof has wide overhanging eaves and is covered with asphalt shingles. The house has rectangular window openings with double hung sash. The upper sash has wooden mullions forming a geometric pattern. There are small rectangular and square windows lighting the basement. The house has a stucco-covered exterior end wall chimney on the eastern facade and an interior chimney near the rear.

The main (northern) facade of the Bickle House is symmetrical. The second story has two square windows in the center bay and a larger rectangular window in each of the outer bays. Two hip-roofed, attic-level dormers project from the roof of the main facade. Spanning the main facade is an eight and one-half foot-deep front porch that has a stucco-covered base and four broad stucco-covered piers that support a hipped roof. The porch has been screened. Within the porch two rectangular window openings flank the main entrance to the house. The main entrance consists of a single-leaf door flanked by rectangular leaded glass sidelights.

The eastern facade has a wide one story bay window, a battered stucco-covered exterior chimney, and rectangular window openings. The western facade has a simple, symmetrical pattern of rectangular window openings. The rear (southern) facade has a one story, hip-roofed kitchen extension, single-leaf doors leading to the basement and to a rear entrance porch that enters the kitchen, and rectangular window openings.

The basement originally contained a laundry area at" the southern end; a vegetable storage room, coal-burning furnace, and coal chute near the center of the house; and an open storage area near the northern end.

The first floor is divided into five major rooms arranged around a central hall and a centrally-located stairway to the second floor. A parlor—used by the Sickles as a music room—is located at the northwestern corner. A sitting or living room is located at the northeastern corner, a dining room is located near the southeastern corner, a library is located near the southwestern corner, and a kitchen with pantry is located across the southern end of the house.

The second floor is arranged like the first floor, with a bedroom in each of the four corners of the house and a bathroom located near the center of the eastern side.

The interior of the house has plaster-covered walls, oak trim that retains its original red oak finish, and hardwood floors. The music room and the library have oak, maple, and black walnut flooring laid in a three-color geometric pattern. The living room and the dining room have oak flooring. The dining room and the library each have a beamed ceiling and a fireplace. The living room has a bay window.

The Bickle House is located midway down a large hill, dubbed "Soo Hill," which runs twelve blocks from the Soo Line Depot (at the top of the hill east of the Sickle House) to the shore of Lake Minnewaska (approximately six blocks west of the Sickle House). There are public sidewalks and grassy boulevards with deciduous trees along the northern and eastern sides of the property. A gravel alley runs along the southern side of the property as it bisects the block. The house has a steeply sloping, grassy lawn. There are large evergreen trees located in the front yard and at the southeastern corner of the lot. Near the foundation of the house are evergreen shrubs, hostas, perennial flowers, and plum bushes. Wood vines that were planted in the 1940s cover all four sides of the house. A 1914 photograph of the house shows a grass-planted lawn and a row of deciduous trees (probably elm) standing in front of the house.

Running along the property line in front of the house is a reinforced concrete retaining wall that was built by cement contractors Louis Hofstead and John L. Johnson. The wall was faced circa 1939 with three types of granite from central Minnesota laid in a random pattern with rounded-arched designs. The wall is approximately four feet tall and four feet thick. A poured concrete retaining wall also runs along the eastern side of the property.

The main facade of the house is approached via a set of granite steps built of three different types of granite. Granite slab steps of a single color also approach the rear of the house from the alley. West of the steps is a circular planter made of granite. At the rear of the lot adjacent to the alley is a wood frame, one and one-half story, the shiplap-sided, gable-roofed garage that was built in the 1940s on a concrete block base.

The garage is contributing to the site. The house is now being preserved locally as the Ann Bickle Heritage House. A group of Glenwood women purchased the house in 1988 to preserve it for the community as a cultural and community center which celebrates the accomplishments of women. Each year in March the Heritage House honors local women who have contributed to the community in the tradition of Ann Bickle. The garage has been converted into the Dina Bremness Art Gallery which showcases the work of Pope County artists and craftspeople. The gallery opened in 1991.