2447 Bryant Ave S
Minneapolis, MN 55405, USA

2447 Bryant Ave S, Minneapolis, MN, USA

2447 Bryant Ave S Home History
house, William Kenyon, 1902 / carriage house, Boehme and Cordelia, 1902

This isn't the largest or most "correct" Georgian Revival house in Minneapolis, but it may just be the most beautiful. Occupying three city lots, it was built for a son of Gottlieb Gluek, who founded the Minneapolis brewery that bore his name. The house, sheathed entirely in white clap- board, includes a balustraded front porch that extends north- ward to form a Porte cochere.

Architect William Kenyon took great care in composing the major elevations, which offer Palladian windows, elegant split pediments, and other fine de- tails. One example: the south gable (facing 25th St.) terminates in a small triangular window- a feature that cannot have had any practical use but that adds a wonderful grace note to the de- sign. Equal care was lavished on the carriage house, which for some reason the Glueks hired the firm of Boehme and Cordella, rather than Kenyon, to design. John Gluek and his wife, Minnie, enjoyed their house for only a few years. He was an early auto- mobile enthusiast, and in 1908 they were killed when their car struck a train near Lake
Minnetonka.

Citation: Millett, Larry. AIA Guide to the Minneapolis Lake District. Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2009.

2447 Bryant Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN - The John G. and Minnie Gluek House and Carriage House

Statement of Significance:

The John Gluek House and Carriage House are significant as leading examples of the Georgian Revival style in Minneapolis and, in the case of the house alone, as a masterwork of one of the city's most important early Twentieth Century residential architects, William Kenyon.

The architect of the John and Minnie Gluek House, William M. Kenyon, was graduated from Boston Art Normal School in 1886 and immediately went to work for the noted Boston firm of van Brunt and Howe. By 1886, he had become the chief draftsman in their Kansas City Office, with several nationally published renderings to his credit. In 1893 he moved to Minneapolis to set up an independent practice. After a slow start because of the financial panic, he quickly rose to become one of the city's most widely sought-after residential designers. By 1912, he had designed over 70 residences in the city, along with a dozen important commercial structures.

John G.Gluek was a son of Gottlieb Gluek, who founded the Gluek Brewing Company in 1857 in what was to become northeast Minneapolis, Gluek's brewery was the second leading producer of beer in the city, though its operation was dwarfed in the mid-1890s by the consolidation of four other breweries into the Minneapolis Brewing Company. John Gluek was the first of the three brothers (all officers of the company) to move to a more prestigious south Minneapolis location, followed by Charles in 1907. John and his wife only occupied the house on Bryant for six years, for their lives were cut short by a collision between their car and a train during an outing near Lake Minnetonka. In late 1908 the property and John Gluek's personal estate of $300,000 passed to their 'son Eugene. Eugene took over his father's role in the brewery as well as running an automotive company from 1922 to 1929. He continued to live in the house until 1939.