304 North Oak Street
Lake City, MN, USA

Williamson-Russell-Rahilly House

The Williamson–Russell–Rahilly House is a historic house in Lake City, Minnesota, United States. The original core of the house was built in Greek Revival style around 1868, but it was extensively remodeled in Neoclassical style in 1910. The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 for having local significance in the theme of architecture.[2] It was nominated as a particularly fine example of Minnesota's elegant, turn-of-the-20th-century architecture.


Description

The original core of the Williamson–Russell–Rahilly House is a two-story frame building. The symmetrical façade has a centrally placed front door flanked by engaged columns, and both stories have windows with cornice moldings. The side elevations have gables with the traditional open pediments of Greek Revival architecture. There were originally shallow porches over the front and side doors.

The 1910 remodeling removed the original porches and added much larger elements. Most prominent is a two-story portico with a fully pedimented gable supported by four Ionic order columns. The side entrance received a porte-cochère, while the southeast elevation gained a screened-in porch. On a small balcony over the front door is a wrought-iron balustrade with an Étoile du Nord motif that originally adorned the Alexander Ramsey House in Saint Paul, Minnesota. A one-story extension was also appended to the rear of the house.


History

The first house on this site was built in 1855 for Samuel Doughty, one of Lake City's three original founders. Two years later he sold the house to Harvey Williamson, the city's first postmaster. In 1868, however, it burned down in a fire, so Williamson hired carpenter John Stout to rebuild over the original foundation. Williamson and his family lived in the new home until 1882, when they sold it to Morris C. Russell, editor of Lake City's first newspaper. Russell had arrived in Minnesota Territory in 1854 as a 14-year-old orphaned by a cholera outbreak that killed hundreds aboard their steamboat. He served as a scout during the Dakota War of 1862 and moved to Lake City in 1881, where he began publishing the Graph-Sentinel newspaper.

Russell's residency was apparently brief because tax records show the house in the hands of Lyman and Melissa Buck as of 1882. The Bucks were partners in the Seely & Buck dry goods store, with Melissa continuing in the business after Lyman died in 1890. She likely died around 1900, for that was when her daughter sold the house to its fourth owner, Patrick Henry Rahilly.

Rahilly was a prominent farmer and politician. Born in 1832 in Ireland, he emigrated to the United States with his parents in 1849 and arrived in Minnesota Territory in the 1850s. He settled in Wabasha County in 1868, establishing a farm near Lake City in Mount Pleasant Township. Six years later he entered politics, ultimately being elected thrice to the Minnesota House of Representatives and once to the state senate. His 1880 farmhouse is also on the National Register of Historic Places. Around 1900 he purchased the Williamson–Russell House from Jennie Buck to serve as a place to stay when in town. In 1910 his wife died, prompting Rahilly to sell his farmhouse to his daughter and her husband and to move permanently into the Lake City house.

That same year Rahilly contracted with Charles A. Koch, a self-taught local architect, to renovate the Greek Revival house into a Neoclassical mansion. Rahilly died in the home on January 12, 1931, at the age of 98. It stayed in the Rahilly family as a summer home until 1963. That year it was purchased by George W. Enz, a singer who had performed in the Ziegfeld Follies.

National Register of Historic Places - Williamson-Russell-Rahilly House

Statement of Significance:

The Williamson/Russell/Rahilly House is regarded as "one of the finest examples of Greek Revival Architecture in Minnesota"-'-. As described in Section 7 herein, the home was originally constructed in 1868 in the Greek Revival Architectural style and was extensively remodeled in 1910 to reflect the classic Neo-Classical Revival Architectural style. It has remained substantially unaltered for the past 70 years as a continuing example of elegant, turn-of the-century architecture in Minnesota. The Home presents unique architectural enhancements including the small wrought iron balcony centered between the central columns designed in the Star-of-the North pattern and the columned "Porte cochere" over the side entrance. Its architectural significance today can be appreciated both as a visual tribute to the historic prominence of its former owners and as a reflection of the classic elegance present in early Minnesota history.

Daily Republic Eagle", November 30, 1968

The first actual settler to Lake City, Jacob Boody, arrived in the Fall of 1853. Two years later, Samuel Doughty, a blacksmith and one of the three original founders of Lake City, built his home at what is now 304 South Oak Street.

In 1857, Mr. Doughty sold his home to Harvey Williamson, the first postmaster of Lake City. The home was destroyed by fire in 1868 and Mr. Williamson commissioned John Stout to rebuild the home over its original basement foundation. Mr. Stout was a man of considerable skill who built the first brick building in Lake City. The new Williamson home was constructed as a large Greek Revival home with five fireplaces and, although renovated later by Patrick Rahilly, that basic structure stands today.

In 1882, the Williamsons sold the home to the editor of the "Graphic Sentinel", Morris C. Russell. Mr. Russell had been the youngest man to enter and settle in the new Minnesota Territory, arriving in St. Paul in 1854 at the age of fourteen. He arrived on the Hamburg steamer, alone and without parent or guardian, escaping cholera which killed several hundred fellow passengers. His memoirs include the time he was a volunteer scout for General Sibley during the Sioux uprising of the 1860's in the Minnesota Valley. Mr. Russell came to Lake City to reside in approximately 1881 when he started the "Graph-Sentinel", the oldest newspaper in Lake City.

In 1883, Mr. Russell sold the home to the L. H. Buck family who owned the general store in Lake City.

In 1901, Jennie Mae Buck sold the home to Minnesota pioneer and legislator, Patrick Henry Rahilly. Mr. Rahilly came to the Lake City area in 1868 when he acquired a quarter-section of land in Mount Pleasant Township. In 1874, the public prevailed upon him to accept a nomination to the state legislature, and he was elected by a "flattering majority".4 He was thereafter elected three times to the same position and once to the state Senate.

In 1910, Mr. Rahilly contracted with Charles A. Koch to renovate the house to its present classic-Greek Revival style. Mr. Koch, a man who served Lake City in an architect's capacity, but with no formal degree, was, since 1882, a partner in H. A. Young and Company, a Lake City dry goods and clothing store established in 1865. Mr. Koch added four 30-foot-high Corinthian columns to its facade, entirely framing the iron balcony, rail on the second floor which was taken from Governor Ramsey's St. Paul home.

After Mr. Rahilly's death in the home on January 12, 1931, at the age of 98 years, the mansion remained in the Rahilly family, but was used as a summer house. In 1963 it was sold to George W. Enz, a baritone singer of the big band era with the Ziegfeld Follies. He was one of the California Varsity Eight when Roger Pryor and his wife, Ann Southern, became involved in Hollywood films. Enz added to the "Rahilly House" seven pieces of leaded-crystal, pendant chandeliers and wall side lights which he had obtained from the Weyerhaeuser estate in St. Paul. Since 1970, ownership of the house has passed to three separate parties, each of which held it only for short periods until its latest sale in September 1983.