309 7th Street West
Hastings, MN, USA

MacDonald-Todd House

The MacDonald–Todd House is an 1857 home in Hastings in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The Greek Revival-style house was built by A.W. MacDonald in the utopian town of Nininger when he relocated to Dakota County from New York. He came to become the managing editor of the Emigrant Aid Journal. The paper was owned by Lieutenant Governor Ignatius Donnelly, who also founded the community of Nininger. In 1866, the home was moved across the ice in the Mississippi River to its present location, by Irving Todd, who had bought it for $385.

National Register of Historic Places - MacDonald-Todd House

Statement of Significance:

The MacDonald-Todd House is significant both as the residence of two prominent Dakota County journalists and for its association with promotional efforts for a speculative Dakota County townsite project in the 1850s. Constructed in 1857 at the townsite of Nininger, the house was, the residence of A.W. MacDonald, managing editor of Ignatius Donnelly's Emigrant Aid Journal. Donnelly, who later became a congressman and lieutenant governor of Minnesota, was a primary sponsor of the townsite and utilized the Journal as its promotional device. MacDonald had worked for the Scientific American in New York before assuming his position with the Journal. Local sources indicate that the building also housed the Journal's editorial offices and printing press. Like scores of similar speculative townsite projects of the 1850s, Nininger was unsuccessful, and MacDonald left in 1859. The house was one of several Nininger buildings that were moved about five miles downriver to Hastings. This transfer was accomplished during the winter of 1866-67 on the ice of the Mississippi River. The new owner was Irving Todd, Sr., publisher of the Hastings Conserver from 1862 until 1866 and of the Hastings Gazette from 1866 until his death in 1921. The Gazette is one of the oldest existing newspapers in Minnesota.