318 2nd Street Southwest
Pine Island, MN, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Jacob A. Bringgold and Mary Finn House

Statement of Significance:

Built circa 1903 in the village of Pine Island, Minnesota, 3 the Jacob A. and Mary Finn Bringgold House is significant under National Register Criterion C in the Area of Significance of Architecture. It embodies distinctive elements of the Queen Anne style and is a notable example of this style in Pine Island. Its period of significance is circa 1903 and it is locally significant. The property is associated with the Minnesota statewide context "Railroads and Agricultural Settlement, 1870-1940."

The Bringgold House is located at 318 SW Second Street (formerly Newton Avenue and later White Street) and is part of Pine Island's Auditors Subdivision, 5 an expansion after the community was initially platted in 1856-57.6 Located in southeastern Minnesota, Pine Island is in the southeast corner of Goodhue County, at the confluence of two middle branches of the Zumbro River. The city's name comes from a Dakota word meaning "island of pines;" the two branches of the river appeared to create an island where white pine trees grew.

First settled in 1854, the townsite quickly grew, taking advantage of the area's natural resources. The rolling pastures and rivers were well-suited for cattle, 8 and in 1865 Jacob A. Bringgold's father, Jacob Bringgold Sr., purchased 160 acres of farmland in nearby Roscoe township. One of the first cheese makers in the area, he was called the "father of the great cheese industry," 9 and Pine Island became known as the "Cheese Center of Minnesota."

In 1878, the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad Company built a branch line to Pine lsland and, in the same year, the village was incorporated separately from the township.
Jacob A. Bringgold (called "Jake") was a newborn in 1865 when he came to Minnesota from New York with his family, 14 the sixth of eight children. 15 At the age of 24, Jake purchased Oak Hill Farm16 just west of Pine Island, the same year he married Mary Finn. 17 Mary Finn Bringgold was born in 1867 in Olmstead County, Minnesota, the daughter of a farmer. After attending school in Rochester, she was a teacher in Olmsted and Dodge counties before her marriage. 18 They had two children-Marion, born in 1896, and Margaret, born in 1901.

By 1901, Jake Bringgold had acquired adjacent lots 15 and 16 on Newton Avenue in the village of Pine Island. 20 Although research did not lead to a precise construction date for the house, it was raised on the property circa 1903. Jake and his family subsequently moved from Oak Hill Farm and into the two-and-one-half-story, wood-framed residence punctuating the lots.

The house was built in the Queen Anne style, a style first introduced in the United States with the British Executive Commissioner's building at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876. It was praised by the American Builder for its "wonderful adaptability to this country." 22 In 1919, architect Thomas E. Tallmadge explained its popularity as:

... the desire for the picturesque, and the cheapness of labor and material. These were halcyon days for the planning-mill and the jigsaw. Turned and sawed grills, balustrades and traceries formed the ornament. Plate glass windows had come into fashion, and at least one or two huge sheets proclaimed the opulence of the owner.

Jake Bringgold's "opulence" can be seen in the two plate glass windows on the first and second floors of the house facade. But it is apparent in other features of the house as well, such as the Tuscan columns of the wrap-around porch. The house also boasts a steeply pitched roof with irregular rooflines and an irregular footprint, boxed eaves, and shingled gables, all characteristic of the ornate Queen Anne style. The projecting bays, handsome dormer, decorative finial, and roundels continue the style's showiness.

The interior of the house includes such Queen Anne style elements as paneled doors (see Additional Documentation, page 4), a window in the upper portion of an exterior door (Photo 7), and sashes with a single pane of glass (Photo 6)

Jake and Mary lived in the house for over 30 years and continued to own land-under their individual names-in both Roscoe and Pine Island townships. 26 (In census records, Jake identified himself as either a "landlord" or "farmer." ) In 1909, they owned a total of 357 acres valued at $7,379. 28 During this time, Jake also served as president of the Farmers State Bank and, at various times, as the mayor of Pine Island.

While Jake had at one time been the first manager of the Pine Island Cheese Factory, it was his younger brother Charles who took over the family business as a cheese manufacturer.

Around 1909, Charles purchased a house (no longer extant) across Newton Avenue from Jake. After Mary died in 1936, Jake moved to Lindstrom, Minnesota, to live with his daughter Margaret. He died there in 1940.