422 7th Avenue West
Alexandria, MN, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Noah P. Ward House (Pring,Orleigh & Kay,House)

Statement of Significance:

The Noah P. and Sally Ward House, built circa 1903 in Alexandria, is significant as one of the most architecturally sophisticated turn of the century houses standing in Alexandria, as one of the city's largest, most ornate, and most intact Victorian houses, and as the home of Noah P. Ward, one of Alexandria's earliest and most successful businessmen and civic leaders.

Noah P. Ward was born in Illinois in 1855. His New York-born father was a wealthy Illinois farmer who made land investments in the Alexandria area and invested in the Bank of Alexandria, one of the town's first banks, TL. P. Ward moved to Alexandria in 1875 to manage his father's financial interests, left to attend the University of Illinois at Evanston from 1876-78, and returned to Alexandria in 1878. From 1878-1880 he worked as a buyer and seller of wheat and, later, horses. In 1880 Ward established a grocery store which he owned in partnership from 1880-1886, and alone from 1886-1919. Known after 1886 as N. P. Ward, Groceries, the business grew to become the largest grocery store in Alexandria.

In l88l Ward married Sally Busey (1862-1927) of Alexandria, with whom he had six children. Two years after their marriage, in 1883, the couple built a house on this site at the corner of 7th Avenue and Cedar Street. Their first house was demolished and replaced by the present Ward house circa 1903. The Wards also maintained a summer home on Lake L'Homme Dieu a few miles north of Alexandria. Ward served as president of the Alexandria Village Council for six terms, was the first president of the Douglas County Humane Society, served as chief of the Fire Department, and was an active Mason and member of the Republican party. N. P. Ward, his brother Gersham P. Ward, and their families, were active in elite social affairs in Alexandria and were well known as wealthy members of the community.

N. P. and Sally Ward lived in this house until 1919 when they sold their grocery business and moved to Minneapolis where they died in 1927 and 19^5. From 1920-circa 1928 the Ward House was owned by John Wilken, and in circa 1928 it was purchased by Carl V. Anderson, then mayor of Alexandria and an undertaker and furniture store owner. Anderson attempted to establish a funeral home in the house in 1929 but was stopped by neighbors who brought suit against him for depreciating the value of their properties. The case was finally settled in the Minnesota Supreme Court in 1933 and Anderson traded the house to his sister, Alma Anderson, and moved to another part of the city. Alma Anderson, who lived in the house until 1979, operated an exclusive catering business in the house from 193^-circa 1955. Known as the "Hostess House", the Ward home was the site of many weddings, anniversary celebrations, special dinners, and other social functions. The house is now owned by Orleigh and Kay Pring and used as a private residence.

The Noah P. and Sally Ward House was included in a fifteen-month historic sites survey of seven west central Minnesota counties conducted in 1983-84 by the State Historic Preservation Office. The survey staff identified the house as being Alexandria's most unusual and architecturally sophisticated turn of the century house, and as the house which best exemplifies stylistic innovations made by architects working in the city around 1900. The house is one of the largest and most ornate houses standing in Alexandria's "Silk Stocking District" and is unusually intact compared to other houses of similar scale and age in the city.