602 Main Street North
Stillwater, MN, USA

Minnesota Territorial/State Prison Warden's House

The Warden's House Museum is a historic house museum in Stillwater, Minnesota, United States. From 1853 to 1914 it was the official residence for the wardens of what began as the Minnesota Territorial Prison and became the Minnesota State Prison upon statehood in 1858. The Washington County Historical Society has operated the house since 1941, making it the second-oldest house museum in Minnesota. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974 as the Minnesota Territorial/State Prison Warden's House for its state-level significance in the themes of architecture and social history. It was nominated for being the only surviving structure of the prison's Minnesota Territory period and the chief remnant of its statehood years.

Description

The Warden's House is a two-story building constructed of local limestone. The house is oriented broadside to the east, with a shallow pitched roof and low gables on the north and south end. Architecturally it conveys an early Greek Revival style but with Federal influences. Wood-frame additions were added to the rear in 1870. The house originally had a full-width balcony along the front, which was replaced in 1910 with a two-story porch topped with a gable. Since the building's 1974 National Register nomination, this porch has been replaced with a smaller balcony-topped porch hugging the main entrance.

There was originally a two-story frame carriage house behind the main house, but it was demolished around the time the prison ceased operation in 1914.

History

The Warden's House was part of the original construction for the Minnesota Territorial Prison. It stood outside the walls on a bluff overlooking the prison complex, which was located immediately to the north within a ravine. The prison was in operation for 61 years, from 1853 to 1914. In that time 13 successive wardens resided in the house, serving terms as short as five months to as long as 20 years. The first two wardens were appointed by the territorial legislature, then, for the first 40 years of statehood, by the Governor of Minnesota with State Senate confirmation. In 1889, to quell political favoritism in the choices, legislation assigned the selection of wardens to a five-person board of managers.

The original prison complex closed in 1914 upon the completion of a new Minnesota State Prison just south of Stillwater in Bayport. The Warden's House then served as quarters for lesser officials like deputy wardens and superintendents. Most of the prison complex was demolished in 1936. The Warden's House was preserved and transferred to the Washington County Historical Society in 1941.

Museum

The Warden's House Museum consists of 14 rooms, which have been restored to late-19th and early-20th-century style. Some depict how the house would have looked during its occupancy by various wardens, while others contain exhibits on Washington County history. Some rooms in the museum house artifacts from the lumbering industry, early Stillwater pioneers, and items belonging to the Younger Brothers of the Frank and Jesse James Gang. The Warden's House Museum is the only museum in the city of Stillwater.

National Register of Historic Places - Warden's House Museum

Statement of Significance:

The Old Warden's House functioned as the Minnesota Territorial and State Prison Warden's residence from 1853 until the prison was abandoned in 1914.xXThe two story limestone building is the only remaining structure, of the territorial prison and is, the only principle structure left of the state prison institution at Stillwater, Minnesota.

Minnesota's prison was first proposed by Governor Ramsey in his address to the territorial legislature on September 3, 1849. The legislature designated Stillwater as the prison site after Congress appropriated twenty thousand dollars for the structure in June of 1850. The prison was to be erected on the northern edge of the town of Stillwater in Battle Hollow; a ravine named after a bloody encounter between the Dakota and Chippewa Indians in 1339.

Plans for the complex were accepted from Jacob Fisher and the construction contracts were awarded to the firm of Jesse Taylor Company. This first contract specified the outside wall, the warden's house, and the main prison building. Construction began in 1851, and by 1853 these structures were completed. The warden's house was built outside of the prison walls on the south bank of the ravine and overlooked the complex.

The territorial legislature of 1853 provided for an administrative structure and a warden; named by the legislature for a term of five years. Francis R. Delano, one of the contractors of the Jesse Taylor Company, took office April 4, 1853. The first two wardens were appointed to the office by the territorial legislature. The governor, with confirmation from the Senate, appointed the wardens between the years 1858 and 1889, after Minnesota became a state. In 1889, the legislature moved to take away political favoritism out of the prison by vesting direction and control to a five-member board of managers who appointed the state prison warden.

Thirteen wardens administered the Stillwater penitentiary during the sixty-one years of the institution’s existence. Terms of office varied in length of time between five months to over twenty years. Qualifications to hold the office of warden were as diverse as their length of office terms. Many the wardens were lumberman, some were store merchants and in the final years there were two professional penologists.

High points of the Minnesota State Prison Wardens administration in the correctional field are as follows: the prison library initiated under the first warden, Francis R. Delano, was to become one of the finest prison libraries in the country in later years. The first prison physician and Chaplin were appointed to the institution in 1858. The issuing of the "penitentiary striped" uniform was begun in 1860 for easy identification; this clothing rule was not completely abolished until 1921. A "good conduct scheme" for reducing the lengths of a convict's sentence through good behavior was established in 1862; this system considerably altered and broadened over the years is still in effect today. During the 1860 's the use of guards to patrol the prison at night, to curtail the numerous escapes, was commenced. The inmate’s newspaper, the Prison Mirror, was established in 1887.

Under the administration of Warden Randell, in 1890, the state went into the business of manufacturing twine at the state prison. This was an attempt to break the political power of the "contract system" that began in 1859 involving the leasing of convicts and prison property to private business It was not until the abandonment of the prison in 1914, that the "contract system" terminated.

Under the guidance of the first professional penologist to head the Minnesota State Prison, Albert Garvin, the beginnings of a grading system of convicts and a prison school were undertaken in 1891. Garvin was replaced by Henry Wolfer, another trained penologist who introduced a new era in prison management in Minnesota. Under Warden Wolfer's leadership pardons became authorized by state law, a system of grading convicts was established that lasted until 1953, and the prison school finally became a reality in providing the prisoners with educational rehabilitation. It should be pointed out that the new prison at Bayport in Washington County was built under his supervision; Wolfer was the last warden at the Stillwater prison location.

The prison complex was ordered demolished in 1936 except for the Old Warden's House that was acquired in 1941 by the Washington County Historical Society for a museum; it is still operated for this purpose. The Old Warden's House is significant because it represents the prison warden's residence in Minnesota between the years 1853 to 1914. It is the only remnant of the Minnesota Territorial Prison established in 1853, and the only principle structure left standing of the original Minnesota State Prison at Stillwater, Minnesota.