708 South 4th Street
Princeton, MN, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Robert C. Dunn House

Statement of Significance:

The Dunn House is significant for its association with Robert Campbell Dunn, who was the founder and editor of the Princeton Union, was an active and effective advocate for numerous causes through the various positions he held in state and local government and was one of the primary actors in the Minnesota good roads movement. The house, in an excellent state of preservation, is a very good example of the turn of the century classically influenced Colonial Revival style

Robert Campbell Dunn was born February 14, 1855, at Plumb Bridge, County Tyrone in Northern Ireland. After being educated in the Irish National Schools at the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a dry goods merchant in Londonderry for five years. Uncomfortable in this position, he succeeded in raising enough money to pay for a transatlantic voyage. In 1870, he left to join an uncle in Wisconsin, Samuel Dunn, who had been one of the earliest settlers of Columbia County. After a year of working on his farm he went to St. Louis, where two other uncles were living. He became an apprentice in the office of the Missouri State Atlas and later the St. Louis Journal. Following a severe Illness in January, 1876, he moved north and settled in Princeton, which was just beginning to be settled at the time.

An active republican, Dunn secured the financial backing of a group of like-minded men and established the Princeton Union. This paper began publishing on December 30, 1876. Dunn, at the time the youngest newspaper publisher in the state, continued as publisher of this paper until his death October 28, 1918.

Dunn’s political career began shortly after his arrival in Princeton. In 1878 he was elected town clerk of Princeton, a position that he held until 1889. Although law was not his formal background, he was elected to be Mille Lacs County attorney in 1884 and served until 1888. In that year he was elected to the Legislature for a two-year term. Leaving his seat in 1890 he was again elected in 1892. During the legislative session of 1893 he established his reputation within the state political arena by his outspoken criticism of the way timber lands in northern Minnesota were being sold to the large timber companies. In 1894 he was elected state auditor, and supervised the sale of timberlands, among other activities. After being reelected in 1898, he successfully used his influence to create the State Tax Commission and the State Board of Control.

In 1904, following a bitter factional dispute within the Republican party, in which some were alienated by his reformist tendencies, Dunn was nominated to be their candidate for governor. Running against the popular John Johnson he was defeated by a narrow margin of 7,000 votes are used in. the second-floor main bedroom. Ceiling coves, baseboards, doors and door moldings, stair newels and rails, and all cabinet work are all specially designed for the house. Doorways in the main first floor rooms are a taller than standard seven-foot eight-inch height. Naturally finished oak is used for moldings in all the principal rooms of the house. The remainder of the rooms have birch woodwork that has been stained a cherry color.

Leaded or etched glass is used in the cabinets and doors found in the dining room, pantry and kitchen. Colored glass is used in the upper lights of the windows in the center portion of the bay windows and in the arched window above the west stair landing. Interior walls are separated into two parts by a narrow band of beaded oak. The base portion is burlap, of various colors, and the upper portion is finished with wallpaper

Several minor changes, which do not affect the Integrity of the house, have occurred. Interior walls, originally having a burlap-covered base and wallpaper above were painted during the 1950s. The roof and gable ends were asphalt shingled. Recently the kitchen has been remodeled and updated, with a design that incorporates the beveled-edge tongue-and-groove patterned paneling found on the pantry cabinets and kitchen and pantry wainscot. The northeast bedroom upstairs was also converted to an additional bathroom and dressing area and connected to the master bedroom. The asphalt shingles have been removed from the gable ends, exposing the original wood shingles. The original interior wall fabric has also been restored to its original appearance by matching fragments of the original fabric found beneath the moldings.

Dunn reentered state politics in 1910, in order to advocate a statewide system of good roads. Elected to the legislature in 1910, during the 1911 session Dunn controlled the highway-related legislation in the House. In this session he authored a bill which would allow the state to participate in the construction and maintenance of highways, previously a local or military concern. Partially through his efforts, the legislature submitted a constitutional amendment to the voters which would increase the state mill levy for the purpose of constructing bridges and roads. This amendment was approved in the 1912 election. In the next session of the legislature, Dunn was able to draft a new Minnesota Road Law.

Elected to the state Senate in 1914, Dunn continued his advocacy of good roads. In the 1917 session, he Introduced a bill which would concentrate the authority of the former State Highway Commission in a single State Commissioner of Highways. Charles Babcock was appointed to this position. Working with Babcock, Dunn assisted in developing a plan for a statewide system of good highways. This measure, known as the Babcock Plan, was approved as a constitutional amendment in 1920, two years after Dunn's death.

The Dunn house was built in 1902 following his return from St. Paul. A prominent two-story brick structure, it was designed by Louis Lockwood (1854-1907), whom Dunn may have known in St. Paul. Lockwood had been born in London, England and educated formally at Kings College, Cambridge. In the short period between his arrival in St. Paul in 1892 and his death Lockwood designed numerous St. Paul houses and commercial buildings including the First National Bank (built 1908), Lindeke, Warer and Sons Wholesale Building and the Fire and Marine Building.

Both the Interior and the exterior of the house are outstandingly well-preserved. Several of the minor alterations that had been made over the years have recently been reversed following generally accepted preservation practices. The house has remained in the Dunn family and is currently owned by the grandson of Robert Campbell Dunn.