733 Range St
North Mankato, MN, USA

National Register of Historic Places - William E. Stewart House

Statement of Significance:

The William E. Stewart house, barn and carriage house, built for the founder of the Mankato Brick and Tile Company of brick manufactured at the adjacent brickyards, are historically significant for their associations with the brick industry that flourish in Mankato, North Mankato, and Le Hillier in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Brick manufacturing was among the important industries in the Mankato area beginning in 1856 when the first brickyards opened in the city of Mankato. Abundant alluvial clay found in the flood plain of the Minnesota river was used to make bricks. Flood plain clay, as it was known, is generally of fair plasticity, sandy in composition, and red or salmon in color. Higher grades of clay were also present in the area but were of limited availability and were used infrequently, primarily for pottery and drain tile. Production and use of bricks increased steadily until the Civil War. Although it was reported in the Mankato Record in 1867 that "brick here is cheaper than any other point in the state", wood remained a more popular building. material as it was less expensive. After the Civil War the coming of the railroad and the subsequent population boom gave renewed impetus to the growth of the brick industry in the area. By 1887 the brick manufacturing industry had crossed the river to North Mankato. Production of bricks in the Mankato area increased from 2,000,000 in 1869 to a peak of 12,500,000 in 1892. At the peak there were fifteen brickyards in the area, four of them in North Mankato. Mankato bricks were shipped by rail to nearby communities and throughout the Midwest.

The first North Mankato brickyard opened in 1887 and was operated by Martin Melhoffer who also had a yard in Mankato. Later that year A.L. Wheeler and O.E. Bennett opened another yard in North Mankato, under the name of Wheeler and Bennett. In 1892 they acquired another yard that had opened in 1888, and the following year they acquired the Meihoffer yard.

William E. Stewart was born in Walnut Lake in 1868. By the time he was thirteen he was living with the family of A.L. Wheeler who later became one of the proprietors of the WTieeler and Bennett brickyard. Stewart no doubt became acquainted with the brick industry through his associations with Wheeler. Stewart attended the Mankato State Normal School and Mankato Commercial College. In 1905 he opened the Mankato Brick and Tile Company, adjacent to the Wheeler and Bennett yard. The Stewart Yard, as it was knovm, was the last brickyard to be opened, and can be considered the culmination of the brick-making Industry in the area. By 1907 twenty-eight men were on the payroll. In 1910 Stewart built his imposing brick house adjacent to the yards. The company produced the following types of brick: common, cistern, veneer, chimney, face, culs, and kiln run.

Among the many North Mankato and Mankato buildings constructed of brick from the Stewart brickyards are the Mankato Armory, Hubbard Mill, St. Joseph's Hospital, the International Harvester Company, Citizens Telephone Company, and other commercial buildings, churches, schools, and numerous houses. The company also shipped brick to cities throughout the state, as well as to Iowa, Missouri, and other states. By 1918 the Stewart Yard was the only brickyard operating in the area. It then produced from one to two million bricks annually.

The decline of the brick Industry in Mankato is generally attributed to the inevitable depletion of the alluvial clay deposits. The remaining clay had a high lime content and was not suitable for brick making. In addition to the depletion of the clay deposits, brickyards in Chaska and Springfield had become major producers of higher quality brick used for veneering buildings, and the Mankato common brick was primarily used for interior and rear walls. Stewart retired from the company in 1932 and died in 1938, three years after the brickyard closed, ending eighty years of brick production in the Mankato area.

The architect of the Stewart house, Henry C. Gerlach, was born in Milwaukee in 1859 and educated there. He moved to St. Paul in 1883 and to Mankato in 1885 where he established an architectural practice. Among the buildings he designed from 1885 to 1895 are the Mankato State Normal School, the Mankato City High School, the Blue Earth County Jail, a hospital. First Baptist Church in Mankato, the Watonwan County Courthouse in St. James, several commercial buildings, and other structures in New Ulm, St. Peter, Jordan, Mapleton, Madelia, and other communities in southern Minnesota. The Mankato Free Press reported in an 1895 issue that Cerlach used Mankato building materials, including brick, sandstone and granite, where possible in his designs. Though existing records are unclear, the contractor for the Stewart house was probably J.B. Nelsen of Mankato.