A 20-year labor of love

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Lois Stadick has several old pictures of the John Lind House when its windows were boarded up, the lawn was dead and squirrels scurried around inside the attic.

Since preservationists got ahold of the Victorian Queen Anne mansion nearly 20 years ago, a lot of time, effort and money have gone into bringing back one of New Ulm's historic landmarks.

In its day, the house of Minnesota's 14th governor was a significant cultural, social and political center. It was host to many large gatherings and social functions while Lind was the governor of Minnesota. That was nearly 120 years ago.

Now that the restoration project is mostly finished, Stadick and Jodi Marti are looking to revitalize the house as a community fixture and restore New Ulm's sense of ownership of the house.

'We're hoping it won't have to rely on grants because those are drying up," Marti said. "We're at a point now where we're really getting creative because we want it to be successful. It's definitely a beautiful piece of New Ulm."

In order to bring back that sense of community, the association that owns the Lind House is brainstorming new ways to promote the house as a place for social gatherings in addition to its role as a local historical place. The house is already a popular place for Christmas parties, wedding receptions and receptions for New Ulm city officials. The house is going to host the Taste of New Ulm for the city's 150th anniversary.

The Lind House Association was started in 1983 by a small group of women who wanted to save the house. The association bought the then-abandoned mansion for $46,000. The restoration started almost immediately.

Marti, who is president ot the association, said the project was originally widely supported by the public because there were few renovation projects in New Ulm at the time. She claims the restoration of the Lind House led to other projects, including the one that restored Wanda Gag's childhood home just a few blocks away.

Restoration started in 1984 when a girls' bedroom was restored to give locals an idea of what a fully restored house could look like. But because the Lind House has been remodeled and changed in its 120 years, the association is looking to restore it to look like a house did in 1887 and not to the exact way it was when the Linds lived there. Files at the Brown County Historical Society show the house was converted into a duplex in 1928.

The project has gone in several phases, the most noticeable beginning in 2000, when crews went to work restoring the large, sweeping turret that faces Center Street. That phase cost $33,000. The rest of the house was restored during the second phase with a price tag of $26,000 and the final part, which is currently in progress on the porch, is expected to cost $17,500.

Stadick and Marti say they have a wish list of more projects they'd like to accomplish, like restoring the garden, refurbishing the basement and installing a replica 1880s ice box for the kitchen.

The Lind House will have fundraising dinner (black tie optional) on Friday, Oct. 24, at the New Ulm Country Club to help support its activities.

Much of the furniture inside the house is from the turn of the last century and was donated to the association. Some, like the replica stove in the kitchen and the grandfather clock, were given as memorials by people who want to honor a loved one. Others, like the square baby grand piano in the parlor, were restoration projects that others were trying to finish but decided to donate instead.

The Lind House is open for $1 tours all seven days of the week during summer and on weekends during the rest of the year. Stadick, who is the executive director of the association, is the tour guide. She said she got involved with the house because it helps her combine her passions of old houses and tourism together into a full-time job. Marti said she's always been interested in the house and was asked to join the association, although she didn't realize the house's possibilities until she won a dinner for 10 people there in a raffle.

Future plans for the house include making use of the basement and restoring the landscaping on the east side of the house.

The tour of the house starts in the part of the parlor that looks out onto Center Street next to an oil painting of John Lind. Stadick says she usually starts the tours with biographical information about the former governor.

The parlor of the house has many pocket doors for a couple different reasons, explains Stadick. Houses in the late 1800's were not heated well, and so doors kept the heat where it was needed. Since properties were taxed based on how many doors were inside the house, pocket doors were popular because they technically didn't qualify as doors. Many houses of the time don't have closets for a similar reason, since closets were considered rooms.

The parlor was used mostly for special occasions like weddings, birthdays and funerals. In fact, Stadick says, the doors on many houses from the time period had wide doors to allow caskets to be carried out of the parlor.

The dining room is Stadick's favorite part of the house. Alice Lind, the governor's wife, had a bell underneath the dining room table that she could use to call her servants.

Just off of the dining room is the kitchen, which the association has tried to restore to the period, with the exception of the dishwasher underneath the sink. There's a door just off the kitchen that has a steep staircase that goes straight up to the servant's rooms.

The nursery is at the top of the main staircase, which one sees immediately after coming through the front doors of the house. Instead of a baby's crib, visitors instead see Lind's Royal Order of Vasa medal, one of his chairs, samples of the house's original wallpaper and many old photos of the Lind family, houses John Lind lived in and famous people Lind knew in Washington like presidents William McKinley and Woodrow Wilson and statesman William Jennings Bryant.

The offices for the United Way of New Ulm occupy the boy's bedroom, the dressing room, the Lind's master bedroom and the servant's rooms, which are right around the corner from the nursery.

A native of Smaland, Sweden, John Lind was the 14th governor of Minnesota. He served one term in that office from 1899 to 1901. His time as governor was sandwiched in between terms as a U.S. Congressman. He worked as a school teacher and then as a New Ulm lawyer before he was elected superintendent of New Ulm's schools. He originally settled near Winthrop after he and his parents immigrated to Minnesota from Sweden in 1868.

Lind knew many of the most influential people of his time, including presidents William McKinley and Woodrow Wilson and statesman William Jennings Bryant. He also served as U.S. ambassador to Mexico. He enlisted in the U.S. Army as a quartermaster during the Spanish-American War.

Lind built his house at the corner of Center and State streets in 1887 for a total of $5,000. He moved to Minneapolis in 1901, when he built another house in the Lowry Hill neighborhood on the city's south side. He lived there until his death in 1930.

Information about the John Lind House is at www.lindhouse.homestead.com.