Pillsbury Mansion?

OK, finally I have run out of Pillsbury Mansions. But I have one more mansion, this is the last one on the block, neighbors to the Gale-Pillsbury Mansion. This is the Eugene Merrill House.From the Architecture Guide:

The oldest mansion on the park, built of rusticated red sandstone and dominated by a polygonal tower, its style falls in the broad territory of Chateauesque. The house was built in 1884 for John S. Bradstreet, who for many years was Minneapolis's decorator for the well-to-do. For reasons unknown, Bradstreet never occupied the house and in 1887 it was acquired by a lawyer and banker named Eugene Merrill.

The neighborhood is, fairly obviously, littered with huge old houses and is well worth a walking, or, as in my case, a bicycling tour. In fact, the district is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Washburn-Fair Oaks Mansion District.

The development in the area was spurred by the desire of prominent families to move away from the central business district and to build larger and more elegant homes along what was at that time the edge of town. Development began around the early 1870s and continued through about 1930. The houses within the district represent a number of popular architectural revival styles.

The name of the district derives from the William Washburn House (Fairoaks). According to the Architecture Guide this "was among the grandest of all Twin Cities mansions but stood for only 40 years. The house was built in 1884 amid grounds that included a pond and a stream crossed by a rustic bridge, a green house and a carriage house. Washburn lived on the estate until his death in 1912. The property then went to the Minneapolis Park Board, which found the mansion too costly to maintain; in 1924 it fell to the wrecker." The former site is now a Minneapolis park, Washburn Fair Oaks Park.

William Washburn was trained as a lawyer but after his arrival in Minneapolis in 1857 he was able to get in on the ground floor of the milling business at Saint Anthony Falls. His business ventures in flour milling and in lumber allowed him to amass a large fortune, and by the 1880s, he was among the wealthiest men in Minnesota. Washburn served as the first president from 1883 to 1889 of what was to become Soo Line Railroad. He also founded the Pillsbury-Washburn Milling Company, which later became the Pillsbury Company (not the same entity as the C. A. Pillsbury and Company, which also later became the Pillsbury Company. The Pillsbury-Washburn Company was eventually absorbed by Washburn's brother's firm, General Mills.

The other nearby houses which are still standing include:

-The Caroline Crosby House, at 2105 First Avenue South, built by the daughter of John Crosby, co-founder of the Washburn-Crosby Company (later became General Mills). The house is a brick Georgian Revival structure.

-The Luther Farrington House, at 2100 Stevens Avenue South, is also in the Georgian Revival style.

-The J.S. Kingmen House, at 2022 Second Avenue South, is a Shingle Style house built in 1883.

-The George H. and Leonora Christian House at 2302 Third Avenue South, was the last to be built in the neighborhood. The house uses Renaissance Revival elements such as a balustraded roof.

George Christian was the manager of the Washburn-Crosby milling company in the 1860s and helped to perfect the "new process" of milling hard spring wheat to make a pure white flour. This process made Minneapolis flour highly competitive with flour from other mills.

Christian was nearly 80 years old when he began building the house. Before the project was finished Christian, his wife, and his son died, leaving Carolyn (also spelled Caroline) McKnight Christian, the younger Christian's widow, seven servants,and four foster children as the only occupants for the next forty years, until the 1950s. The building now houses the Hennepin History Museum.

I am now officially done with big old houses in Minneapolis, although browsing in the Architecture Guide has revealed to me the address of the house which John Pillsbury Snyder and Nelle Snyder had built in 1913 after returning from the Titanic disaster. I admit that I would like to have a look.