Historic Shakopee home, livery could land on National Register

Shakopee city officials are hoping an old, distinctive red brick house that once belonged to a prominent local brickmaker will win state and national approval for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, a move that will make it eligible for certain grants.

The Minnesota State Historic Preservation Review Board will decide on Tuesday whether to recommend that the Schroeder House and a nearby stable should move forward to the National Park Service, where an official will consider issuing the final designation.

The home, east of Huber Park on a state trail and near the Minnesota River, is part of a historic area that several groups, including the city and the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community (SMSC), want to one day turn into a cultural corridor, complete with interpretive elements like signage.

It's likely the project will get the go-ahead from the state board, a consultant on the project said, since it's already gone through much of the process and several rounds of editing.

"[The property] was a big piece of Shakopee history because Shakopee brick was founded there and the ... actual house was sort of a showcase of the material," said Michael Kerski, Shakopee planning director.

The city bought the Schroeder House, which has been converted to a duplex, and two adjacent properties just over two years ago, Kerski said, aiming to get it listed on the National Register and to make use of it in some way.

The house, built in 1880, was the residence of Herman Frederick Schroeder, a German immigrant who started the Schroeder Brick and Lime Manufacturing Co. in Shakopee.

Schroeder came to the United States in 1870 and to Shakopee in 1875, where he and his brother started the business together. They used the clay-like soil from the shores of the Minnesota River to make maroon-colored bricks, some of which were imprinted with the word "Shakopee."

Saleh Miller, senior architectural historian for the 106 Group, a subcontractor on the project, said her firm performed a cultural resources survey on the site. She also prepared the National Register of Historic Places nomination.

She noted the exterior of the home's intricate egg-and-dart trim, rectangular rosettes and interesting carvings.

"It looks like he probably used some of his best craftsmen and some of the most unique designs on his own property," Miller said.

Herman Schroeder and his wife, Marie, had five children. He was also a prominent citizen, serving on the City Council for 18 years, organizing the city's first fire department and taking on active roles at St. John's Lutheran Church, the nomination said.

By 1880, the company was firing 1 million bricks a year. In the 1890s, Schroeder bought out his brother's interest in the venture. After Herman Schroeder's death in 1922, two Schroeder sons continued the business until the brickyard closed in the 1940s.

The property is locally significant because the company was the most successful of the local brickyards and its product was used throughout the city and region, often by German immigrants who preferred brick buildings. Many buildings in downtown Shakopee were made of the bricks.

The buildings where the brick was made and where the Schroeders conducted business are no longer standing — though there's an original lime kiln on-site — so the home "is the piece we have to tell that story," said Ginny Way, the National Register architectural historian for the State Historic Preservation Office.

In addition to the house, the stable, or livery building, is included in the nomination. The livery has had two additions, one of them an outhouse. The outhouse's exterior includes detailed brickwork and a small turret, which Way said she finds "hilarious." She believes the masons who built it did, too.

"It looks like a tiny castle on a barn," she said.

Way said she tries "to be a property's highest hurdle," adding that the process is intended to be rigorous.

Inclusion on the register, though primarily honorific, raises people's awareness of the site, can increase tourism and community pride in the area and is the "pathway to funding for construction," too. The extensive documentation required can also be useful to have, Way said.

Kerski, the city planner, said officials want to restore the house to a single-family home and use both buildings as meeting and event space.

Shakopee received a $77,500 state grant for research and planning for the larger cultural corridor project. That money, along with $100,000 from the city, will allow Shakopee to prepare a historic register nomination for the whole area as a district, Kerski said.

David Schleper, president of the Shakopee Heritage Society, said he's glad to hear that the house is in the process of being listed because "that should have been done a long time ago." He said several other historic properties in the city, including a hotel and an opera house, have been knocked down over time.

"I think that's why it's so important that this one is saved," Schleper said.