John G. & Johanna Nelson House
604 4th St. N.
An Orphan Finds a Good Home
In 1854, at the age of 14, with both his parents dead, the orphaned John G. Nelson left Sweden to take employment on a steamship to America. Upon his arrival in the U.S., he made his way to his uncle’s house in Marine Mills, Minnesota, and began working in the lucrative St. Croix Valley lumbering industry. With personal habits of hard work and thrift, Nelson became wealthy, and in 1873 he purchased the southeast corner of Block 4 in what was then on the northwest edge of Stillwater. He quickly built this large $3,000 home at 604 North Fourth Street to accommodate his wife, five children, and two servants. In 1886, Nelson sold the house to his neighbor on the north, William Sauntry, and moved from this spacious house to an even grander home at 416 South Fourth Street. Nelson, who died at the age of 87 in 1928, was a prominent citizen of Stillwater involved in many businesses throughout his life.
His first home at 604 North Fourth Street is a remarkably intact example of an early Italianate house in Stillwater. Under the eaves, all the brackets and the dentils remain. The arched eight pane storm windows, and the arched two-pane over two-pane interior windows are all original to the house. The large curved transom window over the front door is dramatic, as are the crowns over the windows. The chimney, which would have been centered in the hip roof, is missing, but the original invisible gutters remain. This house was modernized around 1905 by adding a rounded front porch with classical columns. In 1926, Eva Merry, the owner, spent $1800 to rearrange the rooms of the house, and it was probably at that time the house was extended on the north side to accommodate a larger dining room.
— Research by Donald Empson, Empson Archives for the City of Stillwater's Heirlooms Home and Landmark Sites Program