William & Elizabeth Lowell House
424 3rd St. N.
"One of the first families"
Lowell is one of the most recognized names in Stillwater, commemorated in the famous Lowell Inn, and also Lowell Park along the riverfront. There were four Lowell brothers who came from Concord, Maine, to settle in Stillwater in the 1850s. They were William Lowell (1807-1873), Jotham Grant Lowell (1816-1886), Albert Lowell (1819-1888, and John Lowell (1824-1885). The four brothers fathered 18 children who intermarried with other prominent--and not so prominent--families of Stillwater.
This is the story of the oldest brother, William Lowell, and his family. William Lowell was born in Concord, Maine, April 26, 1807. He was raised on a farm, but began in the lumbering industry on the Kennebec River in Maine. Following a trip around Cape Horn to San Francisco, he ended up in Stillwater in 1853 where he partnered in the lumber business with Seth M. Sawyer. William’s second wife was Rhoda Heald, whom he married in Maine. In July of 1854, a year after arriving in Stillwater, Rhoda purchased this lot (100 feet on Third Street; 150 feet on Cherry Street) from Henry Moss.
Rhoda died the following year in October of 1855, and a year later, William married Elizabeth Rich, a sister of Isaac Staples, the most prominent man in Stillwater. Shortly after their marriage, Elizabeth and William moved to a farm in Sterling Township, Polk County, Wisconsin. Either William needed money, or he was a restless sort, because in 1866 the Lowell family moved to Marine Mills (Marine on St. Croix) to rent and manage the Marine House, a hotel.
The 1870 Census lists William, age 63, and Elizabeth, age 44, as hotel keepers in Marine, along with their children, William, 12; Ida, 10; Grace, 7; Abner, 5; Martha, 3. Several residents of the hotel were also listed. In 1870, William is elected to the Legislature, and two years later he is again living in Stillwater.
William Lowell died July 16, 1873, leaving his widow, Elizabeth, with 5 children. In short order, she purchased from John Lowell, her brother-in-law, the lot at 424 North Third Street.
(This desirable lot with its river view was purchased by Rhoda Heald Lowell, William’s second wife, in 1854. After Rhoda’s death in 1855, William sold the lot in 1859. After some intermediate owners, John Lowell, William’s brother, bought the lot in 1871--which he then sold to Elizabeth Lowell in 1873.)
Soon after buying the lot, Elizabeth Lowell built the house that remains today. In the 1874 yearly assessor’s record, there is a penciled notation "$600 added for house" and the total value of house and lot combined is $6,000.
Elizabeth set up housekeeping as a widow with her children, taking in her nephew, Edward Staples, as a boarder.
In the early 1880s, her daughter, Grace Lowell (who was born in New Richmond, Wisconsin, in 1863) married William Maunsell, a stenographer, and they took up residence at 110 East Cherry Street. Upon her husband’s death in January of 1893, Grace returned to the family home at 424 North Third Street where she took care of her mother. Elizabeth Lowell died on February 6, 1899, "at the advanced age of 73" according to her newspaper obituary.
The 1900 Census lists Grace Lowell Maunsell living in the family home with a 16-year-old daughter, Grace Lee, and a 10-year-old son, Warren, plus two boarders, and one servant. She was apparently a strong woman; instead of just keeping house as most women of her generation did, she became the first clerk of the probate court of Washington County, a position she held for 13 years; afterwards she served 18 years as the Stillwater city treasurer, retiring in 1936.
The 1930 U.S. Census, the last census released to the public, records Grace, age 67, living in the house valued at $7,000. Living with her was her 46-year-old daughter, Grace Lee, an artist. Grace Maunsell lived in her house until her death on April 18, 1945. Her obituary in the Stillwater Gazette noted her as a "member of one of the first families to settle in Stillwater."
There are four building permit applications, which shed some light on the evolution of the house. The first permit application taken out in April of 1886 lists the value of the house at $2,600, and specifies $85 to repair damage caused by "decay."
In 1919, a permit was obtained to duplex the house. A number of changes were made to the residence, including new plaster, new ceilings, three new windows, one new bathroom, new maple floors, and new front doors.
In 1925, another $600 permit was taken out for general repairs. The permit does not specify further.
In 1930, there was another $500 building permit to remove the old porch and build a new front entrance. The historic maps indicate there was full-width rounded porch added to the house between 1904 and 1910. The maps also show the current barn on the lot was constructed between 1898 and 1904, replacing an earlier two-story woodshed.
This is a classic example of a Stillwater Italianate style house from the 1870s. The front and side gables that peak in the middle are very similar to those on 208 4th St. S., which was built the same year. The rounded arched two-pane over two-pane windows with the hoods over them, the brackets under the eaves, and the projecting window bay, are all elements of the Italianate style, a style which was loosely based on the nineteenth-century villas in Tuscany, Italy. Unlike many houses of this period, this house is remarkable for the number of its original windows: four windows in each room flood the house with light.
The current owners, Loren and Carol Carver, have made a thoughtful commitment to maintain and preserve the architectural integrity of the house, which--among many other jobs--includes maintaining and changing the old two-pane over two-pane storm windows twice a year.
See also the Jotham Lowell house at 410 4th St. N.
— Research by Donald Empson, Empson Archives for the City of Stillwater's Heirlooms Home and Landmark Sites Program