A tunnel once connected this historical brick home to a stable in Plainview
Jan. 1—PLAINVIEW — If you follow Fourth Street Southwest past Bennett's Food Center and just before the Kreofsky Building Supply store, you'll find yourself planted in front of a red screen door at one of the last remaining brick houses in Plainview.
The red brick home at 510 Fourth Street SW has original bricks coating the exterior and one wall of the living room. An addition to the home, built in 1876, affixed an office and extended the porch, according to Realtor Donna Sylvester of Infinity Real Estate. Other original features include the staircase, hardwood floors and woodwork throughout the home.
"The original kitchen actually was in the basement because there was a tunnel that went from the basement to the stable out back. And then they just had a dumbwaiter that went from the basement to the main level," Sylvester described. "The tunnel and stable are no longer there but ... it's just a beautiful, beautiful home."
The three-bedroom and two-bathroom home features 10-foot ceilings and a wraparound porch on a corner lot off of Plainview's downtown for $320,000. The Italianate-style home also faces east for peaceful views of the morning sunrise.
"The rooms are just spectacular with the crown molding and the 10-foot ceilings on both levels. It's unheard of to have 10-foot ceilings also on the second level," Sylvester said.
The original owner, Thomas G. Bolton, worked as a pharmacist at the town's first drug store and "helped start a lot of other businesses in Plainview," Sylvester said, such as the Plainview News newspaper, electric light company and the corn canning cooperative. Plainview was settled in 1856. He was also a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church board.
"As a business man he was ever alive to Plainview's best interest; as a (pharmacist) he was accurate, courteous and obliging; as a newspaper man he labored constantly for the progress of the village; as an official he succeeded in introducing a number of municipal improvements; and as an agriculturalist he foresaw the future and ever urged the breeding of better stock and the adoption of constantly improving methods," states the book the "
History of Wabasha County, Minnesota
" by Franklyn Curtiss-Wedge and others in 1920.
The A.C. Woodcock home, on West Broadway, also remains as an original brick home with three windowed dormers and an oval window on the second floor, according to information provided by the Plainview Area History Center. Plainview's Broadway also includes several brick buildings.
The living room's interior brick wall marks the home's history. When the foundation was deteriorating a few years ago, two companies set out to preserve the brick during and after the remodel project.
"They painstakingly removed all the brick one by one on that section of the home and set the bricks to the side," Sylvester said. The bricks were later added back to the home. "None of the original brick has been disposed of or anything."
The history of the home is important to Sylvester, who hopes to sell the home to a buyer who will "respect" the history. Sylvester said the home-selling process has helped her learn the home's history.
"I also have a lot of pictures and information from our local history center that the buyer will get when they purchase the home," Sylvester said.
Wabasha County has 11 homes on the National Register of Historic Places, though none are listed in Plainview. In an Italian villa-style home built in 1880, the Rahilly House in Lake City was also "constructed from local red brick." Several homes in Wabasha highlight brick residences of various styles on a "native limestone foundation," with additions retaining the original bricks.
Patrick H. Rahilly House Lake City
James C. and Agnes M. Stout House Lake City
Williamson-Russell-Rahilly House Lake City
William H. and Alma Downer Campbell House Wabasha
Lorenz and Lugerde Ginthner House Wabasha
Hurd House-Anderson Hotel Wabasha
Lucas Kuehn House Wabasha
Clara and Julius Schmidt House Wabasha
Henry S. and Magdalena Schwedes House Wabasha
Alexander Thoirs House Wabasha
Wabasha County Poor House Wabasha
Plainview's history shines on with "quite a few original homes," Sylvester said. "It's nice that these homeowners took care and kept the history of the home." She enjoys sharing about the Bolton House, and its history, with interested buyers.
"The pictures don't do it justice," Sylvester said. "A person needs to be in the home to see the history of it."