J.M. Armstrong House Move (Click on Photos for larger view)

History

Built in 1886, the J. M. Armstrong House was located on the edge of downtownÕs business district in a bustling residential and business neighborhood.

The community grew rapidly as Saint PaulÕs population jumped from 41,473 in 1880 to 140,392 in 1895. New immigrants, often laborers or tradesmen, created a demand for affordable rental housing.

Recognizing a good opportunity, John Milton Armstrong hired Edward Payson Bassford, a noted local architect, to design a side-by-side duplex on land inherited from his late brother George.

For almost 60 years, various tenants lived in the red-brick house at 233-235 West Fifth Street. In 1943, the Armstrong family sold to John and Dorothy Bloomquist Gordon.

Helen Larson bought the house in 1948 and converted it into Key Hospital for Recovering Alcoholics. In 1949, Bertha Quinlan bought and turned it into a nursing home. She ran the Quinlan Nursing Home until she retired in 1964 after which the house was downgraded from a nursing home to a board and care facility.

By the mid-1950s, commercial establishments overtook the neighborhood, and ultimately the distinctive house became the only residence in the area. In the late 1980s, the businesses near the house on Cleveland Circle moved and their buildings were demolished.

In 1983, local historic preservationists, alarmed about the fate of the house, succeeded in having The J. M. Armstrong House placed on The National Register of Historic Places. Soon after the house was designated a Saint Paul Heritage Preservation Site.

In 1987, the State of Minnesota bought the house as a potential site for the Minnesota Center For The Arts Education. When a different site was selected, it fell into disrepair, steadily deteriorated and was boarded up.

The City of Saint Paul bought the property in 2000, pledging to preserve and relocate the house. In early 2001, the City choose a site at Eagle Parkway and Shepard Road in the Irvine Park Historic District as the houseÕs new location.

A new basement and foundation will be waiting for The J. M. Armstrong House when it arrives at its new site. After the house is set in place, the City will begin restoration. It will be reroofed and its exterior tuck-pointed. Foundation stones and two front porches, removed before the move, will be replaced.

The house will take up only 20 percent of its new 20,000-square-foot site, leaving room for extensive landscaping and other structures -- perhaps a carriage house or garage.

The City will eventually convey the house to a joint partnership of the Historic Irvine Park Association and the West 7th Street Federation.

The partnership will refurbish the houseÕs interior and convert it into four or five condominiums. Historic preservation requirements will guide changes made to the house, which could be ready for residents by 2003.