A townhouse listing I recently showed stated that it was half of the Van Cleve House built in 1858, the oldest continuously occupied residential home in Minneapolis! If living in a historic home appeals to you, let me know… it’s still available as I write this.
It is located in the Fifth Street Southeast Historic District in the Marcy Holmes neighborhood, the oldest neighborhood in Minneapolis. The area began with scattered residential development in the late 1850s as part of St. Anthony, and as Minneapolis merged with St. Anthony 5th Street SE emerged as one of the finer streets for residences of prominent citizens, primarily merchant families originally from New England.
The Van Cleve Residence was originally built in 1858 by a furniture manufacturer. Charlotte Van Cleve bought it for their family only 4 years later for $2,600, including a half acre and a barn, while her husband was serving as a Civil War general. They lived in the house at 603 5th Street SE until their deaths and it remained in the Van Cleve family until the 1920s.
Charlotte Van Cleve was one of few women of the era to have a public life not based on her husband’s position. The first non-white child born in the territory to become Wisconsin, after moving to Minnesota she became the first woman elected to the Minneapolis Board of Education. The mother of 12 children, she also spent years teaching school, organized aid for unwed mothers, was active in women’s suffrage, lobbied politicians for women’s rights and ran for public office.
She her husband were well loved, and both a school and a park were named in honor of the Van Cleves. The school is now gone, but next time you go by the Van Cleve Park just north of Dinkytown you will know how it got its name.
Think you might like living in this historic neighborhood? Check out homes for sale in Marcy Holmes.
RE/MAX Results HomesMSP Team – info@homesmsp.com
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