The Dr. Ward Beebe House, also known as the John Leuthold Residence, is a three-story stucco prairie house built by Dr. Ward and Bess Beebe and designed by

Purcell and Elmslie Purcell & Elmslie (P&E) was the most widely know iteration of a progressive American architectural practice. P&E was the second most commissioned firm of the Prairie School, after Frank Lloyd Wright. The firm in all iterations was active from 1907 ...

in 1912. Purcell and Elmslie were prolific designers of

prairie style Prairie School is a late 19th- and early 20th-century architectural style, most common in the Midwestern United States. The style is usually marked by horizontal lines, flat or hip roof, hipped roofs with broad Overhang (architecture), ove ...

homes. It is located in the

West Summit Avenue Historic District West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some R ...

, in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. Dr. Ward Beebe was a bacteriologist, and the house was built for him and his wife Bess as a wedding present from her parents. The Beebe house is the firm's only house in Saint Paul, and includes some elements from English

Arts and Crafts A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by one’s hand or by using only simple, non-automated re ...

design as well as the Prairie Style. Purcell and Elmslie designed the primary rooms with good views, since the Summit Avenue location was important. Purcell was quoted as saying, "At the time... it was one of the most talked about residential streets in America, broad and with beautiful trees; the views up and down the street were valued. So the unusual corner windows looking both ways from the living room were accepted as a fine response toward a choice and expensive location." The house has a large cross-gabled roof with deep eaves, giving it a broader look than its narrow structure would otherwise indicate. On the inside, the living room and the dining room are centered around a hearth and have no walls between them, similar to the Dr. Oscar Owre House in Minneapolis. The firm preferred to avoid building walls in first-floor living areas so they could increase the sense of space. The second floor has three bedrooms, a bathroom, and a tiny library sitting room with bay windows and a window seat. Elmslie also designed detailed art glass insets for the bookcases near the entrance.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beebe, Ward, House 1912 establishments in Minnesota Houses completed in 1912 Houses in Saint Paul, Minnesota Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota Individually listed contributing properties to historic districts on the National Register in Minnesota National Register of Historic Places in Saint Paul, Minnesota Prairie School architecture in Minnesota Purcell and Elmslie buildings