Munger Terrace is an architecturally significant

rowhouse In architecture and city planning, a terrace or terraced house ( UK) or townhouse ( US) is a form of medium-density housing that originated in Europe in the 16th century, whereby a row of attached dwellings share side walls. In the United State ...

in the Central Hillside neighborhood of

Duluth, Minnesota , settlement_type = City , nicknames = Twin Ports (with Superior), Zenith City , motto = , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top: urban Duluth skyline; Minnesota ...

, United States. It was designed by

Oliver G. Traphagen Oliver Green Traphagen (3 September 1854 – 21 October 1932) was an American architect who designed many notable buildings in Duluth, Minnesota, during the late 19th century and in the Territory of Hawaii during the early 20th century. Among h ...

and Francis W. Fitzpatrick and built from 1891 to 1892, originally containing eight luxury townhomes. With Munger Terrace was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1976 for its local significance in the theme of architecture. It was nominated for being Duluth's finest example of

Châteauesque Châteauesque (or Francis I style,Whiffen, Marcus, ''American Architecture Since 1780: A guide to the styles'', The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1969, p. 142. or in Canada, the Château Style) is a Revivalist architectural style based on the Fr ...

architecture applied to an apartment building.

History

The building, in brick with brownstone trim, was constructed for Roger S. Munger, an important early Duluth entrepreneur, on a site next to his mansion. The residential units were rentals, Munger's only such project. The architects were Oliver G. Traphagen and Francis W. Fitzpatrick. The style of the building is sometimes described as

Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revival style incorporates 11th and 12th century southern French, Spanish, and Italian Romanesque ...

, sometimes as Châteauesque. The National Register of Historic Places lists it as

Renaissance Revival Renaissance Revival architecture (sometimes referred to as "Neo-Renaissance") is a group of 19th century architectural revival styles which were neither Greek Revival nor Gothic Revival but which instead drew inspiration from a wide range o ...

. The townhouses were all different and had sixteen rooms, separate front and back stairs, central steam heat, running water on all floors, gas for cooking, and electric lighting. The site in the Central Hillside neighborhood below North 5th Street between North 4th and North 5th Avenues West was three blocks above the tower of the downtown post office, and gardens with fountains and a gazebo were laid out on the slope in front of the building. The project's original name was Piedmont Terrace, but Piedmont Avenue below was renamed Mesabi Avenue and is now Mesaba Avenue; a different Duluth street is now called Piedmont Avenue. The current address of the building is 405 Mesaba Avenue. One of the original tenants was the

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

Sisters, who rented the three westernmost units (6 through 8) and used two rooms on the second floor of unit 8 as a chapel. They started a school there that was a forerunner of the College of St. Scholastica. The nuns left after outgrowing the space. Munger's mansion was demolished in 1955. Its carriage house, on 5th Street, has been retained as a caretaker's house but its trim has been removed. In 1915 the townhouses were divided into apartments. In the 1970s Mesaba Avenue was widened and much of the land in front of the building lost; what is left is a lawn, and that part of 4th Avenue is now a

step street A step street is a thoroughfare fitted with steps for pedestrian traffic rather than paved or tracked for motor vehicles. It is a practical way of providing access up and down a slope that is too steep for automobiles. Step streets consist of a s ...

. Munger Terrace was placed on the

on December 12, 1976. From 1978 to 1979 the building was extensively rehabilitated by the non-profit Town View Improvement Corporation, with new windows, skylights, roof, heating, utilities, and kitchen equipment and the addition of sprinklers. It remains a rental building.

References

External links

Munger Terrace
{{National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota 1892 establishments in Minnesota Buildings and structures in Duluth, Minnesota Châteauesque architecture in the United States National Register of Historic Places in St. Louis County, Minnesota Residential buildings completed in 1892 Residential buildings on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota Romanesque Revival architecture in Minnesota

History

See also

References

External links