The Strunk–Nyssen House is a historic property in Jackson Township, Minnesota, United States, just outside the city of Shakopee. The original wing of the house was built around 1856 for Herman H. Strunk, who established the area's first

brewery A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of b ...

on the site. The brewery went by several names over the course of its existence, but is commonly referred to as the Shakopee Brewery. The residence was enlarged around 1880 by Hubert and Mary Nyssen, who used the second floor as a

boarding house A boarding house is a house (frequently a family home) in which lodging, lodgers renting, rent one or more rooms on a nightly basis and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months, or years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and ...

. With The Nyssens continued operating the brewery until 1920. The property was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1980 for its significance in the themes of architecture, commerce, exploration/settlement, and industry. It was nominated for its long association with the important brewing industry of early Scott County and as an example of 19th-century

vernacular architecture Vernacular architecture (also folk architecture) is building done outside any academic tradition, and without professional guidance. It is not a particular architectural movement or style but rather a broad category, encompassing a wide range a ...

Description

The Strunk–Nyssen House is located a short distance south of the

Minnesota River The Minnesota River () is a tributary of the Mississippi River, approximately 332 miles (534 km) long, in the U.S. state of Minnesota. It drains a watershed of in Minnesota and about in South Dakota and Iowa. It rises in southwestern ...

, in what is now an industrial area on the west edge of Shakopee. The house was built in two sections. The older west section is a simple two-story brick building. The larger east section is built of mortared

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

s with brick

quoin Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th-century encyclopedia, ...

s, with its main entrance facing north. The two-over-two windows are tall with shallow arches. The

gable roof A gable roof is a roof consisting of two sections whose upper horizontal edges meet to form its ridge. The most common roof shape in cold or temperate climates, it is constructed of rafters, roof trusses or purlins. The pitch of a gable roof c ...

has a brick chimney at either end. A

wall dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable spac ...

with an oculus is centered on the east façade. This face originally had a porch and staircase providing exterior access to the second-story boarding house, which has four small rooms off a central hallway. That porch was replaced shortly before 1980 and a two-car garage was added to the west end of the house. The ruins of the brewery, separated from the house by railroad tracks, are still visible from the Minnesota Valley State Trail. Also on the property are a wood-frame barn and a brick

smokehouse A smokehouse (North American) or smokery (British) is a building where meat or fish is curing (food preservation), cured with Smoking (cooking), smoke. The finished product might be stored in the building, sometimes for a year or more.distillery Distillation, also classical distillation, is the process of separating the component substances of a liquid mixture of two or more chemically discrete substances; the separation process is realized by way of the selective boiling of the mixt ...

, a hunting lodge, and a drug store, and sold off this property in 1860. Andrew and Mary Winkler took over the business in 1863. Andrew Winkler died in 1870 and Mary ran the brewery herself for five years before marrying Hubert Nyssen, an experienced German brewer. The Nyssens had the house enlarged around 1880. They lived on the first floor and used the second floor as a boarding house for the farmers and salesmen who came great distances to deliver

barley Barley (), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains; it was domesticated in the Fertile Crescent around 9000 BC, giving it nonshattering spikele ...

or brewing supplies. The Nyssens grew some of their own barley and kept livestock on an adjacent farm. On October 28, 1897, the brewery was badly damaged in a fire. A $3,925 insurance settlement funded enough repairs to stay in business. The Shakopee Brewery remained a prominent local business until the passage of

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

in 1920 led to its closure. Hubert Nyssen continued to live in the house until his death in 1930.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Strunk Nyssen House 1856 establishments in Minnesota Territory German-American culture in Minnesota Houses completed in 1856 Houses completed in 1880 Houses in Scott County, Minnesota Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Minnesota National Register of Historic Places in Scott County, Minnesota Vernacular architecture in Minnesota

Description

See also

References