On Walnut Street in the heart of Chaska, two historic houses stand side by side as ties to the city's industrial past. Now the city, burdened with the cost of maintaining and restoring the 19th-century houses, is looking to sell them both in a package deal.

The city acquired the Ernst/Riedele House in 2013, and the Ess House, damaged by fire two years ago, was donated to the city last summer. Before the city moves forward with selling the Ess House, it has applied for a $350,000 state grant, which would make a dent in the $700,000 restoration cost.

"It is not economically feasible to do it without a grant," City Administrator Matt Podhradsky said. The city previously applied for the grant and didn't get it, but officials are still hopeful. With the grant, the city officials would pull the demolition permit process for the Ess House.

Jeff Dahl, assistant city administrator, said that since the Ess House was donated to the city and the Ernst House was moved to Walnut Street, the city has spent $5,000 on upkeep of both houses.

The Ernst House, also known as the Riedele House, was built by Andreas Riedele in 1884. A German immigrant, Riedele moved to Minnesota in 1855. He bought a flour mill in Chaska in 1869 and then joined the booming brickmaking business in 1881. At the Riedele and Bierlein brickyard, about 15 employees worked to manufacture 15,000 bricks a day.

He built his house in 1884 using Chaska brick, a cream-colored brick composed with clay found in the area, next to his well-known brickmaking business. The house is now a reminder of Chaska's brickmaking past, when brickmakers shipped bricks by boat to St. Paul and later by rail.

The house recently had office space for Ernst Associates, a landscape and architecture firm, on the first floor and apartment space on the second floor.

The house has not only changed hands, it's moved. The city moved the house from its original location in Firemen's Park at 122 W. 6th St. to prepare for the park's redevelopment. The city hired a moving company to take the house off the property to its new location in the city's historic district last year.

A blue tarp still remains on the burned roof of the Ess House. The house caught fire in 2014. No one was inside the home at the time.

Cindy Schalow and her four siblings grew up in the Ess House. Schalow's great-grandfather, Joseph Ess, built it in 1886 to be close to his foundry business across the street, where he made cast iron parts. Joseph Ess established Ess Brothers & Sons in 1867. The company now distributes manhole covers and frames.

Schalow's family were not the owners at the time of the fire. Her family had sold the house after her father, Wally Ess, died.

"To see it … it was hard to look at," said Schalow.

The city plans to sell both houses as soon as officials hear back about the grant this summer.

The city has already seen interest in both properties for commercial and residential use, Podhradsky said.

Beatrice Dupuy 612-673-1707