Farmhouse ruins could be nominated for historic register

The remnant of an 1870s-era farmstead near Lake Minnetonka is about to enter the next phase of a journey its owners hope will lead to its preservation for visitors in years to come.

The Minnesota Historical Society's State Review Board next week will consider the Schmid Farmhouse Ruins in Lake Minnetonka Regional Park for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.

The effort is being led by the Three Rivers Park District, which owns the ruins of the fieldstone farmhouse built for German immigrant Joseph Schmid and his family almost 140 years ago.

The property in Minnetrista has a long and colorful history. Before Three Rivers acquired it in the mid-1990s, it was part of the private estate of wrestling legend Verne Gagne. Before that, a section of the original farm was owned by a member of the Loring family, the namesake of Minneapolis' Loring Park.

But historians' interest in the farmstead goes to its origins, when Schmid arrived in Minnesota in 1853. Long before it was filled with summer homes and resorts for Minneapolis' wealthy families, the area around Lake Minnetonka was a bustling farming community, mostly for German-Americans.

The land where the house sits was bought in 1856 by Joseph Schmid's brother, Benedict, and deeded over to Joseph in 1862. The brothers left the farm to fight in the Civil War as part of the Second Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment, serving under Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman in what's known as Sherman's March to the Sea from Atlanta to Savannah, Ga.

The stone farmhouse was built in 1876, replacing an earlier log farmhouse occupied by the Schmid family.

"Not a lot of places are left that key back into that agricultural history of the area," said Bill Walker, cultural resources manager for the park district. "By luck, this one managed to survive."

Even so, Walker said the farmhouse was in "pretty rough shape" when Three Rivers acquired it as part of buying up the acreage that now makes up Lake Minnetonka Regional Park. The house and its one-acre site underwent a series of archaeological digs from the 1990s to the early 2000s. Since then, the building has deteriorated further, with its roof now collapsed into the interior of the building.

"If we don't do something pretty soon, there won't be much more left of it," Walker said.

Three Rivers hopes that listing the property on the National Register will enable the park district to get funds to shore up the walls of the stone building with a steel frame and construct a rooflike structure over it to minimize damage from rain and snow. Plans also include building a walkway into the farmhouse and adding displays for self-guided visits. That work, along with other improvements to the site, is expected to cost about $250,000, Walker said.

If the state review board approves the nomination to the national register, a final decision on the listing would be considered by the National Park Service. Walker said Three Rivers should know whether the Schmid property will be included on the national list by early November.