Lumber titan’s midcentury Minneapolis home listed at $1.595 million

James E. Stewart — the son of George Stewart, founder of Stewart Lumber (now Shaw/Stewart Lumber Co.) — built several notable homes during his lifetime.

That includes a 1961 midcentury gem, located next to Bde Maka Ska and the Minikahda Country Club, built with his first wife, Estelle B. “Brownie” Stewart.

At the time, the couple was living next door in another house they’d built. But they wanted something more modern for the property and hired Newton E. Griffith, a rising midcentury architect, to design the house.

Now that home is on the market for $1.595 million.

Griffith began his career with the nationally regarded firm Thorshov & Cerny before forming Peterson, Clark & Griffith with two colleagues in 1960. Advertising executive Ray Mithun’s California-style Lake Minnetonka house was one of the firm’s early commissions, and Griffith’s own house was one of Architectural Record magazine’s best homes of the year in 1962.

The Stewart house has many hallmarks of midcentury architecture: vaulted ceilings with exposed beams, large windows, a stone fireplace wall and an open floor plan. But it also reflects the owner, who knew a thing or two about wood.

Most rooms in the 5,000-square-foot, one-story walkout feature a wood ceiling, wall paneling or both. And there are several distinctive species in the home, including pecky cypress in the primary bedroom, a wood often described as a work of art because of its pattern of burrows or “pecks.” There’s also tight-grained shagbark hickory in the great room and lower-level bedrooms.

Stewart eventually moved from the lumber business to the cement business. And in the 1980s, he built a cement-and-marble mansion with his second wife on Indian Creek Island in Miami, an area now known as “Billionaire Bunker.” The couple’s high-profile neighbors included Dwayne O. Andreas, the Minnesota-born CEO of Archer Daniels Midland, and singer Julio Iglesias.

However, Stewart held onto this Minneapolis house until 1991, perhaps as a home base to enjoy golfing and dining with friends at the golf club, where he was a lifelong member.

The current owner, Anne Stavney, purchased the home in 2012 when she relocated from the West Coast for a new job.

“Being a Seattle native, I was thrilled to find a house that had so many Pacific Northwest lodge-like qualities. It felt familiar and instantly like home,” she said.

One of Stavney’s favorite features is the Japanese garden on the side of the house with gravel paths, a running stream and a small pond. The rest of the yard has mature plantings and trees.

When Stavney’s daughter was younger, she enjoyed making bird nests out of twigs and using wayward golf balls from the driving range next door as “eggs” — evidence that some golfers were pulling their shots.

“Sometimes we’d hear a small ‘thump’ on the side of the house,” Stavney said.

The home’s spacious rooms and open floor plan have been ideal for Stavney to host work-related gatherings and fundraisers, as well as more intimate celebrations.

She’s also appreciated the bonus room under the garage, which Stavney and her daughter have used for a family garage band. They outfitted it with a drum kit, electric guitars, amplifiers, a disco ball and red-and-blue lights.

“It’s been fun to make that a special place for music-making,” she said.

“You feel like you’re out in the suburbs, but you’re close in,” he said.

Barry pointed out the walkout level of the house is fully daylit, so it functions more like a two-story home. Three of the home’s four bedrooms are on this level, along with a large family room with hardwood floors and a gas fireplace.

A new owner might want to update the home’s four bathrooms, two of which sport the original turquoise fixtures.

“On the other hand, some midcentury fans might love it,” Randall said.

The house is in the Docomomo Minnesota Modern Registry, a nonprofit established to document and preserve modern architecture. Docomomo board member Bobak Ha’Eri said this house is a good example of Griffith’s approach.

Stavney can attest to that. Although she’s downsizing now that her daughter is a senior in high school, she will miss the house.

“I have loved living in the ‘woods’ in the middle of the city, seeing the lake every morning, year-round and the activity always going on at the lake, whether it’s warm and sunny or cold and snowy,” she said. “It’s inspiring.”

Randall Barry of Coldwell Banker Realty (612-616-6797, rdbarry@cbburnet.com) has the $1,595,000 listing.