Image by Yawapi via Flickr
Image by Yawapi via Flickr
Image by Yawapi via Flickr
Image by Yawapi via Flickr
Image by Yawapi via Flickr
Image by Yawapi via Flickr
Image by Yawapi via Flickr
Image by Yawapi via Flickr
Image by Yawapi via Flickr
Image by Yawapi via Flickr
Image by Yawapi via Flickr
Image by Yawapi via Flickr
Image by Yawapi via Flickr
Image by Yawapi via Flickr
Image by Yawapi via Flickr
Image by Yawapi via FlickrThere is almost nothing more sad to me than seeing a beautiful historical home slowly deteriorating from lack of care.Such is the case with the C.W. Brown (my name for it) house in Rapid City, South Dakota.
The home is a Grand Victorian, located at 717 South Street near downtown Rapid City. The house is nowhere near crumbling to ruins, but it does have some problems.
The biggest issue seems to be the foundation, which was originally constructed of Dakota sandstone and is now crumbling in spots.
Another issue is the roof, which needs to be repaired. It's also very likely that the octopus furnace in the basement will need to replaced sooner rather than later.
That being said, it is rather amazing to find a home from this era that is still so intact. Everywhere that I could see, the woodwork was still in original condition and for the most part unpainted.
While that is extraordinary enough, there is so much more to be said for this house. The windows are original, including some beautiful stained glass windows located throughout the house.
The fireplaces are also intact, and of beautifully carved hardwood. One of the fireplaces has been converted to gas while the other is still wood burning.
The Art Deco glass panel in the front door is intact, and unlike anything I've ever seen outside of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It depicts a woman reading a book under a tree, the sun (moon?) shining above her.
There is a very charming bathroom under the main stairwell that looks like it was put in sometime between 1910-1920, and never touched again. Check out the original wallpaper and shower head in the photos.
The carved hardwood front door is intact, mail slot and all. The kitchen and breakfast nook have been remodeled. Photos of the kitchen are available on the Rapid City MLS if you are interested in seeing them.
Beyond the kitchen there is a two-story addition to the back of the house that was added sometime between 1920-1960. There are six rooms in the addition, none of which I took photos of because I was concentrating on the older part of the house.
I was so gobsmacked by this house, I went to the local history section of the Rapid City public library to find out more about the people who once called this their home.
The home at 717 South Street was built in 1892 by Charles Wellington and Mary Adella Gore Brown. Mr. Brown was a lawyer and later mayor of Rapid City (1900-1902).
Mr. Brown was born on May 8, 1859, in Winchester, Scott County, Illinois. He attended Blackburn College in Carlinville, Illinois, graduating in 1881. He then attended and graduated from Yale College in 1883.
Despite having been born in Illinois, Mr. Brown's origins were with the Brown family that had settled in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
Mr. Brown, in fact, spent the early years of his marriage tending his elderly grandmother in New Hartford, Connecticut.
I mention this fact solely because this may make this house eligible for restoration grant funds from such groups as Sons and Daughters of the American Revolution.
Mary Adella Brown, nee Gore, was born on March 27, 1862 in Carlinville, Illinois, the daughter of David and Cinderella Davis Gore.
Charles and Adella, as Mrs. Brown was known, were married on May 1, 1884. The couple had five children, two of whom died in infancy.
Their surviving children were Helen Gore, Fanny Chamberlain and Wellington Gore Brown, born in 1887, 1896 and 1897 respectively.
The Browns moved to Rapid City in 1887. Charles opened a law office and later established Rapid City's first business college.
Mrs. Brown was known for her hospitality and for her love of entertaining. While the current owners have been using the great room on the first floor as a living room, this was not its original purpose.
The great room (with the enormous leaded window and window seat) was in fact Mrs. Brown's dining room, notable for the fact that is could seat 24.
Mr. Brown had a notable career in South Dakota law and politics before dying on February 21, 1912. He is buried in Rapid City at Mountain View Cemetery.
Mrs. Brown and her children continued to live in the house at 717 South Street. The 1914-1915 city directory lists Adella, Fanny and Wellington as living in the house,
In 1910, daughter Helen married Robert Burton and moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where she died in 1943. Helen is buried in the Carlinville City Cemetery in Macoupin County, Illinois.
The Rapid City city directories between 1916-1927 are missing. At some point during this decade, Fanny married a man named F.M. Pearce and moved to Ballinger, Texas, while brother Wellington ended up in Chicago.
Adella Brown is listed as living alone in the house at 717 South Street from 1928-1933. She does not show up in the 1934 directory.
Generally, when a person deceased in the year prior they are listed in the city directory as deceased, along with the date on which the person passed.
I could find no such entry for Adella Brown, nor any record of her having been buried in the local cemeteries. I can only assume that she sold the house and moved in with one of her children, likely Helen.
Ancestry records indicate that Mary Adella Brown died on February 6, 1939 in Carlinville, Illinois. The C.W. Brown house presumably had already passed out of the Brown family by this point, but I did not trace the previous owners past this point.
The C.W. Brown house is listed on the National Registry for Historic Places, not as an individual property, but as part of the West Boulevard Historic District, comprised of 133 properties near downtown Rapid City.
As such, the house may be eligible for a number of historic restoration grants both nationally and locally.
It is my sincere hope that someone with the time and diligence to see this home restored to its former glory will read this and take on this project. The home is currently for sale, with an asking price of $145,000.
And to the lucky new owner - please feel free to invite me over for tea some day. I would love to have another opportunity to visit this grand old lady.
Disclaimer: I have received no payment for writing this article, and am only doing so because I feel this house deserves to be restored and I wanted to let others know that this house is available for purchase. I am neither a realtor nor a contractor, merely a fan of late 19th/early 20th century art and architecture.
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