Mansions No More

Author Larry Millett unburies the history of some of the Twin Cities most opulent residences

Larry Millett says some of the area's greatest homes will never be seen again.

Image credit: Image courtesy University of Minnesota Press

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Almost twenty years ago, author Larry Millett was digging through the Twin Cities’ public records attempting to unbury photographs and information about the old downtowns for his book “Lost Twin Cities.” 

While sifting through newspapers and boxes of archives, searching for evidence of the downtowns, Millett found another intriguing aspect of Twin Cities’ history: the number of massive mansions that blanketed neighborhoods such as Whittier, Summit Avenue and Lake Minnetonka.

Fast-forward to today and evidence of those mansions can be found in Millett’s new book, “Once There Were Castles: Lost Mansions and Estates of the Twin Cities.” The book not only delves into the architectural details of the immense houses, most of which are now since demolished, but also tells the stories of the families that occupied them.

“Money doesn’t buy happiness, but it does buy big houses,” said Millett, who goes on to say that although most of the houses featured were “lavishly ornamented” with massive square-footage, many of the families led troubled lives.

The Washburn mansion, also called “Fair Oaks,” was one of these lavish houses that would stun even the wealthiest of Orange County Californians today.

“The park was [William Washburn’s] yard,” says Millett, who goes on to detail about its stone arch bridge and ten-acre grounds that included lush gardens and a greenhouse. Owner William Washburn had one of the more fortunate lives in the book, serving in the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate in the late 1800s, in addition to becoming one of the wealthiest men of his time in Minnesota.

It is houses like the Washburn House and the Wilder House, which was the next-door-neighbor of Summit Avenue’s James J. Hill House until it was razed in 1959, that leaves Millett not only pining for their beauty, but for their historical importance.

“It made a great set piece by culture of design [with the James J. Hill House]. There was a visible link to the past that’s now gone.” 

While construction ushered in new developments, freeways and railroads, it also caused the ruination of some of the Twin Cities’ finest historical mansions. “Those types of houses will never be seen again,” Millett says.

Although the Internet has made it easier to find information, even photographs, he confides, are becoming increasingly hard to find.

“I now know where most of the bodies are buried, but for some houses I still couldn’t find enough photographs,” says Millett. You can dig, dig, dig, dig, but only find so much.”

Larry Millett will be speaking with Garrison Keillor about his new book, “Once There Were Castles” on Monday, Nov. 7^th, 7:30 pm at the Fitzgerald Theater. Find information about the event at prairiehome.publicradio.org. You can read his columns in METRO every other month.